The Bird Whistler

My son Bruce is so busy with his job and two boys that a visit from him with the boys is a rarity.

So, when he told me he would be able to come up on a week-day, I began to plan something for me to do with Grant. He is my 13 year old grandson. Bruce always plans his visits to come after lunch and before the evening meal. The reason for this timing is that Grant has Prader Willi and is restricted in how much he can eat. Bruce always brings special fruit flavored water and a treat for a mid afternoon snack. Mealtime is hard for Grant since he cannot eat all his tummy says he can eat.

I like to have something different planned to do with Grant. So, on the spur of the moment I decided to get out the Bingo game and arrange to have prizes for the winners. I had it all set up on the glass top table in the sun room. To make it easier to cover our numbers I had cut little squares of masking tape and stuck them on the table top. In a different place I had hidden the prizes , four of them in an envelope and numbered from one to four.

Bruce asked to take a shower as he had been awakened by Grant at 5:00 that morning. So, as he went up for his shower Grant and Reed, his 18 year old brother got the game going. Grant had an unusually good card and with a little encouragement from me and his brother he soon had a "Bingo". So, I got out prize # one. Four quarters. Grant loves money as he knows he can go shopping and he loves to do that. As the game progressed Grant had a second Bingo. This time the prize was money also, 3 quarters, 2 dimes and 1 nickel. In no time at all, Grant had his third win. This time the prize really got interesting. It was a $20.00 bill.

But that was when his luck ran out as Reed got the next "Bingo". This time the prizes took a down turn, or so I thought. But in all good grace Reed took his prize and went into the kitchen to put water into it. He was not impressed with it. However, his younger brother's curiosity had gotten to him and he wanted Reed's prize. I said , "Maybe you can buy it from him." This appealed to Grant and he told Reed he would give him $20 for his prize. SOLD. What teen ager can turn down $20 for something he did not want in the first place.

Grant went into the kitchen and put a little water into this unusual whistle shaped like a bird. Then he blew air into it and out came the most beautiful bird call I had ever heard. It trilled and rippled and hung in the air like a rustling of feathers. I jumped up and went into where he was and he was soon making all of these beautiful bird calls. Of course I was thrilled at this turn of events. We all went outside and listened to see if any of the birds in the woods around us would respond. And they did !! We were all enchanted. It seems the amount of water in the whistle and the way you blow determines the call you make. Even better the string around the whistle could be hung around the neck for ease of use.

Where did this whistle come from, you may ask. Well, several years ago I ordered it from a magazine with gifts for children. I had bought it with an eye to using it for a Christmas gift, but had discarded the idea and put the whistle away in a cubbyhole in my desk. I had forgotten all about it. It was still in the plastic bag it came in and attached to it was a card explaining all about this little whistle. I needed another prize and quickly decided this was it !

The item came from Jamtown. http://www.jamtown.com/ It was made in Vietnam by craftsmen and women who assemble the clay birds. They are made from a safe, lead-free ceramic. The birds are shaped and painted before firing to harden the material. It is actually a Christmas tree ornament but makes bird sounds so sweet it can be your companion all year long.

There is more. Quoting from the booklet that came with it : "The Bird Water Whistle captures much of Vietnam. Creatures of the air represent freedom, and the people of this country struggled for centuries against Chinese, French and U.S. armies. Water is vital to the rice fields that supply the staple food sitting on almost every plate every day. Bird calls in the early morning start at the same time as the hardworking, industrious Vietnamese people. To fly like a bird is a universal dream and another example of how people are more alike than different all over the planet earth."

So, in light of this extra information, do you think that Grant made a good bargain with his brother for this bird whistle?

College Chums

After graduating from Harlan High School I began a new phase of my life by going to Eastern Kentucky State College in Richmond, Ky. One of my best friends came also and was my room mate for one quarter. My mother made matching bedspreads for us to use and also curtains for our room. The material she used was red with white dots, or perhaps it was the other way around white with red dots. I really have forgotten but we both liked them and when Betty left after one quarter she wanted to take her bedspread back to Harlan. Betty missed her boy friend there and she later did marry him. I was her maid of honor and the picture shows us out in her back yard after the wedding. She became Mrs. Warren Hensley and now lives in Knoxville, Ky.

