Yep. I washed them everytime I used them. I'd go "shopping" at my parents house when I ran out of dish soap.

I had all the dishes and kitchen equipment, but was just lazy.....

Where and when did the tradition of eating black eyed peas on New Years for good luck come about ? Why do they symbolize prosperity?

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity.
The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 CE), Horayot 12A: "Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see qara (bottle gourd), rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic lubiya), kartei (leeks), silka (either beets or spinach), and tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year." However, the custom may have resulted from an early mistranslation of the Aramaic word rubiya (fenugreek).
A parallel text in Kritot 5B states one should eat these symbols of good luck. The accepted custom (Shulhan Aruh Orah Hayim 583:1, 16th century, the standard code of Jewish law and practice) is to eat the symbols. This custom is followed by Sephardi and Israeli Jews to this day.
In the United States, the first Sephardi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s, and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the American Civil War.
In the Southern United States,the peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavored vinegar.
The traditional meal also features collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion. Cornbread also often accompanies this meal.
Another suggested origin of the tradition dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, typically stripped the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they could not carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and field corn suitable only for animal fodder, and did not steal or destroy these humble foods

[quote=" the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion. [/quote]
So is this where the term "root hog or die" came from? No, well kinda. Came from letting hogs run wild to feed themselves. God bless wickpedia for all this knowledge at our finger tips.
As Goob might say, yew didn't have to print the whole article Smokey, yew blew my cover.

As to the topic. I remember once having them with a ham bone with a little meat left on it cooked in with them. Or with a couple of slices of bacon cooked in for flavor. Mother served them with home made relish. It helped but nothing ever made them taste good, just tolerable.
Best way though is fresh out of the garden with snaps in them.
I think next New Year's day I'll have mine on a bed of lightly crushed fritos topped with cheese, onions, peppers and chili. Maybe it will help. (a little relish too please)

That sounded good until you added relish.

Even with the relish it doesn't sound "good" to me. I could just skip the pea's & have the frito pie.

... wonder how black eyed peas over Frito Pie would taste???

you would a lot more cheese/peppers/pbcp to kill the taste

I'd probably leave the relish off this concoction too. But the whole point is to kill the taste of the peas. Might add a layer of chili, cheese, and onions under the peas. More jalapeno's on top please.

You may want to try using one spoon of peas for every 3 spoons of chili. That should hide the flavor of them.

You could also eat a scorpion pepper with your peas. That should kill your taste buds long enough to eat them...