In the Last Century

Come with me for a trip into history and delve into a 1921 issue of The Etude, Presser’s Musical Magazine. I’m not sure where I bought this magazine but it’s fascinating because it’s from a much different era of America. Woodrow Wilson was President that year; that is, until March 4 when Warren G. Harding […]

Head of the Family

His hat hangs on a peg in my hallway. It’s not the Stetson he wore on special occasions. This one has sweat marks, and a small spot of oil. It’s the one he wore every day as he mowed lawns, drove to the sale barn, or any time he went out the door. He never […]

A Land of Many Springs

A Land of Many Springs

My mother was born in 1906. She had many memories of Cherokee County, the way it was when she was a child. One of the things she remembered was the abundance of fresh, clean water. These are her words, her story as she told it to me: Green country used to be a land of […]

A Century and a Half Ago

Dignity in defeat and graciousness in victory. I’ve often wished, if I could go back in time, that I might have been present that day, April 9, 1865, in the parlor of Wilmer McLean of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. I would have liked to see General Robert E. Lee, tall, erect, and dignified, dressed in […]

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day

  On Mother’s Day, Mom always wore a corsage of white roses to church. Used to be that was the custom–if your mother was no longer with you, you wore white flowers; if she was still here, you wore red flowers. That tradition has probably flown, like so many. I was singularly blessed to have […]

In My Mother’s Bible

In My Mother’s Bible

In uncertain times, we need an anchor, something unchangeable that we can cling to. It helps to have reminders that people have gone through hard times before now and survived. My granddaughter, as well as some nieces and nephews, are interested in genealogy. In trying to answer their questions, I turn to the place where […]