A THANKGIVING STORY

Our family loves Thanksgiving, so we would like to share some holiday recipes and some fun Turkey Trivia!

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons almond extract

1/2 cup English Almond Toffee International Delight Coffee Creamer(r) (If you are unable to find this particular flavor, you can substitute French Vanilla, or 1/2 cup milk.)

1/2 cup melted butter

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:
Combine first 6 ingredients. Pour into a buttered 1 1/2 to 2-quart casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot and browned. Serves 6 to 8.

Sweet Potato Cups

Ingredients:

8 oranges

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

Miniature marshmallows

Slice top off oranges about a 1/2 inch from top. Hollow fruit out of the oranges and set aside in a container in refrigerator. (You will use the oranges later for ambrosia recipe I have added below.) Place empty orange shells in the freezer until frozen. While orange shells are freezing, combine the other ingredients. Remove frozen orange cups from freezer. Scallop orange shells at the top with small paring knife. This will be easy to do since oranges are frozen. Fill with potato mixture and bake 30 minutes, topping with miniature marshmallows and baking until brown, usually an additional 10 minutes.

Southern Ambrosia (The food of the gods!)

We serve this with cake, usually pound cake or coconut cake. It's delicious, and this recipe has been in our family for over 100 years and it's very simple to use!

8 oranges - remove fruit, membrane, and seeds.

1 cup shredded coconut.

1 8 ounce jar maraschino cherries.

Optional: 1-8 ounce can of pineapple chunks.

You can also spike ambrosia with sherry or Grand Marnier liqueur.

Mix the fruit from 8 oranges in a large mixing bowl. Add a cup of shredded coconut and chill in the refrigerator. Just before serving, add maraschino cherries. Serve in crystal sherbet dishes or champagne glasses with cake.

Southern Pound Cake

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 & 1/2 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour
pinch salt
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

INSTRUCTIONS: Grease/flour/spray a 10-inch tube pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of pecans in the bottom. Set aside. With a mixer cream together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar gradually and mix until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Next, add cake flour and salt. Mix; then, add vanilla and pecans. Pour batter into pan. Bake for about an hour and twenty minutes or until done. Cool the cake in the pan for about 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a wire rack.

Orange Date Nut Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter
3 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
3 Tbsp. grated orange rind
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 packages chopped dates (8 oz. each)
2 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
6 cups flour

Glaze:
3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup orange juice
2 to 3 tablespoons finely grated orange peel

Instructions: Cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light. Beat egg yolks until lemon colored and add to creamed mixture. Add buttermilk and grated orange peel; mix well. toss dates and pecans with 1 cup of the flour. Mix remaining flour with other dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture, along with nuts and dates. Beat egg whites until stiff; fold gently into batter. Pour into greased and floured Bundt cake pan and bake at 400° for one hour and fifteen minutes, or until toothpick or cake tester inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven, invert on plate and glaze while hot with a mixture of 3 cups granulated sugar, orange juice and 3 tablespoons grated orange peel.

TURKEY TRIVIA

1. When, why, and where did the Pilgrims come to America?

Answer: In 1620 the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts to escape

religious persecution in England

2. What was country in Europe did the Pilgrims originally flee to prior to coming to America? And why didn’t they stay there?

Answer: Holland. Discovering Holland’s lack of morality, they arranged to come

to America.

3. What crop did the Pilgrims bring with them from Europe that failed to grow in

Plymouth?

Answer: The wheat that the Pilgrims brought with them would not grow on the

rocky soil.

4. After 102 Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, how many people survived the

first year? How did the others die?

Answer: Only 56 Pilgrims survived. Of the original 102 Pilgrims survived, and 46

died of starvation and disease their first winter.

5. What Indian tribe helped the Pilgrim’s survive? How did they help?

Answer: Wamponoag Indians. They provided food for the Pilgrims. The Indians introduced them to corn and showed them how to cultivate the land for crops. They showed them how to tap maple trees for syrup. They educated them on the poisonous plants and plants used for medicinal purposes. They also demonstrated how to hunt for fowl and deer and how to fish.

6. Name of the two Indians who initially came to the Pilgrim’s aid?

Answer: Samoset greeted the Pilgrims and later returned with his friend, Squanto.

7. What did Squanto and Samoset do that shocked the Pilgrims?

Answer: They greeted them in English. The Pilgrims were terrified when Samoset

appeared, but delighted when he greeted them in English. When Samoset returned

he brought his friend Squanto with him, who spoke better English than he did!

They had learned the language from earlier explorers when they had traveled back

to England with them.

8. When and where was the first Thanksgiving?

Answer: Fall, 1621 at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. Exactly when the festival took place is uncertain, but it is believed to have been in mid-October.

9. Governor William Bradford, the Pilgrims’ leader, organized the first Thanksgiving

dinner for giving thanks for what?

Answer: The harvest. After a severe crop failure their first year in America, many of their group died, so a successful harvest was a cause for thanksgiving!

