RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT..... Coon fight in the Hollar.

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT……. Coon fight in the Hollar.

            This story happened a few years back, in 2010. I was living in Atlanta, GA at the time. I had just come off active duty from the U.S. Navy. I decided to surprise my folks and visit one weekend. It was around the end of April or the first part of May. I drove up to Robbinsville, NC to my Moms home. I got there and there wasn’t a person at home. I called Moms cell and come to find out she had gone up to Asheville, NC for the weekend, to stay with my cousin Melanie and her family.

            Well, I called my cuz April and went down and hung out with her and her husband Calvin for a little while. We grilled out some steaks and hung out for a while. Getting caught up on everything going on in Robbinsville.

            Well along around 10PM I headed back up to Moms. I was beat from the drive up from Atlanta. It was time to get comfortable watch a little TV then call it a night. Robbinsville is a dry county, so alcohol was out of the question. And Mom don’t allow that stuff in her home. 

            Anyways around midnight and had decided to hit the sack. Now I am used to living in the big city. There is always some kind of noise going on in the back ground in Atlanta. Man it was so quiet at Moms, you could hear the wheels turning in the little heads of the crickets outside. And dark, it gets dark at Moms house when the sun goes down. There aren’t any street lights. So walking around is out of the question unless you have a flashlight.

            I finally drifted off to sleep around 1AM. And I was just getting into some good sleeping when all of the sudden, there was the awfullest racket commenced to going on outside up on the mountain behind Moms house. It was a pack of dogs and man they were hunting something. I knew or had a good idea what they were hunting at that time of the night.

            You could hear those dogs barking and they were on the trail of some animal. They went up around the barn and then down by Moms house, right outside the bedroom window I was sleeping or I should was attempting to sleep in. They were hot on the trail. Then went on for about an hour. When it first woke me up, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It scared me something bad. Once I calmed down and realized what was going on, I got into listening to the dogs hunt.

            All of the sudden them dogs found what they were hunting for, up around the barn. Now let me say right here that the fight that was taking place up at the barn would give a person nightmares. It was vicious. And it was going up and down the side of the mountain around the barn.

            Well I could only think of a couple of things that would be putting up a fight like that, a bear, a wild hawg, or a coon. I knew that my Stepdad Jimmy had been having some trouble keeping the coons out of his garden. So I suspected that it was a coon that was in the fight with that pack of dogs. Mind you that I was considering all this at like 5AM.

            Well finally the battle was over. The dogs evidently got their prize or the coon whooped every dog there and walked on off. I wasn’t sure which at the time. It was still dark outside, and my night was shot because of this fight in the night outside the house. I tried to go back to sleep, and I dozed for a little while. When the sun started creeping in the window around 7:30 I finally got up and made some breakfast.

            Once I had eaten and put on some clothes I decided to go see if I could find out what those dogs were hunting and if they killed it. Or if any of the dogs had got injured or killed. I walked up to the barn and hit the trail up behind it. Jimmies garden is situated on the side of the mountain behind the barn. I got to the back side and it looked like World War III had taken place. There was a path 10 foot wide that ran down from edge of the woods through Jimmies garden by the branch to in front of the of the barn and smack into the creek.

            I started at the edge of the woods and worked my way down the path of destruction. I found patches of fur all the way down. I knew that it was a coon. I got to the barn and the chaos around the barn was really bad. That is when I saw it. There half in the creek and half out on the bank, was a coon trap and a nasty filthy mad coon trapped in a cage. The cage looked as bad as the coon did. Those dogs and did a number on the cage, trying to get to the coon.

            That coon was not happy. It was hissing at me and clawing at the cage trying to get out of it. Well I got a hold of the handle and lifted that poor half drowned coon up out of the creek and walked it down to the house and set it in front of Jimmies work car. I know Jimmy would be glad to see it when they got home. The coon well his temper did calm down at all.

            Mom and Jimmy came home early Saturday afternoon. Jimmy took one look at the cage and the trapped coon. He looked at me waiting for an explanation. So I go into full story mode of what I heard in the night and what I found once I got out and went to check. 

            So I ended up taking the coon to the head of Long Creek and setting it out in the woods. It was happy to be out of the cage and took off up the creek. I was happy. That meant I would hopefully get a good night’s sleep. Jimmy was happy that the coon was gone. Mom was so happy she cooked a nice supper. The end..

