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Back in the days of my childhood flour sacks served many purposes besides simply containing flour. The sacks were made of cotton material and served important functions for everyday homemakers. One lady in my community always made diapers for her babies from flour sacks. Feed, grain, and flour sacks were common to make dresses, sheets, […]
Every week, we are all slapped across the face with another mass murder somewhere in our beloved United States. School shootings, many of them at the hands of another child; church shootings, workplace shootings, nightclub bombings, stabbings on a random public street – all unfathomable to most of us. Instant news and the internet bombard […]
Every week, we are all slapped across the face with another mass murder somewhere in our beloved United States. School shootings, many of them at the hands of another child; church shootings, workplace shootings, nightclub bombings, stabbings on a random public street – all unfathomable to most of us. Instant news and the internet bombard […]
Previously, I shared two of my favorite Southern films—Forrest Gump and Steel Magnolias. My third favorite film of Southern Films (not necessarily in that order) is the 1991 classic, Fried Green Tomatoes. Country Living listed it in its best twenty-one Southern films every Southerner should watch; Ranker selected it as one of the Best Southern […]
You wouldn’t think that the area along the banks of Winding Creek near Greensboro, Florida, would have anything in common with North Africa.But it does.Garlic!Max VanLandingham says the reason garlic grows so well in this area is because we live along the same latitude line as where garlic farming first showed up in human history […]
Previously, I shared two of my favorite Southern films—Forrest Gump and Steel Magnolias. My third favorite film of Southern Films (not necessarily in that order) is the 1991 classic, Fried Green Tomatoes. Country Living listed it in its best twenty-one Southern films every Southerner should watch; Ranker selected it as one of the Best Southern […]
Previously, I shared two of my favorite Southern films—Forrest Gump and Steel Magnolias. My third favorite film of Southern Films (not necessarily in that order) is the 1991 classic, Fried Green Tomatoes. Country Living listed it in its best twenty-one Southern films every Southerner should watch; Ranker selected it as one of the Best Southern […]
I think that it is strange that you don’t hear people whistling anymore. I grew up hearing people whistling, as a matter of fact, I used to do a lot of whistling myself. For some unknown reason, I just stopped and although I have tried, I just cannot get it back. Recently on a lark, […]
Before the last piece of meat was stripped from the bone during our 4th of July celebration one of my grandsons said, “Peeps we start school the second week of August.” Suddenly my sweet tea felt warm, and sympathy overwhelmed my normal caustic demeanor. Although it’s little challenge to this generation, they aren’t fearful little […]
According to an article I read July 9 was “Barn Day”. We have a unique barn here in East Tennessee, actually more prevalent in my county of Blount and neighboring Sevier County than anywhere in the country. If you visit here you will likely see one. The cantilever barn is special. I never realized that […]
It’s hard to believe the first day of school has come and gone for many young people here in Georgia. When I was young, we didn’t start school until after Labor Day. I think the school calendar was a hold-over from early times when the kids were needed to work the fields and bring in […]
August has arrived, and although the temperatures near my home in Northeast Louisiana are still sweltering in the triple digits, there is comfort in knowing school is back in session (or will be soon), cooler temperatures are hopefully on their way, and fall fruits and vegetables will quickly fill our local supermarkets and kitchen. Whether […]
Since I retired several years ago, I have developed an interest in history. Finally, Coach Paul Sims would say. I memorized whatever I needed to get a B on each test and promptly forgot everything. Only now at almost 71, I am mesmerized by everything and the world around me seems bright and new and […]
The French mustard had once again dripped from my overcooked football field hotdog onto the pocket of my shirt. Not being one overly upset by such things, I took a swipe or two and ground it in. Nothing such as that could ruin this coming evening. A slight fall breeze rustled distant trees bringing with […]
If someone drops a couple of names like Helen Crump and Ellie Walker, diehard fans of The Andy Griffith Show, also known as TAG, can rattle off a thousand details and bring to the conversation, each episode in which one of these two fictional ladies entertained a staggering number of viewers over the years. When […]
I find the strangest things on the Internet. Someone had the audacity or maybe it was stupidity, to ask the question, “Is mac and cheese considered a comfort food?” My mental response was, “Does a cat have a climbing gear?” Forgive me, that was disrespectful, and I always say there are no stupid questions … […]
A few days ago, we had a couple of boxes fall over in the new room we added as an extra bedroom and storage area. We’re not sure exactly why the boxes fell, other than the bottom box side wall collapsed. In the process of cleaning up the mess created when the boxes fell, I […]