10. Name some of the foods on the first Thanksgiving menu?

Answer: Pheasant, duck, turkey, venison, pigs, chicken, lobster, clams, lobster, corn, squash, dried cranberries, boiled pumpkin, potatoes, corn mush, and wild blackberries. Some Pilgrims were afraid potatoes were poisonous.

11. How many Wampanoag Indians attended the first Thanksgiving dinner?

Answer: Their chief, Massasoit, and 90 braves attended the celebration.

12. How long did the Thanksgiving dinner last?

Answer: Three days.

13. Besides eating what else did the Pilgrims and Indians do at the first Thanksgiving?

Answer: They played games, ran races, marched and played drums. The Indians

demonstrated their bow and arrow skills and the Pilgrims, their musket skills.

14. What American statesman and politician argued on behalf of the turkey against the

bald eagle to become America’s national bird?

Answer: Benjamin Franklin proposed that the turkey to be named the national bird, instead of the bald eagle, because the turkey had saved the Pilgrim's for starvation. Ben, if we’d been there, we would've sided with you!

15. Turkey was on the Pilgrim's menu at the first Thanksgiving, but what did Astronauts

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have for their first meal on the moon?

Answer: What else . . . Turkey!

16. What Sesame Street character’s costume is made out of turkey feathers?

Answer: Big Bird! His costume is made out of 4,000+ white turkey feathers dyed

yellow.

17. How did the American Indians use turkey feathers?

Answer: Indians used turkey feathers for their ceremonial clothing and headdresses, and turkey’s spurs on their arrowheads---OUCH!

18. Where do turkey’s sleep?

Answer: In trees, roosting upon the branches.

19. What time do turkey’s go to bed?

Answer: Sundown.

20. Do turkey’s fly?

Answer: Yes! Wild turkeys fly at speeds of 55 miles per hour to elude their hunters. And they can run up to 25 miles per hour.

21. How much did the world’s largest turkey weigh?

Answer: According to the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largest turkey

weighed a whopping 86 pounds--the size of a large dog. Talk about leftovers!

22. Why do turkey’s have such good eyesight?

Answer: A turkey’s eyes are situated on the sides of their face, so their vision is

270 degrees, which enables them to see movement up to 100 yards away. This is why how elude hunters.

23. What is the most dangerous sport in America?

Answer: No, it’s not NASCAR racing or even football. Biking accidents send

more people to the hospital, but turkey hunting has more fatalities! Because of

wild turkeys' great eyesight and sense of hearing, hunters must stay very still,

quiet, and also camouflage themselves, so they are often shot by other hunts.

24. Is it true that turkey can drown if they look up in the rain?

Answer: Nope, that's a myth. Turkey's eyes are on opposite sides of greater field

of vision . . . so they don't normally look up.

25. What is a leading cause of death for turkeys?

Answer: Same as humans . . . heart attacks. When the Air Force was testing the

sound barrier they discovered literally fields of turkey's that had dropped dead of

heart attacks.

26. We're having turkey on Thanksgiving! Are you? What percentage of Americans has turkey for Thanksgiving dinner? Christmas dinner?

Answer: 90% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving and 50% eat turkey on Christmas Day.

27. How many dollars worth of turkey are sold in America each year?

Answer: $4 billion of turkeys are sold in America each year!

28. Which country consumes the most turkey's per capita!?

Answer: Israel.

29. What is a male turkey called? A female? A baby turkey?

Answer: A male turkey is a tom, a female is a hen and a baby turkeys is called a poult and what sounds do each one of them make?

30. What sounds does a male turkey make? The female? The baby?

Answers: The male tom gobbles, the female hen clicks or clucks, and

the baby peeps.

31. What sound does a turkey make when it is frightened?

Answer: When frightened, a turkey sounds like they are saying, "Turk, turk,

turk" . . . so this is where the name turkey originated!

32. Turkeys once became extinct in America. When? And why?

Answer: In the early 1900's, because of over hunting and cutting down trees to

make way for farmlands.

33. Age and sex are determining turkey taste factors, so which turkey . . . the young

turkey or the old turkey and male or female has the best taste and tenderness?

Answer: Old toms are preferable to younger male ones, because their meat is

stringier. Sorry ladies, but younger hens are preferable to older ones . . . sound

familiar? The old birds are tough, but not old toms!

34.Why do we get so sleepy after Thanksgiving Dinner?

Answer: Don’t blame the turkey! Although turkey meat contains an amino acid called L-tryptophan and it is known that this amino acid can make you sleepy, there is not enough in a turkey to make you snooze! The real reason is that Thanksgiving foods have a lot of carbohydrates -- those are nutrients found in things like bread, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. These foods can help make you sleepy. And you probably eat a bigger meal than normal at Thanksgiving. That makes your stomach work harder to digest the food, and more blood flows to your stomach and away from your brain. All together, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is designed to make you sleepy!

YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY BABY!

Another time. Another place. My latest book, Valeria's Cross, written with author Kathi Macias, is a historical novel about a young woman, who lived in 3rd century A.D.

Can you imagine if:

your father forced you to marry a repulsive man you did not love?

your husband forced you to make sacrifices to his pagan gods?

your husband brought home his illegitimate children for you to raise?

your husband went away to battle and did not return for years?

your husband granted permission for you to speak?

you were not allowed to pray?

