Faith, Folklore, and Friends

I love reading Christmas books, and buy them all during the year at my favorite store, Loaves and Fishes, where paperbacks are a quarter and hard covers are fifty cents. I start reading them in early November.  I still have a couple left on my "to be read" stack, but I have managed to read a few. The Twelve Deaths of Christmas is a short mystery which reminded me of the Miss Marple books by Agatha Christie.  There is a murderer loose in a London neighborhood who claims a victim every day as Christmas approaches. It was a little gruesome in places, but a fun read. Christmas Duty is a compilation of four romance novellas set in the military at Christmas time. I am not a fan of romance books and rarely read them, so this one was a little mushy for me. The Christmas Pearl was just delightful and the most surprising.  I have read several of Dorothea Benton Frank's beach books, and love her storytelling skills. The main character is a 93 year old who is try...

These six things doth the  Lord  hate:     yea, seven are an abomination unto                           him:   A proud look, a lying tongue, and      hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked          imaginations, feet that be swift in                   running to mischief,   A false witness that speaketh lies, and  he that soweth discord among brethren. ~Proverbs 6:16-19

Ferguson The camera grabs their anger, flings it all over the world to eyes and ears waiting to join the shindig, to benefit from long-distance pain. Common sense, courtesy, and human kindness are overtaken by cruelty, by vengeance, by a pulsating need to destroy. Burn it down, burn it now. She remembers the dream, the work, the sweat; the long nights with little rest; she watches them go up in flames to satisfy their animalism. The alphabet crowd screams their fury, lashes out at any entity except their own despair.  The idiot commentator goes to commercial. Across town, small children gather to celebrate a birthday, a festival  of life with a Barney theme and alphabet cupcakes with fluffy icing. Fathers have settled in recliners with beer, letting go of rat-race stress, rejoicing over the four-day weekend, and days of football ahead. Mothers gather around the children, watching, as they lament the days of cooking to celebrate Thanksgiving, fam...

A pot of chili is perfect for cold weather suppers.  I make mine in the crock pot, and it takes a little planning ahead.  But once it is made, you can have several meals just by heating it up.  The chili is started the night before we plan to eat it. I start with three cups of dried pinto beans.  You can buy canned chili beans, but all they are is pinto beans with chili powder.  This was is less expensive and you don't have cans to throw away. You can buy chili powder just about anywhere now.  I put 3 heaping tablespoons in the dried beans. I heat 2 quarts of water in the tea kettle until it boils.  It takes the crock pot a long time to heat this much water, and the boiling water just gets the beans to cooking right away.  I usually add additional water before I go to bed, and check them first thing when I get up.  All crock pots are different, so check the beans often and don't let them run out of water. In the m...

Continued from yesterday's blog: 1810 January : *Wanted, dry hides.  William Stewart & Company. *My wife Molly has absented herself from my bed without just cause.  I will not pay her debts.  William Fitzgerald. March : *For sale, dry goods and groceries.  Edward Foster *I wish to forwarn the public against trading or taking assignments against two notes of hand held by Eprhaim Thomas dated August, 1808. I will not pay said notes unless compelled by law.  John Tell *A runaway negro by the name of Jack was committed to the jail of Smith County.  He says he is 22 years old and is the property of Mathew Johnston who lives on Little Harpeth Williamson County.  John Harmon, jailor. In addition to this snippets, there was lots of news about lost and found horses, public sales of land, applying to the government for free land, and the announcements from the post office of letters  that had not been picked up.  I tried to copy the...

Continued from yesterday's blog: July : Died in New York, Thomas Paine. September:  *I was married on the 4th of December to Jemina Burgess, the daughter of Thomas Burgess of Warren County, Tennessee.  After eight months of marriage, I have has [sic] nothing but trouble, distress and uneasiness of mind. I am no longer responsible for debts of her contracting.  Thomas Stuart.  (Have you ever heard such whining?  I'm thinking it wasn't a bed of roses for Jemina, either.) *After a short illness, Thomas Dardis died on Thursday. *Daniel Lambert died in London at the age of 40.  He weighed 739 pounds. *Dr. Charles F. Mabius cured a negro boy who was blind in 1807.  Josiah Howell. December : The copartnership of the blacksmith business is dissolved by mutual consent.  Samuel Evetts and William Williams.  Will all those indebted please come forward. I hope that worked out for Samuel and William.  We will look at 1810 tomorrow. ...

Last Tuesday night was the meeting of our reading group at the library.  It was good, as usual, but the best thing is I was able to come early and poke around in the genealogical section. Y'all know how I love old newspapers, and I found a book called Genealogical Abstracts from Tennessee   Newspapers compiled by Sherida K. Eddlemon in 1989. It contained abstracts from several Tennessee newspapers from 1803-1812, over 200 years ago, or way back yonder, as some would say. From the Carthage Gazette and Friend of the People (don't you love that?) in 1809: January : Mrs Sally Anderson died in the town of Liberty on the 21st. She was the consort of Mathias Anderson of that town. February : *For sale, salt petre. T. Dickson, Miller &Co., Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky. *Young Celah will stand this season at my plantation on Goose Creek.  James Ware. *For sale, Mann's Lick salt.  Basil Shaw. March:  My wife Susannah Waggoner has eloped from my bed...