Young Marriage / Old House
A Dignowity Hill Backyard Feast
We had recently landscaped our house, my wife, Bekah McNeel, was seven months pregnant and she was soon going to say goodbye to her 20s. We decided to celebrate.
It was a usual balmy January night in San Antonio. We lit a fire anyway because we really wanted to try out our new fire pit. We dragged all the dining room furniture into the back yard. Houses with peeling paint surrounded us on all sides. Some of our oldest friends — as many as we could fit at the table — gathered at dusk at our home in Dignowity Hill.
Sweet Yams — arguably the world’s best organic soul food shack that also happens to be in our neighborhood — catered the dinner. White wine, Mexican Coke and Alamo Beer — the latter will be our new neighbor three blocks away — flowed freely. We love our neighborhood. The gregarious Rottweilers fretted and muttered things under their breaths from their exile in the laundry room.
It does not have to take much to imbue a crusty old place with honest atmosphere suitable for the sacred act of celebration. Nighttime helps. So does prayer. So does scooping all the dog poop out of the yard ahead of time.
There are unlimited things you can do when you decide to make something happen. The art of it all comes from figuring out what few basic things you actually have to do, and then attack them with deliberate focus…
