Ginger Cakes, Bumbo, and St. George Tucker Society
Bumbo and Ginger Cakes which are 18th century delights.
With the usual start of many crazy ideas in our house, My Armo wakes me “Nic, Nic, Nic”. All I can think is “oh no”, because this is how I’ve been woken when he’s eaten raw egg casserole, talked me into making Yorkshire Christmas Pie and bumbo, and made a case for another master’s degree.
This time, he asked if I would sponsor a snack break with a historic theme before the business meeting for St. George Tucker Society. Ah! Got it! Nothing crazy and I knew just the thing. We would have bumbo, a rum punch that was often served during elections during the 18th century and ginger cakes, a dense and chewy 18th century delight. Refreshments from that time period were fitting because St. George Tucker, whom the society was named, was one of our Founding Fathers. He’s not as known as some of the others but he “speaks to my soul” because of his character and thoughtfulness.
St. George Tucker Society was founded 35 years ago as an interdisciplinary academic association to study the American South by some of the most well-respected scholars, many who are still involved to this day. One thing that sets this meeting apart from other conferences is the scholars’ papers are circulated in advance. Everyone reads the papers prior to the meeting and offers feedback during the meeting to improve their papers before they get published into journal articles and books.
I am by no means a historian, despite loving history, but My Armo talks (he talks alot) and one of the names I often heard influential to him was Lacy Ford, who wrote one of his favorite books, which remains a landmark in the field of Southern history. My Armo is on the planning committee and you better believe it was one of those “Nic, Nic, Nic” moments when he saw Dr. Ford’s name on the registration list.
Moving forward to the first day of the event, I am sitting in a chair in the lobby doing my best to not be completely socially awkward and avoiding strangers who all seem to know each other, one of my biggest nightmares. A man walks up to me and asks me about a location for the keynote. I got up and walked him over to a window to show him where it was. He asked if he was late and I told him no and that only about 10-12 people were there already. He asked if I work at the hotel and I said no I was here for the conference. He introduced himself and I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out of my head. The Lacy Ford was standing in front of me. Of course I couldn’t just be normal and say “I’m Nicole. It’s nice to meet you.” I had to tack on I’m married to My Armo and he loves your book and was so excited when he saw your registration and who knows what else came out of my mouth.
Turns out I didn’t make that big of a fool of myself and he had several nice conversations throughout the conference.
My Armo with Lacy Ford and me.
When at Clemson, drinks come with a tiger paw. Oooof! Wrong color for LSU fans. Could that be considered gold? I’ll go hide now.
After the meeting ended, we stole away for a trip to Fort Hill, John Calhoun’s house, which sits on Clemson University’s campus or should I say Clemson is on his plantation? Anyway, even if you don’t agree with Calhoun’s politics, there is still a significant piece of history that lays on that land and between those walls.
There was a small kitchen inside of Fort Hill that was a part of the original part of the house (there was plenty of additions as his family grew). Our tour guide saw My Armo snapping a photo of me in front of the cooking fireplace and he told her I love to cook and about this blog.
After the tour ended, our guide was talking to some other guests and she whispered to me to hang on so she can unlock the detached kitchen for me. What a treat!
Here’s some insight on the glorious world of bumbo.
