Pat Bean's blog

“I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Southerners, especially old broads like me, eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. It’s a tradition I picked up from my grandmother way back in the 1940s. But this year I didn’t feel like cooking this pale, kidney-shaped bean with its black eye.

And, since life is short, I forgave myself for not making Hoppin’ John, a dish I usually make with black-eyed peas, onion, ham hock and rice.  

But it was with delight that I accepted a late invitation to join my granddaughter’s wife Dawn to go down to Shooters for a drink and some black-eyed peas. The drink was my usual Jack and Coke and the free black-eyed peas I ate was an annual tradition at the local bar.

Eating black-eyed peas to begin a new year is believed to bring one good luck, and it’s been part of Southern tradition now for over three centuries after being brought to America by West African slaves.

While I didn’t count the peas I ate, I’m sure they weren’t the required 365 that some say are needed to bring good luck for every day of a new year. Even so, I’m optimistic that luck will favor me in 2026.

And with that thought in mind, I slept very well last night. Of course, the J&C might have helped.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.