Next on my list

What the whole wide world needs is a couple of fried spam sandwiches.Add your choice of mustard or mayo on white loaf bread add some tater chips and most of the world would be happy and at peace.

This world peace stuff is easy to figure out.Politicians,Kings and Queens can't seem to do it so why not a few fried spam sandwiches.

Works for me.Never have I caused injury or insult to anyone while eating a spam sandwich.My hands are busy stuffing my face and the thought of World War never enters my mind.

Now that I fixed world peace what should be next on my list?

The pond kept us seperated

The mill pond kept us separated.Talking about East Newnan,Georgia.It was a mill village where my formative years where spent.

Moved there in 1962 when I was 10 years old.Most of you have heard of being from the wrong side of the railroad tracks but here it was which side of the mill pond you lived that decided a lot of things.

For some reason the two sides didn't
 socialize much.We all went to the same little school and where friends but that is where it all stopped.

Side I lived on wasn't that great but compared to the other side we where doing good.The other side was Elvis with black leather jackets and combed back slick hair.I lived on the Beatles side of the pond where long hair was common.

Why things where that way  I don't know.Everyone's folks worked in the same cotton mill and as mentioned all the kids went to the same school.

All the kids fished in that pond.Couple of the brave ones even swam in it.Loaded with cotton mouths and trash didn't stop anyone.

This is a picture of me and my folks when we lived there,sometime in the 60's shows the mill smokestack in the background.On summer nights with my bedroom window open I could hear the soft rumble of the mill machinery running and the hypnotizing sound of crickets and bull frogs down at the pond.

Yes that mill pond kept us separated but in a way made sure we where all connected in a strange way.

Just a sign

Looked at my hands
What did I see
Broken up lines
Just a sign I've been here long time

Around my eyes
I did noticed
Crows feet
Just a sign life not got me beat

My hair thin and gray
Say what you want it's ok
Just not that vain
Just a sign my heart can stand the pain

Love not needed

Love not needed
Money either
Just give me a plate of this
My life be pure bliss

Black eyed peas
Collard greens
Big slice of cornbread
You know what I mean

Glass of sweet iced tea
White rice on the side
Homegrown tomato
What a meal should be

Eat what you can

2012 coming to an end
New Year here soon
Hope your best year ever
For you no gloom and doom

Yes we are getting older
But as they say
We are getting better
Even if a slouch in our shoulders

So on New Years day
Do this old custom
Collards and black eye peas we have
Maybe some potato salad just a dab

Cornbread and pot liker
Please save me some
Banana pudding would be great
Eat what you can rest I'll take

Deviled eggs I like
Make a dozen or so
All that fancy food
Is just a no no

Down home cooking
What we need
Like our Momma's made
Make enough all us you feed

Don't need turkey
No more ham
What I want
Is some fried spam

Safe and happy
2013
All that I did eat
Now time for my nappy

That little 4 letter word

That little 4 letter word.Secretly we all want it,to hear it spoken.Even the most upright citizen you know thinks about it I bet.You do and so do I.

It makes us happy in our heart.The old folks still remember it and wish for it.

Have you guessed that word yet? What do you think it is? Think hard.You can do it.

The reason I got on this subject I heard someone mention it this morning.It does happen every so often.Just hearing that word brightened up my day.

Have you guessed the word yet? Give in?Well so I don't have to drag this out all day that word is....







SNOW

$10 salads

WooHoo.Salad day for me.Supper time come on and get here quick.That's the way I keep up with the days of the week by the food I eat.

Now these are those $10 salads I call them.Once in my life I had the pleasure of eating a $10 salad at O'Charleys.It was loaded.Fried chicken fingers,onions,two types of lettuce,pecans,oranges and something I never had before.Crumbled up blue cheese.I fell in love with that blue cheese.

Few years ago  a local hamburger joint had a special on blue cheese burgers.I tried one and was disappointed to put it mildly.Maybe they used a different blue cheese than that salad had.

My mouth waters thinking of that salad.But the one for supper will be just as good I know.Maybe I should go on a diet of salad everyday because I'm putting on pounds easy now in my old age.

