Monday, September 8, 2014

Two Letter State Abbreviations

In 1963, the US Postal service began the use of zip codes and two letter state abbreviations. I still get confused with some of them. We learned the states and their capitals early in elementary school. We didn't study state abbreviations, but we should have. What's Mo.? Montana? No, that's Mt. Mo. is Missouri. Here's an easy one, Ma., got to be Maine, right? Wrong, Ma. is Massachusetts. Maine is Me. OK, I see, using the first 2 letters, Minnesota would be Mi. Nope, Mi. is Michigan, see? Sorry, Mn. is Minnesota. Md. is Maryland, Ms. is Mississippi. So, does anybody reading this live in Ar.? Arizona, no wait, that's Az. What other A states are there? Oh, Ak., which is not Arkansas, but Alaska. How about Newbraska and Westconsin? I used to hear truckers saying those. How about Mizzoorah? Or Illynoise? Let's have a roll call - put your city and state and I don't care if you use abbreviations like S. Dak, Mich, Tenn, or Wash.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Finding The Hidden Sundial

Most afternoons after school I would walk home. I did this from the first grade to about the eleventh grade.

Some days I would stop by my dad's store and then later own walk on home. I would take a different route each day to make the trip be less monotonous. From the1st thru the eighth grade, I loved to walk most days down the railroad track that ran through the center of town to the road going to our house. Sometimes something or someone would get your attention and your route would suddenly change its course but in the end you would finally get home.

One day walking home I decided to sit in an area of grass beside the road and rest as the day was very hot and getting close to school being out for the Summer. While I was sitting there a friend from school hollered from his street for me to come over to his house. He said that I could call home and let my mother know where I was as I had done this often.

On the way over to the road where i had to cross the street to his house I stumbled across something hidden in the grass. When I got up I called my friend Jeff over to see what I had stumbled over buried under the grass but sticking up enough to catch your foot.

Once we cleared away all of the grass and dirt there was a marble sundial with a copper vein to tell the time of day. There was a date on it of 1873 and it had been dedicated by the Daughters Of The Revolution. It had been hidden for many years. We got to his house and called my mother and let her know where I was at and she said that she would come up to see the sundial.

My mother had us go and visit the Mayor at City Hall and tell them what we had found. They went with us and we showed it to him and he was very impressed. They dug it up and moved it to the center of this grassy area beside the railroad tracks and made a New Park and rededicated the Sundial.

Every time I would pass this spot I was always reminded of finding the sundial and if my friend hadn't of called me it might never have been found.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

A Ride To School

One Morning about thirty nine years ago I was going to take my little niece (Nettie) to school. It wasn't like it was her first day to go, but if you had been there you would have thought so.

Everything was going so smooth until we got in the car and she realized that I was taking her to school not to Papaw and Mamaw's.

She cried as I started the car and as I started out of the drive she cried so much that my pants were getting wet. Not from tears but from wetting her pants. Back down the drive to change clothes and try it all over again.

After her mother changed her we set out on our drive to the school. I told her if she was good I would stop at Riedlings and get her some candy before going on to school. She agreed and she was great with getting her candy and we got back into the car to go on to school. As we got close to the street to go to Mamaw's house she started crying wanting to go their instead of school. I explained, that she had to go to school and see her friends and learn her abc's. She turned to me and said, "Your just like my teacher, I already know my abc's and I don't need to go there to learn them." I then asked her, "Do you know how to read?" and she said, "No." Well this is another reason why you need to go to school so they will teach you how to read." She immediately had a response, "My mother, can teach me to read as well, so why do I need to go to school." It was then I remembered my Grandmother's favorite saying, "Because I said so." The ride went smoothly as we drove onto the school lot.

She then spoke up and said, "I can't go in now because I'm late and everyone will be looking at me. Oh gee what do I do now. What I thought would be an easy task was turning out to be a problem and she needed to be in her class.

I said, "You are such a pretty little girl when you smile and I'm just a big ole guy, that when I take you in they will be looking at big ole me and you can just slide into your seat and it will be like you were there all along."

I never saw such a big smile on a little girl as we walked into school that day. When I turned to leave their was that smile again.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Meeting The King And The Queen

We loved to have get-togethers at our house and have the young kids our age come over and visit for the weekend.

We would always have a cookout and have a singing where everyone brought their instruments (piano, guitars, flute, clarinet, saxophone and accordion.) Whoever didn't have an instrument just got to sing along with the playing of the instruments. We really had a lot of fun doing this whenever we got together.

We also would play table games like Monopoly, Caroms, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Parcheesi, and Scrabble.

We also had some party games we liked to play and the one we will tell you about today was; Meeting The King and the Queen. Anyone that was there that had never met the King and the Queen was fair game for us to blind fold them so that they could meet the King and the Queen.

Our mother would sit in one chair and we would have the person that was blind-folded to bend over and bow before the King and the Queen. We would have them shake the Kings hand and then kiss the Queens hand. (before we would take the blind-fold off, we would have my dad cross his leg and put his bare foot up where they would think that they had kissed the foot instead.) Whenever we would take the blindfold off the person would think that they had kissed the foot and they would be wiping their mouth to get the taste of the foot off. Then they would get to watch as the next person did was blind-folded and went through the process again and then see there reaction.

