Category: In “What Would Granny Say (and Other Somewhat Embellished Memories)
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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