Written  01APRIL2016 By: David Shuler

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT........ Homosexuality & Homophobia

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT….. Homosexuality & Homophobia

            This is a most unusual Rambling for me. Seldom do I give my opinion on things like this. I am of a firm belief that opinions are like assholes, everybody has one & they are usually very stinky & full of shit. Pardon my language.

            There is a great deal of homophobia at the moment. States are passing laws that discriminate against the GLBT community and try to claim that is for religious reasons. When in fact it is nothing more than HATE disguised as religious freedom. North Carolina just this past week passed a law that discriminates against transgendered individuals and the GLBT community. In one day the bill went through the state house, state senate, and Governor Pat McCrory signed into law. It steps on not only the rights of the GBLT community, but the rights of the local governments to passing laws for their individual cities and counties. All disguised as protecting normal people from the prospect of being assaulted in public restrooms.

            So much FEAR and HATE against a group of people. Why? Hate is a learned behavior. Is it because gay and lesbian people demand the rights and liberties guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States? Every American citizen has the right to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS. Those words penned over 200 years ago weren’t meant for a limited few, a select few, but to each and every person born in this Great Country. Regardless of a person’s religious beliefs.

            It is funny, how easily the Christian is thrown out there. People who barely darken the doors to a church on Sunday and never pick up the Bible, but claim to be Christian and it is against their religious belief to have anything to do with the GBLT community. The word Christian means, “to be Christ Like.” I personally don’t see many Christ like people walking around. I don’t know many people who chose to give up everything and take up their cross and follow Christ. Most are like the rich young ruler, it grieved him to have to give up his worldly possessions. The same holds true today. Most people have their big homes, fancy cars, designer clothes. If Christ walked up to them and told them to leave it all behind and follow him, most would turn away sad and disheartened.

            There is NO LOVE in their hearts, NO COMPASSION, nothing Christ like at all, only HATE. Most people take a few verses in the Bible and live their lives around those few verses. These verses usually promote their idea of how they should live and how everyone else should live. They then ignore what the rest of the Bible says and teaches.

            While I grew up in a Baptist Church and set under and Bible preacher, who knew the Bible and knew it well. That doesn’t mean that he knew everything about the Bible. He would preach on SIN and name it. He didn’t care who he made mad. You don’t find that much anymore. Preachers stand in the pulpit on Sunday and will only Preach on a few topics, that they know will not offend members of their congregation. Homosexuality is on the OK to preach against list, because heaven forbid that a homosexual would be setting on a church pew. Homosexuals are perverts, sinners, and wouldn’t dare go to church. They don’t believe in God or his great gift he gave to mankind. This is what people think. It is amazing the ignorance of the religious community.

            Heterosexuals thought they had a monopoly on marriage. The religious right thought that marriage is only between a man and a woman. Same-sex marriage was and is a foreign concept. I personally don’t understand why homosexuals would want to marry. They should look at the mess the heterosexual have made of the institution of marriage. Divorce rates are at all time highs. The Bible says marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled. Lots of divorces, meaning a lot of defiled beds.

            Like I said this is me RAMBLING. If preachers got up and preached against ADULTERY, it would be total chaos in the church. Instead they will officiate the marriage of members of their churches each time they remarry. If they didn’t the church would vote them out or run them out.

            The youth of the churches are out fornicating. Young girls are getting pregnant out of wedlock. When I lived in Knoxville, one of the high schools there had over a hundred young girls pregnant at the same time.  The boys instead of being set down and educated on the issues of being a teen dad. Are patted on the back and high fived for their masculinity and prowess it getting the girls into the sack. And you always hear well it is the girls fault, she was asking for it. She could said no. If the preach got up and called out FORNICATION, then he would lose the youth of the church and lose his job for running them off. So as long as sin is not named but left in a general area no one cares.

            Why so much hate against homosexuals? Is it because being gay makes a straight man question his own sexuality? I think it is because the GLBT community has stopped hiding in the shadows. They have decided to stand up for themselves and are demanding their rights and the right to live as they wish and be heard. The GLBT community is no longer silent, and they will no longer be bullied. And for some if they can’t bully then they aren’t happy.

