VIDALIA — Blend strength, unity and lots of love. Allow the mixture to simmer for years, and soon, you’ll have Josephine Hawkins’ family.

Hawkins’ children, who are now grown and have families of their own, gathered for the Fourth of July amid pots and pans filled with mustard greens, ribs, fried fish, hot dogs, potato salad, peach cobbler and a “pot o’ plenty,” filled with turkey necks, corn, potatoes and sausage, to name just a few of the selections.

“We started cooking around 11 (a.m.),” said Hawkins, 66, said. “We should have been done by (the afternoon), but we just kept adding to the menu.”

Four generations filled the kitchen, the living room, the dining room and the carport outside of Hawkins’ home in Vidalia, keeping with their Fourth of July family tradition.

Addie Hooper, 46, is one of Hawkins’ daughters, and she said her family has several relatives in the armed services, including the Navy and Army National Guard.

“We’re a close knit family,” she said. “You can do anything you set your heart to do, as long as you live an honorable life, a clean life and a guilt-free life.”

Above all, though, she said, the Fourth is a time for family.

“It’s about being able to be together and spend quality time and have good, clean fun,” Hooper said.

Hooper’s older sister, Dinah Johnson, said it’s important for younger generations to see the older ones loving each other.

“They can carry that on from generation to generation,” she said. “We let them see how to treat people and conduct themselves. You have to be positive in front of children.

“It’s about teaching detail, because sometimes they don’t do exactly what you say to do. They do what they see you doing.”

Addie Hooper’s daughter, Charita Hooper, 28, and her 5-year-old son Keilan were in on the festivities, too.

“This tradition defines what family is to me,” Charita Hooper said. “We laugh and talk and play, and we show (the kids) what love really is. They can see what family is to us.”

Marie Johnson, another of Hawkins’ daughters, said one of the things she loves most about getting together is being able to see her children spending time with their family members.

“I like to watch them enjoy their cousins and their grandmother, and I like to watch (Hawkins) enjoy her grandkids,” said Marie Johnson, 42. “It’s fun to watch the kids as they get older.

“Even when we lived (away from home) everyone came home for certain holidays. It’s our time to get together and reminisce.”

Charita Hooper said the family usually walks down to the river to watch the fireworks display, which definitely makes Keilan happy, she said.

At the end of the day, Dinah Johnson said, the pots of food all boil down to love.

“Where there’s unity, there’s strength,” she said. “We’re a family that loves to give and share.”