The Hundred Year Old Barn

The Hundred Year Old Barn A Fable By Blanche Day Manos The hundred year-old barn was home to a cow, a rooster, some hens, and a mule who pulled a plow. The days they spent in working; each one did his best, and when the sun sank from the sky, the animals needed rest. But, […]

A Winter Morning

It’s cold this morning, but not as cold as one year ago when the temperature was a shivery two degrees! The winter birds are enjoying the squirrel-proof feeder and I enjoy watching them enjoy it! Juncos, chickadees, finches, and cardinals–they need the oil in the black sunflower seeds, especially in this weather. Last night, the […]

Layer upon Layer

In the early morning of April 1895, a fire broke out in a livery stable in downtown Tahlequah. Before the blaze was extinguished, it destroyed much of the town: dry goods stores, grocery store, church, residences. The fire happened long ago, is a part of history, and many people have forgotten but in the restoration […]

I Firmly Resolve…

I firmly resolve and forswear to work hard at sharpening my writing skills by never, ever writing run-on sentences unless they are called for by content of the story or one of the characters steps up and says he is going to say thus and so causing the sentence to become first a paragraph, then […]

Taking Hope

A new year is waiting to make its appearance tomorrow. As we look at 2025, I think an important word is “hope.” We all hope for a better year in every aspect of life. Here in the South, we can’t start the New Year without those all-important black-eyed peas.  That particular practice goes back to […]

The January Thaw

The January Thaw

In the days when my grandparents, Levi and Edna Latty, were on their farm at Etta, my grandfather waited for the January thaw, those few January days when winter paused to take a deep breath and remember that spring would soon be on its way. During the January thaw, Pappy would hitch his team of […]