“Those are my words”
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I Lost My Nook
I lost my Nook. I searched in every cranny and crook With intensity building until I shook. “Why can’t I just read a hard-copy book?!!!” I misplaced a library! My heart rate quickens. Now I’ll not know how the plot thickens. My body aches and sickens— “Where the dickens is my Dickens?!” Ava’s…
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Searching for the Baby Jesus
I laugh at the Baby Jesus every year when we pull the Christmas decorations out of the attic. We have an old popcorn tin full of Christmas toys. We have a Charlie Brown set with his little tree. We have all the characters from Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, including the misfit toys and Chuck’s favorite,…
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Daylight Savings Time and the Night I Missed Carol Burnett
find Kristi and me in above picture “Y’all have to go to bed early tonight.” “Why?” “Because the time changes, and we have to move the clocks forward an hour.” “No, we don’t. We turn them back an hour. We get to stay up an hour later.” Evidently in the mid-70s, spring forward and fall…
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Snippets of Starla
The hypothesis for Starla’s 7th grade science project at Young Jr. High School was “Adding food dye to chicken feed causes hens to lay colored eggs.” Daddy built a chicken coop for the backyard on Decatur Street, and Starla set about dying chicken feed. Day after day, her chickens laid the prettiest brown eggs, not…
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Byrds of a Feather
Lovey LouEmma Andrews was 13 when she married 15-year-old Henry Isom Byrd. I was four years old when she died. I don’t remember her, but folks say her name fit her. She was my mama’s mama’s mama. My mama told me she sat at Mama Byrd’s bedside after her stroke and prayed that she could…
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A Perfect Pedicure, Mon
Briana gives pedicures. She talks all the time about pedicures. She points out how much you need a pedicure and hounds you until you sit still and let her paint your toenails. She does a great job. She is diligent and tedious in her chosen art. In the summer of 2012, our church youth group…
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And Now I Am 49
Like most little kids, all I aspired to be was 16 years old. I longed for it and counted down to it. I thought 16 was the greatest age possible. Even when I was older than 16, I would have told you that being 16 was as good as life gets. Oh, the independence and…
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The Road Often Traveled (or Time Well Spent)
The Conner Carpool August 3, 1999 – May 29, 2014 Dear Carpool, We have shared countless hours as we traveled a bazillion miles together along the same route from home to school to home (especially from fall 2005 to January 24, 2010, when the kids were at two different schools). Chuck has always enjoyed…
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A Story about Angie, Daddy, and Annie Armstrong
The picture is not 1972. It’s probably 1969. But it’s Easter. And we’re adorable. During football season of 1971, when I was in 1st grade, the TV repair man came to the house and declared the black and white television “Unfixable.” Mama and Daddy had just finished building a house and had no money for expensive extras. So, we…