Some days we would play six or seven games like this and we would have so much fun at these get-togethers.

The Uninvited Guest

One weekend my parents were out of town and we were left behind with my oldest sister in charge of the four younger siblings. This was a job that she enjoyed very much, maybe too much. She liked being the boss over all of us.

We had invited some of our friends to come over and we would all ride to one of Miss Bessie's Gospel Meetings that was going to be on Friday evening. We decided to go in two cars, one of the cars was our VW bus and the other was Sherry's mothers car. Their were six in each car and we all went to the meeting on Friday evening.

On the way back we were almost at the turnoff of the Braselton Road and the Winder Road when we heard a gun shot and a ping against the metal of the car. Both cars stopped and pulled to the shoulder of the road and we all got out and checked the cars for damage. On the left rear of our VW bus there was a bullet hole beside the wheel opening. When we saw that we all jumped back into our cars and sped off into the night to go to the Police Department in Jefferson. We told them where we had been and that we were on our way home and we were just fixing to turn onto the Winder Road to come to Jefferson when we heard the shot and had gotten out to see what had happened. They took down our information and said that they would check it out and call us the next day.

We made it home around nine thirty and we decided to have a singing party and everyone that had an instrument to play set together and they played and we sang every song we knew until about midnight. We were all tired and decided to go to bed. Everyone had gone to bed when we heard someone climbing up the  rose trellis just outside of my parents bedroom where several were sleeping. Then they heard them walking on the roof over my parents bedroom and then to the upstairs window. The took off the screen and slid out the glass in the jalous windows and then crawled into our attic. By this time we were all up and scared to death that someone was in our attic. We pushed a large chester drawers up against the attic door and my oldest sister called the police. She didn't want to talk to loud for whoever to hear her as she talked to the police. As she talked to the dispatcher on the phone trying to give him the information he would tell her to speak up he couldn't hear her. Her reply back to him was that she couldn't talk any louder because she didn't want the person who had broken in to hear that she was talking to the police. After several tries he finally understood the address and said someone would be right out.

By the time the police had gotten there the person had climbed out the other window on the other side of the attic and jumped to the ground and fled into the night. The police had gone upstairs into the attic and saw where the window glass had been removed at both windows and the ground below the second window their was a set of shoe prints where the person had landed when they jumped out of the second window to the ground.

They took down all of the information and made a report and said that they were cruise the neighborhood for a suspicious person and get with our parents when they got back in town on Monday.

Everyone tried to go back to bed and sleep but everyone came back into the living room and one by one we all fell asleep there.

Of the person had tried to come down the stairs they would have been surprised at the gang that was waiting at the door with their guitars raised in the air just ready to hit them over the head.

The next morning we had the windows repaired and secured so that they wouldn't open and we called our parents and let them in on our exciting evening. They said that they would be leaving soon and would be back home later in the evening.

I remember the comfort that I felt just knowing that my dad would be there that evening and all would be ok again.

Palmer Waters

Friday, August 1, 2014

The Trellis

When I was born we lived on the south side of town. After I was born, my parents purchased a lot to build a house in the north side of town. after my first birthday, we moved into the new house.

All that was on this lot was the new house and the yard was a blank canvas that we worked together on to make this new house become a home.

Just out the back door we had a large porch that in the plans it was supposed to be a carport but my parents had never had a carport but they had always had a large porch on their previous houses so this is what this area became. In the summer in Georgia, a porch without a roof is unbearable without a roof covering it. The latest thin out in the mid fifties was aluminum. People were buying aluminum awnings to cover their windows from the sun that made the interiors a little more cooler and they were adding aluminum roofs to porches to make them cooler. I remember the color of ours covering our back porch. It was red with white stripe panels on the edge. This sure made it cooler when sitting outside during the summer.

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One day mom said we are going to build a trellis on both sides of the drive way to separate the view from the front yard to the backyard. I didn't know what a trellis was, but I knew that I would soon find out. We all got into the car and made a trip to Homer to the Garrison's lumber yard that was just off of the town square. My mother went into the office and told Mr. Garrison what she wanted to build and he said sure let me get the material that you will need to build it. It wasn't long before a large bundle of wood was tied to the top of our station wagon and we were headed back home. When we got home the wood was unloaded from the top of the car and put in a pole close to where the trellis was going to be built. My mother had purchased the day before a post hole digger for digging holes to put the six post into the ground to support the trellis that was going to be built there. Mother showed my older siblings how to use the post hole digger by digging two of the holes herself. She must have found the softer area to dig because it took my brother a whole lot longer to dig the other four holes. (If you have never used a post hole digger before you are in for a treat. You have to apply a lot of downward pressure to dig into the ground and then you pull the handles apart to lift out the dirt. Don't get in to big of a hurry and pull the handles apart to fast because you will pinch your fingers every time.)

