Come stroll with me
down my memory lane!






Some of my memories are:
~ Flappers, the Charleston, and big band music
~ World Wars I and II
~ going to church in a horse-drawn wagon
~ bread selling for ten cents a loaf
(in later years!)
~ the flu epidemic of 1918
~ Having a Reading class in school
~ Sears and Roebuck's battery operated radio
(after I was married)
~ the Graf Zeppelin flying over our home
in 1927..??

During my 90 year journey through life,
I have lived in several different states.
I grew up in North Carolina,
and have lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia
Melbourne, Florida,
Houston, Texas,
Joplin, Missouri,
and now reside in South Carolina.

I come from a family of eight children;
five boys and three girls.
I'm number three.

In the 1920's, we lived on a farm
near Lilesville, North Carolina.
Daddy always made a large vegetable
garden but the things I miss the most
are the delicious watermelons and
cantaloupes. Ummm!

Our main crops were cotton and corn and
we raised winter wheat to make flour.
Daddy had corn ground into meal
at a local grist mill.


I remember going to revival meetings,
that's what they were called,
at Fall Branch Baptist Church
when I was about nine years old.
We'd leave home about 5 p.m.
in a hay-filled wagon,
pulled by two mules or horses.
It was usually close to midnight
when we'd return and
most of us children would be asleep
on that comfortable hay.

I remember visits from the ice man
who came twice a week.
He'd give us chips of ice
which resulted after he'd chipped,
with his ice pick,
the right size block of ice for Mama.

Uncle Jack had a grocery store
and we all enjoyed visiting there.
One fall he had a neat display in his window.
It was a 25-pound peppermint stick.

Peppermint candy came in a wooden tub.
Peanut butter was sold by the pound
in a pasteboard container.
Pickles were in a barrel.
Red delicious apples sold for
about five cents each.

When I went to school, we memorized lots of poems.
I remember Stevenson's poetry
and thank the lady in England
for helping me to find the words
to My Shadow.

~My Shadow~
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head:
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me.

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an errant sleepy-head
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Another favorite!

~~The Swing.~~

How would you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
ever a child could do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

'Til I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

From a Child's Garden of Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I am happy to say that I have
never outgrown my love of poetry!

~~~ Friends ~~~
Since it has been my lot to find,
At every parting of the road,
The helping hand of comrade kind,
To help me with my heavy load.

And since I have no gold to give,
And love alone must make amends,
My humble prayer is, while I live,
"God make me worthy of my friends."

Author Unknown.

Who Loves A Garden.
Who loves a garden
finds within his soul
life's whole;
he hears the anthem
of the soil
while ingrates toil;
and sees beyond
his little sphere
the waving fronds
of heaven, clear.

by Louise Seymour Jones

I can look out my living room
window and see many different birds
coming to eat at my feeders.
It is a delight to watch them
and hear them chatter and chirp.
I have a nice view of
a rose-colored azalea near the feeders,
and English ivy covering
that side of the house which,
makes a good nesting place for
the house finch and titmouse.
There's a hedgerow of Legustrum
in which reside at least two families
of Cardinals and Mourning Doves.
There is also a resident squirrel
who knows he's a pest to me
for he's always getting a snack
from one of the feeders!

For many years
I painted with oils.
Sunsets and landscapes
were my favorite subjects.
I no longer paint
but my children seem to appreciate
those paintings I did for them.
I took painting lessons in the late 70's at the Houston Heights Woman's Club
in the old section of town
in Houston, Texas.