The Ozarks Mountaineer was a wonderful magazine that, sadly, ceased publishing a few years ago. My piece about my grandmother’s quilts found a home in that magazine in December 1998. This was a story as my mother told it to me. Today’s post is excerpted from that story. Quilting is an ancient craft which still […]
May 20, 2024
Culture and Traditions
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One by one, we abandon traditions, leaving the past behind. It’s sad, because, although we shouldn’t live in the past, we need a sense of continuity. There is something comforting about following patterns, about observing practices that have been carried down through generations. It gives me a connection to my ancestors. Decoration Day, always the […]
Apr 12, 2024
A Country Life
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Today would have been my mother, Susie Latty Day’s, birthday. She was born in 1906. I’m grateful she told me some stories of her childhood because it was a way of life that is now gone from the American scene and will never return. But,even though this way of life is gone, it’s important to […]
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 […]
Apr 8, 2023
The Easter Egg Tree
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The following story is an excerpt from The Heritage of Etta Bend, a story my mother told me about her childhood in northeast Oklahoma. The “I” is my mother, Susie Latty Day. Mom told me this story and I wrote it to be included in The Heritage of Etta Bend in 1989. It was spring, […]
Mar 28, 2023
My Grandfather’s Barn
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My Grandfather’s Barn My grandfather’s barn leans to the south, The weathered old logs 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, […]
