When Jack and I got "serious" and he started introducing me to his old friends, they told me stories about Jack's younger days, and throughout the years, I've heard multiple versions of different tales, but one vein has consistently run throughout the whole narrative - Jack has always been a cook.
The year Jack and I got engaged, we attended a party at the home of the Assistant Scoutmaster of Jack's old Boy Scout troop, and he told this wonderful story about Jack Anderson's first camping trip. When dinnertime came, and the other boys were pulling hot dogs and canned soup from their packs to heat over the fire, Jack broke out a cast iron skillet. And a steak.
Since then I've heard similar stories from Jack's scouting years as told by a diverse assortment of his troop mates. If Jack was responsible for his own chow and had a pack on his back, he was carrying a real pan and some real food. Country ham, a pork chop, an onion, a potato, salt and pepper. Real. Good. Stuff.
So... fast forward to a few weeks ago when I mentioned that The World's Longest Yard Sale was getting ready to happen and asked, "Do we want to go?"
After little hesitation, Jack said, "Yeah. I really would."
He went on to talk about how he's gotten away from using cast iron in recent years but that nothing holds heat or cooks quite like it and said that he'd really like to pick up a few key pieces. A big skillet with a lid, a Dutch oven, maybe a smaller skillet with legs - he had some things he wanted to look for -
So, we went.
If you're unfamiliar with The World's Longest Yard Sale, you're missing out. In 1987, the Jamestown/Fentress County (TN) Chamber of Commerce decided to host a county-wide yard sale along Highway 127. Since then it has grown into a multi-state event that stretches from Alabama to Michigan, encompassing 500 some-odd miles of roadway, and providing countless opportunities for trash-to-treasure shopping, people-watching, and balls-to-the-wall Americana.
Within an hour of our arrival in Dunlap, TN, the starting point of our adventure, Jack had found two of the things on his list - a 12-inch skillet and a 4-quart Dutch oven with a flared lid - and good deals were made.
One thing I learned during the course of our day is that old cast iron pieces can be expensive...
At one stop we saw an early 1900's Griswold 20" lidded skillet with a $5000 price tag.
Added together, my first two cars didn't cost that much.
By the end of the day, we had added a #14 skillet to our collection and returned home tired, filthy, and happy.
Initially I didn't understand how paying $90 for a rusty, nasty-looking skillet was anything close to a good deal, but after Jack spent several hours cleaning it with a wire brush, polishing it back to its original lustre, and seasoning it, I started to get the picture. The thing is beautiful, and handy for cooking-up all kinds of good stuff.
Like a whole chicken at once. Or a bunch of fish.
Yes, it's so big that we have to use it on a propane burner outside, but when you're frying, what's better than frying outside where the grease can go where it goes without turning your kitchen into freakin' Captain D's?
There were other finds at the World's Longest Yard Sale that we had to leave behind, but they will live forever in our photos from that day.
For further reading, check out this piece:
Davis Love, III and His Vintage Cast Iron Collection
And this one:
The Long and Winding Road to Treasures
