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DocuSign Envelope ID:A7B705FD-OEDD-4AC5-8764-8905D8B8991 F <br /> Mrs. Council's stories and her delicious breakfast are clearly the highlight of my course <br /> on Southern Music. Her tales and the taste of her cuisine are memories that my students <br /> and I will savor for many years. They are an anchor that is distinctive to Chapel Hill, a <br /> city where food and story are forever associated with Mildred Council's powerful <br /> culinary voice. <br /> Grape(Hull Pie) Expectations on Highway 117 <br /> Celia Rivenbark <br /> You could smell the barbecue long before you pulled into the parking lot at Norris's <br /> Restaurant in the little Duplin County town of Wallace. <br /> Norris's barbecue was the greasiest, smokiest I ever ate and it was one of the main <br /> reasons I showed up on a fine May morning in 1974 to apply for a waitress job at the <br /> only sit-down restaurant in town. I needed money for community college in the fall and I <br /> knew there was no way I was going to work at Family Dollar store like my sister because <br /> just that week,right after she had promised to "put in a word"for me, she'd been given <br /> the unimaginable task of cleaning up a dressing room that an intoxicated shopper mistook <br /> for a bathroom. ("Walked right out of there and kept on shopping," she said later, still <br /> shaking her head at the memory.) <br /> No thanks. In a way it was a good thing that my retail career was torpedoed. Because, <br /> truth be told, I wanted to work as close to my true love—fine, authentic Southern home- <br /> style cooking—as humanly possible. There was a"help wanted" sign in the window and <br /> Norris's was owned by a second cousin once removed so I figured I could always play <br /> the"cuz card"if need be. It wasn't fancy but there was an added-on paneled"Liberty <br /> Room"where the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce met, and it was also home to the <br /> town's only salad bar. Listen. I'm not talking about that freeze-dried,pre-bagged slop <br /> they put on a salad bar at McAppleTuesday's these days. This was the real deal: real <br /> homemade chicken,ham,tuna and egg salads framed by ice cold containers of fresh <br /> beets, real devilled eggs,homemade pickles. I guess there was some lettuce. <br /> "You Howard Lee's daughter?" asked Annie Faye Norris,the owner,who was fierce way <br /> before Beyonce. She was just as wide as she was tall and she didn't take any of that stuff <br /> they were still cleaning up over at the Family Dollar store. <br /> "Yes, ma'am,"I said. "I wondered if I could get a job as a waitress. I've always loved <br /> y'alls'es food." <br /> 4 <br />