I found it in the shed of my parents’ home in Tahlequah. It was a strange-looking object; metal and heavy, sort of resembling an axe without the handle. “What is it?” I asked Mom. She seemed surprised that I didn’t know. “Why, it’s an adze,” she said. “What’s it for?” “Papa used one for splitting […]
Jun 4, 2013
Etta–A Dear, Familiar Place
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This is the final part of my sister Helen’s thoughts about our grandparents, Levi and Edna Latty, and life on the farm at Etta Bend. “When I hear anything about Nixon’s ‘Watergate’, I get a flashback to Pappy’s ‘watergap’ and I giggle. Anyway, the watergap of my childhood was a fence of vertical boards hung […]
Jun 3, 2013
Cream, Cousins, and Watercress
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In the back of my second Etta book, Remembering Etta Bend, I included a section of personal remembrances of life at Etta. These were written by Ma and Pappy Latty’s two surviving children in 1992, Susie Latty Day and Georgia Latty Cochran as well as most of their grandchildren. The following is a remembrance of my sister, […]
May 27, 2013
Camping Out Long Ago
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Memorial Day! I’m grateful to be living in the best country in the world. I am grateful to God for the defenders of our freedom, those who have put themselves between their families and harm. And I am grateful to be able to celebrate with my family. Some people go camping during this first holiday […]
May 26, 2013
Clint
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His name was Clinton Lee Day. He was my oldest nephew, Mom and Dad’s first grandchild and we thought he was pretty special. He had big, brown eyes with amazingly long lashes. He was slim and quick and had a laugh that made everyone around him want to laugh too. He visited us often when […]
May 19, 2013
Decoration Day at Caney
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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 […]
