Doggone Accents…or What’s in a name…

I have always been fascinated with the Deep South and the War between the States. I have read many novels and history books about this period of time. So it wasn’t any mystery why I have loved the movie “Gone With the Wind” with Clark Gable and…

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Elly, A Gift Horse

Elly, A Gift Horse

We always had horses. There was old Joe when I was very small. My Dad always called them “Hay Burners.” We had a variety when I was growing up. As they say there are a thousand tales and this is just one of them. This gift horse was called Elly. She was an orphan. We got her from the Great Northern Railroad. They used to ship horses, cows, pigs, and sheep by stock cars. Elly was with her mother and apparently the mare died in shipment. The Railroad official gave Elly to my Dad and we bottle fed her as she was still a small foal. She grew up without a mother to show her right from...

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With Grace and Peace

With Grace and Peace

Some people handle sickness and disease with such grace and peace, it is amazing. Two people come to mind. My own mother who handled TB and osteoporosis so gracefully. The second was my mother-in-law Rosemary C. who had M.S. for years. When I first met her she was still able to do the household chores and the cooking. She had just quit driving as the disease had made her feet numb and she couldn’t feel the brake or the accelerator any more. As the years went by the M.S. progressed and she gradually went down hill. She went from a mother of four and doing all the things mothers do to...

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“Make Do” or “Do Without”

“Make Do” or “Do Without”

I am a true child of my parents. The were both around 42 years old when I was born. They had lived through the 1930’s, the “Dirty Thirty’s”. They had seen some really tough times so they always “Made Do”, which meant they used things up, didn’t throw things away and were the opposite of wasteful. They watched their money like a hawk and “Did Without”, which meant they didn’t run and buy everything just because their neighbors did. They did not try to keep up with the “Jones’s”. My Dad told about the first time he...

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Old Work Horst named Bill

Old Work Horst named Bill

My Dad always made light of his name, he said Bill was a good name for an old Work Horst. Not a horse mind you but a work Horst. If you tried to correct him on the pronunciation he would just ignore you. He said he should have been born with a set of Tugs and a Horse collar on his neck and to fit his image of himself. I am not surprised that he felt that way as his Dad my Grandpa left when Dad was 5 years old and till Grandma married again my Dad felt like he had to be the man of the family. He worked around Gildford doing many odd jobs to earn money to help Grandma. At 14 years old he hired...

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