Naw! Not going to that extreme.I'd rather be fat and happy than skinny and miserable.

Love and miss you

Happy Birthday Daddy.Love and miss you!

Don't you believe me....

Dang! Just lost what I was writing.It was a masterpiece.....don't you believe me? For your benefit I will start all over.I have nothing better to do.

Listening to Lynrd Skynrd as this is being wrote.The subject is things I like and believe in.

Buttermilk and cornbread.CoColas and moonpies.Grits when ever they are served.Green peanuts,raw peanuts,boiled peanuts,yes I like peanuts.

Blue jeans and white t shirts.Shoes are an option.Old dogs,pickup trucks and old folks.Miss my dogs,cats and Jim,monkey,best friend.

Know God lives. And I respected Momma and Daddy.People who can walk the walk and talk the talk.Someone who can lay down their life for another.I like and respect.

Believe in life after death.Some things scare me.Some things don't.That golden rule.

Women,good country cooking and a great cup of coffee,not necessarily in that order.

I could go on but why.Try putting down in print things you like and believe in.You can learn a lot about yourself.

Daddy's Olds Super 88

This is the view from the windshield of a 1954 Oldsmobile Super 88.My Daddy had one back in the mid 1960's.Black and white with those wide gangster whitewall tires,4 doors and fender skirts.

Can't remember if it had factory AC or not but it did have natural well sorta AC.The back floorboard was rusted out.Riding down the road I would lay in the back seat and with my pockets of my jeans filled with rocks I would drop them through the rusted out floorboard watching them bounce as the road passed by.

Often on the road when Daddy would pass cars(he did have a heavy foot)put it in super Daddy I would say.On the steering column it was marked R D N 1 2 S for super,the passing gear.

Times where different then.No seat belts,steel dashes,and it was common for kids to stand up in the seats and ride or lay down on the rear shelf at the back window and sleep while on a trip

When Daddy got his 1960 Dodge(the car I learned to drive with) 4 door baby blue in color with push button  transmission he kept the Olds.I was about 14 at the time and one day I made the mistake of swiping the keys of the Olds.The backyard driveway was gravel and I was digging it up in the Olds till I woke Daddy up who worked the 3rd shift at the time.It was an memorable day for me because I got my last whipping I remember that time,outside in full view of the neighbors.

Yep back then cars where special,the times where special and I sure wish I had Daddy's 1954 Oldsmobile Super 88.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Georgia winters day

On a Georgia winters day
Wind is blowing
Sky is gray
The pines do sway

Wishing and dreaming

Every Christmas Eve for years I would think to myself about how great it could be if Santy could find it in his heart to bring me a spanking new Ford F150.

Silly me would wake up Christmas morn rush to the window wishing in the driveway there it would be.

Guess what?

It hasn't happened yet in all these years of wishing and dreaming.I think a new plan is needed.From now on on Christmas Eve I'm going to start,wishing and dreaming for a spanking new maroon hemi Dodge pickup truck.

Maybe I just been wishing and dreaming in the wrong direction.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Day
Santa found his way
Through all this fog
I left him egg nog

Rudolph was fine
Guiding the sled
Now Santa and the crew
Can go to bed

To one and all
I must say
From my heart

Merry Christmas enjoy the day

Uncle Bobby

Bobby Smith

3 days ago | 206 views | 0  | 0  |  | 

Mr. Bobby Smith, 83, of LaGrange passed away Wednesday, December 19, 2012 at his home.

Mr. Smith was born August 17, 1929 in Randolph County, son of the John T. and Martha L. Whitley Smith. He retired form the Tredegar (formerly Visqueen) in 1993. He was a veteran of the United States Navy and served in the Korean War on the USS Albany. He also was an active member of the Elm City Lodge Mason, Parker F & AM # 142, Shriners Yarrab Temple of Atlanta, and the VFW Post #4629.

