The Days and Nights of Catherine Evermore

My sister called one day to ask if I was familiar with the term “catfish.” I must confess that the only catfish I know about are the bottom feeders you fry up and eat with tartar sauce. Furthermore, my one and only experience with catfish happened while I was living in a small southern town many years ago.

A restaurant on the outskirts of town offered a Friday night “all the catfish you could eat for next to nothing plus sweet tea” special. You needed to get there early if you wanted catfish. Otherwise, you had to order something else.

One Friday night, I was invited to have dinner at this particular restaurant to partake in the catfish ritual. Not knowing the “proper” way to eat catfish, I found myself with a mouth full of tiny bones. Apparetnly, there is an art to stripping the fish off the bone, but I never quite mastered the craft.

Thank goodness for the fries, slaw, biscuits, and sweet tea. I seem to recall that was what I had for dinner once I deboned my mouth. Vanilla pudding might have been offered for dessert.

Back to my sister’s call. She watches the Dr. Phil Show, and she wanted to know if I had watched the episode about catfish … online dating predators. Nope! I’m not a Dr. Phil fan so I missed it.

As for fish, I recommend the broiled grouper or halibut at the Red Lobster.

© Catherine Evermore. All rights reserved.

She was lovely in her long black gown
Pearl earrings hidden by her soft auburn hair
He was handsome in his black tuxedo
Starched white shirt and perfect black tie

As he gently took her in his arms
They danced slowly to the sounds
Of the jazz quintet set up in the ballroom and
They made the perfect couple or so it seemed

What the others didn’t know was this
Their significant others
Stayed at home that night
In the comfort of each others arms

“Charity begins at home,” said he.

“Hi, my name is Charity,” said she.

© Catherine Evermore. All rights reserved.

Lead The Way
by Mariah Carey

The other day, I was sitting at a red light waiting to turn left when a car pulled up on my right side. We both were waiting for a green light.

The man driving the car next to me rolled down his window, blew his horn, and started waving at me to roll down my window. I looked at him, looked the other way, looked back at him, and he was flapping his arm like there was no tomorrow.

Seriously, he was starting to scare me, but I rolled down the window thinking he was going to tell me something was wrong with my car.

“Jesus Loves You,” is what he said to me.

“Jesus Loves You,” once again.

I sat there thinking this man is going to whip out a gun and shoot me, so I waved, rolled up the window, and prayed like you know what that the light would change right away (which it didn’t). He kept staring at me as if he expected me to carry on a conversation with him. It was very strange.

So, yesterday morning I was driving home from the doctor’s office, and some man in front of me had his window rolled down, and he was waving at each car that passed by. No joke! Each on-coming car got a big ol’ wave from his big ol’ hand.

I was thinking, “This can’t be the same man, can it?” and slowed down a bit.

He turned left. I went straight.

End of story.

© Catherine Evermore. All rights reserved.