And if you refused any of your husband's requests---you would be tortured; maybe even to death!

This was Valeria's life in 3rd Century B. C.

You've come a long way baby!!!

Oftentimes, women fantasize over the glamour of yesteryear. And yes, a woman of position such as Valeria would have pampered beyond belief! Bring on the scented baths and massages with oils, the beautiful silks, clothes, and jewels! But in reality, there has never been a better time for a woman to live than the 21st Century. The freedoms of women today would shock our grandmothers!

How so? Can you remember your grandfather telling your grandmother how to vote? And she would probably listen. But then my mother would not take voting instructions from my father. I can recall a conversation between my parents that went something like this.

"You should vote for so and so," my father told my mother.

"I'm not voting for him," my mother responded. "I like the other candidate. She is my friend."

"But so and so is more qualified for the position. And he's an honest man."

"But I promised my friend I would vote for her. A promise is a promise."

My father turned red at this point in the conversation as he said, "But your friend . . . well, she is crazy."

"Crazy because she's a woman?"

"Because she doesn't have any sense."

"In your opinion is there any woman who has enough sense to run for office?" My mother questioned him.

My father did not answer. Good decision, Daddy!

Mother voted for her candidate, and Daddy voted for his. Daddy's candidate won, but at least Mother exercised her right to vote! And later Daddy's candidate was indicted. And no, Mother didn't rub it in . . . she was a defender the politician.

Can you imagine that women have been voting for less than a 100 years? They received their voting rights in 1920. My great-grandmother voted for the first time when she was in her sixties. I wonder if she voted for the candidate of her choice or her husband's choice? Or perhaps they may have liked the same candidate?

The 15th Amendment passed in 1870 granting African American men the right to vote. However, not until the voter's right Act of 1965, did most African Americans fully exercise their voting rights. They were prevented from voting by poll taxes and literacy tests, especially in the South.

Progress is slow . . . 3rd Century BC to the 20th Century. You've come a long way baby, but what a long, long journey!

Celebrate your freedoms! Be sure to vote . . . it's a privilege. And if you really want to know how free you are, order a copy of Valeria's Cross on amazon.com.

The Last Days of Summer!

Summer gathers up her robes of glory,
And, like a dream, glides away.
~ Sarah Helen Whitman

When I was a child, I was saddened to blow a goodbye kiss to the last days summer. Even today, I am a bit melancholy when summer ends. Are you? Below are some summer plans for your family to celebrate the last days of summer! I have added some special summer memories that should explain why I am sad at the end of the summers. Share your precious summer memories with me!

10 THINGS TO DO

BEFORE SUMMER ENDS

1. Celebrate the end of summer! Throw an end of the summer party . . . a cookout, a swimming party, a picnic, or an outdoor tea!

2. Enjoy a family camping trip in your backyard under the stars.

3. Spend a day going through the closets and drawers to analyze the family's fall wardrobes. Remove any clothes and shoes that no longer fit to take to a charity. Less fortunate shoppers will be looking for school wardrobes for their families so get them your things there in time to benefit them! And don't forget any summer duds that were outgrown over the summer. Old backpacks are appreciated too!

4. Once you analyze wardrobes, schedule a back to school shopping trip. Even if your kids wear uniforms to school they will still need new Fall clothes, shoes, and accessories.

5. Take a 1-day vacation locally---drive to the beach of the lake or visit a museum, go to an outdoor concert.

6. Try an ethnic restaurant to introduce the family to new food. Or plan an ethnic dinner.

7. Plan a family end of the summer picnic, and have each family member be responsible for a dish. Even the youngest kid can suggest a dish.

8. Make a summer memory book together. Include photos and have each family member contribute one or more pages of written memories of "What I did this summer." Also, have each family member write a poem about summer.

9. Take the family to a garden or a farm where you can pick your own strawberries, blueberries, grapes or vegetables, and then make a special dessert together.

10. Schedule a night to make plans for the Fall. . . which football games you will attend, pick out Halloween costumes, choose a Family Fall service project for charity, etc.

I have made a list of all the reasons I've been sad to see summer fade away and all the things I enjoy and miss when the summertime is over. Do you have any lingering summer memories? Please share them with us!

50 THINGS MISSED WHEN SUMMER ENDS

SOME MEMORIES FROM MY CHILDHOOD

SUMMERTIME DELIGHTS

• School's out! Summer vacation!
• Warm sunny days.
• Chilly air conditioning.
• Daylight Savings Time.
• Play outside until dark!
• Lazy mornings/late bedtimes.
• Nighttime frog and cricket symphonies outside your bedroom window.
• Awakened to birds singing.
• June bugs.
• Bumblebees.
• Squished mosquitos and dead snakes
• Summer flowers and flowering shrubs.
• Green trees and grass.
• The smell of fresh mown grass.
• Screened porches.
• Summer breezes.
• Sandals and flip-flops.
• Shorts and halter tops.
• White linen
• Ice cold watermelon.
• Frosty iced tea with a sprig of mint.
• Tomato sandwiches.
• Fresh corn on the cob or cut off.
• Cherry Cokes and lime or lemon sours at Roanoke City Pharmacy.
• Green plums.
• Green apples.
• Peaches
• Fruit cobblers.
• Lime sherbet punch.
• Fresh-squeezed lemonade or limeade.
• Fresh summer vegetables right off the vines. Picking them too!
• Hand-cranked homemade ice cream.
• Frozen Snickers.
• Frozen Cokes that sometimes explode in the freezer when you forget them.
• Ice cubes with salt on them.
• Melon balls.
• Barbecues.
• Frozen Margaritas and Daiquries.
• Strawberry Shortcake.