Survivors include a daughter and son-in-law, Pamela and Steven Dial, of Roswell, a daughter, Alicia Smith, of Villa Rica; a sister, Lema Flournoy, of LaGrange; sisters-in law, Evelyn Grizzard and Alice Bell; , both of LaGrange; a brother-in-law, Frank Reese and his wife Mary, also of LaGrange; and a large extended family of many nieces, nephews, and cousins. He was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Betty Ann Smith; sisters, Ada Haynes and Pauline Smith; brothers, Walter Smith, William Smith, Arnold Smith, Howard Smith, and Eugene Smith.

Funeral services will be at 2:00 Saturday at Shadowlawn Cemeter. The family will receive friends at 12:00 PM Saturday at Hunter-Allen-Myhand Funeral Home. Following the graveside service, the family will be at the home of Mr. Smith at 234 East Lane Circle. Flowers will be accepted.

Condolences may be expressed at www.hunterallenmyhand.com

Read more: LaGrange News - Bobby Smith 

Southern snow

A Southern snow
This what you need to know
First thing you do
Go to the stoe

Buy milk and bread
For those days ahead
That's all you'll need
Everyone you can feed

Don't try to drive
The way we do it
Will give you hives
You'll be risking lives

Just stay home
You won't be alone
It will be so much fun
Just you and your hun

Life sinking in

I woke up sad this morning.Can't say exactly why.Maybe it's the holidays.Like Daddy always said glad to see Christmas come glad to see Christmas go.Me also.

2012 seen a lot of changes for me.99.9% of the time I'm upbeat which is a whole lot better than what the past was for me.

Most of the time I'm just numb to things around me.Bad things take awhile to sink in.Maybe that is what's wrong,life is sinking in.

Just a ploy

Bake some biscuits
Fry some strick o lean
How bout some taters
Slice up a red ripe mater

Don't worry about cholesterol
Never mine your heart
Getting hungry I do bet
Don't you fret

Dozen eggs fried
Shredded cheese in your grits
Hot coffee in a mug
Nothing did I forget

It's Christmas time
Live a little
Worrying is just a ploy
To take away your joy

Just maybe

Just how cold was it?Well my grits wouldn't melt the butter this morning.That is cold believe me for this neck of the woods.Temperature was 26 degrees when I woke up.

I know what some of you are saying 26 shoot that's a heat wave here but you have to remember I'm a born and bred Georgia Boy and not use to cold weather.If the temp drops below 60 turn the heat on and where is my coat.

Talking with other old fellas like me we reminisce about days of old and how things where once.Sooner of later the topic of weather will come up.We talk of days as kids seeing ice sickles hanging from the roof of the house.Don't remember seeing those in a while.Talk always gets around to how the weather has changed.

Might be something to that global warming thing.Past few years winters have sure been mild down here in Dixie.


Just between me you and the fence post I would dearly love seeing some snow.It's cold enough,rain is on the way,do you think just maybe......

Know any vampires?

Do you know any vampires? Not the blood sucking kind but vampires that by just walking into a room can suck the life out of you with their drama,gloominess,and stinky attitude.

In my life I have met a few.They can take any situation and ruin it for others.All they do is gripe and complain nothing is ever good enough for these vampires.They find fault and blame with everyone not realizing it just might be them that is the problem.

Help us all we are surrounded !

Tears from Heaven

Tears from Heaven
Friday they fell
Only God can understand
Why on Earth so much Hell

Careful what you call me

Careful what you call me.You could be one also.Momma always said some people have to cut you down to make themself look bigger.

Words are so cheap.Take the word redneck.The word has many orgins.From the hills of West Virgina where striking miners wore red bandannas around their neck to moonshiners in Pennsylvania wearing red bandannas to protest the Government's infringement on their rights.Down in Dixie where hard working farmers out in the blazing hot sun growing food for their families.

Redneck.I have been called one.Not for all those things mentioned above but because of the way I talk,act,dress.Now it's a word you use for anyone you don't like and look down on.Someone who you think is not as good and moral as you think you are.

So the moral of this story is judge not least ye be judged.

