Jim Baldridge was a man of many talents and, before his untimely passing, a good friend of my fathers. I remember him from boyhood, traveling through the empty dust of dirt roads to attend livestock sales with my father. Jim would auctioneer as dad worked the ring and I sat in the stands reading through the program trying to guess what each lot would go for and wishing I could bid on one. As I recall he always had a ready smile and contagious laugh but my most concrete memory of Jim is a vision from the ubiquitous diner that is often connected to sale barns.
It’s a surprising memory and I’m not sure why it stuck with me but I can still see him, sitting across from me, joking playfully with the waitress and eventually getting around to ordering a hamburger without the top bun or maybe he took the top bun off, either way he didn’t eat it. Then a little while later, he would call the waitress over agian and order another hamburger, doing the same thing with the top bun. I was never sure if he did this because he thought if he skipped the bun it was fine to have two hamburgers or if he just liked less between him and the flavor of the beef. I’ve decided, whether it’s true or not, to believe that it was the latter of my two concocted possibilities. Which I think stands to reason given his great contribution to humanity and deliciousness, Jim Baldridge’s Secret Seasoning.
It was around this seasoning which the legend of Jim Baldridge grew in my head, ever since I was a young boy, probably eleven or twelve, a piece of beef never struck the Shirley table without first being generously bathed in Jim’ Baldridge’s Secret Seasoning. We even took it with us on the Lake Vermillion fishing trip. Here’s a visual testimonial of how Bucky feels about Baldridge’s:
So Good We Still Ate Them!
To this day, I don’t make steaks, burgers or chops without it and ever since I can remember anyone who tastes it asks me to get them some. Well, stop asking me and get it here: Buy Jim Baldridge’s Secret Seasoning, just make sure to tell them OA sent ya.