There were other friends from our home area in Harlan Kentucky. The second picture shows us on the stairs of one of the buildings with those best friends. The top girl is Dottie Ellison. An only child of a nurse and an engineer. Dottie was cheerful and full of life. She floated around like a butterfly and was always into something interesting. Over 20 years ago I heard that she had passed on. I do not remember when she left our college as I left for a sojourn in Texas before graduating. I think she must have left while I was away for that year.

The second young lady on the stairs is Bonnie Ayers. She was one of five girls in her family. As her name indicates she was Scottish . I think she had wise parents as they saw that all five of their girls went to college. I think her father was a wise man for when she left home he told Bonnie to be sure to write a letter each week to her mother, and she did. I later learned that Bonnie had gone to Arizona and became a lawyer. I admired her for her independence and my first child was named for this Bonnie.


The next young lady is Betty McSpadden who lived a few blocks from me in Harlan. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to her by telephone. She lives in a retirement home there under the watchful eye of her loving daughter. Over the years we kept in touch and I have two pictures of her three girls at different ages. It was so nice to talk to her. Her voice sounded just the same as I remembered. It would be really nice to drive up to visit with her in person.

At the bottom of the stairs is me, holding onto Betty as though I were about to fall. We all had such good times together. During the years we were there our country was in the midst of World War II and very few boys were on campus. So, dating was not a big concern. I had a boy friend who was in Berea College about 25 miles from Richmond and we visited some but mostly it was classes and girl friends and studying. All of that changed during my last year there as the soldiers were returning from their military duties and our campus began to take on a different character.

Living in a college dorm is one experience I wish all girls could have. You forge friendships which last a life time. Though you may move to different parts of the country or the world, those friends always will live in your heart and memory. You are college chums forever.

Daddy's Fan and Mama's footstool

I have just come up from working in my raised bed garden. Some pesky weeds would not come up when I tried to hand pull them. I had a hoe outside the fenced garden but I did not want to make a big project of this weed pulling. So, I postponed the weed pulling until another day.



Thus began my thinking process. Gardening has become so much easier in recent times. I do not recall home owners having earth tillers when I was growing up. You plowed with a mule pulling the plow or your neighbor did it for you. Around 1920 the first mechanical earth turner came into existence, but was not in common use among home gardeners. They cost money and serious gardeners are about saving money, not spending it.



Growing up we always had a garden, and my mother canned the produce from her garden. It was a necessity as she had eight children to feed. As years passed and she no longer had to feed a large family, gardening fell by the wayside. But old habits die hard and she still liked to have her hand in the process. My mother lived in a small apartment attached to her oldest daughter's home. Her husband had a garden and my mother in her 80th year took her footstool and went to the garden with a hoe to do her part. I have a picture of my mother sitting on that stool wearing a straw hat and stopping for a moment to have her picture taken.

Central air conditioning was another appliance which was not seen in many homes. However my father had something which ran a close second to air conditioning in a room. It was a footstool, of sorts. It was round, with a motor and blades underneath the seat. On each side of the seat were curved handles for ease of carrying from one room to the other. When turned on the air came up and out from all sides through a heavy mesh covering. Adults were not inclined to sit on this stool, but it was an enticing pastime for youngsters. The fan had one speed, "on" and that was all that was needed. With that in the middle of your room you were plenty cool enough to enjoy the hottest day.

I have always been intrigued with footstools. They are small and handy. If I see them in a store I feel compelled to stop and examine them. I have one on my back deck which doubles as a small low table. When you pick it up by the two inside slats it folds upward and can be carried easily. A very functional little piece of furniture. I found a small footstool made of plastic which folds inward to make it easy to store. It fits nicely between my washer and dryer and is there if I cannot reach something on a top shelf. There are footstools to fit every occasion it seems. And I say "Hooray" for footstools and any invention which makes work easier.

God Hears and Answers

In the 1940's in a small town in the coal mining area of Kentucky an operating room nurse was struggling to raise her two young sons on her own. Her marriage had come to an end because an illness left her husband dependent upon pain medication. Her sons were not safe nor was she, living with a man addicted to drugs. She came to this town to take a night job in order to be with her two young boys during the day. A friend stayed with the boys while they slept. It was an impossible schedule and she knew it could not go on this way. One night while she was bathing her little boys she began to cry. As her tears fell on the bathtub she began to pray for deliverance from this intolerable living situation. She had not been a believer but she desperately asked God to help her.

One of the doctors she helped in the operating room was a Christian. She had not told him of her situation but two evenings later while she was at work this good doctor told her he needed a nurse to run his clinic at one of the mining camps. There was a house that went with the job and the clinic was open only in the mornings.

