Front Porch Stories

The other day when I was in WalMart I checked out behind a young woman with a small child.  He had his bottle and in making small talk she said that the doctor wanted her to get him off the bottle. He, however didn't want any part of a cup.  I told her not to worry, he would get rid of the bottle with a little time.  He was just tiny!  It brought back memories of my oldest son.  When I was trying to wean him, I told him a big red dog had gotten his bottle.  It seemed to work.  I soon found out that something was up at his grandma's house.  She kept him while I worked, and one afternoon when I came to pick him up I busted them! As I opened the door, he was throwing his bottle into the drawer on the bottom of the stove.  All I could do was laugh!  They were both so cute, I couldn't get mad.  I love my mom and all my kids!

Last year, our granddaughter went to the cabin in the mountains with us. What a great time we had! She and I played in the creek behind the house, the water was so cold, but we had a blast!  The cabin borders the National Forest and there are a lot of critters come through there.  Our friend gave up on putting up bird feeders because the bears tear them up, so she feeds her birds and squirrels on a big ole stump. Sometimes a bear will come by to see if there are any sunflower seeds out.  There was just a few left from the birds and this one bear just couldn't leave the stump alone.  We named him Sunflower.  We also saw a young bear that looked as though he had been caught in a steel trap.  We named her Pitiful, because she was skinny and her front paw was almost cut off.  I saw her yesterday, her leg was healed and she looked healthier. She seemed to be getting around pretty good.  I even saw a coyote easing across the ridge line.

I got a call tonight from my seven year old granddaughter. She wanted to tell me that Rusty had died. Rusty, was a Bull Mastiff that my son has had since she was born. He was a big dog, but he was her big boy. She is just barely taller than him. He loved her and was very protective over her. She said he died because of the heat and old age. My son said, that he and the kids were working on getting a grave dug and that the kids seemed to understand. Dogs become like family and losing one can be tough on a family. A long time ago my son had a rottweiler named Duggen. The two of them were so bonded that when Duggen died it took my son a very long time before he ever even wanted to pet another dog. I think Rusty kinda took Duggens place. Say a little prayer for Rusty, and the family he left behind.

what this country would be like if this administration gets its way? Do you ever wonder what you would do if the government controlled your every move? What would you do if the government controlled what you ate? Where you lived, who you lived with, and how many children you could have?  What would you do if the government could tell you how to dress, how much make-up you could wear? What will you do when they tell you that your child or your parent can't have a life saving surgery because the recovery odds are not good enough to warrant the expense?  Well get used to it, it's coming!!

I can remember when I was a little girl, we always had chickens. Chickens who aren't raised in a heated chicken house, won't normally lay eggs during the winter. When spring and warm weather would come, and the hens started laying eggs my Mom always put back a setting of eggs. When a hen would start sitting on a nest all day, we would put all the eggs mama had saved under the hen. Twenty-one days later there are little baby chickens!! Even when I was a kid, I enjoyed watching the hen scratch around for bugs. When she would find some she would cluck and call the babies and they were such fun to watch. As the little ones grew up they would get what mama called fryer size! That meant ready to eat!!! Daddy would say he wanted chicken for breakfast and he and I would go to the chicken pen. We would look at each one and see which one was just the right size for eating. It was a breakfast fit for a king! Mama would fry the chicken, make gravy and biscuits, and sometimes we w

When I sit down to write, I try to think of stories that were either funny or something that played a role in our lives. I'm not quite sure why a lot of them revolve around snakes. Some folks like snakes and even keep them for pets. My oldest even had a couple after he moved away from home. My theory is that the only good snake is a dead one. I know, but that's just the way I feel. Anyway, until I started writing this, I didn't realize how many snake stories were linked to my family. Here's another one! My Mom and Dad had bought an old farm house in Alabama. At that time we all lived in Georgia. One weekend, my parents, my aunt and uncle, myself and my oldest who was a baby at the time went to Alabama to clean the place up. It was hot, so I sat the play pen up on the porch, my mom was in the kitchen working, my aunt was in the back bedroom, and my dad and uncle were outside. I was sweeping the living room when my aunt started screaming, as I entered the hallw

my front porch, I think about how lucky I am. I have a good husband, three wonderful children and seven marvelous grandchildren. Pop managed his finances well, so that we could retire without having to worry about anything. The sounds of the birds during the day are not over shadowed with the blast of sirens, or bombs. The night sounds of jar flies and crickets are not smothered with sounds of night raids, or angry mobs. My cabinets are full, I don't have to worry where our next meal will come from. With all the medication that pop takes we don't have to worry about whether we are going to eat or buy his medicine. There are lots of folks right here in the United States that have to make the choice between medicine and food. My daughter-in-law will leave soon for Iraq. The sounds she will hear and the things she will see, will change her life forever. The sounds of war sleep in your mind forever! There are still nights when pop and I are sitting on the porch that he

When you go in a store and look for a gallon of milk there are so many choices! What happen to just a jug of milk? Did you ever think that when you take all of the nutrients out that you are destroying the healthy stuff that God put in there? Now everyone wants to go organic! That means leaving it like nature made it. I can remember when I was growing up, we moved to the city when I was thirteen. We had to start drinking store bought milk, YUCK! Tasted like snow water. I would still get to go to my sisters during the summer and her neighbor had cows. I would run from my sisters to her neighbors and she would see me coming and would pour me a class of milk and she always had cookies. We would laugh about store bought milk, and how she loved to share cookies and milk with a hungry little girl. How things have changed! Most of us don't even know our neighbors, even if we live in an apartment complex. How many of today's kids can even milk a cow, or even know how to start,

You know it's hard on children to move every time the wind blows. I remember when I was a kid it seemed we moved almost every Christmas. That would be when daddy's agreement to farm would be over for the year. I also remember when my oldest son started to school one year my ex-husband moved us six times in one year! After I divorce him, we stayed in one place for over twenty years. Now I watch as he is adamant, that even though he and his daughter's mom are divorced, that she stay in the same school. He drives her to and from school on the days she is with him. That drive is a 50 mile round trip! That's how much he loves his girl. My daughter seems to be one of those who can't get in one place and be happy. She has moved her kids every time they get settled in. Please if you move every time the rent is due, think about what you are doing to your children!