If I die today

If I die today

Don't mourn for me
Think of it as a homecoming
With my friends and family

If I die today
Don't be sad
Just be happy
For the life I had

If I die today
Don't you cry
It's something we all must do
That thing is to die

If I die today
I want you to know
Nothing will change
My love for you will continue to grow

Kept my promise

Looking at people I wonder what is really going on in their mind.I see and hear things that bother me.People in pain and misery crying out for help.

My Momma was one.For years she was in mental anguish.She had what's called dementia.For over 7 years I watched her slip away from the real world.I hated when the sun would set.There is a thing called sun downing that people with dementia suffer from.They become agitated,restless and can be violent.There where times she would not sleep for what seemed like days.I was so tired.


I will say the only person to help was my Aunt Lema.She would stay over sometimes just so I could sleep a little bit.She would come over everyday and help Momma in the shower.I could do everything else but that part I just did not feel comfortable doing.I say to the world Aunt Lema thank you.

Momma would cry at night for her Momma and Papa.She was a little girl again.She didn't even remember who I was anymore.I was just that man to her.

Then that day came.I guess she just forgot how to swallow.I just broke down because I knew that was the end.

A week in the hospital then off to hospice.She lingered on 3 weeks.Staying at her side only leaving to change clothes and shower. Sunday,July 23,2003 about 6 pm while holding her hand with my head laying on her bed I felt Momma squeeze my hand as if she knew it was me and took her last breath

I had promised myself I would keep Momma home.That I did.For all those years I was her caregiver.I have said before doing that might be the only decent thing in my life I ever did.I had kept my promise.

Little red wagon

Standing Rock,Alabama Christmas morning 1956.I was 4 years old and woke up sitting in my little red wagon where Daddy had sat me.

I always wanted one Daddy said over and over.Guess he got one and was reliving his childhood through me.

Coming up they where so poor.Look up at the ceiling of their bedroom and see the stars,look down at the floor and watch the chickens under the house.

For Daddy Christmas was oranges,apples and if lucky those chocolate candy drops.He said they would eat the fruit but save the peelings for later.

Just ain't Christmas without my Daddy around.1991 Christmas morning Daddy went to the hospital for the last time.

Merry Christmas Daddy.Love and miss you !

Keep your hands to yourself

This just ain't right.Lately I've been watching a lot of football on TV.Something bothers me.I have noticed watching pro games,college,and high school football there is a new troubling trend.

When a player does something good or outstanding play this happens.They all start skipping around like..like ..little girls.Maybe it's just me but that just don't seem right.

Sure they are happy and excited but skipping around like little 6 year old girls playing hop scotch? I always thought that fad of a few years ago of how do I put this....behind slapping well was a little to much.Keep your hands to yourself is the new rule of this century.

Now while I have done got myself in trouble with football players(come on now it's all in jest) I might as well insult the fans of football.

Every other sport that is played outside,baseball,golf,soccer and Nascar,on and on,when it rains or starts snowing or the ground is froze solid they STOP THE GAME!

Not football and what gets me are the fans they will sit out in that weather and won't budge.

Ok I know the bounds have been over stepped I'm sorry but again it's just something I have noticed.

In closing I have only one things to say.Go Falcons! If the Falcons win on Sunday Pappa Johns pizza orders are half price on Monday.

And I bet you thought I wasn't a football fan.

Super nice Ladies

As I sit here writing this ok laying in bed writing this I'm counting my blessings.It has been a good week.Let me touch on some of the highlights.

One evening this week I was watching TV and someone came up behind me and asked(are you hungry).now there is always room for something to eat that is tasty.Sure I said,starving.

A few moments later this special person brought me a cup of homemade deer chili made from the deer she had shot herself.I say nothing like a woman who can gather the food then bring it home and cook it.It was as Goldilocks said just right.Not to hot,not to spicy just right.

Friday a super nice Lady surprised me with a large cup of that wonderful McDonald's coffee.

Now this evening,again as I watched TV someone sat down beside me and said(I made deviled eggs do you want some).You know my answer,sure thank you please yes I would love some.

