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Thanks to a writer friend posting his story about dancing at " Fanger", I decided to write my story about dancing in a "juke". Circa 1962, both my parents were gone. My Mama's sister took the responsibility to caution me to, "stay outta them roadhouses". Aunt Cora was firm in her belief that dancing in a roadhouse would be my ruination and her shame to bear. Oh Brer Rabbit ! Aunt Cora's son Doug, same age as me, loved a roadhouse like a possum loves persimmons. Doug ask me and my coworker Shirley if perhaps we wanted to go dance to Chubby...
Remembering the days of playing with June Bugs tied on a string makes me know for sure we Smiths were born with gaps. So, at the ending days of July the figs were ripening full tilt. Mama was making fig preserves full tilt. We were eating figs full tilt like the season would end before sundown. The milk from fig leaves caused us to break out in a rash of hurt. Our tongues got raw from eating. Blisters on arms and legs and around the mouth caused from milk of unripe figs was reason to hang around the water well to wash off some fig rash hurt....
Some people just click with me the moment I first meet them and if they want to be friends they must be real. Let me see who they are right off. I have had a handful of friends in my 79 years that made the cut, I mean really stayed in my heart. Real friends. I called her Annie V. I met her in church when she came over to introduce herself and told me she lived just across the woods from us. Her smile was so pretty. Her teeth were nice and white, her toe nails were painted fire engine red. I don't know why I noticed that, but there it is. I...
I sat down to write something wise and profound, but then decided to write something much needed now in these unsettled times. I awoke this morning to the memory of our old wood burning stove having a heavy oven door that had to be propped with a forked stick to keep the heat controlled for brown biscuits. Daddy finally got the door latch fixed and Mama kept browning our biscuits. Nothing unusual about a stove oven door propped with a forked stick from where I come from. I married Lamar and his Mama propped her sprung Hotpoint oven door with a...
So today I saw a post of Texans washing their prize longhorn in the local car wash. Pros and cons of comments set me to remembering my childhood and how Mama & Daddy saved time and energy by doing things the easiest way possible while letting us enjoy life to the fullest. As the slight cool opening of the hot summer day ahead I remember hearing Mama & Daddy talking in the kitchen as they made breakfast for us. Somewhere in the bluish time of daybreaking, the smell of bacon and sausage frying, the smell of coffee as the old aluminum percolator...
As time takes us into the future, I have been thinking about how we are destroying our future in persuit of perfection I am wondering what effects we are having on the ground water. Let me explain, hopefully some smarter than myself will have a reasonable answer. Big concern is seeing all the enhanced boobs everwhere. When I was a young girl if we noticed a large chested girl, THAT was something to be noticed. Now if a young lady isn't naturally OVERSIZED by high school graduation, some are given a silicone pair by her parents as a gift. Self...
Just now I ate a tomato sandwich for breakfast. I like my WHITE bread so fresh it limps. I LOVE Dukes mayonnaise. I was converted from Kraft by a new recent friend Sean Dietrich. He made it so tempting I went looking, found it and now I'm hooked. Lawd Hammercy! Sorry Kraft.......................... So as I sat smacking away on my breakfast 'samich while my mind idled, it came floating to the top and now I'm writing it. Back when Daddy planted a two acre garden just out our back porch we had tomatoes. Tomatoes not being the only vegetable, but...
TRUE STORY. I have been sorting through old collected things lately and came across these calendar plates. The story behind them has always brought me up short. Not because of the age or the cheap old collectibles, but how they came to me. TB: EARLY 1990's Lamar and I had been to visit with friends in Minnesota and were on our way home traveling in our motorhome when somewhere in Kansas the wind was whipping us off the roadway almost. His shoulders had knots from tense driving on arrow straight...
Daddy and Mama planted a spring/summer garden and a fall/winter garden. The spring garden was my favorite because very early spring gave us English peas, new potatoes, onions and cabbage. Then the squash, tomatoes and early corn came rushing in. The okra pods gave notice of good and plenty. The peas in several varieties came after the heat index ramped up about mid-June, depending on the weather. The field corn was for us, cornbread, course grits and the livestock. "Never get above your rais'ins." I gave the bugs and rabbits competition with...
This is a true story told by my Smith side from back when I was a young child. One of the favorite stories always brought out and shared at our Smith Family gatherings. My Dad was born in 1902 and said he was about the age of ten years. He well remembered this event. I have to believe this happening probably took place circa 1910/12 or there about. Carrie Smith, the oldest Smith child of seven other siblings, was the responsible one that was the so-called leader for the children and usually set the standard for what the others believed and...
I was encouraged to write about this subject from a life-long friend responding to my comment on Facebook about people all over complaining about needing their beach time to "catch some rays." Really? Some people must have quarantine fever. At my little piece of paradise all I have to do is walk outside and look up. There is the sun. Genesis 1: 3-5. Then God said, "Let There Be Light." That light was the sun. I know many folks think the sun will shine at the beaches only, but, the sun hasn't refused to shine over the entire world but once in...
I'm reading books now that I have left in the bookcase untouched for a long time. But now, this quarantine has me reading things that I would not normally bother with; but times have changed and I must kill time with what is handy. This virus has caused good things and bad things. I tend to look on the sunny side of life, so I think good things are heading our way. Stay well Y'all. Anyway, I'm spending my quarantine time reading everything, even mail that usually is trash canned without opening. I read instructions on OTC medicines like...
My earliest memory of dental problems was when I was about seven years old. I was a child of less than nothing as far as money in the bank. If something broke, Daddy fixed it with bailing wire or Mama fixed it with Vicks salve. Grandma Minnie Smith fixed it with a poultice made of road bank clay and vinegar. I had a toothache that gave me a fat jaw on one side. I looked like a half full jawed chipmunk. My tooth throbbed, I cried. Mama held a hot water bottle to my jaw. The swelling went down somewhat. My first-grade picture shows my chipmunk...
