Faith, Folklore, and Friends

We have head a lot about To Kill A Mockingbird this year. It is fifty years old now, which is something to be celebrated. I had it on my ‘to read’ list for this year, so when Amy at HopeistheWord.com issued a challenge to read the book in August, I knew it was the perfect time. To Kill a Mockingbird was relatively young when I read it the first time. An assignment in high school lit class; something that had to be done, where the only goal was to get to the end. I enjoyed it then. Now that I’m a little more mature and understand life somewhat better than I did then, I feasted on this fabulous book. TKAM was set in the thirties, but it could have easily have been decades later, since change came slowly then. Harper Lee made it so real, I can imagine the Radleys and the single ladies living in the neighborhood I grew up in. I can easily understand why the book is eternally young, even after it’s fiftieth birthday. The book is full of words that have been quoted extensively. I...

This week’s favorite recipes Bestest Broccoli Salad (from my friend, Shellie, at allthingssouthern.com) Sorry, no photo, because it didn’t last long enough for a photo shoot. 2 cups fresh broccoli 1 cup raisins 1 cup chopped green onions 6 slices bacon, fried and crumbled Dressing: 1 cup mayonnaise with 1 T sugar or honey and 2 tablespoons lemon juice We'll begin by chopping up this head of fresh broccoli into little florets. I’ve already fried and drained six slices of bacon. We're gonna crumble it into our broccoli along with a cup of golden raisins and a cup of chopped green onions. Mix mayo with sugar (can omit) and the lemon juice. Pour over broccoli mixture. Enjoy! Pistachio Fruit Salad I first got hooked on this when Hub’s aunt, the late Mary Evelyn Sharp, brought it to family dinners. Sometimes, its a side, and other times, it dessert. 1 small box pistachio instant pudding mix 1 package miniature marshmallows 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopp...

Right now, there are three storms in the Atlantic. Danielle and Earl may turn north and do little harm, except to the people on ships (remember Perfect Storm ?). Overall, hurricanes can't be trusted, sometimes changing their direction in spite of the Weather Channel's predictions. Having lived most of my life 'on the ridge', away from the ocean, I've never experienced a hurricane personally. I have friends that have. All of them, 100%, say they will evacuate from now on. Here's some books to go along with hurricane season. This is a sweet story of four women caught in a hurricane at Paradise Resort in the Bahamas. The four women are totally different, and you will be rooting for all of them by the end of the book. Loved it! My favorite author, James Lee Burke, wrote Ti n Roof Blowdown after Katrina destroyed New Orleans. It is fiction, but you will learn a lot about things that never made the nightly news. Starting a JLB book is a commitment for me, because I ...

Sunday dinners used to be the big meal of the week. Family and friends gathered after church to dine and talk about what happened last week and what they are expecting tomorrow and the next day. This doesn't happen much anymore. Maybe it is because we are too busy to sit down for two hours at a time. Maybe it is because there is a scarcity of people who can find the time to prepare a big meal before time for church (Hooray for crockpots!). Yesterday, Hub and I ate alone. I was out of town Friday night, so Hub treated our granddaughters to barbecue ribs. We had the leftovers yesterday. Then, we had brownies from Logans, left over from my Friday night supper. It was all very good, but I miss the big family dinners. While we were enjoying our leftovers, there was another feast happening in the back yard. So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or "What shall we wear?'....your Heavenly Father know that you need them. But seek fi...

Mosquito bites. Wasps and yellow jackets stings. Gnats buzzing in your face until you get tired of fighting them and retreat. All are as much a part of summer as 90 degree days and beach vacations. Perhaps it is summer’s attempt to balance the many good things, like fresh vegetables, beautiful flowers, swimming pools, and lazy days with a little evil just to keep us humble. Thankfully, we have medicine now readily available to combat stings, soft mist sprayed on the skin for instant, cool relief. This was not always so. In the summers of my youth, we used whatever was handy. One of the most often used remedies was snuff, probably because it was always available. Both my grandmothers kept their mouths packed all the time, so they would use the tip of their finger to get a little spittle, or snuff juice, and dab it on the bitten spot. Sometimes, before darkness drove us inside, we would have white/brown polka-dotted legs. It must have helped, at least temporarily, because we kept doing ...

Ocean saw you in action, God, saw you and trembled with fear; Deep Ocean was scared to death. Clouds belched buckets of rain, Sky exploded with thunder your arrows flashing this way and that. From Whirlwind came your thundering voice, Lightning exposed the world Earth reeled and rocked. You strode right through Ocean, walked straight through roaring Ocean, but nobody saw you come and go. Hidden in the hands of Moses and Aaron, You led your people like a flock of sheep. Psalm77.16-20

Morning Glories may be the flower I have known and loved the longest. My maternal grandmother, Mrs. Georgia Gean, was a great lover of morning glories. She lived in a little four-room house that had been converted from an old church/school house. The front porch, with boards for the floor and tin on the roof, was built across the front of the house, which faced directly west. Grandma had dug up beds running parallel with the porch, on each side of the front door. Each spring, she would plant these beds with morning glory seed she ordered from a seed catalog. Long before the little plants were ready to send out tendrils, she built a trellis for them to climb on. Grandma knew what days in early spring would yield the highest sap, and that is when we would go to collect young hickory trees. Gathering her grandchildren and her chopping ax, she would head to the woods to cut down hickory saplings that were bursting with sap. We would haul them home under our arms, even the smalles...