A few days ago this super nice Lady asked was there anything I needed.Half way kidding I said yes,4 Krystals,2 corndogs and 2 chili pups and a large fry would be nice.To my surprise she said I'm on the way would there be anything else?Oh my it was hard to turn it down but I said just kidding.I would dearly love those Krystals but the last time I had them my sugar went sky high.

To all those super nice Ladies,my friends, thank you so much.

Smoking rabbit tobacco and zip guns

Smoking rabbit tobacco and zip guns.Here goes another childhood tale that's true.There was always a gang of us kids who played together on Juniper Street .Back  then kids went out side and played without worry

Always there were older kids who knew how to do the finer things kids do.Things like making acorn pipes and smoking rabbit tobacco in them.Those large acorns that would leave a knot on your head if they hit you when falling out of the Oak tree.Bore the acorn out till it was just a shell,small hole in the side,insert a hollow piece of straw and you had a working pipe.All needed now was rabbit tobacco which you could find plenty of in the woods.Lot of kids learned how to smoke that way.

Now zip guns.Cut out a pistol from thrown away wood,add strips of rubber from an old bike inner tube,the rest I will keep secret in case impressionable minds are reading.But they did work.Luckily only berries from a China Berry tree were used as ammo.

China Berries made good ammo for homemade sling shots also.Find a Y shape stick,again bike inner tube,the patch off your Levi jeans and you have your self a fine little weapon for those sling shot fights.

About the most stupid thing I remember doing is making our own gas like helium,take a large small neck glass jug,cut strips of tin foil,add Red Devil lye and use it to inflate balloons.They fly just like you had used helium.

It's a wonder most of those Juniper Street kids made it to adulthood.

Who cried the most

7 years old and I wanted to be a big boy and go to summer camp for 2 weeks.Not really, the real reason was my best friend Paul and his brother where going so thought I would tag along.Camp Viola in Mountville,Ga the oldest settlement in Troup County according to the sign.

I should have know better.Never had I been away from my folks before.They left me on the steps of the court house with all those other kids waiting on the bus to take us to the camp.

It was cool and fun sleeping in that big long barrack type building with open screened in windows.One side for boys the other for girls.Till this day I remember that musty smell of wet bathing suits and the smell of Colgate toothpaste and Dial soap.

There where games and hikes and lots of things to keep you busy but after a few days the new wore off and I had my first taste of being homesick.

I didn't know it at the time but my folks must have missed me also because they came to visit me but were told it would only make being homesick worst so I didn't find out about their visit till it was all over.

I did get over being homesick and enjoyed my 2 week stay.But I promised myself never would I leave my folks again.

On the bus bringing us back to where we got on it,the court house steps,there was my Daddy waiting.Who cried the most with joy being reunited was a toss up.

Confused and hurt

I'm confused and maybe a little bit hurt.As most of you might know I have a neuro muscular problem.Long story short I can't walk anymore.It is called Spinal Muscular Atrophy type3 or by another name it's called Kugleberg Welander Syndrome.It's inherited and I have had it all my life.It is a slow progression disease.Enough said about all that.

Now this is the confused and hurt part.People keep saying if I had enough faith God will heal me.Faith I have and I wish people would quit questioning my faith.I don't think God has a plan to heal or cure everyone.Maybe he has a plan for my life just the way I am.I'm perfectly ok with my situation,not mad,angry or full of self pity.Don't get me wrong I do wish things had turned out different.But they didn't so I deal with it.

I just get hurt when people say God will heal me that I know he can do but if not it doesn't mean I'm of little faith.

Maybe I'm wrong but this is the way I see things.

Some called Him a rebel

Someone just asked me if I was a Christian.The answer was a definite yes Mam.Twice this has happened lately.Makes me think.What does a Christian look like?Well maybe I'm being a bit oversensitive about this.But the honest answer is maybe I don't conform to what some call Christian.Maybe my hair gets a little long at times.I do have hair on my face.Kidding and teasing is one of my favorite things to do.I like listening to that old rock n roll music.So maybe I'm not the suit wearing clean cut man sitting on the front row at church every Sunday.