SUMMER MEMORIES

• Opening day of the Roanoke, AL City Pool.
• Dancing to the juke box under the stars at the Pavilion in Roanoke, AL.
• Summer romances.
• Cruising the Dairy Queen to see who's hanging out.
• Climbing Potash Tower, even though we didn't make it to the top!
• Overnight shopping trips in Atlanta.
• Buying a new bathing suit each summer at McGilvary's Dress Shop in Roanoke.
• Modeling bathing suits and shorts at McGilvary's and earning money!
• Gay Braden's Roanoke, AL store for Coca Cola, Snickers candy bars, and ice cream.
• Driving by your boyfriend's house.
• Sunday afternoon drives in the country.
• J.U.G. Club initiation.
• J.U.G. Club Summer Trip to Panama City, FL.
• Sliding down Big Rock in Big Springs at the spring fed creek.
• Climbing trees and building tree houses.
• Reading comic books and movie magazines in the drugstore.
• Riding bikes on Allen Avenue day and night.
• Cookouts with the neighbors.
• Digging in the sandbox, but never getting never getting to China.
• Cleaning the cemetery and placing flowers on the graves.
• Swinging on the branch of the mimosa tree.
• Catching lightening bugs in a jar at night.
• Counting and wishing on falling stars.
• Junior Garden Club meetings . . .Death to the Weeds . . .Life to the Flowers!
• Summer slumber parties.
• Sunday afternoon drives in the country.
• Visits to grandparents' houses.
• Cousins.
• Badminton in the backyard.
• Croquet in the backyard.
• Watching summer football practices.
• Swimming and golfing at the Roanoke County Club.
• Flirting with the lifeguards at the pool.
• Going off the high dive.
• Floating down the river.
• Vacation Bible School at Roanoke Alabama First Baptist Church.
• Summer camp . . . not always good memories! LOL!
• Callaway Gardens . . .paddle boats, the beach, the water ski shows, the FSU Circus, bike rides around the lake.
• Playing in the sprinkler.

OTHER SUMMER ACTIVITIES

• Planting seeds and plants in the garden
• Putting up vegetables for the wintertime and making fruit preserves.
• Afternoon summer showers and occasional thunderstorms.
• Swinging in a porch swing.
• Sleeping in a hammock.
• Watching summer football practice.
• Shelling peas and snapping green beans.
• Fishing.
• Tennis
• Softball games.
• Sitting on the porch waving at everyone who drives by.
• Going to the beach, the lake, or the mountains.
• Summer weddings.
• Summer parties and teas.

What are you memories from the summertime? Please share them with us!

XOX

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

BECAUSE HE LIVES

(c) Bill Gaither

God sent his son,

They called him Jesus

He came to love, heal and forgive

He lived and died

To buy my pardon

An empty grave is there to prove

My Savior Lived!

Because He lives

I can face tomorrow

Because He lives

All fears are gone;

Because I know

He holds my future

And life is worth the living

Hailey Blu in her Easter Bonnet Just because He lives.

When we first married my husband Ken introduced me to Bill and Gloria Gaither. What a delightful couple with a musical heritage. I was thrilled because my favorite Easter hymn is Because He Lives, one that Bill Gaither penned. Well, maybe Handel's Hallelujah Chorus is my very favorite, but Because He Lives is a close second. Even when it is not Easter and life becomes difficult, I sing the words and this song very comforting. You will agree that life can become difficult; even unbearable at times. But we can rejoice, because He Lives! Jesus said, "I have overcome the world."

Easter is my very favorite holiday . . . I love everything about it . . . the resurrection story, the hope of the holiday, the coloring Easter eggs with my granddaughter Hailey and making resurrection cookies, one of our favorite traditions. You can find the recipe and other family traditions in my cooks co-authored with Alice Gray, Grandmother, Another Name for Love, Simon and Schuster, Keepsake for A Mother's Heart, and A Christmas Keepsake. I have also posted the recipe below.

You can imagine my sadness when I heard that a young woman in my husband's cancer group died this week, leaving her young son and husband to grieve for her. How tragic to die at Easter. But after much reflection I realized that Easter is the perfect time to die . . . with our focus on the resurrection bringing the hope of eternal life! Also with spring bursting first, the constant reminders of rebirth surrounding us, trees budding, flowers blooming, and brown grass turning green! Just as God brings the earth to life after the dead of winter, He will bring gus to live . . . . He defeated death at the cross. He lives, and so we live! The message of Easter is a message of hope and life.