I have always like to take pictures. I got it from my mom. Back in Mama's day if you wanted something you usually got it from the peddler. You traded him stuff like eggs or butter for flour or tea or other things like cloth or maybe even a camera. After she and daddy got married she wanted a camera, so she worked in the field and traded two dozen eggs and three dollars for first camera. I still have some of her pictures and enjoy sitting down and looking through them. I have this love of photographing flowers, butterflies and around here lizards are another of my subjects. My husband says I take my best pictures with my cell phone because I always have it with me. I love the rain drops and the grasshopper on this picture. I got a two for one! I've been trying to get a good clear picture of my hummingbirds, but the shutter speed on the cell phone isn't fast enough. Thank you for stopping by my blog.

another topic for front porch discussions. I can remember that on Sunday's we didn't work like we did the rest of the week. We did our regular chores like, milking the cow, feeding the chickens and that sort of stuff. Mama always made a bigger breakfast, and an out of this world dinner/supper. We usually ate around 3pm, then ate off that til bedtime. Daddy didn't go to church with us, but he always took us if we wanted to go. He was an honest God fearing man, but he couldn't read and he couldn't follow them in the Bible, so he wouldn't go. I'll never forget when I was baptized. We had moved to Georgia and I was going to church with one of our neighbors. My daddy never wore a suite unless he had too. The church had a baptism pool and my dad wanted to be there. I told him I wanted him to come and to wear his overalls. But when they led us into the pool there was my dad with his suit on sitting in the front row. That's because that's what dads

my youngest grandson's birthday. He is one year old today! They live near Nashville which is a twelve hour drive from here. Therefor I did not get to see him celebrate his birthday. His Mom didn't get to share his birthday either. You see his Mom is in the Navy and she is training in South Carolina getting ready to go to Iraq. We knew this day would come, but it doesn't make it any easier. My son and his boys are going to miss her while she's gone, but we are very proud of her. She was already in the service when she met my son and grandson, and the three of them fell in love. Please keep them all in you prayers. She is not the only daughter or son, mom or dad, sister or brother who will not be home for birthdays or holidays. My family thanks each and everyone of you for putting your life on the line so that we in this country can have the freedoms that we have. You and your families are in our prayers.

politics and trying to solve the problems of the world is the topic on most folks mind right now. Our economy is on a slippery slop and it seems that this administration has chosen to focus on everything but the economy and how to regain all the jobs that were lost. We now have a real disaster on our hands, and the actions and inaction are what everyone here in the south is talking about. The Southern States have been accused of every Racial problem that has come along. Now with the Coast Line of most of the Southern States facing the worst oil disaster ever we are being forgotten. It's as if the President doesn't care what happens to this part of our country. I think he would like to the the South ruined. He is more of a raciest than any southerner that I know. We are a proud people, proud of our heritage, proud of our country, proud to live in the south. Ninety-five percent of us could care less what the color of your skin is as long as you are an honest, hard working, produc

I love to sing but I'm not very good at it. I used to sing to the kids when they were little, one of my favorites was Me and Bobby Mcgee. When they were little they would ask me to sing, now they ask me not too. Ahh but that is part of being a parent. The kids and I used to make up our own songs and we had a really good time. Now it makes my heart happy to hear my son and his little girl make up songs. Sometimes they make up songs about my daughter-in-law just to make aggravate her. She loves them! Then there is Pop. He and the granddaughter got started singing each other Jingle Bells several years ago, now it has become a game to see who can surprise the other on the phone and sing Jingle Bells first. They have a great time doing it and it will be a memory that she will have forever.

Squealer, was a pig. I'm sure you know the Charlotte's Web Story. Well this is kinda like that, but a real little pig, and a real little girl. As I've said before we were share croppers when I was young. When we lived on this particular farm, not only did daddy work the fields, but we took care of some cattle and hogs. The weather was cold and daddy and the other man was at the barn because there was a litter of piglets being born. I begged daddy to let me go too. There was one that was way too little and they were going to kill it! They didn't think it would make it. I begged daddy to let me keep it, I made all kind of promises to take care of it, his friend said, ahh Less, it won't hurt anything, let her keep it. I though I had a treasure! Mama helped me fix a little box and we hung a light bulb over the box to keep him warm. We feed him and he grew and grew. He thought he was a dog, he followed me everywhere! Then daddy said he had to stay in a pen at the barn. H

been my Mom's 94th birthday. There are times that I really miss her. She was not just my Mom, she was my best friend. I could write for hours about her. She worked hard all her life. She grew up on a farm, one of nine children. The way my Dad got her attention was he threw potato peelings in the window of the church so that she would talk to him on the way out. They were married for 42 years before my Dad died. They were share croppers most of the time. Mama used to say that by the time she got a tenant house fit to live in we would move again. I remember one place that was so grown up that mama wouldn't let us go outside. I've watched her throw a 50 lb bag of fertilizer over her shoulder and carry it across the field to daddy. She could build anything she set her mind to, and sew! She could look at a dress or shirt and take an old newspaper and cut out her own pattern. She made all of my daughter's skate costumes. She would watch them ice skate and copy their costumes