That afternoon the local Hardware Store(Christian Brothers Hardware) brought a load of sand and some bags of concrete and a wheel barrow. We learned how to mix sand and concrete mix to make concrete to hold our post steady in the ground. It was fun at first but after a while it got tiring but we had a job to finish setting our post.

The next morning after breakfast we went outside and played for most of the morning. Mom came out and we started to build our trellis. We laid the boards out on the ground in squares and then nailed them together and then we nailed between the post boards top and bottom that we were going to nail our trellis to. Once this was finished we all agreed that it sure made a difference in separating the front and back yards. We thought that we were finally finished, but we had forgotten that it hadn't been painted yet. As my sister (Susan) and I were younger and we just got to watch as the others built the trellis we got the job of painting the trellis. I don't know who got more paint, us or the trellis but we finally finished it before supper.

The next day mom told us that we were going out to our place in the country and we were going to dig up several small trees to plant in the yard in front of both trellis's. We got several small dogwoods and several maple trees and brought them back home and planted  one dogwood on the narrow side of the drive-way and two on the other side by the house. We already had a flower bed where we had put the trellis but this made it look more complete.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Full Service Gas Stations



It really hasn't been that long ago when we had full service gas stations. As you pulled up to the fuel tanks the bell would ring(from bell hose running across drive in front of pumps) to let the attendant know that he had a customer.

The attendant would come out and ask you how much gas did you need and then he would open your gas tank and get the amount of gas that you needed. He would also check your oil, and water in the radiator as well as the air in your tires and clean your windshield. Everything was full service and done with a smile.

You and your family could use extra clean restrooms and get a map for the road ahead. The cold drinks were ice cold in the drink boxes and if you were lucky some even had some ice in them.

If you needed and oil change or service work there was a mechanic on duty to serve your needs.

Maybe you needed a set of tires or maybe just a flat tire fixed they could do that as well.

I remember when we would pull in with our VW Bus and tell the attendant that we wanted 8 cents of gas and would he check the water in the radiator. Some that didn't know that the VW was an air-cooled engine instead of a water-cooled engine couldn't find the radiator and we would just laugh and say we must have lost it, as they finished checking our oil, water, tires and washing our windshield.

The attendant said I'll give you a push so you can coast to the red light and not burn up all 8 cents of your gas.

Oh, I forgot to say that gas then was 25 to 27 cents a gallon and the car would hold a whole $5.00 of gas.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Looking For A Job

My oldest sister turned sixteen and my dad thought that it would be good for her if she were to work for someone other than with him at the store so she could get some experience working for other people.

So she got ready to go and talk to some people that were hiring in our area and my mother took her for her interviews. She stayed in the car while Lucy went in to see about a job.

Each time after being there she would come out and get in the car and mother would ask her how the interview went and did she get the job. She told her it went well and that they said that they would give her a call later.

Several days went by and my dad was down at the bank and he ran into the man at the bank where she had had an interview. My dad asked the man how the interview went and he told my dad that he didn't think that my sister wanted a job. My dad said why do you say this.

Well, after I told her what we were looking for I asked her did she have any questions and she said yes. He said what questions do you have. Well how much do you pay?, How long do I have to work before I get a raise?, What are the hours I have to work?, How long do I get off for lunch?. I long do I have to work before I get a vacation?  She never asked anything about the work, so I didn't think she wanted a job.

So when she went on her next interview she got the job on the spot.

Palmer Waters

My Big Sis

If you've ever had an older sibling you will know what I am talking about but if you didn't just look what you missed.

Mother didn't leave us alone very much we either went with her or dad, or they were there when we were at home.

On the rare occasions when mother wasn't there my big sister was left in charge. And boy howdy did she like to be in charge and take charge she would.

I remember one time we were left in her care and I guess we probably did get rowdy as we were playing because most times we did.

She threatened us with time out and this wasn't enough punishment for us. She made us sit in the corner for  thirty minutes and then she whipped us. We told her mom punished us if we misbehaved but never like this.

Finally we must have drawn her last straw because she got the help of my second oldest sister (Juanita) and tied my hands one to one leg of the piano and the other hand to the other leg, then she took my brother (Oliver) and tied one of his hands to one sofa leg and the other hand to the other sofa leg. then she tied our legs together and told us now try and get loose.

It didn't take long before Oliver realized that he could lift up the sofa and slide the knot down the leg and off and then the other leg. Then he got busy on our legs and he untied my hands and we escaped outside where we gladly stayed until our mother came home.

Palmer Waters

Watch Out What You Wish For

My second oldest sister Juanita was such fun. She could play a piano by ear and she taught me one summer how to play the piano using the black keys and I still play that way even today.

She was full of life and love to have fun. She was such a happy person to be around. She loved an adventure and she was always thinking of things that we could do.

Even after she got married we had fun going to their house and doing things together.

She could stretch a pound of ground beef into four meals. She could make you laugh so hard that you would start to cry. If an accident was going to happen it would be with her somewhere around. Almost never happening to her but to the other person.

