Category: (Family)
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Drifting With Granny
I will never forget the late summer afternoon when my crazy Granny Tharpe proved that she was ahead of her time by having the top part of her left ear pierced. You know, just like all of the young folks do today. Only Granny did it way back in the mid-sixties long before it was… Read more
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Grandpa and the Blues Harp
I can’t recall the exact date. The best I can figure, it must have been somewhere around the middle of June back in 1967 or there abouts. I was eight years old at the time, spending the summer months with Granny and Grandpa Tharpe. As I recall it was a pretty morning. The sky was… Read more
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Great Uncle Wilkie’s Light
Let me tell you a bit about my Great Uncle Wilkie. First and foremost though, let me make it clear that he was my great uncle by marriage. If I was blood kin to him, I would never admit it for fear of being banned from proper society. Uncle Wilkie was indeed one of the… Read more
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Having A Smoke With Momma
When I was thirteen years of age, the Rowell clan lived in a couple of single wide mobile homes way out in the woods a few miles outside of Lexington. The older trailer house was for my brother Mike and me, and the newer trailer was for mom and dad and my little sister, Janie.… Read more
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Dear Mom
It has been over twenty five years now since you left us. It seems like yesterday. I remember the last time I saw those emerald green eyes of yours looking into mine. As you drifted off into your final sleep, I hugged you and while looking in those eyes that had watched over me for… Read more
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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