Category: In “What Would Granny Say (and Other Somewhat Embellished Memories)
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The Coaster
I started out wanting to write to and about all of you moms and grandmas out there in that it’s May, and Mother’s Day is right around the corner. Now in order to do the subject justice, I felt I needed to get into the role. So I sat down at the keyboard and asked… Read more
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Life In The Brackish Water
It was so hot that you could feel the sweat trickling down your back. If I had been wearing a shirt, it would have been sticking to me, but I was twelve or so and my wardrobe for the summer consisted of a pair of cutoffs and tennis shoes. As I recall I seldom wore… Read more
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The Thanksgiving Conundrum
Since childhood I have pondered the difference between dressing and stuffing. For the past fifty or so Thanksgivings, the subject has crossed my mind. Is it simply a matter of location or are they actually different? Maybe it’s a cultural thing or perhaps it’s a regional thing and semantics are to blame for the confusion.… Read more
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Commercial Christ Child
It was sometime around the beginning of October when I began to notice it; the subtle creeping, commercial Christmas. As I recall, Mary and I had headed up to Franklin, North Carolina to enjoy a couple of days away and to marvel at the fall colors decorating the trees that lined the Blue Ridge Parkway.… Read more
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Marvel
I will never forget my first Christmas as a married man. Mary and I were living in an 8 x 36 foot trailer in Lexington at the time. I had lived in that thing with a cat named Charlie all the way through college, and it was just the right size for the cat. Nonetheless… Read more
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Love, True Love
I have struggled with what I should write this month. I’ve been dealing with one of the nastier bugs that has been making the rounds lately, and I think I may have strained my brain a bit during one of my coughing fits. No matter how hard I try, nothing is springing from that fountain… Read more
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Love Expressed
How is love expressed? Lots of ways, I suppose. My granny had no shortage of ways of showing her love for me: a hug, a kiss on the cheek, teaching me how to bait a hook and hold my mouth just right while fishing, and an old King James Bible given to me at age… Read more
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Those Eyes
I will never forget the expression on her face. I wish I could find a way to describe it. It’s been thirty some odd years now, and I can still see her eyes just as plain as if it was yesterday. Black as onyx, filled with young life and yet haunted somehow. Unforgettable, that’s for… Read more
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The Hunt
Over the years I have had folks ask me: “What in the world made you this way?” I have never been quite sure how I should take that. So in keeping with my mother’s philosophy of life, if the underlying motive for the question is not quite clear, I simply assume that the questioner is… Read more
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The Morning
It was early, sometime between the dark of night and the grayish purple of beginning dawn. A thin veil of silver mist covered the hillside as a few deer ventured out for one last time before bedding down for the day. The mockingbirds were giving over the night to the morning larks, and the stars… Read more