Category: (Family)
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The Venerable Old Cedar
If any of Eden remains, it can be found in the western quadrant of the Smoky Mountains somewhere along the hiking trails that hover above a place that goes by the name of Cades Cove. As a child my family would make the trek up to the Smokies every other year or so, and the… Read more
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The Destination
I keep an old television with a DVD player attached to it down in my workshop to keep me company. As a rule I stick a movie in there or a Hogan’s Heroes, and once in a while, I’ll put an old Andy Griffith in and listen to Barney rant and rave. Well the other… Read more
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Lettin’ it Fly
I awoke to the sound of a blue jay squawking just outside the window, and for once I didn’t mind all that much. Mary and I were down at the beach enjoying a wonderful time of peace and restful slumber, and the sound of the jay seemed right. Later that morning as we walked down… Read more
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Surrender
The first time I ever set foot on an airplane was way back in 1972. My Grandfather Rowell had passed away; and since Dad, with my brother and sister in tow, had driven down earlier, my Mom and I boarded a Southern Airways Martin 404 at the Columbia airport for the trip down to Panama… Read more
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The Weathervane
I can still hear that high pitched screeching as it spun overhead. I was in my Great Aunt Mary’s old general store in Cottondale, Fla. It was a Sunday afternoon in early summer, and Granny and Grandpa and I were visiting family again, like it or not. Aunt Mary was my Grandpa Tharpe’s oldest sister.… Read more
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Give It Up
Some of you might not know this, but from the seventh grade all the way through my senior year in high school, I didn’t live with my parents. Make that, I didn’t sleep in the same place as they did. I slept in a mobile home right next to theirs with my brother, Mike.… Read more
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The Sabbath
I will never forget one blazing hot Sunday afternoon a long time ago, when I wanted a Coca-Cola and I wanted it bad, but Granny didn’t have any. So being the first rate pain I was, I determined to get her to drive down to the store a mile or so away to get me… Read more
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We Ought To Be Committed
My Granny and Grandpa Tharpe were avid Atlanta Braves fans even through the bad years. Make that, especially through the bad years. I will never forget as a child sitting in my Granny’s old house, nestled safe and sound under one of her hand crocheted afghans sitting and watching the Braves lose. Night after night… Read more
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Integrity
I have often talked and written of my Granny and Grandpa Tharpe, my mom’s folks, as I have tried to relate what truths I could from the Word of God. I have mentioned Mom and Dad, as well, and some of the lessons that they taught me that helped produce the man I am today,… Read more
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Broken Pieces
In the early spring of 1999, I disremember the exact date, my brother, sister and I headed down to Panama City, Florida to meet with my father and several other members of the family to say a few words over my Momma and finally lay some of her remains with the remains of her parents,… Read more