This would have been about 1978 or so, I was still in the Marines and I was stationed at the Navel Weapons Station, Charleston, South Carolina. It was really in Goose Creek, SC but not very people know where that is.
Being born in the late 50's in Atlanta and raised in Birmingham, then Decatur I grew up in pretty much a white world. I went to Peachcrest elementary school in Decatur from 1st through 7th grade and I did it in ONLY 7 years. During that time Peachcrest was full of white students. I truly do not remember ever seeing a black child there the whole time.
Then I moved to Lakeshore High School in College Park, Georgia from 8th through 12th...Again in only 5 years.
Lakeshore was a bit more diverse than Peachcrest as they still had mostly white but they also had Black, Hispanic, Asian, and we even had an exchange student from Sweden. I said that to say this, I still mostly lived in my mostly white world. Yes I had black friends and some were better friends than others. I played sports and was very involved in the chorus and I had black friends in all of that but it was not until I joined the Marine Corps that I truly had GOOD friends that were black. My first day in the Marine Corps I learned there were NO black or white Marines we were ALL green, and we were. When you are in a life and death situation whether it is real or you are training for that situation you want someone next to you that has been through the same stuff you have and that thinks like you do so when you are knee deep in mud with barbed wire all around you and you stick out your hand for help you are glad there is a green guy there to pull you out.
This is the story of John...He was one of my very best friends that I had in the Marine Corps. I met John the very first day I made it to Charleston and we hit it off right away. If you haven't guessed yet John was one of those Black/Green guys. You see there was a LOT of Yankee boys stationed in Charleston for some reason and me being from Atlanta Georgia, and John being from Hickory, North Carolina we hit it off just fine.
The food in the chow hall in Charleston was pretty good mainly because it was run by civilians. There were only 300 Marines at the base. The base is where they maintained and rotated Poseidon and Trident missiles from submarines including the nuclear warheads there on the base. Apparently the government didn't trust the Navy to guard their own base so that's where we came in.
John and I hung out a lot when we were off duty including eating many meals together both on and off base.
One day John ask how I liked Soul Food...I replied that I don't think I have ever had any and he replied that I was in for a treat. The very next day John took my to a little hole in the wall and I think it was just called Mama's. We parked and went in and I noticed I was the only white person and I didn't care because of what I was smelling...OMG I was in heaven. This was not John's first time because the waitress called him by name and hugged his neck and he introduced me and she hugged my neck, I was liking this place more and more.
She handed us the menus and said I'll go ahead and get your Sweet Tea even though neither of us had said a word about Sweet Tea, she just knew.
John said what do you think about the menu? It's the best Soul food in South Carolina. I looked over the menu and I looked John square in the eye and told him I was a little disappointed. He seemed very confused and ask why?
I explained that I thought you were taking me to some wild and exotic place with food from around the world and I'm looking at this menu and EVERY SINGLE THING on the menu I have eaten at both of my Grandmother's house within past year...Don't get me wrong we had a splendid meal and we came back many times and thanks to John I found out I had been eating Soul food all of my life.
#SoulFood
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