My Grandfather’s Barn My grandfather’s barn leans to the south. The weathered old boards are gray. The tin roof is rusted and dented and busted; The wind blew the doors away. But once that barn, filled with freshly-mown hay Was a dark, sweet-smelling retreat. The straw in the loft was wonderfully soft; A hideaway, cool […]
Aug 21, 2023
Head of the Family
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His hat hangs on a peg in my hallway. It’s not the Stetson he wore on special occasions. This one has sweat marks, and a small spot of oil. It’s the one he wore every day as he mowed lawns, drove to the sale barn, or any time he went out the door. He never […]
Jul 17, 2023
The New Old Quilt
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It’s a bright little quilt top. It doesn’t look as if it’s several decades old, and it has a story–a history. Many years ago, when I was just a young girl, I started this quilt for my sister’s new baby–a little boy. I wanted to hand stitch it so he’d know his Aunt Blanche had […]
Jul 15, 2023
A Look Through Their Glasses
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My sister-in-law Linda and I found some old glasses in their case when we were cleaning out Mom and Dad’s storage room. I know two things about them: they are old and I like them a lot. They did not belong to my parents and I’m guessing some previous owner of the house and storage […]
Jul 14, 2023
St. Swithin
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For the past two mornings, thunder roused me out of sleep. Rain! It’s wonderful to have rain in July. St. Swithin’s Day is tomorrow. What does an ancient saint have to do with the weather? His is an intriguing story, if you’d like to look him up. It has to do with rain and July. […]
Jul 7, 2023
A Land of Many Springs
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My mother was born in 1906. She had many memories of Cherokee County, the way it was when she was a child. One of the things she remembered was the abundance of fresh, clean water. These are her words, her story as she told it to me: Green country used to be a land of […]
