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 […]

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 […]

Rainy Day Nostalgia

This long weekend is off to a wet start. Rain puts me in a nostalgic mood and I think of what a rainy morning may have been like on the Latty farm when my mother was a young girl. My grandfather always went to the barn to milk while the morning was still as dark […]