May you have a blessed Easter with your family and celebrate that He Lives! And when life on this earth becomes overwhelming, just remember He lives within your heart!

Baking these cookies is a great way to teach your children and grandchildren the resurrection story!

Resurrection Cookies 1c. whole pecans 1 tsp. vinegar 4 egg whites, pinch of salt 1c. sugar, zipper baggie wooden spoon tape The Holy Bible. Preheat oven to 300 BEFORE BEGINNING. Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3. Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30. Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11. Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27. So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 c. sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know this and how to belong to Him. Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16. Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3. Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matt. 27:57-60. Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matt.27:65-66. GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22. On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Take a bite and notice the cookies are hollow! On the first Easter Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty! Read Matt. 28:1-9

OUR TOWN

Our Town

It's here I met my first love and had my first kiss.

I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist.

Over there is where I bought my first car

It turned over once, but it didn't go far.

Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning-bugs fly.
But I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes.

I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't wanna go!

I love, my town, you'll always live in my soul.

---Iris Dement

I love my hometown, and the friends I grew up with are so precious to me. Even the ones I have not seen for years, I know when I greet them, it will be as though we never parted. We'll take up where we left off. And many of my friends there I have kept in close touch. My best friend and I talk almost very single day, even if it's just a brief "how are you?"

Every time I leave my town after a visit, I feel sad and I cry. It is not because I do not want to return to California, because I adore my life here . . . it's simply because my hometown holds memories of a childhood filled with happiness. You have a history with the people you grew up with. There is a certain security that no matter what you do or what happens in your life, they will still love you and welcome you home with open arms, back into the fold. They know all your secrets and all your flaws, and yet they still love you. There is a familiarity . . . You know who lives in every house on the streets; their joys and sorrows. And the memories . . . my first day of school, my first kiss, my first love, my first heartbreak, the friends, the good times and the bad. Every old song or hymn I hear takes me back in time and evokes a lifetime of memories. Many people do not share this sentiment concerning their childhood, but mine was happy, which is one of the greatest blessings of my life. When life gets tough, my mind takes me there, especially when I feel sentimental.

Today I drink far too many Coca Cola's and eat too many Snicker candy bars, because it brings transports me to Saturday mornings spent with my father at Gay Braden's store. I miss my father, and I miss Gay Braden, and his wife Lessie, who always came out of their house behind the store, to say hello to my sister, Vickie, and me. But not all of the memories are sweet . . . like the summertime I invited all the neighborhood kids to Gay Braden's store and charged their Cokes and candy bars to my father's account. Back then a $48 monthly bill was pretty astronomical! Yikes! Daddy's lecture still rings in my ears. Another happy Saturday memory . . . Daddy took us to White Head's diner at Three Points. We loved spinning on the red leather stools at the counter. I can still taste the barbecue and hear White Head's teasing us.

When I was five years old, I learned to play pool! Seriously! We lived at Transco, and my first best friend and first love was a boy, Clayton Thompson. We played pool together at the company clubhouse. Today his older sister, Robbie, who guided us both through our early childhood is a dear friend. I had a terrible accident when I fell on a dog as we were playing in the yard. Robbie and Clayton rescued me and took me home amidst a shower of blood. Amazingly, I am not afraid of dogs today! Dr. McCrary, my friend Stacy's father, sewed me back together again. Even when I brush my hair today, my head is still tender from the dog's teeth marks and when I touch my ear, I feel cartilage, all chopped up by the dog's sharp teeth.

When I started the first grade, my parents moved to town. It was sad to leave Clayton behind, but we were reunited in Mrs. Quattlebaum's first grade class. Clayton sobbed the first day of school. He still remembers my mother as the angel who rescued him. She scooped him up in her arms and took him home with her. But Clayton broke my heart in the first grade too, calling me a sissy girl. He hadn't noticed the difference until we started the first grade.

My sister Vickie and I had an abundance of friends on Allen Avenue. I met my very best friend, Susan Henry on move-in day. She is still my BFF today, many years later. I miss the plays and concerts Susan, Sudie Bailey, my sister Vickie and I staged at our house. We forced the neighborhood children to attend for a nickel each! Thus began my entrepreneurial career. The junior garden club held in our garage was another favorite weekly activity. We mined for programs in our encyclopedias, and that's where I first learned of the danger of barracuda. Don't ask what those ferocious fish had to do with gardening . . . it was our president Sudie Bailey's program, but I always watched for the fish every time I visited the ocean, even though they were not indigenous to any particular oceans in which I have swum. I will never forget our garden club's motto, which was so good that I sincerely believe it should be included in Bartlett's Book of Quotes---Death to the weeds! Life to the flowers! Pretty profound for a couple of ten-year-olds!

I miss Dot and Doyle Benefield, who went dancing with my parents. We had fun Saturday night visits at their home and loved it when their son Larry brought his dates in to say hello. Dot survived a brain tumor and was with us for unexpected decades afterwards until the fateful day that she refused to relinquish her purse to a teenage burglar in an Auburn antique store. He shot and killed her, breaking so many hearts and condemning him to a life in prison.