She could hardly believe her ears. God answered her prayers far beyond her expectations. A house, a job, short hours. From that day forward this nurse became a faithful servant of the Lord in every aspect of her life. For the rest of her life she never failed to tithe her salary, worship at every opportunity and witness to others about what had happened to her in her time of need.

Over the years I kept in touch with this dedicated Christian. After I moved to another state I made it a point to stop by her new home and visit with her. On one of my last visits I was telling her about making baskets. She brought out a cloth basket which her sister had made. She made a gift of it to me. I now have it sitting on a table where I can see it. It reminds me that God indeed hears us and does indeed answer us beyond our wildest dreams.

Blackberry Slips

Last summer my neighbor and I took our buckets and headed out to pick blackberries from some roadside plants we had seen. It turned out to be a great adventure with happy consequences. These berries were different from other wild ones I was accustomed to seeing. They did have thorns but the berries were large and sweet and made great blackberry jelly. They also had red stems which made them different.

I later went back to this spot and took about 12 cuttings to root. I wanted to see if I could get some plants to grow here on my place. They took root and grew all summer and winter in some containers on my back porch. Early this spring my
son-in-law made a great bed in the back where I planted these cuttings. I had no hopes for them to bear fruit this year but thought they would simply grow and get a good root base.

Much to my surprise I saw something white in the bed this morning. I went down some brick steps to get a better look. It was blooms on those slips that grew into plants over the winter. What a happy surprise to see that they were bearing a year before I had anticipated. The plants are not yet tall and arching like the ones on the roadside but it is so encouraging to try something new like this and see it come to such a happy conclusion. Of course the proof will be in the tasting when they become huge berries in July.

I am so encouraged by these results that I now plan to take slips from the Arapaho plants in the front bed. They are similar to these4 wild plants in appearance but have no thorns. Right now the four Arapaho plants in the front are heavy with green berries but once the berries are gone I will take cuttings from them and plan for another bed in the back. Gardening is just too much fun.

The Grass Cutter

In 1988 I wrote a piece about a young lady. It is a character study.


The Grass Cutter

As I was driving home from shopping, I noticed a bicycle lying near the curve of the driveway below our house. This was unusual, for we had never had a visitor come by this means of transportation. Living ten miles from town in either direction all of our visitors came by car, truck, van or motorcycle. As I came nearer to the house I could see a dark haired female through our front windows. This wall of windows give considerable light as they extend upward seventeen feet and horizontally for fifteen feet. I drove around to the porch at the back of the house and entered by the back door as is my custom. Before I could get through the kitchen and into the living room I heard a voice call "I guess you wondered who the woman was here with your husband. I'm Linda from the restaurant where Mr. Keaton eats sometimes."

I had not recognized her until she clued me in. "Oh yes, I know you Linda, how are you?" I said, but was quite startled by her changed appearance. On the few occasions when I had stopped by the combination restaurant and grocery store Linda had been disheveled and without make-up and in very casual clothes. The Linda I saw now was petite, tanned in stylish summer apparel with dark curls tumbling all around her face.

"I was so bored", she said "and I was riding my bicycle and remembered Mr. Keaton saying he lived out this way so I thought I'd stop by to say\hello.

"That's great", I said. " We don't get many visitors and we are always glad when someone stops by."

We chatted and she explained that she no longer worked at the store which her step-mother owned. She was tired of working those long hours, from four in the morning until eight at night. She has gone to live with her sister about two miles from us near some property we owned. But now, she explained that she was restless and bored and wanted something to do.

Getting the grass cut in my husband's vineyard has always been a problem and he had been worrying with it all morning. I teasingly said, "You can help Glenn cut grass."

"Well, I've never cut grass before but I'm willing to try it."

"Oh, I was just teasing Linda".

"Well, I'll do it. I need something to do to get my mind off things".

I insisted that I was only teasing. It was hard work and hot outside, so maybe she had best forget it.

But she was hooked on trying to cut grass, and nothing Glenn or I could say would dissuade her from coming the next week to try her hand at grass cutting.

Before she left she put a package of cigarettes on my table and said "I want you to keep these for me. I'm trying to stop and I can't take them home with me or my family will kill me."

"Don't leave them here", I protested.

But she insisted and I put them in a drawer and forgot all about them until the third of July when my son-in-law was here. He was getting ready to set off fire crackers for our own private Independence Day celebration.

"I wish I had a cigarette to light these with." he said.

