My nine-year-old daughter called me at work one weeknight asking permission to sleepover with a friend. The question was a formality, since she knew the answer. No week night sleepovers. I hadn’t met or spoken to parent. A doctor was listening when I got message my daughter called. He could only hear my end of conversation. After her request for permission, I merely said, “No, her mother is a child molester and her father is a murderer.” I hung up and went back to work. “What the Hell was that?” He asked. “Oh, my daughter wanted to sleepover at the neighbor’s”. He spewed coffee on his chart
kids
Happiness! The Count is Coming to Town!
On the subject of happiness, some days start routinely no expectation of stumbling into pure joy. One of my precious children, who shall remain forever nameless, experienced that life-changing thrill when they while searching frantically for an item to take to their class for a current events assignment on March 5, 1985 when this golden picture was printed in the local paper. I expect neither the paper nor the proofreader were quite so happy.
God is good!
“Don’t She Look Natural!”
This is an excerpt from Kathleen’s Memoirs of the 1930’s, my book in progress. Kathleen grew up in rural East Texas in the 1930’s during the height of The Great Depression.
The events surrounding Aunt Ellie’s death were a thrilling event for me since we hadn’t invested too much affection in each other. The wake was unforgettable with all its glorious food: fried chicken, peach cobbler, deviled eggs, bread ‘n butter pickles, dainties not seen outside “dinner on the grounds.” Sprinkled with carbolic acid, Aunt Ellie lay in a pine box Continue reading
Hellion Envy
Froggy had it all. His parents had the wisdom not to interfere in his life. He played whenever and wherever he wanted, went to school when he pleased and never got held back. Wonder of wonder, his Granny Bounds had a store bus chock full of marvelous goodies. When she showed up, we ripped through the house, ferreting out pennies and a Continue reading
God, Don’t Let Bessie Die! (1930s Memoir)
Daddy came in to supper, worried to death. Bessie, our cow had had a calf and had “got down.” This was a catastrophe. “Getting down” meant certain death for the cow and a disaster for us. “Oh, Lord! What in the world will we do? We’ve got to have milk for the kids. And we’ll lose the calf, too.” Mama was calm, not panicking, so, I knew this was Continue reading
Let ’em Get Their Own Damned Cheesecake!
A simple comment can say so much. For instance, I overheard a comment from my seventeen-year-old son that cleared things up for me far more than hours of counseling ever could have. He was trying to enlist his sister in some planned mayhem, probably because he had no money for gasoline, and she replied, “Now, Mom and Dad aren’t going to be happy when they find this out.” Continue reading
Rubbernecking
Though they were not actually deranged, they might have been described as teetering somewhere between pleasantly eccentric and moderately maddening, depending on whether you met them just met them socially or had to interact with them on a regular basis. Both held Master’s Degrees, Cookie’s in Education and Uncle Riley’s in Mathmetics. Cookie was head of a large public school system in Texas and Uncle Riley Continue reading
Aunt Bonnie
I knew Aunt Bonnie before I knew myself. Long before I was four years old, Uncle Edward and Aunt Bonnie parked their tiny, green and white egg shaped trailer home in the shade of the sweetgum tree in our side yard while he worked a construction job in the area. In the days before Continue reading
Pot Rack and the Turkey From Hell
Daddy was a nut about poultry. He made regular patrols within the local area, and if he detected poultry not in his collection, he couldn’t rest until he had one-upped whomever had put him in a “fowl mood. His enthusiasm didn’t last long enough to build a proper poultry yard, so the coyotes inevitably got whichever of the unfortunate fowl didn’t roost in Continue reading
Nutsrok 