She could sing like a bird and loved to sing parts with my sister Lucy and cousin Louise W. and her younger sister Susan. She sang alto and Lucy sang soprano and Louise sang tenor. I loved to hear them sing as a group but looking back I wish i could just hear them one more time.

Juanita always said she wanted to be young and that she never wanted to be fifty because when you got fifty you were old. Well as you can guess to all young people fifty is old, but the older you get and the closer you get to that number the younger that number looks.

She had been in a car accident when she was younger and had a broken collarbone and a concussion. And then one time when she was on an airplane and sitting by the emergency exit the door wasn't closed properly and it affected her hearing in that ear that was closest to that door.

One day she went to her doctor for a checkup and they found a lump on her head and they said that it was a brain tumor. It was the size of a walnut when they found it but in a month it was about the size of an orange.
She had planned on going to Mexico for a Special treatment but the doctors told her that it was too late for that.

I often wondered how she felt when she heard that news, but never having been in a situation like her I never knew until last year when they induced me into a coma when I had pneumonia and I thought I was going to die. You are willing for whatever they can do to make it better and give you a little more time.

I talked with her on the phone and she reminded me about how she never wanted to get old and how she never wanted to be fifty. And now she wasn't going to she was getting just what she wished for.

It wasn't many days later when we got a call that she was on a ventilator and that they were going to take her off of it and that we should come before they took her off of life support.

This was one of the saddest days of my life. Words can't express the feelings of the thought of losing a sibling that you love and have share a part of your life with.

When we got to the hospital, I was hoping for a miracle, but there she was with her head shaved and not looking anything like Juanita the sister that I loved. As they took her off of life support her heart stopped and she was gone in the blink of an eye.

It has taken me many years to get that picture out of my mind of her with her head shaved and not looking like herself at all. She always had beautiful hair and always knew just how to wear it.

I can still hear today, "Watch out what you wish for because you just might get it."

Palmer Waters


Thursday, July 17, 2014

When I'm An Old Lady And Live With My Kids

When I'm an old lady, I'll live with each kid,
and bring so much happiness, just as they did.
I want to pay back all the joy they've provided.
Returning each deed! Oh, they'll be so excited!

(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.) 
I'll write on the wall with reds, whites and blues, 
and I'll bounce on the furniture wearing my shoes. 
I'll drink from the carton and then leave it out. 
I'll stuff all the toilets and oh, how they'll shout!

(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)
When they're on the phone and just out of reach,
I'll get into things like sugar and bleach.
Oh, they'll snap their fingers and then shake their head,
and when that is done, I'll hide under the bed!
(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)
I'll sit close to the TV, I'll click through the channels,
I'll cross both eyes just to see if they stick.
I'll take off my socks and throw one away,
and play in the mud till the end of the day!

(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)
When they cook dinner and call me to eat,
I'll not eat my green beans or salad or meat,
I'll gag on my okra, spill milk on the table,
and when they get angry, I'll run...if I'm able!

(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)
And later in bed, I'll lay back and sigh,
I'll thank God in prayer and then close my eyes.
My kids will look down with a smile slowly creeping,
and say with a groan, "She's so sweet when she's sleeping!

Friday, July 4, 2014

We Didn't Have The "Green Thing" Back Then

A friend shared this article with me from where, I do not know.  It really made me think and took me back.

I remember all the non-green things we did "back then."   On the fourth of July, we didn't have AC in the house so we celebrated out under an oak tree and ate food hand-made by our mothers and grandmothers.

Fathers and Grandfathers kept an eye on the watermelons cooling in the spring that ran not too far from our oak.  And the younger were hand-cranking ice cream to go with those home-made pies and cakes later.

I don't like the way America is heading right now and I pray a time comes again when a hand shake is as good as a contract like it used to be.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.


The woman apologized and explained,"We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today.  Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."


She was right -- our generation didn't have the 'green thing’ in our day.


Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store and we got 3 cents per Coke bottle.  The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.


So they really were recycled.


But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.


Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books.  This was to ensure that public property,(the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling's.


Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.


But too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.


We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building.  We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right.  We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.


Back then, we washed the baby's diaper because we didn't have the throw away kind.  We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 5000 watts/hour -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.  


Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.


Back then, we had one TV if any at all, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room.  And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. 


In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.  When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap (and wrapped it in brown paper bags).


Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn.  We used a push mower that ran on human power.  We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.


But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.


We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.  We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen,and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.


Back then, people took the street car or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost more than twice what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.  And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint. We ate our burgers at home.


But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to tick us off...  Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced someone who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.


Thank You, for letting be blow off a little steam.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Accidents Happen

In the late 1950's and early 1960's a kid had a love for the bikes of that period. We had the two-tone bike and we had bikes that had baskets on the front to carry groceries in or just anything that we could put up there.

I had a little Chicawha dog and he loved to ride in the basket of my sisters bike. We had chrome fenders on our bikes and you could buy an accessory for the back fender to carry your books in saddle bags or put them under a chrome binder to hold a few books.

Then came the three speed bikes such as Schwinn. It didn't take long before Huffy got on the band wagon with a 3-speed bike as well as other American Bike Builders.

