Barbara J. Hamby

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Fat City Visited

Today I cleaned out my medical records file. I noticed with interest that, in 1999, I lost 20 pounds without dieting or extra exercise. There is a story behind that unusual weight loss.

Actually I suppose I shouldn’t claim that I did it without exercise. In December 1998 I had exercised my option to terminate a four-year relationship with a champion barbecue cook.

We had met in early 1995. I had never heard of competitive barbecuing until I met him. For nearly four years after that, I called myself Barbee, the Bar-B-Q Groupie. We traveled around the country to various competitions. I’ll save those stories for regaling readers in the future.

At one time, I considered writing a murder mystery set on the barbecue circuit. Then we went to the Kansas City American Royal cookout where I discovered someone had already done that. I don’t remember the name of the book, but I’ll never forget the publisher, Pig Out Publications. It was, in my opinion, a mediocre story about a team of women barbecue cooks who murdered a male competitor and cut him up into a huge vat of barbecue sauce.

My barbecue champion friend was pretty chunky and declared that food didn’t taste good unless it was fat. He said to me several times, “You’ll never lose any weight if you hang around me.” How right he was.

Anyhow, I chuckled and remembered the good times we had. I’m glad I was able to break away before I became morbidly obese.