I think of my pretty clothes that my mother had Dicie Gosden sew for my sister and me. Memories of going to Dicie's house to be fitted and visiting with her and her husband Blake, still give me a tug at my heart every time I pass their house on my way to Roanoke. Another special memories is the sight of Ruth Bartlett's profuse flower bed across the street from our house on Allen Avenue. But I don't miss the day that I innocently plucked her prize iris for a bouquet for my mother, who was ill. Ruth was unhappy but forgiving. She and her husband Wayne invited us over for popcorn and Cokes the next weekend, a Saturday night ritual we frequently enjoyed. When I think of the bicycles, my sister and I asked Santa for, I feel sad, because we discovered them in the Bartlett's garage, bursting our belief in Santa Claus. Just this year, Maureen Peek, our beloved next door neighbor, died. Maureen was family to me, my godmother, always dispensing advice and wisdom. I saw her most every day I lived on Allen Avenue. Maureen could be tough too, because her standards were high. She forgave me for locking her son Dan and his friend, Johnny Stevenson, in the basement even though we refused to tell anyone where the boys were. No one remembers the reason Susan Henry and I did this dastardly deed, but the boys had tied us to the mimosa tree with nylon cord, dangling us by our hands high above out heads. The little devils! Payback time! I loved the watermelons James, her husband, brought to our backyard barbecues. One of his greatest pleasures was watching my sister Vickie enjoy a sweet slice. I admired his quiet strength. Their sons Jimmy and Dan were our friends and enemies. Did I mention Dan shot me with his BB gun? He was shooting rocks and one ricocheted into my knee . . . an accident of whose scar I still bear.

I miss dinners at the City Cafe, especially their lemon pies. And the hamburger steak at the Ranch Cafe! I really miss the Baptist Church and St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, especially their Christmas Eve service. I miss the old hymns in church and the parade of women's stylish hats on Easter Sunday. I the miss white gloves and veiled hats we wore. I remember our youth choir, especially the time we won. And how could I forget afterwards when my sister Vickie threw up in the backseat of our choir director, Mrs. Hammer's, new car on the way home. I remember my best friend Susan Henry singing a solo of Jesus Savior Pilot Me, an sitting down in the slap dab middle of the song when she missed the high note, bursting into tears. Since that night, every time I hear that song, I giggle. Sudie, our "older" motherly friend escorted Susan out of the church, but her peers, myself included, giggled shamelessly. I miss G.A.'s and its leaders, Miss Mary Morgan and Miss Shila Corley. We learned so much scripture and had so much fun. During a very difficult period of my life, Those scriptures I memorized came back to me giving me strength and hope. Raise up a child in the way they should go!

After school we meandered to town, our destination---City Pharmacy. There we sat at the counter or in booths, sipping cherry Cokes and lemon freezes from the soda fountain. The owners and pharmacists, Mr. Harris and Mr. Neighbors, pretended not to notice that we snuck a peek at the latest issue of the forbidden Photoplay Magazine, even though our mothers would have objected. Probably because we spent our allowances on dozens of comic books . . . Archie, Veronica, Katie Keen, and Richie Rich!

I miss Sunday dinners at my grandparent's house, especially my grandmother's fried chicken and chess pie. All my cousins gathered there. I can still taste the apples from grandfather's trees. He regaled us with wonderful tales, many that frighted us! He made a special treat for us, chocolate milk on ice. The Varsity Drive-in Atlanta made it famous . . . they called it the P.C. I also remember eating tomato sandwiches with tons of mayo and salt and pepper. Plums, both green and ripe from Daddy's trees were the best and loved by all the neighbors! I miss the quail breakfasts at my Huey grandparent's big house on the hill. After they died, their house burned down. Like them, it's gone taking a lot of happy memories with it. I remember playing Chinese checkers there and picking scuppernongs and muscadines from her vineyards. I also recall they always had a glass of Wild Turkey with Coke that they loved to sip and that made my grandmother a subject of gossip in this Southern Baptist town, but she could have cared less . . . it was not against her religion.

I miss all the adventures with my friends in the nearby woods, getting lost and vowing to become a missionary to Africa if God would show us the way home. He did and we didn't. I cringe when I think we lost one of my father's war medals in the woods and the day we tipped the boat in the lake and lost Susan Henry's father Bill's prized tackle box filled with his fishing lures and treasures. it is still on the bottom of the lake somewhere.

I miss the mimosa tree in our front yard. We climbed and swung on its branches, and made treasures with its frilly flowers. And how I miss those summer nights on Allen Avenue, when all of our neighbors brought a dish and Daddy would fire up the grill and turn the crank on the ice cream maker! I had to sit on the top of the ice cream freezer to hold the top down while Daddy made the last few turns to ensure it was frozen solid.

