Star Spangled Cat

Star Spangled Cat By Blanche Day Manos “What?” I screeched. “Go to sea? Are you crazy?” Every one of my gray and white hairs stood straight up. Reggie laughed. “You look like a bottle brush, old chap,” he said. “You’ll love the ocean!” Nay! I decidedly would not love the ocean. I hate water. I […]

Pretty Well Blessed

As I get older, I think about “the good old days” and the way things used to be.  In the second Etta book, Remembering Etta Bend, I included remembrances of two of Ma and Pappy Latty’s children, Georgia Latty Cochran and my mother, Susie Latty Day. As I’m sure they would agree, they were pretty well […]

The Umbrella Oak

A large oak stands in front of the house that belonged to my parents. It is so tall and its limbs spread so wide that anyone standing under it during a rain is sheltered, as if by a giant umbrella. The tree is old and has seen many changes. A busy street a few feet […]

June Bugs

Are you a June Bug? If you’re one of those lucky people born this month, you’ve got a lot of good things going for you. First, there’s your birthstone–you have two of them! The pearl and the Alexandrite are yours. Flowers? Also two–the rose and the honeysuckle. So, you’re bright and shiny, have infinite value, […]

Her Dreams

Her name was Lydia and I can imagine family and friends called her “Lyddie.” She was my grandmother’s grandmother. Born in 1823, she was a widow who lived by herself on her farm in Georgia. Recently, I read copies of letters she wrote to her daughter,  Tep, and to her granddaughter,  Edna. One letter is dated 1890. Dear […]

Remembering

  Americans have fought in many wars since the Revolution and freedom has exacted a high price. Many  lives have been given, much blood shed, many hearts broken down through the years. To me, the most incomprehensible and divisive of all the wars was the Civil War. I am not convinced that it was inevitable. It tore […]