            More and more young people are coming out. And those students who have the courage to come out being taunted and tormented is an everyday occurrence. The suicide rate among GLBT youth is far higher than straight youth.  School officials don’t step in when they see bullying going on. Most claim that the GLBT youth brings it on themselves for coming out and rubbing their lifestyle in the faces of the other students. And then the very school officials, when a gay student commits suicide exclaim what a tragedy. How did we let this happen?

            The word homosexual is not found in the Bible. There are references to homosexuality in the Bible. But homosexual is not in there. The word homosexual didn’t show until the end of the nineteenth century. Before that words like Sodomite, and queer were used.

            Sodomite is used because of the story in Genesis chapters 18 & 19. Evidently someone decided that this story was dealing with same-sex perversion. But for some reason preachers have used these verses to denounce homosexuality. If you read the story you will see that not everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah are homosexual. Lot the main character of chapter 19 was living there with his family. When the angels came to warn him of the impending doom, they told him to gather his family and flee the city. He had sons and daughters who had taken wives and husbands from the within Sodom. After researching and reading several books on the subject. I think the real crime here is RAPE. The citizens of Sodom came to Lots door wanting him to send out the angels so they could know them. I think that this implies, to rape them. Men and women alike.

            It’s funny I have heard different people discuss the subject of Genesis 19. They all seemed to think that everyone living in Sodom was queer. I find that hard to believe. If that was the case finding suitable spouses for Lots children would have been difficult.

            Other verses that are used to condemn homosexuals are Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13,

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Leviticus 18:22

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:13

Granted these verses were written in the Law of Moses. We live in the Grace age, not under the law. That is a story for a different time.  The New Testament verses dealing with homosexuality, here are a couple Romans 1:25-32, & I Corinthians 6:9-10.

            Most people use the 10 Commandments as a standard to live by. You can find the 10 Commandments hanging not only in Churches across America. You will find the 10 Commandments on the walls of Courtrooms, in Courthouses, Branches of State, & Federal buildings. Even on the Wall of the United States Supreme Court Building. If you read the 10 Commandments, homosexuality didn’t make the top 10. Adultery did, killing did, bearing false witness, honor your mother and father did. HMMMM makes a person wonder.

            Instead of condemning people for being themselves or different. We should let them be who they are regardless of social norms or religious bias. Let people live their lives the way they chose. You would think that we as human beings we would become enlightened. We live in the 21^st Century not the dark ages. We need to be tolerant of other people’s beliefs. We don’t have to agree with their beliefs. But each and every person born in the Great US of A. is entitled to their beliefs.

            It would be a very dull and boring world if we were all alike in every way. That is why God made each of us different. Take a moment and get to know someone before you decide you don’t like them.

            GBLT people are human to. They have feelings. They have dreams, desires, wants, and needs. The GBLT community play a big part in our communities. They have careers, such as, doctors, lawyers, educators, artist, etc. Don’t knock someone till you know them and have walked a mile in their shoes. This ends my Rambling on this subject….

Written 29MAR2016.    By: David M. Shuler

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT.....My Dad

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT…….My Dad

            My Dad spent most of his time working hard to provide for his family. He worked a full-time job as a lumber inspector for Stanley furniture, for years. When we wasn’t at his job, he was usually working in a tobacco field or hay field. We raised tobacco when I was growing up. It gave us extra money at the end of the year to purchase those things that were needed and a few things that we wanted. We cut hay and sold it to farmers who raised cattle. That extra money was needed to raise a family when I was growing up.

            I can never fault my dad’s work ethic. He was a hard worker. His name is Marvin James. He will be 69 in a few short days. Unfortunately I will not get to celebrate his birthday with him.  NO he is not dead. I am dead to him. We haven’t spoken in over two years. Before that we spoke only on rare occasions. And to see each other was maybe once every couple of years or more. I last saw my Dad last year in February or March of 2015, at my Aunt Ruth’s Funeral. We never even spoke to each other. It is sad, in so many ways.

            When I was younger Dad had me working in the tobacco and hay fields. I was setting on a tobacco setter when I was 4 years old. Now a tobacco setter is pulled along behind a tractor and it has levers that you set tobacco plants in and then they are inserted into the ground. I spent many long hours, sitting on a setter growing up. But I didn’t mind, because I was spending time with my Dad. I didn’t much care for the hard work. But I loved my Dad and wanted to be near him.