I miss the ice storms when school was cancelled and Mother would cook on her gas stove and bring the food to Bill and Inez Henry's basement where we gathered with our neighbors to stay warm in front of their gas heaters. I can still taste the cherry tarts left over from Sue Bailey's bridge club earlier that week. In her mid eighties today, Sue still plays bridge! I long for bike rides with my best friends under the street lights on Allen Avenue on hot summer nights. Or catching lightening bugs in Mason jars in the backyard that I would light up my room after the lights were out. Buck Bailey loved to fish and he taught us how to dig for worms and clean his prize catches. I impress my husband as I expertly filet a fish today!

Saturday afternoons were spent at the movie theater watching double features, never dreaming I would one day meet and become friends with many of the stars I watched up on the big screen . . . Pat Boone, Debbie Reynolds, Ali McGraw, and Mickey Rooney, among others! I do not miss the nights we sweated under mounds of covers after having watched horror movies. I still cannot look through a pair of binoculars without wincing after watching Horrors of the Black Museum, with Vincent Price. In the opening scene the man who lived in gothic castle high on the hill received a gift, a pair of binoculars. When he put them up to his eyes and turned the dial to focus, two nails plunged into his eyeballs. I lost an entire night's sleep over that scene, as did my friend Susan Henry, with whom I spent the night. When we heard a noise we ran for the guest room and jumped into bed with her grandmother, Mama Fuller, who was visiting.We snuck in the theater for forbidden movies too, A Summer Place and Imitation of Life! For special movies like South Pacific, we traveled to Atlanta and saw them at the fabulous Fox Theater. When Sound of Music was released, I was sick and missed the movie. It would be almost 30+ years later that I finally had the pleasure of seeing the movie for the first time with its director, Robert Wise. He enthralled me with stories about making the film, while I, in turn, entertained him with stories of my town.

Weekends shopping trips in Atlanta are among some of my best memories. We loved to shop downtown Atlanta at Rich's Department Store, where we rode escalators and lunched in the renowned Magnolia Room and ate chicken pot pie with pecan torte cake for dessert! Yum! I can still taste it. At Christmas we rode the pink pig. We stayed at the Henry Grady Hotel in Atlanta for the weekend. We would come home with the latest fashions not just for ourselves, but for our Barbie dolls, as well! And one weekend when the fabulous Rivera Motel opened, we convinced Daddy to stay there. We enjoyed dinner at Aunt Fannie's Cabin and sometimes, steaks at Dale's Cellar. I can purchase Dale's steak marinade at Gelson's Grocery store in California.

One of my best memories are the Beatles. Each of my friends had their favorite. My friend Susan Hodges loved the Beatles more than anyone, and she particularly loved George! he was my favorite too, but my devotion paled in comparison. Our parents took us to see the Beatles at the Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta. We stayed at the Henry Grady Hotel and they put on "Beatle buses." I still have my ticket stub. We loved the Beatle's concert, but we were seated so high up in the stadium they looked like "beetles!" Still it is a history making that memory I will cherish forever. They opened the evening with "She Loves Me," their first big hit and the crowd went berserk.

I miss the library in our town, where I discovered the world of books, traveling the world as the pages unfolded. I have been blessed to travel to many of those places I read and dreamed about, as an adult. People were surprised that this flirty flighty gal was such a studious bookworm, devouring four books a week. I miss Mrs. Annie Awbrey, the librarian who prepared a reading list for me, and guided and encouraged my love of literature, like she did so many of my classmates. We all have fond memories of her. Even though some of my friends poked fun at this passion of mine, I was unashamed. I read Stuart Little and became worried that my mother who was pregnant might birth a mouse and wondered if I would be able love it if she did?

I miss weekly Girl Scout meetings at the Scout hut under the water tank, where each class scrawled their senior saying in red for the whole town to see. Should I dare mention that it was the girls in our class of 1968; not the guys, who climbed and pained the water tank our senior year. I do not miss the Girl Scout camping trips! My ideal camping is still a weekend at the Ritz Carlton!

The week the fair came to town was the most exciting week of the year! They let school out early so we could go. I never managed to get the balls in the holes to win a stuffed animal, but I won a few junky prizes playing pick up ducks! I loved the rides, except when they stopped us at the top of the ferris wheel. The thing my sister Vickie and I always won was the Halloween Carnival contest for best costume. The first year it was the cat costume with the tails that Mother stuffed, and then the next year we won for our witch costumes. Mother made us wigs of gray yarn. I get every ounce of my creativity from her. What we wanted to win at the Halloween Carnival was the cake walk with yummy cakes, but we never won. Our neighbor, Sudie Bailey, won all the cake walks until she was banned from them. Seriously! We bobbed for apples and had our fortunes told by Rosalyn McMurray, dressed as gypsy, but we always knew it was she in the red bandana and big gold hoops that dangled from her ears!

