Childhood Memories

My friend Patti just shared this on her timeline and it immediately took me back to my childhood. My sister Donna and my brother that is gone now, Ernest, used to catch them in Mason jars, look at them for awhile and then let them go.
We also followed them around the yard to see how many we could find. I don't know if kids do things like that anymore. I never see any kids outside here.

What happened to kids riding bikes, playing marbles in the sand, hopscotch, chicken, flying a june bug for a kite, rolling a tire to see how long you could keep it up, skipping rocks, walking on stilts, Yoyo's, balancing a broom in your hand and the many other "toys" of my childhood?

I have a profound sorrow for children today, stuck with their necks in the downward position looking at an Ipad or tablet or phone. I bet they will have neck problems in the future, from that repetitive positioning of the neck.

Remember how much fun it used to be to go outside? I couldn't wait to finish my breakfast and get to exploring.

We had straw houses on the ground and wooden tree houses, we picked bulices, (sp) and sometimes cut a vine and tried rabbit tobacco. We walked down to the Creek mounds and drank water out of the clear trickling creek. I pawed through the garbage looking for reading materials someone else might have thrown away and I always found a True Detective or True Romance to bring home to read.

We tied together twine and made Jacob's ladder, a crows feet or a cup and saucer. We put a large button on a piece of twine and then twisted it in our hands to make a spinner, going back and forth with that for hours. We caught crawdads and visited the cave where the big cat lived. We could smell him and made sure that he was not in it when we went to the gully. We stomped in puddles without shoes on and yes sometimes we got worms but I would stomp in those puddles again, if I had the chance.

Daddy made the best sling shots from a rubber inner tube and we would spend hours perfecting our aim, sometimes at each other. lol .
He made us stilts and we could walk anywhere and every where with them, up hill, up steps, down steps. They were fantastic.

I got a bike for my one gift when I was 8 and I had to get on Daddy's bumper to get on it and off it, If I did not want to crash :-)

I wish we could send our kids back in time to find out what real fun is. To have that waking moment of excitement when thinking, "what I am going to get into today?" We had such an imagination to see our world and mine was 120 acres down by the river and 10 at the house. Lots of room to pick berries when I got hungry and roam free. God, I am so thankful that I had the childhood I did. It wasn't perfect but it was darn near there when Daddy became the man that he was meant to be..

I did not mean to go one but this video evoked so many memories of the things we played as children and I wish so much that our children today could know what that is like.... I hope that you each get to see the wonder of fireflies and feel the miracle that life offers every day.. Love to all, Kimmee

http://www.fireflyexperience.org/

Letter To Daddy In Heaven

January 21, 2017 · 

Letter to Daddy..

Dear Daddy,
Today is your birthday. It has been 31 years since I have been able to call home on this day and hear your voice. Donna told me that when I would call, you would ask, "who is that on the phone?" and when she would reply, Gloria, that you would get up out of where you was sitting to talk to me while saying, "my lil ole gal"..

My heart just clenched when she told me this, because I would give anything to hear you call me that again.

We would talk about how you were doing and you would thank me for the coveralls or shirts or money that I had sent for chicken feed, then we would talk about your chickens. You loved those thangs. Loved sitting watching them, loved making new boxes for them like you did when Wendi and I came home to visit when she was 11, and of course loved the eggs that they gave you.

Wendi loved you so much, Daddy. She followed you around and helped you do all of the things that you had to do, every day, while we were there. And when you saw her looking at that old swing frame that did not have a swing on it and you made her one with rope and a 2x4, you hung the moon in her eyes.

You looked at me one day and said, "she sure ain't lazy." And she isn't, even today. She works 60 to 70 hrs every week so that we have a good life. I could tell how proud you were of her and of me.

I was only two weeks post-op but I was working doing laundry and hanging it on the line, until I started bleeding from my surgical site. You told me that I needed to take it easy and I said, I don't know any other way to be and it's true. I am like this because you were like that.

