Category: Other

On a sunny morning last spring, I drove to exercise class through a shower of snow. Neither the other motorists nor I had any worry about traveling. Traffic moved along while a few feather-like flakes whacked into our windshields. We all knew that within an hour, the sunshine would be bright again (it was), and the snow flakes would vanish (they did).

I enjoyed that morning, but it stirred thoughts of another experience I had with unexpected snow several years ago. Thinking of that other happening brought back memories of the welcome face of my sister Clarice one afternoon when I was not at all happy to see snow.

I saw a story the other day about how a man had trained a gander. It reminded me of my brother Cleo training Whitey, his gander, when Cleo was a teenager. This in turn brought to mind what it was like to have the geese around the farm and how they changed the dynamics of their fellow creatures. Continue reading “Our farm geese”

A little more information about the weaning house.   In 1957 I only lived there for a few days with Mom, Dad, and David after school was out at Berea. Then I moved to West Point,  lived with Hazel and Jesse, and worked for the rest of the summer.. Continue reading “The weaning house”

Today in our competitive, angry world, I wonder if you would like to hear a  simple story about kindness for a change. My sister Hazel liked this little story. She recounted this incident about an unusual response to what might have been an unpleasant night for two neighbors a long time ago.

When Mom and Dad were bringing up our large family, their ability to provide food and shelter was tested many times, especially through the winter. Yet through our family’s hard work, we always had enough… even in the hardest of months and the hardest of times. Continue reading “A gift”

When you were very young even before you started school, I bet you loved music. I did, too. We often listened to the Carter family on the radio. Their music made me feel happy. I wished I could play a guitar and make such wonderful sounds. We had a hair brush that was shaped somewhat like a guitar, so I would sit in the rocking chair in front of the sheet iron stove, playing my hair brush and singing Wildwood Flower and Keep on the Sunny Side. I made the guitar sounds, too. Continue reading “Thoughts on another birthday”

In the latter days of January each year, when the ground was still frozen hard and you could see your breath as you walked outdoors in the mornings, a crop of new lambs was born on the farm. Amazingly, most but not all of them survived.

Lambs were some of the cutest of all the farm animals. Like a lot of newborns, their legs always looked too tall for their bodies. It was fun to watch them, “baa-ing” after their mamas, bouncing around on their black hooves, and wiggling their tails when they nursed. I thought I would love to rub my hand over their woolly backs, but neither the lambs nor the ewes would let me get close enough to do that. Not to mention that I was afraid of the buck sheep. Continue reading “Sheep”

Bet all of you have noticed the small blue blossoms along the interstate this summer and probably during summers before. This blue flower is called chicory. Hazel said the Indians once used it for tea, and maybe they still do…like the folks in New Orleans. But Mom would fuss when she tasted chicory in her coffee. Mom was serious about her coffee. Continue reading “Reflections on families and flowers”