            We had a red Chevy pickup truck, when I was growing up. It was a 3 speed on the column. Now we used it along with Grandma’s Blue Chevy truck to pick up hay and take to the barn. When I was younger, I couldn’t pick up the bales of hay, because they weighed too much. But I could drive the red Chevy. Now it wasn’t easy task, I could barely reach the clutch and look over the steering wheel at the same time. I would leave the truck in 1^st gear and poke along giving cousins and uncles time to pick up and toss the bales into the bed of the truck.

            Now Grandma Ruby or Aunt Shirley would drive down to Crisp Grocery and pick up RC Cola and moon pies for us to snack on. Man there isn’t anything any better than an RC Cola and a moon pie while working in a hay field. A hay field is hot work. Plus it is itchy, scratchy, and sneezy. You can lose 30 lbs or more working in a hay field. I guess that is why I was so skinny when I was younger….lol

            I remember one year it was during hunting season. It was in December towards the end, going into the New Year. Dad and some of his buddies were going on a hunting trip. So they were going to be gone for several days. And wouldn’t be back until a few days into the New Year. Well Dad said, as him and his buddies were leaving that he would see me next year. To my young mind that meant a year, not a few days. I became upset and started crying and hung on to Dad for dear life. His buddies got mad at him and so did Mom. I was holding up their trip. Dad finally got me unwrapped from his leg. And explained how that when he returned in a few days that it would be a New Year. It was not a fun time for me. I thought he would be gone for a year. But after much talking on his part he finally convinced me that what he said was true. Oh yeah he got the calendar off the wall in the kitchen and showed to finally get me to believe him.

            Dad loved sports. Growing up that is all I heard was sports, sports, sports. Not just from Dad but everyone in the whole family. I now look back on it and wish I could have been a bigger fan to have made my Dad happy. I played baseball. I really wasn’t interested in it. But I did it because Dad wanted me too. Dad really wanted me to play football. But Mom was not going to let that happen. So I never played. Which that didn’t bother me. My interest was reading. I loved to read, and still do all these years later. Now I didn’t meet Dad’s expectations with not liking sports. I did make him happy because I loved to hunt and fish.

            I will be writing a RAMBLING on Hunting and Fishing. I am putting it together already. There are so many tales to tell of days Hunting and Fishing with Dad and various family members. It will be coming soon.

            We had a wood furnace to heat the house growing up. And man it would get so hot in the house you had to open the windows to cool off in the winter. Well Dad and I would go cut wood in different places to have enough to last the winter. On two different occasions when we were out in the wilderness cutting tree to have firewood for the winter I had bad encounters with 1^st a nest of yellow jackets and on the 2^nd a nest of black jackets.

 Now on the 1^st occasion we were at the head of Tallulah cutting wood. Dad had been cutting down trees and sawing them up into sections. I was loading the cut up sections in the bed of the truck. Well evidently Dad parked the truck close enough to a yellow jackets nest, that while I was totting the cut up wood to the truck I stepped into the hole that the yellow jackets nest was located.

Let me say right here, that life got very interesting real fast. The very second I stepped into the nest I knew I was in trouble. Yellow Jackets were flying up my pants leg. I was jumping around and stripping off all my clothes trying to get away from the yellow jackets and not get stung.  Dad saw me hoping around and taking clothes off. He had this weird look on his face. Cause there I stood with pants in one hand jumping up and down trying to get away from the yellow jackets that were still attached to my socks and shoes. Dad of course busted out laughing. I didn’t think it was at all funny. Luckily I only got stung 3 or 4 times.

The 2^nd time we were on the head of Sweetwater nearly to Stecoah Gap, on an old logging road. We were on the side of the mountain. Dad was sawing up a downed tree and I was rolling the cut up section down to the road then putting them in the bed of the truck. Well I was claiming back up the hill to role another bunch off logs down into the road, when my foot went straight through the ground up to my knee.

This time I had stepped into a black jackets nest. Black jackets are a cross between a hornet and yellow jacket and a 100 times meaner. Man I jerked my leg out of that hole and blindly ran off down the side of the mountain and creaming bloody murder. Those little demons were eating me alive. Again I started stripping off clothes to get away from the black jackets. I ended up getting stung about a half a dozen times before I got out of my pants. Stop laughing it wasn’t funny.