We rode our bikes to and from school, to the grocery for our mothers and to our friends house. We could stop off at the city Library and sit and read books in the coolness of the building on hot summer days.

We loved to ride them through the woods long before they made mountain bikes. We had trails all over the place and we had a great love for our bikes. The bikes gave us a freedom that we hadn't had before and it was something to contain us until we were old enough to drive.

Beside my dad Furniture and Appliance store was a very steep hill that dropped quickly to an alley at the back of all of the stores on that side of the street. My dad's building was three storied and it would drop that much as you rode down it. The alley was used but not a lot of traffic was there mostly trucks from the businesses and the people that owned the businesses.

Next door to my dads was a Hardware store and they were good friends of ours, next to that was a Five and Dime Store and then Rexall Drug Store with a Barber Shop in the basement the a Doctor's Office, Jewelers, And then a Bank with a drive thru in the alley.

I decided that I would take my new Schwinn that my dad had gotten me for my birthday and ride it up and down that hill. It was a breeze going down but a full stand-up climb to get back to the top. I had decided that I would ride it down one last time before riding my bike on home. When I got to the bottom I applied the brakes when I saw the New Lincoln that belonged to the lady whose husband owned the Hardware Store next door. I tried but they didn't stop me in time and I hit her right front passenger door, and flew over the car to land on the street on the other side and all of the wind was knocked out of me. As I was coming to I was thinking of how I was going to break this to my dad. Mrs. Ruffin came out of the car in a flash and was checking me all over to see if I was hurt. I wondered why she wasn't checking out her front door of her New Lincoln, but she was more concerned with me. I stood up and tried to walk around and I was still dazed. When I walked around to the other side to see the damage on the car, all there was, was a tire print and no damage. For some reason I start to smile and am glad that her car was not damaged from my bike hitting it. Then that is when I saw my bike for the first time. The shinny chrome front wheel was bent as if a strong man had twisted it in his hands.

I knew then that I wouldn't be riding my new bike for quite a while this summer. I slowly opened the sliding rear door of my dad's building and put my bike in the basement in a safe place until later. After making my apologies I walked home thinking of how I was going to tell my parents. I had decided that I would let them know as soon as possible and I would turn around and start with my dad first. I returned to the store and told my dad that I needed to talk with him. Soon he took me into his office and we set down and he asked me what was so important that I couldn't wait until we got home.

I told him about the accident and that since I was closer to the store that I thought that he needed to know first before he found out from someone else. He asked me what sort of punishment that I should get for running into someone's car and for messing up my bike. I said that I would work to pay for getting the tire mark out of her door and also to pay for my rim and tire, and that I would go next door and apologize to Mr. Ruffin for running into their car, and that if there was anything that I could do to help out around his store for thirty days I would do what ever he wanted me to do.

I went next door to say my apology and he smiled as I came in. I didn't know whether this was a god or bad thing, but I continued on. I told him what had happened and that I was sorry that it had happened and that I was willing to work for him for thirty days to defray the extra costs.

He told me to have a seat, and then he told me what had happened to him when he was a young man and what the man had told him after he apologized to him. "Sonny, you'll never know in a hundred years, have a great summer and do what little boys do when they are out of school."

He said, "I never had a little boy, but I was a little boy once and accidents happen and you became a man when you were willing to make things right and I respect this very much."

You know I enjoyed my summer very much and I never forgot what he said and that is another reason I liked Growing Up In A Small Town.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Schools Out, Schools Out,

School’s out! School’s out! Teacher wore her paddle out! That glorious, wondrous, magical day is second only to Christmas for children and teachers. It’s the day to clean out lockers and leave everything you don’t want in a growing, smelly pile in the middle of the locker; when classrooms jumble with “Things to keep and things to throw away and books that go back to the library and ...” Loud voices in the halls as “students” morph into “ little kids” and the school year draws to a close.

We looked forward to three months of freedom. An opportunity to mow lawns, collect coke bottles, pull weeds for the neighbors flower beds. We were willing to do almost anything to earn some extra pocket money to help us have a better Summer out of school.

We could catch lighting bugs in a jar, play hiding seek in the dark, ride our bicycles just about anywhere. We could play in the creek, swim at the lake, sleep over at our friends house. How about going camping?

We even worked in the garden and the work didn't seem so hard because we were out of school.

This was also our free time to have a family vacation and to visit with our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who lived out of town.

Yes, we still had to do our chores at home and make up out bed and cut our own yard, but ever how you looked at it, it was still summer and freedom from school and homework.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

One Mannequin Too Many

My dad and his brothers had decided that they wanted to add a new location in town to sell furniture and appliances because the were out growing the business in the mercantile store on the south end of town. The building that they purchased was on Central Avenue behind Jay's Department Store and across the street from Threat's kitchen entrance. And next door was Blue Bell's Cafeteria, that later became Champion Mills.

The building had been a dress shop with it's previous owner. (Ideal's Dress Shop) When you walked in the door there were to display windows on either side of the doors. On the side walls there was a balcony on each side with area above for storage, It was built to look like a front porch wit turned white post and white railings. The floors were oak and the walls had a white plaster over the brick. When you got half-way back into the store it widened out to twice its size and in the far right hand side was a large restroom with a small window facing a alley behind Jay's Department Store. The restroom window had bars on it like a jail house.

