Raison pie was a big treat at our McConnell Avenue Portsmouth home. My brother Sam has always been a devotee of the scrumptious depression era dessert. I say depression era, because raisons back in the early days were one of the cheapest, but more delicious fillings of my mother and grandmother made pies. I can remember that Sam, who was serving in the U. S. Army in the early fifties in Japan, rarely failed to mention that Mom’s raison pie was what he wanted when he returned to the U. S.
I believe that Sam must have some inner appreciation of gourmet foods, because he married one of the best cooks I’ve ever known. Jeanette (Weddington) grew up in New Boston and her Crisco-fried- chicken is the best I’ve ever eaten. And, I am one who really loves fried chicken, whether it is the Colonel’s recipe, or the recipe of Blackburn’s Super Market in New Boston, I love it. Jeanette’s fried chicken was a staple of some of our early family picnics back in the fifties. Now, since her two boys, Jay and Jeff are married and away from their Westerville, Ohio home, she rarely fries her chicken, and since Sam has had a couple of surgical heart procedures, they watch their diets differently.
Sam met Jeanette when he worked as an usher at the Ohio Theatre in New Boston along with his good friend, Carl Clark. They worked the after school shift back in the late forties, while in high school. Sam has told many times about seeing Jeanette, a dark haired beauty at the theatre, and deciding pretty quickly, that she was the girl for him. Jeanette is the daughter of steelworker, Cottle and Opal Weddington , and they lived at 3853 Stanton Avenue.
Carl Clark, also met and married a New Boston beauty, Emma (Mills) Clark who is the daughter of Dr. Alfred B., and Betty Mills, and they remained life-long New Boston residents.
As for me, if I were a man who could have one last meal before leaving this time on earth, tell them to make it fried chicken, will you?
Oh, Howard Chabot was justifiably proud of the “Heavenly Fried Chicken” he sold for so many years at Pop’s Place in Wheelersburg. It was known far and wide, as "The best fried chicken on Rte. 52, from the Dakotas to North Carolina."
