Somewhere throughout your life you meet people, never realizing down the road they will make a huge impact on your life. I was so fortunate growing up to encounter women who were not related to me, who throughout the years have opened their arms and hearts to me and mine. I guess I was about … [Read more…]
“Saint Anne of David’s house and line, was the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus according to apocryphal Christian and Islamic tradition.” Wikipedia Margaret Ann was Jimmy’s cousin, almost 10 years older than he was, being the daughter of Eulis and Margaret Ballard Marshall. This means that Margaret Ann’s mother and Jimmy’s mother were … [Read more…]
I don’t know when I became a butter snob but that is what I am. As far as I can remember I was indifferent to butter. But at some point in time I made up my mind that I was a butter snob. I was raised on Blue Bonnet Margarine. That was what my mother … [Read more…]
When I was growing up I can remember a time that my Daddy got tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters. At the age I was I thought they were the best basketball players I had ever seen. I can remember just laughing and laughing and laughing. They could shoot from anywhere and hit “nothing … [Read more…]
The first time I came to the farm there were chickens and guineas and ducks and geese and turkeys all over the place. They had the run of the place. The family ate everything but the chicken eggs. They sold those. But it seemed as though those critters were all under foot. At some point … [Read more…]
There are the cornerstones of Fancy Farm, those that we have known our entire lives, who have really worked to shape the little community that we live in. These men, primarily, were born here, raised here, married women from here, raised their families here, and now, against our best wishes, are dying here. These men … [Read more…]
So the reading this Sunday at Mass from the Old Testament was from the book of Genesis. Maybe this is the first Bible Story we learn. It is the end of Adam and Eve and their paradise of Eden. From this point on their life is normal, mundane. From this point on all they have … [Read more…]
For Christmas my son got me a record player. Seriously. A turntable. Several years ago he discovered a turntable and decided that this was the new thing for music. I had a record player growing up. I usually played singles but my parents had a “stereo” and I used to play their albums on there … [Read more…]
Listening to the Gospel reading at Mass this week I made up my mind that I was going to be such a good Catholic, and this week, the week of Ash Wednesday and the week that Lent begins, I was going to live the Gospel. I was going to quit worrying. I was not going … [Read more…]
I can remember growing up, every year the day before my birthday, my dad would say, “you know what? You and I have something in common.” He would pause so I would ask what it was. Like we didn’t have anything in common. We probably had more in common than we didn’t. Anyway, he would … [Read more…]