On the other side of the back was a set of double doors that opened onto a walled in patio, the walls were from the other three buildings that joined our building. Between the restroom and the patio was a large paneled office with windows on three sides and a fireplace in the middle. It was in this room that we found a Mannequin and many pieces of mannequin's.

We decided that when we saw this mannequin that we would take it home and have fun with some of our guest that came from time to time to visit us.

She was a blond and we named her Matilda. Matilda started out riding in the car with my sister because she worked in Athens and was going to school at night and my dad put her in the passenger seat and it looked like two people were in the car instead of only my sister. Matilda served her well and she never had a problem driving alone at night.

One night two of our brother workers came to spend a few days with us and as the bedroom that they were sleeping in had a bathroom we had an idea for Matilda.

While we were visiting after supper in the Living Room with our company my brother and one of my sister's were supposed to be doing their homework, but instead the were setting up Matilda in the restroom, They had her using the restroom and they had taped a newspaper in her hand as if she were reading the Atlanta Constitution. When we all went to bed we all went into our sisters room across the hall so we could hear what was going on. When one went to go into the restroom we heard him say, "Oh excuse me," and they walked back into the living room. While they were in the living room my brother took her out of the bathroom and put her in my sister's closet until the next day. After giving the person enough time they went back to their room and knocked before they entered to see if someone was in the room.

The next night they put her in the bed with her blond hair spread all over the pillow like she was asleep. The light was turned on in the bathroom and the door was left ajar so that the light would shine toward the bed and they could see the person in the bed. Again they excused themselves and decided to sleep one on the couch and one in the chair for the night. As they were getting ready to go to sleep in the living room they heard them moving Matilda out of the bedroom into my sister's bedroom. Thankfully for us the got up and went to bed in their bedroom for the night.

The next morning we just knew that we were going to get it from them and the our parents. When everything went off as normal we were left to wonder when the other foot was going to drop.

We had to wait until we got ready to go to bed the next night. When we went to our separate rooms and pulled back our covers we went to jump into the bed and we could only slide in half way in. We had made the beds the previous mornings and they were made the same way we had made beds for years and never had any problems. My brother said this is the other foot dropping. Just sleep under the cover that you can get under and they will be listening to us, hear us as we grumble that we can't get into our beds.

Meanwhile downstairs my sisters tried to get in their beds and they to could only get in half way and their feet wouldn't go any farther into the bed. They took all of their covers off to see what was wrong with their bed covers and then they found out what was wrong. Someone had remade the bed and as you pulled down the bed covers it looked normal. When they remade the bed they took the top sheet and folded it in half and tucked the part for the bottom of the bed into the top of the bed like it was folded in half and when you went to pull the covers back you could only slide in on the sheet half way. If you just pulled the spread and blanket back and not the sheet you could get in the bed as usual.

At breakfast the next morning we each got a wink from the brother workers and we knew then that they had caught on and the joke was back on us.

We later learned that they call this technique: A Short Sheeted Bed.

Yes, you probably already guessed, we passed this trick on to others as they came to visit and when we went visiting we always offered to make the beds with fresh sheets so that we could pass on what we had learned.

Friday, May 2, 2014

A Very Short Pit Stop

Whenever we went on a car trip we always knew that we had to go to the restroom before getting into the car. My dad didn't like to make stops unless it was an emergency. If we controlled our drinking in the car then he didn't have to stop several times to let someone go to the restroom. When he stopped for gas we knew that we needed to get to the restroom and back, because when he had gotten the car tank filled up he was ready to get on his way.

I wanted to say this so that you would appreciate the story that I would like to share with you.

When our parents got older they loved to go to auctions and yard sales buy items that they could resale. So that they would have room for whatever they found my dad purchased a used Ford Econoline utility can that would hold whatever they found.

When they took a trip they would stop at auctions in the area or yard sales that they passed and buy whatever they thought that they could resale.

On this one particular trip they had been to my Aunts house in North Mississippi and along the way they had pretty much filled up the van. They found an auction close by and sold most of the things that they had collected and they were on the hunt to find more items. My aunt, who was my mother's younger sister, told them of a "Special Sale" that they had in a local town close by that was on the first Monday of every month and since it was coming up if they would stay over they could go to it and see what they could find before going home.

So the next morning they set out to New Albany, Mississippi for the first Monday sale. When they got there they were impressed to see that everywhere that you looked someone had something for sale. They had everything: food, animals, tools, furniture, antiques, nicknacks, etc.. It didn't take long before they had a loaded van. It was loaded so much that the space between the front seats were even filled and you couldn't see the passenger in the other seat. Dad said he better stop so that they would have room to sit for their ride home the next morning.

The next morning they started out early so that they could get home before dark as they had about an eight hour trip in front of them.

Mom would bring along a book and some knitting to do as they drove down the road to do after the conversation had died down. She could and would sit and read or knit for hours and she would be so quite you could forget she was even sitting there.

