As of today, we have a 20-foot length of 2-inch thick braided marine-grade rope in the back of our truck. It’s coming back with us from the Gulf, as a souvenir, as a trophy, as a tribute. Mostly, it’s coming back so we can use it to hogtie the next self-righteous jerk who cops an attitude when we temporarily run out of Fresh Gulf Shrimp.
You see, a little over twelve hours ago, the rope was tied between the front of our Suburban, and the hitch of Troy Cornelius’ pickup truck, and was the lifeline by which we managed to limp home from Mobile… a 30-mile trek down I-10 and other roads at about 60 miles an hour. What a sight we must’ve been, considering we had an 8-foot enclosed trailer full of Vaucresson Sausage hitched to the Suburban! Ooooweee! Can we get a “hey y’all, watch this!”?
So. Here’s the story. While we are in Alabama picking up Zirlott Fresh Gulf Zeafood, Vance Vaucresson always drives over from New Orleans with a load of fresh Vaucresson Sausage. We drive up to Mobile to meet him, since we’re a bit off the beaten path down here. Generally, it’s a fairly painless process for both Vance and for us.
Until this time. While we were up in Mobile waiting for Vance, with all four children in tow, Vance called to say that he was stuck behind an accident on I-10, and was still over an hour from Mobile. So, we stalled. We found things to do to occupy the kids. We rescheduled afternoon plans to go out for a Zeafood run. We put the lives of about twenty people on hold while we waited for the Vaucresson delivery.
Then… the truck died.
No warning, it just stopped running and wouldn’t start up again. 700 miles from home, 30 miles from anyone we knew, on the side of a major highway in a strange town, the truck decided to take an extended leave of absence. Great timing it was not.
Vance met up with us in the middle of who-knows-where. Thank God for GPS. We loaded 600 pounds of Vaucresson Sausage into coolers in the trailer, and scratched our heads while we figured out what to do. Mechanics were all closed for the day, and no towing service was willing to tow the Suburban with the trailer attached. Nevermind the fact that there was nowhere to tow it, or that 600 pounds of fresh Vaucresson Sausage required refrigeration before the night was over.
Enter the Zirlott family. Actually, a Zirlott son-in-law, Troy Cornelius. Virtually a stranger, and yet somehow closer than family. Troy made the 45-minute drive to Mobile, immediately after work and in lieu of dinner or time with his family, for the sole purpose of causing our Suburban to stop being where it was, and get it to somewhere it wasn’t. I mentioned the problems with finding a tow truck, and he just looked at me a little off and said “Tow truck? Naw, I pull bigger’n y’all all the time”. He took a rope from the bed of his truck and began to tie a few deft knots. When Mama asked if he was sure about pulling the Suburban with the trailer attached, he just shrugged and smiled and said, “this is what we do.”
And you know what, that about sums up all of Coden, Alabama. This is just what they do. There’s no “well, I’d love to help you out, but Johnny has his football practice tonight.” It’s just an immediate “what can I do to help y’all out?” and the problem is fixed without any more discussion. It’s the CAV (Coden Alabama Version) translation of Philippians 2:14.
As with our newest friend/family, Robert Pollock, who got a call from one of the Zirlotts last night about our need to have a fuel pump replaced first thing in the morning. Robert’s immediate response? “I can be there by 7:30, is that ok?” Not only was it ok, but with less than two hours of labor, Robert had the gas tank dropped, cleaned, fuel pump replaced, and had my truck running smoothly once again. I should mention that Robert’s not a mechanic. He’s an oysterman, but his oyster bed isn’t open for harvest yet, so he had the day off.
I had trouble getting Robert to take payment for his time. He actually shrugged it all off with a “naw…”, and I stopped him before he could finish with a “…this is what we do.”
[editor's note: Mama and I get on the road tonight, about 18 hours later and $300 poorer than we intended. We have lots of fun new Zirlott Fresh Gulf Zeafood to show you, and it sure would be nice if we had lots of you to show it to on Friday. Come show Mama your appreciation this Friday. She'll be bogged down in the kitchen as always. Order up some of our new Zirlott Crab Claw appetizers, and shout out to Mama, and help her forget she's not gonna still be Way Down South. See y'all Friday!]
