IT CAME A-PONE A MIDNIGHT CLEAR

Besides being maybe the best gravy accessory since mashed potatoes, pone has worked its way deeply into Flatware County vernacular. Of course, bonehead became ponehead. The same process brought us poneitis, pone to be wild, “Unacceptable, your pone is too young,” way down uh-pone the Suwannee River, once a-pone a midnight dreary… I guess we should count ourselves lucky that people haven`t smurfed out completly on us and included it a couple of times in every sentence.

When I was little our corn bread was the southern variety, a little white on the inside, a golden-crusted, steaming, buttery miracle. I hardly remember the peas, beans, the corn or even the beets (yuck). Even now I can remember the slight twang (probably buttermilk) of the coo-coo-clock weight shaped muffins. My other childhood memories somehow pale when compared to the glass of milk stuffed full of crumbled corn bread or the golden color of sorghum syrup when I swirled in the butter.

Pone head, hey, takes one to be one. The definition of pone from wikipedia includes “one who possesses certain rural, unsophiscated peculiarities.” It`s a silly job, but somebody`s gotta do it. “And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost a-pone the floor.” ........Chatty Silvers