But you know what?I am a follower of Jesus Christ.In my heart I know He died for my sins and was resurrected from the grave.

A little story I read once.A man who Himself didn't conform to the look,talk or actions of others.Some called Him a rebel.

That man is Jesus Christ my Savior.

Sophie Mae

I got a hankering this morning for some Sophie Mae peanut brittle.Family Dollar use to sell it for buck a box.Oh so yummy one of my favorite snacks.

I tried my hand at making homemade peanut brittle once.Momma got a microwave oven for Christmas years ago and it had this microwave cookbook that came along with it.

Shelled peanuts,salt and Cario syrup was all you needed.I had that and I tried my hand at making it.Well putting it mildly that stuff was so hard it was uneatable.Lesson learned if you want peanut brittle it's best just buying it already made.

I tried making fudge once.Another favorite of mine.What I did wrong is a mystery.That stuff would not get hard.I tried putting it in the fridge and still it was like chocolate soup.

So some things like beans and cornbread and fried taters I can cook.But at times it's just best letting someone who knows what they are doing to fix the snacks.

If this sounds like a hint you might be right.Sophie Mae peanut brittle at Family Dollar,ask if you need my address.

No challenge was unthinkable

Shhhh! don't tell.It will be our little secret.Don't laugh ok.I have always had this dream or fantasy about space travel.When I was a kid at night turning the radio on to a static station pretending it was the roar of a rocket ship.I would drift off thinking how great it would be having my own little space craft that I could travel the know universe with.

I am a child of the space age.By this time my generation was to have flying cars like George Jetson.Launching space rockets off from Cape Canaveral was a big deal to people my age.

To this very day those old space movies of the 50's and 60's are sorta like comfort food to me.They bring pleasure and almost bring that bright eyed innocence back into my life.A time when things where possible no challenge was unthinkable.

For the life of me

Town square in my hometown of LaGrange,Georgia.The fountain has been there for long as I can remember.Years ago in the 1920's or 30's this was the sight of the courthouse that burned down.

As a kid it was a favorite sight of mine to ride by at night.Back then it had different colors of light bulbs built into the fountain and the spraying water would change color.

Back in the 1970's the city spent a reported million dollars to square the square.LaGrange College donated the statute of General Lafayette which now sits in the fountain.He was a French general who during the revolutionary war sided with the states and was rumored to have passed near LaGrange one time.This town was named after his chateau in France.

So a little more history of my hometown.But for me I sure enjoyed the colored lights in the fountain better.

For the life of me I can't remember ever stepping foot on the fountain grounds.

Rumor has it

Callaway Clock Tower in LaGrange,Georgia.I have always lived insight of this memorial most of my life.Employees of Callaway mills donated money for this in honor of the man who started Callaway mills.I have heard that the donations where taken out of employees checks whether they wanted to donate or not.

The tower has a clock on each side.For years they were not running but last time I noticed they were keeping time.The tower is located on the highest point I think in the city limits of LaGrange on a large sloping hill.The view from the top of the hill is beautiful,least to me.

On those rare winter days when it snowed the hill was a place where people slid down the slopes on pasteboard boxes.I even partaked in that a few times.

Rumor has it that on Halloween night witches gather in the tall bushes that surround the tower.Might be so I don't know but the police took it serious and at one time years ago where investigating.

So just another little snippet of LaGrange,Georgia where I call home.

Not true friends

Everyone loves a winner.But let that winner make a few slips and where do his friends go?Way life is I reckon.Not everyone will stick with you through the rough times but when all is going good they are there.

Take the Braves baseball team.Years ago when they where playing so bad only a handful of die hard loyal fans would show up for their home games.Milo Hamilton on air announcer for Braves baseball lost his job when he scolded fans for not supporting the Braves when things where going poorly.He was only telling the truth in my book.For the past few years the Braves have been extra good and now everyone claims to be fans from day one.I use this as an example.

Life is like that also.But get old,a little feeble or sick poof where do people run and scatter to?You know we are better off without those types anyway.They are not true friends.