I miss Mother's chocolate pies and banana pudding with mile high meringue for dessert. I miss our maid, who was like a second mother to me. She would make my bed for me, and tell my mother I did it, where I could go out and play! Her cooking I do not miss . . . Mother was a much better cook. I miss her sons who worked in our yard with Daddy every week. Nice boys who grew into exemplary citizens and wonderful men, who have made a difference in our town. Another thing of my youth that I do not miss is segregation, and I'm glad it is in the past. Its injustices always made me terribly sad as a child. I miss the homecoming parades and the Christmas parades in our town. I miss all the pranks our crowd pulled on upperclassmen! I really miss our sorority trips to Panama City and stolen kisses at the amusement park in the haunted house, out of sight of our chaperones. I love the memories of our Girl Scout trips with Mrs. Hodges and Mrs. Neighbors, especially the trip to Juliette Lowe's home in Savannah. Susan Henry and I set her kitchen on fire as we tried to bake benne seed cookies. We drew slips of paper from the jobs we were supposed to perfom . . . what bad luck that the two of us would draw cook! Never one for the kitchen, I along with Lucy Lane became infamous in our home economics class for years to come. We melted the double boiler in which were heating the hot chocolate! Who knew you were supposed to put water in the bottom? "Every girl should take home economics," our teacher, Mrs. LeSeuer told her classes, long after we had graduated. "It has been proven in this very class," she told her students, "That some girls do not even know how to boil water!" Sad but true!

I recall the joy I felt when I returned home from camp in the summertime. The air conditioning and the Hershey Bar pie mother made for me for my welcome home dinner are such pleasant memories. I miss my room that Daddy painted blue, my favorite color! I miss the view of our yard from my bedroom room and Kathy Kirby, the older girl next door, whom I sometimes talked through the windows on the side of the house.

In our early teens, we exchanged our bikes for riding in cars. I miss circling the Dairy Queen in Mrs. Prestige's white Covair, to see which cute guys were out and about, and eating chili cheeseburgers that we all loved. Naturally Kathryn was our favorite mom. She was drive us to out-of-town games and anywhere we want to go.

I miss the City Pool where I learned to swim and flirt with lifeguards. It took me years but I finally mustered up the courage to jump off the high dive. I miss the Pavilion where my friends and I danced the night away listening to our favorite 60's hits from Sitting on the Dock of the Bay to My Girl to Blue Velvet. I miss the Country Club pool and playing golf with all the cute boys! Thank you Daddy for teaching me how to play! I miss my friend who drove away from the Club and never made it home killed on dead man's curve on Airport Road. I miss the slumber parties where we stayed up almost all night with our hair in humongous pink curlers and gossiped about boys,clothes, and experimented with the latest beauty rituals from Seventeen Magazine.

I still remember the first day of school and trying not to cry when my mother left me there. I remember the day I thought she had forgotten to pick me up and feared I would never see her again Her friend, one of my classmates had volunteered to take me home, but had forgotten to tell me when she became engrossed in a conversation with our teacher. first grader's mother pick me up. I still miss my teachers who taught me valuable lessons from books and about life. I miss my high school sorority and what fun we had and also, who much we learned about various subjects in our programs. I really miss Friday night football, cheering for our team and twirling or cheering at the half-time show. The night I remember most is when I asked my boyfriend to make a touchdown for me before the game. My boyfriend played a position that didn't normally make touchdowns . . . I knew it was just for me when he intercepted the ball and made a touchdown! He not only did this once, but twice! I miss basketball games in the gym, where we were once put on probation for cheering too loudly. The referees had mistaken our enthusiasm for heckling.

I am sad for the unfulfilled dreams . . . like my sandbox, where I never reached China, despite my many hours of digging. I miss daydreams in our treehouse in Sudie Bailey's yard. With Daddy and her dad, Buck's help, we installed a dumb waiter so we wouldn't have to climb up and down the tree for our snacks. It is place I spent hours thinking about life, God and my future. I prayed there, because I felt closer to God . . . it was closer to heaven! And I miss sitting in front of my mother's make-up mirror, experimenting. My reflections gave me hope that I could one day be a pretty and glamourous woman. I miss my first high school love and occasionally wondered what life might have been like if we were still together.

There were sad times too. Losing my grandfather, the first person I loved who died, and then two years later my grandmother, and then my young four year old cousin, a victim of childhood cancer. I can still feel the softness of grandmother's cheek and the fragrance of her rose water and glycerin. I miss my friend, Jimmy Pounds, who was killed on Airport Road. I never got to tell him how sorry I was that I refused to get in the car with him that day . . . would that have changed things? Would it have prevented his death or would I have died in the accident too? Another poignant memory was the day Susan Henry and I put away our Barbie dolls. We had finally decided that we were too old to play with dolls in the 8th grade. It wasn't that we didn't want to continue playing with dolls, it was just a foolish pride we had that it was time to grow up. I'll never forget how much we cried as packed them away for the daughters we would have one day. After we put away our dolls, came boys who broke our heart and even more boys whose hearts we broke.

But the saddest day of my teenage life was when we drove away from our home to move to Atlanta when I was 15 . . I can still recall the pain of my last backward glimpse of home; my friends sitting on the curb in front of my house, sobbing as we drove away from a idyllic life filled with memories.

Years later Mother and Daddy moved back from Atlanta to our town, and I was able to visit and go home again! There is truly no place like home! And Thomas Wolf was wrong . . . you can go home again! When we lost Daddy tragically last year, who was waiting for me in front yard when I arrived . . . old friends, who had come out in the middle of the night to grieve with me.