LILACS and BARBECUE
LILACS and BARBECUE…Life Just Doesn’t Get Any Better!
With the first few 70 degree days of the year the itch begins. Slowly at first; then the pace increases. Religiously I pull out some old barbecue cookbooks and start dreaming of the smoke pouring from my Weber Grill.
Here are a few of my favorite old, collectible barbecue magazines and soft-bound cookbooks.
Big Boy is a grill manufacturer. This spiral-bound book has a semi-rigid cover and contains 64 pages. I paid $1.30 for it quite a few years ago; today I figure it to be worth $7-$8.
Big Boy Barbecue-1960
I’m a great lover of barbecue. In fact, the first cookbook that I ever wrote was a huge collection of barbecue recipes, graphics and odd stories. Here’s an example of what I mean by ‘odd stories’. I have a large collection of barbecue cookbooks and national magazines…both new and vintage editions. I’ll be sharing some of these with you in the near future since barbecue season is fast closing-in on us.
The scent of lilacs bring back a time of long ago – a time of childhood adventure and a time of family. Along with family come the feelings of security, safety, innocence and discovery.
Nick Manero’s Cook-Out
Barbecue Book-1961
Barbecues represent all that is good in this world. It represents togetherness and the coming together of community; for is impossible to have a true barbecue when you’re all alone.
Barbecues symbolize summertime, even if it’s the middle of winter and snow is still falling. It symbolizes God’s gift of abundance, even if it is simply the grilling of a hamburger. Good food and good drink remind us that life is good.
It isn’t a coincidence that lilacs bloom only in the summertime and you never find lilacs displayed at a funeral. Lilacs and barbecue represent a rebirth of sorts.
The sun is shining and the weather is warm – we’ve survived another cold winter. Lilacs and barbecue remind us of summertime – the smell of charcoal; drinking a cold beer or iced teas with the background sound of a baseball game on the radio. A summertime barbecue is games, happy children, good conversation with friends, music, sunshine and smells, all in the great outdoors.
I don’t remember ever going to a ‘bad’ barbecue. Even if the food was over-cooked or the sunshine was replaced with rain – there are just too many elements of ‘good’ remaining to be anything other than wonderful.
Barbecue-1963
That’s all for now folks – it’s time to go and get my Weber Grill hosed-off and ready to fire it up!
Until the next time,
Tim Mack
Tags: barbecue, barbeque, bbq, Big Boy Grill, sam roe, Vintage Cookbooks, weber grill
