Homer & Irene took care of everyone almost like we were family. They were some of the most down-to-earth, wonderful people I had ever met. (Mike was wonderful, too - but this is about his folks.)
Irene almost always brought lunch for the three of them. Often between time pressures and the resultant stress-induced problems such as Homer's ulcer, one, two, or all three of them wouldn't feel like eating or feel they could take time to eat. In those cases, Irene offered the food to others. Many was the day Mark or I let the others go off for Big Macs and chowed down on some excellent home cooking.
Irene was a great cook, but her cornbread was incredible. I'm kind of ambivalent about most cornbread, but I never turned down Irene's. Irene always made cakes for other employees' birthdays - Mark asked for a cornbread on his, and I did the same for my "going away" cake. The rest of the shop was about evenly divided between thinking we were nuts, and thinking we were pretty smart. Nothing new there!
Well before he left Spinks Company, Mark decided that the next major anniversary Homer and Irene celebrated should be their Cornbread Anniversary. More than once he said that he would write a song about this.
And Mark believed in keeping his promises.
(chorus)Lyrics copyright 1979 by Solid Rock and/or Mark Heard. Used without permission for explanatory purposes only. Thanks to Martin Stillion <MrMandolin@aol.com> for the parts of the song I couldn't recall.
Happy cornbread anniversary
Happy cornbread anniversary
Happy cornbread anniversary
Here's to you and yours!Well, old Homer and Irene...
You've been hitched thirty years
So you're entitled to a round
of thirty cornbread cheers!Corn Corn Corn Corn [etc]
[insert a little hambone and mouth noise here][chorus]
[three part harmony oooohhh's]
Copyright 1995 Miles O'Neal, Austin, TX. All rights reserved. Miles O'Neal <roadkills.r.us@XYZZY.gmail.com> [remove the "XYZZY." to make things work!] c/o RNN / 1705 Oak Forest Dr / Round Rock, TX / 78681-1514