Boxing Day

This is Boxing Day in some countries, a day to give gifts to those in service of others. It’s also St. Stephen’s Day, the first Christian martyr.   Boxing Day was a tradition, and today we have our own traditions. I like the repetition and comfort of those practices my family keeps alive from year […]

In An Icebox

In An Icebox

Brrr and double brrr. It’s a white world outside, just enough snow to cover things and a few lazy flakes still drifting down. Temperature? Well, it’s shivering somewhere around thirteen degrees and I feel like I’m in an icebox. The thermometer sank two degrees in about three minutes last night. However, the biting cold didn’t […]

It Doesn’t Take Much

It Doesn’t Take Much

It doesn’t take much to put a sparkle in my day. Yesterday, I thought about the Halloween pumpkin. You see, it’s this way–my grandchildren and I have made it a yearly tradition to give our Halloween pumpkin that sits on my front porch for a month or so, a chance at a new life. It […]

Getting in Touch with an Old Tradition

by blanche manos · leave a comment (edit) Yesterday, my family and I kept up the yearly tradition of putting flowers on the graves of loved ones. Decoration Day is always the same Sunday every May and has been that way for generations. The beautiful little cemetery lies in northeast Oklahoma, surrounded by trees, gentle hills, and a creek […]

Decoration Day at Caney

Decoration Day at Caney

Each third Sunday in May, people gather at a country cemetery in Cherokee County called Caney. I think of it as our family cemetery because many of my family and relatives are buried there. Of course, many others who are unrelated lie there too. Six generations of my family are there, from Clint who was […]