Back before fake Easter eggs came in plastic with every color of the rainbow, filled with gumdrops and Cadbury chocolates wrapped in designer tin foil; there lived in my world kids with real problems. Problems that started weeks prior to the Sunday that was spent at church hearing the story about the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Starting in early March, plans were being carried out for this great day by Mama and her Singer sewing machine. She sat foot peddling that miracle of every household filled with lit...
I'm old enough to know what I'm writing about so allow me the pleasure. What say you, old lady? We Crews' have planted and shared garden bounty for almost all our 56 plus years of married life. Our first few years we shared a garden with his side (Crews) of the family because we lived very near to them. My side (Smith) was gone to a better land, enjoying the bounty of whatever is allowed in Heaven. Anyway, except for a short time of early marriage (when we had no place to plant) until the year 2018-19, we made all the vegetables we cared to...
I'm self-quarantined with time on my hands and things on my mind. I was born (1941) just as our country came out of the Great Depression. 1929 to 1939 was the longest and most severe world-wide economic depression ever. The stock market crashed, men lost money that caused such panic that they jumped off tall buildings to end their fear of failure. Their families were left to wonder why fathers and husbands and sons and brothers and uncles and recent millionaires cared so little about anyone else that they chose to end their lives rather than...
Little Miss Jimma Leigh Hawthorne, a Flomaton Elementary 3rd grade student, claims the proud distinction of being the 9th Great Granddaughter of Peter Kelly, Patriot. Peter O'Kelly was born in County Limerick, Ireland in 1751. Leaving Ireland with his family for the New World, Peter landed in Annapolis, Maryland in June of 1766. Peter dropped the "O" from his name to begin a new life in America to be known forever after as Peter Kelly. Peter, age fifteen and an apprenticed cabinet maker to his uncle William, had sailed the ocean with William...
This writer happened onto this story by accident. Let me tell you about a delightful lady in our community that is a singer. A singer of Country Music, a singer of Gospel songs. A voice that will stun anybody that cares to listen. A God given talent.......................... Mrs. Bobbie Roberson Edwards has worked at Brewton Medical Pharmacy for the past forty some odd years. She is as sweet as frosted tea for Sunday Dinner, extra sugar please. Almost too shy to give her incredible story, but...
Today, Theresa and Jerry Bell of Pineview live on a property named Legacy Acres. Located alongside Hwy. 113 between Flomaton and I-65. The farm has an event barn that is considered an agri-tourism business. The Bells live on and farm 200 acres of the original land purchased by Theresa's Great Grandfather Coleman Strength. A deed for a Land Grant was signed to Escambia County pioneer, Henry Morningstar on September 10th, 1873 by Alabama Governor David L. Lewis. Theresa's Great Grandfather, Coleman Strength bought 320 acres of the grant land...
...CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK Tony gave some history about the Powell family that needs to be shared here to understand how the family members lived and worked together during the time of the busy Powell's Café years. Grace employed a lady to help with caring for the children and running the house as she, herself was so involved in the operation of the business. Mrs. Carrie McGill from Pollard was the longtime employee for the Powell's and was like family. Tragically, Mrs. Carrie died in a house f...
Tony Powell, son of Marvin and Grace Powell, shared his history of Powell's Café & Cabins for this story. In 1943, Tony's Dad purchased some land where the first Powell's Café sat. Marvin met Grace when he was working at the shipyard in Mobile during WWII. The two got married and moved to the Flomaton area to build a home and shortly afterward built the first Café. Grace had experience running a Café as she had worked in Mobile at a Greek restaurant for several years. In July 1946 Marvin and...
January has come and gone. This writer has been given another birthday to look forward for rounding towards 80. The CEO of this outfit has gathered 1099 forms like a greedy squirrel. Don't want the IRS coming ‘round here asking questions. "Nawsiree…!" Punxsutawney Phil crawled out to look for his shadow somewhere in a Pennsylvania village and allowed those selfish Yankees to hold him up for the hordes and cameras to see his fat little self mid-slumber. This year Fat Phil blinked, the top hats declared an early Spring, and here we wait. Feb...
Mr. Robert Watts, born Dec. 5, 1883 died Jan. 10, 1965. Buried at Amity Cemetery in Tunnel Springs, Alabama. This writer remembers this man circa 1947-48 when he lived with, and worked for the second time, in the home for the Eric & Lottie Odom family here in Barnett Crossroads Community. The home of Mr. Eric and Mrs. Lottie Johnson Odom had half of their fourteen children still living at home when Mrs. Lottie was again in need of domestic help. Mr. Rob Watts lived in the Odom home where his main duty was washing clothes and helping cook. Rob...
The two Hale brothers Olan age 88 and A.D., age 95 stand in the livingroom of the second Hale Family home located in the McCall community. The Hale brothers said they have named their community " Haleville" . This home, built in the mid 1950s is now uninhibited except for being used for Hale Family gatherings. Hanging on the wall behind the Hale brothers a painting can be seen of their original home. The original home built circa 1936 sat within a few feet of the house seen here where they...
Our time to pick violets was when the first one was found. Sometime around the end of February we started looking for violets. Best places were in the woods that had been controlled or purpose burned over. Usually the burns were done in the first months of each year so as to control the underbrush or have tender grasses for the free-range livestock that was part of our world. Circa 1946/47 the open range laws for livestock put citizen on notice to fence up the cows/hogs/goats etc. The years before, stock ranging about kept our woods trampled...