This story here is funny. When Dad was in his mid-thirties, he went and had all of his teeth pulled and got false teeth. We were living at my childhood home on Atoah. I was probably 12 at the time. So that would put it around 1982. It was during the summer I remember that. In our living room we had this big brown chaise lounge.

Well on this particular afternoon. Dad was lounging on the chaise in nothing but his fruit of the looms. It was hot outside and we didn’t have air conditioning in the house other than open windows. Dad had at some point fallen asleep. The phone rang or someone came by the house I don’t remember which, and woke Dad up. Well between the time that he fell asleep and woke up Dad lost the upper set of his false teeth. And I mean that literally.

He accused Mom and me of hiding them. I was in the living the whole time. I was lying on the floor watching TV it was a Saturday morning and cartoons were on. Mom was in and out of the living room doing her morning routine of cleaning the house and such. Neither one of us had at any time touched Dads teeth. But he sure thought we had.

After tearing the house apart, for over an hour, looking for his teeth.  Dad finally found them. They had somehow fell out of his mouth and down into his fruit of the looms. I will not say that it was the funniest thing I ever seen or heard of, man it was close. I laughed my butt off.  After the initial shock of where he found his teeth, Dad laughed about it also.

            It is sad; My Relationship with my Dad took a nose dive around my 14^th year. We have never been able to recover from it. Today we are nothing more that acquaintances. There is NO, Father and Son bond. I have spent the years since I was 14 at odds for one reason or the other with Dad. Dad doesn’t like having a gay son. I hate it for Dad, I truly do. But I can’t change who I am just because he wants me too.

            I love my Dad, don’t miss understand. I loved doing stuff with him when I was a kid. 32 years have passed since the time of my youth. I am closing in on middle age. I see my years swiftly passing me by. I am sure Dad feels it also. There are not many days left to us to have a Father & Son relationship. Life it too short to have a heart of anger and hate. Holding on to past injustices and wrongs, only makes a person bitter and sick.

            If I had one wish, it would be, to have a relationship with my Dad. But a relationship is a two way street. Both parties involved have to want it. I have made attempts over the years when I lived in Knoxville, TN. But nothing ever happened. Mom used to call me and say to me, you need to work thing out with your Dad. He is the only one you will ever have and you both need to fix it. I would get so upset after one of those calls from her. I was working at the University of Tennessee at that time. And my coworkers would get involved and agree with Mom about it, which was so irritating.

            I will end with this. Like I said at the beginning of this, My Dads birthday is just a few weeks away in April. I know that I will not celebrate it with him or even get to talk with him to wish him a happy birthday. So I will end this Rambling wishing my Dad a wonderful and happy 69^th Birthday. And I hope that whoever celebrates it with him makes it a blessed day for my Dad.

            A special blessing, to all of the sons out there who don’t have a good relationship with your Dads. Do what you can to set things right. Go the extra mile. A relationship is a two way street. Either your Dad is willing to meet in the middle or he isn’t. But make the effort to find out.  Life is too short, not to have at least tried to make peace. If your efforts bare fruit, then you truly are blessed. If it doesn’t then you have at least tried and you are the better for having tried.

Written on 18MARCH2016     By: David M. Shuler  

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT...... MY MOM

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT….. My Mom

My Mom is one of the most important people in my life. We have always been close. That is not to say that we don’t have disagreements and argue. I think we enjoy arguing with each other just for the sake of arguing…..lol. But this Rambling is about her and how she has played an important role in my life.

Now my Mom aka Ms. Deborah Jean, was married to my dad at the young age of 15, and had me at the young age of 16. We sort of grew up together. I remember when I was growing up that she would get down in the dirt and play with me. I was a cheap kid. I like matchbox cars and books. Mom would play with me in the dirt and the matchbox cars. We would build towns and cities. You don’t find many moms who can or will do that now a days.

I didn’t have to have the expensive game systems growing up. Which the only game system at that time was Atari. So entertainment was had only if you created it.  Mom took interest in the things that I was interested in. She was in a word protective.

Growing up, I can remember she would read to me, from a Bible story book until I was old enough to read myself. Even after I learned to read, she made it a nightly routine that we would read the Bible before going to bed and saying our prayer. She instilled in me the importance of the Bible, God and Church. I know my Mom prayed for me when I was growing up. I know that she still prays for me now that I am grown. Mom is a firm believer that God can and will answer prayers.

