Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. Hope you’re having a fun and relaxing time today.

My dad passed away in 1997, and this marks my 15th Father’s Day without him. From the time I was born, Daddy would spontaneously break into the first verse of “Poke Salad Annie,” no matter where we were or what we were doing. Along with the chorus, that was the only part of the song he knew. I didn’t know it was a real song until I heard it on oldies radio years after he died.

And carry it home in a tote sack. So many old Southern expressions in this song: truck patch, no-count, pick a mess of. Gotta love Tony Joe White’s old Louisiana accent. You can eat poke salad, as Annie and her family had to, but that doesn’t mean you should. It’s tough to boil out all the poison. Stick with collards or turnip greens.