It’s interesting when summer itineraries collide in unexpected ways. The only vacation we planned for this summer was to go to New England in mid-September—after school started and before tourists seeking fall color invaded. We flew into and out of Boston, driving up the Maine coast, across Maine and New Hampshire into Vermont, down Vermont … [Read more…]
My mother loved Christmas, but she especially loved Santa Claus. She told us of her delight as a child at getting an orange and a dime in her stocking, and I think she wanted us to have that same kind of delight. So here’s an account that I wrote in 2005. A true story! “I’m … [Read more…]
Steve and I were invited to join my brother John and wife Liz, who live in the path of totality, near Nashville, Tennessee. We debated it, and Steve encouraged the trip. “This is what retired people are supposed to do—just take off to special things like this!” So we did. Wow! Seeing the moon slowly … [Read more…]
What does “family” mean to you? At Central, we talk a lot about our church family, and we treasure those connections. Of course we are closer to most of the people there than we are to some of our “kinfolk.” The definition of family in Wikipedia (I know—not always a reliable source) is pretty funny: … [Read more…]
When I first moved to Illinois from Tennessee and North Carolina, I realized that I did not pronounce several words the way that people there did. I’d always said that “ahrnges” grew in “Flahr-uh-duh,” but in that Yankee-land, they hardly understood me. I said that “a-kerns” grew on oak trees, but my students corrected me … [Read more…]
I truly enjoyed the Ralph reunion at the Old Beech Church, near Goodlettsville, Tennessee, on Saturday. I got to speak briefly with all my aunts and uncles—my mother’s three brothers and three sisters and their spouses. All were there except one in a nursing home, and I visited him before the reunion. I’d thought I … [Read more…]
Steve and I, psychologically speaking, are a perfect match: he is a younger brother with an older sister and I am an older sister with younger brothers. (If the idea is that he’s used to a woman bossing him around, I can assure you it hasn’t worked that way.) But the big difference is where … [Read more…]
Two weeks ago, my 81-year-old Aunt Deba and her husband called to wish me “Happy birthday!” I asked her if she remembered the day I was born, and she did. I’ll tell it in her words, but be sure to read it with an extreme Southern accent. “Of course I remember! [Uv coh-us I remembuh!] … [Read more…]
Through my father-in-law, I learned that “old” is ten or more years older than the person speaking. At age 75, he would bemoan getting in line “behind all those old people.” So I spent last week with old people–very revealing. Steve and I drove to Middle Tennessee, home of my youth, and visited some of … [Read more…]
The first day of Blog Every Day in May! Assignment: the story of your life in 250 words exactly! Grew up in Portland, Tennessee, with godly parents and two younger brothers. Became a Christian in 1957, baptized at the Clearview Church of Christ. Attended Lipscomb University in Nashville for two years, finished teaching degree at … [Read more…]