Being the ever efficient mother-in-law,I opened the drawer and produced the cigarettes. He took two and put the rest back. Thus Linda had two less to smoke.

The next week Linda arrived in her white Reeboks, her shorts and shirt all set to try grass cutting. Glenn put her to work on our yard and surrounding grassy areas.

First he introducrd her to the self-propelled Sears mower. It wasn't long before the motor stopped and he had to show her how to start it again. At this point, he to go to town on some sort of business and left me to supervise Linda. I put on my work clothes and began an outdoor project of my own . Soon the mower stopped again and Linda and I tried to start it.

"Mr. Keaton did something with this thing, she said." It was the throttle.

I said "Let me hold it and you pull on the cord." By our combined efforts we got the mower working, and she set off again."

Linda took several breaks to have a cigarette. I stopped with her and had water or lemonade as we talked. I learned some things about her. She tanned easily because she was descended from the Cherokee Indians. She took medication for epilepsy. She was married for ten years and had been divorced for ten. She worked for ten years in a health food store in Buckhead. And I learned that when she left Atlanta and came here to live, she came to a screeching halt.

She worked for her church in Gainesville, cleaning the building on Saturdays. She attended church Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. She talked with her hands. She lifted them up and out in front of her and stretched her fingers apart and pointed them inward. This she did when she wanted to make a point.

Some days later, Glenn left to go to Arkansas for a week. Linda called and said she wanted to come and cut grass again because she really enjoyed it. I said, "Come on if you want to." She did. I told her she could go to the vineyard and do whatever she could. I kept working on my project outdoors, which was a considerable project. I could hear the motor stopping occasionally and once a shower came up, and Linda kept right on mowing. She was an odd sight, not much taller than the handle of the mower and leaning into the machine as she followed.

When she got ready to leave that day I said, "Why don't you leave your phone number and take mine, so we can talk about cutting grass.

The next time I saw her, she came riding up with a young man in a blue truck. He drove up to the screened in porch and stopped. Linda got out and came in where I sat reading.

"I came to get the bicycle" she said. "When I told my sister I had left her bicycle on your porch she didn't look too happy." I had driven her home two days before because I had given her a bag of apples and she couldn't carry them on her bike. We chatted a few minutes about unimportant things and the young man put the bike in his truck. She said , "we're taking the day off to go to the mountains." And off they went.

The next day she did not show up. It did not matter one way or the other, but the next day she showed up in her now grass stained Reeboks and the new striped shorts,with sad things to tell me. She had gotten in trouble she said, because she had gone to the mountains. She had a fuss with her sister and brother-in-law. They felt she had neglected her duty by not coming and cutting grass. I reiterated that grass cutting was her choice, and if she did not want to do it, I did not care.

She was still upset and told me she had been to talk to their minister, and he, too, told her she had done wrong. But she was happy about one thing. She had been to church the night before and she said it was a good meeting, that the Lord was there. But because of the row with her sister she had trouble praising him. I said, I understood that, as I had the same problem when I was angry with Glenn. I also told her that she should not be so hard on herself, that I felt too often Christians did that to themselves. And as God knew what was in our hearts, He was the One to consider,not anyone else. She said the young man's live-in girl friend, got angry with her for going off with him, but she said they were just good friends and that was all. I believed her and assured her that if she had a clean heart, God knew it and to stop worrying.

She cut grass in the vineyard and I worked on my project, and we left grass cutting very open and loose when she left.

I did not see Linda again. I made no effort to contact her. I think that something happened to keep her from calling, or coming by. Many years have passed and I often wonder what had happened to this young lady who lead a somewhat disjointed life.

It would be nice to see her, and to know that her life was back on a positive course.

Special Family Friends

A few days ago I turned on a night light which is a Christmas gift from a young friend. It is quite elegant with green glass beads dangling on the sides and top. The gift came from Sabeen, a friend of my grandson Jeff. She was spending Christmas day with us two years ago. She is a beautiful young lady and has been Jeff's friend since his days at Arizona State. She is now studying in England at Brighton College. I only saw her that one day that we spent together with the other members of my family. This beautiful gift reminds me of her and I wonder if she is well and having a good year in England, her previous home before coming to the United States.

This triggered other memories of friends of my son and gifts that I received from them. I am not good at severing friendships. I remember and think of old friends even though I do not see or have contact with them. They are going on with their lives and I with mine, but the memories linger. I am glad for the friendships and for the memories.