My dad so that he was starting to get low on gas and he was watching the signs advertising the prices as he drove down the road. Finally he found one that suited him and he pulled in to fill the van up. As he was waiting on the attendant to come out mom slips out of the truck and runs to the restroom for the much needed stop. Dad talks to the attendant about filling up the tank when he notices that the price on the tank doesn't match the price on the sign. The attendant explained that he hadn't had time to change his sign yet but that the price had gone up.Dad was upset and said I'm just going to drive on down the road to get my gas since he wouldn't honor his advertised price.

He drives for about forty-five minutes and he ask mom if she is starting to get hungry. He gets no reply, thinking she may be asleep he drives on. A little while later he starts up a conversation with her and she doesn't reply and he thinks that he must have said something earlier that had made her mad and she was giving him the silent treatment. Finally he tells her something funny, thinking that she will at least laugh and there is still no response. When he stops for a red light he leans around the things blocking his vision of the passenger seat and to his surprise mother is not sitting there.

Now he is wondering when she had gotten out of the truck and he remembers stopping to get gas and she must have gotten out then to go to the restroom, because this was the last stop that he had made and that had been over and hour past.

So he does a U-turn in the road and heads back to where he had stopped last. He hopes that he can remember what station that he stopped at.

Meanwhile mom had come out of the restroom to find dad and the van gone. She asked the attendant how he had gotten his gas so fast and he had to explain about the price on the sign hadn't been changed to match the pump price, she said I don't need to hear anymore I know that this is one of his hot buttons and he has driven on down the road to find the best price. Do you need to use my phone to call someone? She looks at the man and said, Do I look like I'm from around here? We were traveling from Tennessee to Georgia today and as we are in eastern Mississippi I don't know anyone here and who I could call couldn't come quick enough. She walks out to the road and starts out walking east hoping that he will soon realize that she is not in the van and will turn around and come back and get her.

My mother is four foot, eleven and a quarter inches tall. When she gets upset she starts to brew like a tea pot on the stove the hotter the pot gets the steam starts to rise to the top.

She has walked several miles and the pot is starting to get hot, she walks another mile and it gets even hotter.

Dad can't drive fast enough to get back to where he left her and he knows that she is going to be hot under the collar when he does get to the station to pick her up. He comes up over the top of the hill an he sees a person walking on this hot summer day. And he thinks to himself how he would hate to be walking in this heat and as he draws closer he sees that it is mother walking and with each step she is starting to boil over. He stops and she just stands their looking at him thru the door. He said, "I'm sorry that I didn't check when I got back into the car to see if you were there, and I know that you are upset, and you have a right to be. She continues to just stand there and look at him when he finally realizes that she is not going to get in until he comes around and opens the door to let her in. She gets in, and then he gets in the driver's seat and turns around to go back the way he was originally headed.

He waits for awhile to speak giving her time to cool down, he hands her a cool water and he knows that the pot is going to boil over at any minute.

When it finally comes she said, I needed that walk to clear my head of a few things and it felt good out in the heat while I did that." "Do you know how hard it is to walk on the shoulder of the road and try to stay out of the ditch when a car passes you?" "What about when a big truck comes along and it almost blows you into the ditch." I can see her as I type this, getting enjoyment out of it because he has to wait until she lets it out and then she is over it.

You can bet that he checks out that passenger seat every time he gets back in the car whether she is there or not.




Thursday, April 24, 2014

Baked Stuffed Apples

baked apples
I used to love these when I was a little girl! They look so pretty and are like your very own special little apple pie! Well, I happened to have 3 apples left and a sheet of frozen pie pastry in the freezer to use up quickly before the apples got forgotten and turned to applesauce…on their own.

There’s nothing more sad when fruit gets misplaced and goes bad and you have to pitch it to the birds. The birds of course are appreciative, but there’s nothing I hate more than food waste.

Besides giving me a terrible guilt complex, it’s a shameful waste of money! Yes, I’ve been known to pinch pennies until Lincoln’s eyeballs are popping out, and being wasteful is just plain a pet peeve!

So what to do with them? Dinner was already planned. Actual homemade applesauce seemed silly with only 3 apples, our internet was down all day and I had searched about every cookbook I own for ideas and nothing sounded good. So, hours later, that sheet of pastry in the freezer that kept getting shoved to the back was finally looking like a darned good idea!

baked apples 2

Finally an idea hit me…Eureka! Baked stuffed apples!! I re-opened about a dozen cookbooks for a recipe and baking times/temps but couldn’t find a single one! So I stubbornly gave up and decided to just wing-it. I was tired of racking my brain, no internet all day was frustrating enough, and I just wanted my quest to finally be done! Put a plan into some kind of action and finally have fun! 

baked apples 4
So after hollowing out the cores, I just eyeballed the space and figured the brown sugar to a "T". I was determined by now that this was not only going to work, it was going to be perfect and fabulous.  If I messed up coring them…. I'd chop them. If I tore the pastry beyond use…I’d make rustic tarts. The day was going to turn around and I was going to make it happen! 

baked apples 3
And they turned out beautiful! Just like the ones I remembered from when I was a little girl at my Grandma’s house on a hot summer day! The only things missing was some homemade, hand-churned ice cream, and her. And Grandpa, who would whistle soft songs to the birds and toss a few small pieces out to them to enjoy, too.

