Have you ever had a cookout? Do you like BBQs? Well, here in Brooklyn, New York you will find a lot of cookouts during the summer. It can be in the park or in your backyard. There are so many different foods that are cooked during a cookout, and there’s usually a lot of friends and family members there as well as loud music.

I always look forward to a cookout with my family during the summer time at my aunt’s house. There is so much love in one place and I love seeing family that I haven’t seen in a long time. The smell of hot dogs, burgers and chicken being cooked on a grill is an amazing smell and sometimes it stays on your clothes. My favorite food to eat at a cookout is hotdogs with ketchup. My mom and aunt are the cooks of the family and they always make macaroni and cheese, jerk chicken and a lot of other delicious dishes.

Having cookouts in the summer is important to our family because it brings out the love we have for one another and the culture of our beloved ones who used to have cookouts in the past. We do the same thing all the time when we have cookouts. Sometimes we have votes on what to play or sing and dance to old time rap/hip hop music and others. We do a lot of things every year and we have fun every year. What I see every time that we have cookouts is the huge lake and a lot of trees everywhere. There’s benches everywhere too.

What me and my family do at cookouts is play musical chairs and steal the bacon and put the ring in the hoop and others. We eat a lot of food. My aunt gives us food every time and during parties and other things. Sometimes we add new things every summer and contests, and I won one time. We do a lot of things every year. My family does cookouts, but not always at the same place. We do it at other places like a park with big kid swings and little kids’ too. My cookouts are not only about having fun. We meet the people that we haven’t seen in years or who just got born, and we didn’t know and just met for the first time.

But cookouts are all not the same without one person you love that created it. My grandma, or great great great grandma, and grandpa started our family’s first cookout. It grew on for many years since the 1900s. The purpose of having a cookout is to party or have entertainment featuring the cooking and eating of a meal outdoors. The first cookout location opened in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1989, over 50 locations opened in North Carolina before expanding out of the state. As of November, 2022, there were 326 locations operating in ten states. The company opened its first out of state store in Spartanburg, South Carolina on July 30, 2010.

There are some things that you can’t do at a black person’s cookout, like show up and not eat there thinking that you’re too good to not have their food. Don’t bring anything to the table because at cookouts they already have what you need so there’s no need to bring anything if you come to a cookout. Why I love cookouts is because it’s fun and your family comes together to celebrate. Cookouts can be used as a pass away party for someone really close to your\my family or a family member that passed away.

Another thing that you can’t do at a cookout is that you don’t show up empty handed and don’t bring uninvited guests and don’t touch the food without washing your hands and don’t gossip about anyone. And the last thing is that you can bring a plate home with you because we don’t know what to do with all the food that our family makes, so to make it go down some of you have to bring some with you until there’s no food left. And so going to my aunt’s has become a tradition for my family. It is a place of love, laughter and fellowship.