You worked so hard to give us a roof over our head, food on our table, and money for a treat when we would ask. I wish that I had helped more than I did. When I think about you with the mules reins around your neck plowing the garden, after working a full week at the saw mill, it makes me cry. I hope that you know how much I appreciated you. I tried to tell you every time we talked and I tried to make sure that you had what you needed.

It is almost unbearable being without you, but Donna is here and we talk every day. We are together now like we were then. We always had each other and I am as thankful for that, as I am for having you for my daddy.

I know that you are happy in heaven and I know that you are with Mama. That is the only thing that brings me peace since you had to go home.

So today on your birthday, I just want you to know what an honor it was to be your lil ole gal. You always told me I was smart and that you wanted me to go to college. I did that Daddy, thinking of you the whole time and garnering strength from the way you worked for us, because it wasn't easy.

I always think of what you used to say if any of us kids complained that the meat was tough. You would say, "it would be tougher without" and that has sustained me in my life.

You weren't a learned man, but you knew so much about survival, about life, about getting things done and you never complained. Not when you had a major stroke, not when you were diagnosed diabetic, not when you were raising all us kids, alone.

I love you Daddy. I miss you Daddy.. Happy Birthday Daddy...
Signed.. Your lil ole gal...

Full Circle When The Cameo Came Back

Sometimes something so unexpected happens that you just have to share it and that happened to me today.

Almost 10 years ago now, a few people that did not know each other except in an online DS group came together and shared stories. We shared our heartbreaks and dreams and we sealed a friendship, forged through the fire of a breakup from a marriage.

Three of us were going through the thick of that and one of us "V", had a sister named Morny. She was happily married for many years and we all looked to her for wisdom.

She didn't disappoint us. She told us stories. I told stories, Vee told stories and dear Cj our Cajun Queen told her stories. We shared something so deeply. We prayed together, cried together and then we resolved that we would not ever be with anyone again that made us feel less than. All of us have honored that pact that we made.

One night as "M" was sharing a story, I felt such an intense desire to give her the necklace off my neck so that I would be with her and she would be with me. I took the tri-colored gold cameo off my neck and I put it on hers. She was overwhelmed and I was so happy that she was happy.

None of us ever think that we will leave this world too soon, but one day "M" left Vee and all of us to go home. Some time passed and one day in my messenger, I had a note from my soul sister that asked, "Is this your locket?" I told her, "yes, that was mine."
She said, "give me your address. I am sending it to you. I love you."

And the bawling started. The kind of ugly crying that you just can't control when something so special happens in your life. You give something away, never expecting to see it again and it comes back. She was with "S", M's husband and we were all crying, that healing kind of cry that God sends to comfort us in times of such intense loss or sadness and then Joy of connecting with others that love each other.

A few minutes ago, I picked up the mail and there was the locket, come full circle back to me. I loved it for many years. Morny loved it for many years and now it was back.

I can't tell you how my heart filled as I held it in my hand remembering the moment that It was given.

I want to encourage you that if you feel led to give something away even if it is precious, obey and do it. You never know what the full plan is for that gift but today I felt so humbled to have it once again.

I will wear it again knowing that it graced one of the most CJ, two of the most beautiful human beings I have ever had the honor to meet. RIP dear "M". Much love to you Vee and CJ . What we shared will stand the test of time as it has for nigh on ten years. Know that I Love you and keep you both in my prayers and can never thank you enough for making it possible for me to meet and visit with y'all.
I got to play in a waterfall, taste my first moonshine. (whew) and spend the best days walking and talking with my soul sisters.
I Love y'all, Kimmee

The Porch Sitter

Maria shared a photo of a Glider and talked about how much she used to love to sit outside and glide back and forth for hours. That started me thinking of how little people sit on their porches today.

It was a ritual back in the day that before and after a meal was eaten, the men and the children would go outside. The men would sit on the porch and tell tall tales about fish that jumped right into the boat or catching one that was the biggest catfish you ever saw, while children played Hopscotch or climbed trees or shot marbles inside a circle drawn in the sand.

Nowadays children don't look up long enough to play an outside game or be yelled at for going in and out of a house because they stay in, lost in the glow of an Iphone or tablet.

