Memory Lane....(part 3)

In part two I spoke of daddy coon hunting and drying the hides to sell.Last night I remembered something a little funny about it. It seemed that the actress Doris Day was an animal rights activist and was in the news a lot and somehow daddy heard about it.Well he was furious and called that woman everything under the sun,saying how she should stay in Hollywood and mind her own business.Years later when the family did purchase a television set daddy refused to allow anyone to watch anything with Doris Day in it.I started out talking about my ole home town and got off on talking of my dad.I guess that's because he was such a major part of my life and I had such love and respect for him.He was a good dad and did everything to see that his family was taken care of and we always knew he loved us.Daddy never spanked me and back then spanking was allowed.He didn't have to spank me because if he talked to me about what I had done wrong,it hurt my feeling terribly and I'd cry as if I had been spanked.
When I think of my childhood I always feel a warmth in my heart and a smile comes to my face.I feel I was blessed to have been born into my family.

Memory Lane (part 2)

Once darkness came we would go inside and since we did not have a television,we would sit and listen as daddy and what other relative might be visiting talked.We would hear stories of the big fish that got away,the eight point deer,the ole hound baying at a coon during a hunt or maybe one of daddy's stories of his childhood.Some nights while listening to the stories we would get to watch as daddy stretched coon hides.He would take sticks he had stripped the bark from and sharpened the ends and he would weave the sticks through the holes in the hide making the hide square.Once he was done he would stand the stretched hides in a corner of the room and leave them until they dried.Later he would load them up and take them to sell to be able to pay the rent,electric bill,buy grocery or whatever was needed at the time.Since daddy worked in the log woods and work was slow in the winter months,the hides were sometimes his only income.Though things were tough at times, we never went to bed hungry or without the necessities of life.

Memory Lane....(part 1.)

Sunday my sister and I took a road trip to our ole home town,on the way to the cemetery where our mom and dad are buried.The town looks nothing like it did back in the day,it's all run down,most of the stores are closed and it just looked sad. When I was growing up the town seemed so abounding with life.As we drove toward the cemetery we passed one of the places I once stood to wait on the school bus each day.The old house that had once stood with bushes all grown up around it,had fell from age.There use to be a pink primrose bush in the yard and I would pick roses to take to school.I remember standing there on winter mornings,shivering from the cold wishing the bus would hurry to pick us up.Then there were the rainy mornings we all sit cramped in the cab of daddy's pickup waiting for the school bus.The afternoons were the best,that was when the bus stopped and we got off and walked,ran or skipped up the dirt road home.We would walk into a home filled with the wonderful smells of mama cooking supper.We would drop our school books and run to change clothes so we could go outside and play hop-scotch or tag until mama called us to come eat.I can still remember the feel of the smooth sand of the driveway under my feet and between my toes.We were always barefoot when at home during the warm months and had our share of splinters in our often dirty feet.

Yet Another One...

Yesterday we got the news that Jim's daughter was killed while riding her motorcycle in Utah,it seems someone ran a red light and hit her. She was the mother of two and her dad's heart.Oddly Jim and I had spent yesterday out riding too.We rode to Hot Springs,and sat on a bench downtown watching motorcycles from the big rally go by and even talked to his daughter several times by phone and sent her a picture of one bike there.It seems that as Jim and I got caught in a rain storm on our way back to Little Rock,his daughter was losing her life.It's so very sad and I can only imagine the heartache and pray the Lord I never actually know it! It just never seems right when parents out live their children.
It's very dangerous riding motorcycles because other drivers don't watch for them.People see a motorcycle coming yet they will pull right out in front of it.
My sister and brother-in-law have been on my case to get me to stop riding,they fear for my life. But do we really stop enjoying things in life and stay locked away to be safe,or live our lives and hope for the best?
Kathy died doing what she loved,riding her bike....

Lost a friend...

Yesterday I attended my first cremation memorial service. A friend that rode motorcycles with all of us died of a sudden heart attack two weeks ago. They had to wait for family to come home from abroad to have his service. Bill would have turned 69 on July 28,2007. I had only known him a little over three months but had come to think a lot of him.He was a real talker and never met a stranger he couldn't start a conversation with about something.It seems when you start getting older more people close to you die, or is it that when you're younger you just don't notice as much? I've had enough death for the year, but it does make you stop and think about the really important people in your life.We all need to be sure and tell those we love how we feel about them every chance we get, because each day, each minute or second could be our or their last.So if you're reading this and you are a member of my family or a friend, know that I love you and I'm thankful you are in my life.