Entry #20: December 18, 2005

Camp Buehring, Kuwait (somewhere near the Iraq border)

One week to go. Christmas is upon us. Which for me mean means two things: celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and bar-b-queing. For as long as I can remember, the Saturday before Christmas (provided Christmas Eve wasn’t on Saturday), members of the Long family have awoken before the sun peers over the pine trees over yonder and began a day long ritual of smoking massive quantities of rich, delicious, and Rolaids inducing pork.

The Long family bar-b-que has evolved from Papa (the patriarch of it all), my Dad, and Uncle Harry roasting a few Boston Butts on a frosty Macon morning to the entire Long family meeting at an undisclosed location to celebrate the season with tons of pork and a nice coating of our special bar-b-que basting sauce. Some of you may wonder, what’s so special about bar-b-queing with your family? Well, I’ll tell ya, but grab a chair, for it’s a Long story.

To say bar-b-queing is just a cookout is to call the Olympics just a good spirited competition. It doesn’t do the event justice. Bar-b-queing (and I mean the real thing, not what my Yankee friends call burning hamburgers and hotdogs on a $20 grill) is a day-long enjoyable process, full of laughter, fellowship, things catching on fire, and who knows what else. It’s a day sprinkled with the Matthews throwing the football, Joseph burning sticks, the Jessicas, Sherry, Brooke, and Morgan either huddling around the fire or helping Aunt Lynn and my Mom inside, and Maggie braving the cold to add a feminine grace to the Long men working by the fire.

Bar-b-queing is a long and tedious process, only done well when days of preparation and hours of labor combine to create a glorious treat. The location may change but it seems the constant is the gathering of family and loved ones who tell jokes and stories, recall fond memories, and revel in each other’s company. A Long family bar-b-que has managed decades of good weather thanks to one thing—Papa’s old blue jacket. It may be cold, but it ain’t raining when Papa with his jacket are around.

I won’t tell you the recipe of our special basting sauce, but our recipe for keeping the Long family close and together seems to work well. And if that one works, imagine how good we are at something so simple as bar-b-que. And so the Soldier’s life continues…