Porch sitting in my family has been a time honored tradition for as long as I can remember. My first memories of porch sitting were when I would run down to Grandma's Creamer Peacock's house and I would sit on the swing and she in a rocker on the porch waiting for the washing to dry on the line. Then I could help take it in. While we sat, she would give us iced tea. Sweet iced tea. None of that non-sweetened stuff that is all the rage today. This one had enough sugar in it to float your eyeballs in the stuff. I didn't come down from the sugar rush for half a day. lol

On our own porch , we had a wooden swing and a glider at one time or another and rocking chairs. Donna still has the rocking chair that mama rocked us all in. I loved seeing it when I was home. I remember many summer days spent shelling peas and butterbeans til your fingers hurt so bad you almost cried. But those memories are some of the best of my life. Swinging on the front porch with a birds eye view of any vehicle that may come down the dusty clay road. You could see it going long after it went from all the dust spread about by it going by. People didn't have air conditioning and the windows were down and kids rode on the back of the truck. We did that and many times you would see us holding onto the lip going down the road. When the truck would stop, we would get a mouth full of dirt if we turned around so we stood still, looking straight ahead til the worst of it was past.

My Grandpappy Morris for whom Morristown road was named, was a notorious porch sitter. and I use Notorious because you could get yourself shot at if you weren't careful. Now I don't know that anyone was ever hit but I do know that people got shot at. He considered it unneighborly for you to pass by the house and if he was sitting on the porch, he expected a nod or a wave or something to acknowledge he was there and if you didn't you sure remembered too the next time. lol.

This is the story as told to us ( Donna and I) by Aunt Elma. William (Bud) would sit on the front porch of the old wooden house he built. He always wore the six gun on his hip and one day in particular, someone came driving a rig down the road. In those days and with the quiet all around, you could hear the buggy wheels a distance away and Bud would be waiting for them in his rocker. As they approached the house, he would leave his chair, walk down the steps and look to the direction of the noise. He was awaiting the arrival of the buggy passing his home.
If by chance you saw him, it would be neighborly to wave, tip your hat or raise your hand with the reins in them, to acknowledge that you saw him and to say Good morning or Good day.
Many people would wave and give him the neighborly response he felt should be given, by anyone that had any manners at all to speak about. In the event you passed by his home without the acknowledgment that he was standing there, you would only do that once. He would draw his six gun and proceed to start shooting in your direction to remind you, that the next time you went by his house, you best be on your best manners and be neighborly.
Aunt Elma chuckled as she told me this. It is amusing when you think of it now, but I bet if you had that happen to you, you would be thinking of a different route the next time you wanted to go to town. I am sure that if you did take the same route by the house and saw him step off the porch, you would not only tip your hat and wave, but pull on the horse's reins to make them turn their head in the general direction of him too. He was a special kind of porch sitter!

We always sat on Aunt Arbelle's porch shelling pecans and jumping off the high porch they had. There was a row of rockers on their front porch , enough for every one to sit a bit if you happened to be passing by or waiting for a pie.

Those days of porch sitting were some of my happiest memories. Swinging while eating a pear or tomato or just watching for the next time a car came past or horses. I loved it when someone would ride the horses by. The clop clop of hooves still fills me with a calm that many people miss today. The smell of beans and peas, or peanuts or corn are the smells of my childhood, swinging on a front porch, awaiting company or just a car to come by.

When I went home in 2011 to visit Donna , there was the old swing. Where daddy sat and took splinters out of my feet, or where he strung the cane pole in the rafters above, or just sitting together on a Sunday after church waiting for the noon day meal. I hope that some of you still have a swing on your front porch and I hope that children still swing on them while listening to the elders talk about a simpler life.... Love to all, Kimmee

(this is the special rocker I had in my home til I got sick and everything was sold. I rocked my baby in it and it was a great rocker. I hope that someone is rocking babies in it still )

Shoe Buying Day In Flomaton

Shoe Buying Day In Flomaton
When I was a kid there weren't Payless shoe stores on every corner. There were Mom and Pop shoe stores where people took their shoes to be resoled, or heeled or sewn back together. Yep, I said sewn back together because our shoes were leather and they were made to last.