Sitting on the porch with my Grandparents and my own little perfect “apple pie.”. Such warm, wonderful memories.

I hope these remind you of your fondest childhood memories, too! And don’t forget to pick up, or make, some good vanilla ice cream!

Source: wildflourskitchen

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

April Post / A Knife With A Pearl Handle

If you never had an older brother you may have felt that your life wasn't complete. Well I did and most of the time I wished that I didn't.

When I was little they said my older brother was so proud of me. That anywhere he went he carried me and set me down where I could watch him and his friends play. Everyone said that we were insuperable.

Someone had asked my brother would he take anything for his little brother and he quickly spoke up. No I want swap my little brother for anything. Well as this made my parents proud and it really made my grandmother proud as she told all of her friends and family members the story about my big brother and his little brother.

My Uncle Clifford had heard the story and so he thought that he would see if he could get my big brother to change his mind. So this one day when he came over my mother's mother (Grandma B.) was there and he
asked Oliver (my brother) if he would give him my little brother. He quickly replied, "No." Then Uncle Clifford asked him would he trade him his little brother for something. And again his reply was, "No." My grandmother was smiling all the while knowing he wouldn't trade away his little brother. Then out Uncle upped the ante and said, "Would you trade him for a knife?" and again Oliver said, "No." That's when Uncle Clifford took out the knife and asked him again the second time.  "Would you trade your brother with me for this knife?" That when Oliver asked him, "Does it have two blades." And his reply was, "Not only does it have two blades but it has a Pearl Handle as well." Then my brother said,  "Sure I will trade you even Steven."

Palmer Waters

Monday, March 3, 2014

March Post / Go Fly A Kite

When I was little I loved it when March came around. My grandmother had taught us how to make a kite out of the hollow sticks that we could find in the woods. We would take two sticks one longer that the other and tie them in a cross pattern with cotton twin. We would then take the twin and loop it around the four ends of the sticks making sides for our paper to be glued over for our kites. We would take newspaper and glue it over the strings around the outside of our kites. After it dried we would make a tail out of panty hose or old cloth strips and load up a stick with a large bolt of cotton twine. After hooking the other end to our kite we set out for a large field to fly our kite.

We would fly our kite as high as our strings would go out and we could do this all afternoon. Just before it got dark we would reel it back in rewinding our twine on our stick so that the next day we could do it all over again.

I remember like it was yesterday walking by Harper's 5 & 10 Store and seeing a Box Kite advertised in the window. For a quarter you could buy a ready made box kite and add your own string and fly the all new Box Kite. I quickly got a quarter from my dad so that I could be one of the first in our subdivision to have a box kite to fly. It was a lot harder to get into the air than a regular kite but the pleasure of having a store bought kite made it all the more special.

Palmer Waters

Saturday, February 1, 2014

February Post / Going To Atlanta With My Dad

This was always a "Special Time" each Tuesday during the summer or on school Holidays.

My dad had a grocery store and a Furniture and Appliance Store and he would go to Atlanta each week to buy new stock for the stores.

We would go to the Farmers Market to get bushels and pecks of fresh fruits and vegetables for the grocery store. And we would got to Westinghouse, Norge, Crosley, Hotpoint, Beck and Gregg, Lee Products, and Charles Martin to get furniture and appliances for the Furniture and Appliance Store.

It was always like an adventure whenever we went because dad would make it seem like one. He would get us involved with the trip, that we were looking for items along the route, that we forgot the time it took to get there. We never asked how much farther because we didn't want the trip to end. He would take us along as he made his purchases and we would learn how to negotiate a deal. Or shop for quality over quantity, how to buy the best deals and to look for the latest new thing for our customers.

We would either stop at Zesto's for a huge hamburger or go to Davis Bros. Cafeteria when we went to the Farmers Market. If it was a pretty day and we were eating at Zesto's we would sit under a picnic table around the building. There was a drive thru car wash next to Zesto's and you could watch as the 1950's cars pulled in dirty and soon see them come out sparkling clean and shiny as good looking as new cars all over again. I think that this is when I fell in love with cars.

Whenever we would go to Davis Bros Cafeteria it was "Special" as well. We went through a cafeteria line and got to choose the food that we wanted. It all looked so good and delicious and you wanted to try some of it all but you just picked out what you could eat. When it came to deserts they had some of every pie or cake that you had ever heard of and you got a a scoop of ice cream of your choice with it.

My dad would stack the items onto the truck as high as possible and if he thought that it was going to rain we would cover it with a canvas. But the most fun of all was that he would let us ride on the back home from Atlanta with all of our cargo. You got to sit up high and see in every ones car as you rode by and you felt like you were the "King of the Road."

Palmer Waters

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

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A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
~ Edgar Guest ~

Happy New Year!