REMEMBER

Remember when life was great ?

The delicacies we ate ?

Goulash, cookie dough and cinnamon toast...

"nutritious stuff" to full little tummy's innermost.

When love was given with no expense

in innocence

and little hands picked little weeds for mama's vase

and

rmember when the "astro-nuts" sent frogs up in space ?

Then there was the time...and it covered the kitchen tabalae...

we made p-nut brittle and ate it 'til we weren't able !

What would we have done without our "weather girl" and her "windshield factor" ?

How many times did Jim's fingers get "slammed" in doors...what an actor.

Oh what a funny sight...the attack of the snake...

Karol was fast up the hill but Sherry's fear did overtake.

Bee's flew up daddy's pants!

War was declared between the black and brown anats !

Chickens roosted in the trees !

Wasps took over...under the eaves !

Blackberries grew...

Vegetables few...

Bullfrogs leaped down the hall

and "fall"...

when leaves colored our humble hill

and twirled and whirled and then lay still.

Sheila brought Santa to life for Jim...

he BELIEVED it was HIM !

One of our dogs ate the Easter eggs...

one of the dogs tried to eat my legs...

Lightning bugs bejeweled the night...

You kids bejeweled your fingers with their light.

With a steel garage door, we built a "heck-of-a-deck"

and a sandbox for Zack, in the back.

Eddie limbed a swing

and you know what, I trusted that thing !

Who could forget "Elvis"...

God rest his soul...

oh the stories that dog could've told !

Nobody knows what grew on Jim's bedroom floor

nor what went on behind Keri's bedroom door.

Jami primped, Keri danced, Jim joked

and if meals weren't calm,

daddy choked.

It's sad to recall when Jim stepped on the "pack-saddle"

and Jami mashed her fingers flat

and I quit smoking for six months

and got fat !

Jami fought with Misty.

Jim fought with Keith.

A burglar came one night

and gave Jim a terible fright.

Karol and Sherry's prom dances,

romances,

recording themselves in their "sing-along",

on the phone all day long.

The big ol' bed that Skip made...

where everybody laid.

And remember the toilet paper holder

that was the handle of a little black heater...

what could be neater ?

'cept when your dad "slid down Igou Gap on ice

and we laughed from the windows (now that wasn't nice) !

We gathered kindlin' and toted logs

and cleaned up trash strewn by the dogs

and remember the pool...

kept youkids cool !

But dad said, "Clean it, I mean it" !

"Get rid of the leaves and grime

and green slime" !

I'll never forget my black eye

that Sherry gave me when daddy chased us eith a jarfly...

nor when the dogwoods bloomed...

and sometimes, thunder boomed...

and indian corn hung by the kitchen door...

and

we thought we were poor !

Remember when Sheila had labor for two whole days

and began her motherhood ways

and I realized she was a woman that morning in September

when she came to take Karol and Sherry to school...oh how I remember !

I guess we didn't even realize it was a thrill

when shadows whispered upon our hill.

"A. J. Mom" drove the Maverick with holes in the floor

and the tardy bell rang just as the girls ran through the school door.

The rain came, the friveway went...

we filled the gullies with backs bent...

every month or two...

but the gullies grew

and in the end, we were beat...

we walked in the rain, sleet, snoe, cold and heat !

Remember when life was great

at the kitchen table in family debate

but nothing can top

~the flop~

our trip to Panama

when the car caught on fire, got stopped by the law,

Jami "caught" Jim's fish and both were in gloom

in the motel room...

soon joined by Keri...burned red

and when we finally got home...

the dog was dead...

and there for awhile,

daddy wasn't going to walk Karol down the aisle !

Some times that were bad,

sad,

broke my heart,

when daddy came home from the hospital, pulled up the hill in Lockman's cart...

couldn't even get up out of the bed...

could hardly raise his head...

and I saw him cry...

so afraid he was going to die.

Then the Christmas I was so sick and my shopping wasn't through...

...girls...

there would have been no Santa, if it hadn't been for you !

If it hadn't been for all of you,

my memories would be few !

Yes...I remember...so well,

more than I can ever tell !