We only got one pair of shoes for the school year and Daddy had to make them good so he took us to the Men's shoe store in Flomaton to get us shoes. He never said the reasoning behind it but I think that they were cheaper than Girls shoes and they also lasted longer than girls shoes and we were tough on shoes.

I still remember my trip to the store when I was 7 or 8. I wanted a pair of Penny Loafers like I had seen some of the kids wear to school. Some of them had pennies in them but some of them had nickels or dimes in them. I think that was enough to make a phone call back then so maybe it was for safety's sake or just for status. I don't know because I wasn't one of those kids. I just wanted a pair to put a penny in so "that I could say I had a penny to my name". I know that probably sounds odd today when shoes cost hundreds of dollars but back then 3.49 was a good price for a pair of shoes, especially when you had six "hard on shoes" kids to feed and clothe.

We walked into the store and the first thing that hit you was the smell in your nose. You could smell the leather and the shoe polish all over the small store. In the back, you could see where you turned your shoes in to be fixed by the cobbler. Cobbler is such a strange word to hear today with Visions of Hans Christian Anderson running through my head but back then, it was pretty standard to be able to get your shoes fixed in the store you bought them from, cause the owner was a shoe man. That old fashioned type of man that sold, bought, and fixed shoes. I bet he had visions of shoe repair in his head like a music person has visions of music in their heads.

This man was a magician. I have seen some pretty raggedy shoes being brought in and after a new sole and heel was added and it was shined and buffed to perfection, it looked like a brand new pair of shoes and it was cheap to have that done. Pennies on the dollar.

I saw the Penny Loafers right away and made my way to the left of the store where the display was. There were shelves with shoes on them and I saw a snazzy brown pair that caught my eye. I had put on clean socks that day because I wanted to slide those things on, like butter on my feet, and I pointed to the ones I liked. I didn't ask daddy if I could have them but he saw by my excitement of having my foot measured and sliding my feet into them that I wanted them so badly. They were stiff on my feet with the shiny leather but I knew that they would soften and mold themselves to my feet as I wore them and I didn't care that they were boys shoes, I just loved them.

The smell of that brown leather, the feel of it smooth under my fingers and that little slot where the penny goes! That was the prize. Daddy bought me that pair of shoes and I carried them out of the store in their box like they were gold. The shoe man had slipped a penny in them for me while I was modeling them and I felt like a million bucks. We couldn't wear them except of to school or church and this was neither of those things so I kept them in the box. squirming with anticipation for Monday to roll around. This was Saturday so I had two days to wait and man, that was hard.

I put on my shiny shoes for school on Monday and waltzed into school like I was a Queen only to have a kid tell me I was wearing boys shoes and they laughed. That may have squashed a softer kids ego but I could have cared less. I was pretty "junk yard dog" mean or just tough in those days and I let that remark roll off me like water off a duck as I stared at my beautiful brown leather shoes that daddy had bought for me.

If you scroll down this ad for Men's shoes back in the day, you will find those same brown leather shoes for 3.49 that daddy got me. I wore those things til my toes hurt, I loved them so much. I never tired of visiting the shoe store as a kid and still today, I love a good whiff of leather. lol

I wish that kids today knew the sacrifice that parents go through to feed and clothe a bunch of kids on little money. I hope that there are still kids that get excited to get one good pair of shoes a year and that they still smell like leather.

As Daddy's birthday is coming up, I am thinking of the loss of him almost 32 years ago now and what he had to do to make sure we had food on the table and a shiny new pair of shoes for school every year. He was a good man and I am thankful for him.
And if any of you have penny loafers today, wear those things with pride. They were worn my little boys and girls everywere in the 50's and we thought they were the Cat's meow... lol.. Love to all of the beautiful people in my life, Kimmee

All About Mens 1950s Shoes Styles

1950s men's shoes styles include oxfords, loafers, saddle shoes, chukka boots, blue suede, creepers, nubucks and motorcycle boots. Men's shoe history.

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