I was too young, so I don’t remember who lived there.It had to be kinfolk. Probably an aunt, uncle, and cousins.Why else would we be there? Our car hadn’t sputtered to a stop. It wasn’t running hot. We didn’t have a flat.I don’t remember the exact location. It must have been somewhere in South Alabama […]
It was just another overnight trip in this life as a road dog. As the years have passed, little has changed. Another packed bag was thrown into the rental car, simple directions to the hotel were not followed, and the worthless map waded up and tossed into the backseat. Finally, Siri decided to be kind […]
Can you believe only one hundred and fifty days are left until Christmas? Like me, I am sure you’ve passed holiday displays in your favorite local shops while browsing recently, not to mention the holiday movies front and center on special television channels. Christmas in July is an American concept, but do you know its […]
It was just another overnight trip in this life as a road dog. As the years have passed, little has changed. Another packed bag was thrown into the rental car, simple directions to the hotel were not followed, and the worthless map waded up and tossed into the backseat. Finally, Siri decided to be kind […]
During my childhood, several divorces and job transfers necessitated moves around the South. We lived in Savannah a couple of times. When I was almost six years old, my mom and dad reunited, and we, along with my bossy parakeet, moved to an apartment in the historic district of that beautiful old city. I don’t […]
As many of you know, a comment on Facebook often leads to my writing a story. The comment will bring back memories, or in some cases, it triggers my curiosity, which is the case with this article. I do not have any memories of the act, nor have I heard stories from family members about […]
In 2011, Tamala Georgette Jones wrote a book, “The Three of Us: Growing Up with Tammy and George”. Her mama, Virginia Wynette Pugh, born in 1942 in the small town of Tremont, Itawamba County, Mississippi, and her father, George Glenn Jones, who hailed from Saratoga, TX, in 1931, were one of the most famous singing […]
I grew up in an era of politics that were different from what we have today. It was the time of backroom deal-making and “Pork Chopping.” The way it worked back then, if you wanted something from a fellow politician, say a vote on a certain issue, you worked out a deal with them. It […]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the thirty-second president of the United States. He served in the office from 1933 until 1945. There are some of the programs from his administration that profoundly affected my area of East Tennessee (Appalachia) then and, to my way of thinking, affect it even more profoundly today. Roosevelt took office during […]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the thirty-second president of the United States. He served in the office from 1933 until 1945. There are some of the programs from his administration that profoundly affected my area of East Tennessee (Appalachia) then and, to my way of thinking, affect it even more profoundly today. Roosevelt took office during […]
Normally our Southern women are pretty, genteel, mannered, and slightly loony. That is why it’s so easy to love them. Predictable, yes, let someone insult the family circle, and they’ll turn from a woman humming Amazing Grace to a warrior looking for scalps with a dull tomahawk. They are rarely known to curse, and even […]
A friend of mine, Raylan, has the perfect dog. Slidell is by far the best-trained dog I have ever been around. By the way, Raylan is one of those people who walks to a different drum beat than the rest of us. I met Slidell one day while sitting at breakfast at the Garden Grill, […]
When you grow up in a family with a father who served over twenty years in the United States Army and considered visiting battlefields and national cemeteries the ideal family vacation, it comes as no surprise that some of my most vivid childhood memories revolve around the gravestones of people I don’t know, who died […]
I love to bass fish on Lake Seminole, where the three rivers run together. Just north of the dam at Chattahoochee along the Florida/Georgia border. The area is full of hundreds of dead trees and dozens of small islands. There are a couple of places among some of those dead trees that had produced a […]
Growing up, we gathered food from the wild. At that time, I did not know there was a name for what we did, but I have since learned it is called “foraging,” but for the purpose of this article, I will refer to it as gathering wild food. The first thing you need to know […]
After all those years of my clan producing smelly little boys, it was nice when the girls entered the tribe. As I’ve said before, Peeps is in much better shape to play Barbies than wrestle with those overflowing testosterone-laced animals. Whoever said boys were made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails hasn’t spent […]
The South is beautiful! The South is full of wonderful history and associated architecture! The South has some of the most generous and inspirational people anywhere in the USA. But, …wait for it … the South has the largest collection of insects waiting to attack those generous, inspirational people and any others who venture a […]
Writers from the South have long used the vehicle of the short story to entertain and inform readers, precisely selecting each word in every sentence to convey an event or moment in time. This form of writing is as old as storytelling itself, with roots in legends and folklore, passed down by the oral traditions […]