I know firsthand that Mom can get her prayers answered. I have seen the results of having a praying Mom. There have been instances in my life where Mom has prayed and God answered and things worked out the way she prayed. Here is a prime example, I received Christmas day orders to IRAQ, on Christmas day 2006. I was at Mom’s house with all the family, when the phone rang. Mom answered it. She got this weird look on her face and said it’s the Navy and they want to talk to you.

Well, I was like ok. Everyone in the house got quiet as I was talking to the YN1 on the phone. I said yes and no a lot. And I understand. All the while Mom was looming and hovering like a bird about to dive on its prey. Once I got off the phone, no one said anything. They were waiting for Mom to say something. Finally, she looked at me and said, what was that all about. Well let me say this right here, Mom has a temper. And when she is mad look out. So I looked at her and said, I have 72 hours to report to Naval Station San Diego. I am going to IRAQ. Lets just say Christmas ended right then. Mom got so mad.

It took all of us talking to her to get her to calm down. I thought she was going to blow the roof off the house. I did not spend the night. I drove back home to Knoxville, TN, where I lived.

Mom called me the next day she had calmed down. Her first words to me were, I am praying that you don’t have to go. I said Mom you can’t pray that. I have to go. No, No, No, I am praying that she said.

Well 72 hours later I was taxing up the runway at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, heading to San Diego, California. To Naval Station San Diego. I was there for a week before catching a C-130 to Gray Air Force base and then bused to Fort Lewis Army Base in Washington State. I was stationed there for 3 months training. All the while every time I talked to Mom, she would tell me that I am praying that you don’t have to go.

After 3 months of training, we were 2 hours out before we flew to IRAQ. I get a phone call from a Senior Chief up in Great Lakes, wanting to know if I can come up and be an instructor at Hospital Corpsman “A” School. I told Senior, man I am about to head to IRAQ in 72 hours. Senior said I will call you back shortly and hung up. Two hours later I get a call from a YN1 stationed in Millington, TN. YN1 said HM2 Shuler I have a Senior Chief up in Great Lakes wanting you up there, but you have orders to ship out to IRAQ in 72 hours. Yes I know that I told her. She said, well what do you want to do? I told her I’ll go wherever the Navy needs me. She was quiet for a few moments then said, I am changing your orders. I’ll send you new orders within the hour, you’re going to Great Lakes.

I had no more than got off the phone with her and my Mom called. She said I was just praying for you and that you wouldn’t have to go to IRAQ. And this sweet calm came over me and the peace of God blanketed me. You’re not going to IRAQ, Moms said. I said, Mom, you’re right I am not going to IRAQ, I am going to Great Lakes.  Don’t tell me prayers can’t be answered. Moms did.

My Mom was a little hell ‘Yun growing up. She was so mean, she made life miserable for her sister and brother. Now of course I am getting this from my Aunt Teresa, and other members of my family. Mom of course denies it. Lol.

Aunt Truby, told me that she was babysitting one day for Mamaw Pauline, and had all the kids there. Well mom went out to my Grandpa’s truck took the gas cap off and poured sugar down into the gas tank. Which of course isn’t good for a vehicle. Aunt Truby said mom had been so mean that day, she just knew that the sugar in the gas tank would get mom a whipping when Grandpa got home. Lol.

Aunt Truby was waiting on my grandparents when they returned. She told them all the meanness that mom had been up to while they were gone. And the nail in mom’s coffin so to speak was the sugar in the gas tank story. Aunt Truby waited as Grandpa called mom over and asked her about it. Mom said that she had. Grandpa looked at Mom, and said, Deborah Jean if you do something like that again, I’ll not take you with me to the commissary for ice cream next time I go. Aunt Truby nearly had heart failure. Mom didn’t get a whipping like she had hoped. Grandpa just talked to mom and that was it.  I will say I had done something like that Mom would have beat me half to death.

Growing up Mom had breakfast on the table at 6:15AM sharp every morning, for Dad and me. Gravy and biscuits, sausage or bacon, and eggs. This was a daily routine. I didn’t go to school hungry. We raised our own hogs. So the meat was fresh from the farm. 

When I got home from school in the afternoon, supper was on the table at 4PM sharp. Mom believed in feeding her family. There were usually 10 people or more at supper time. Mom cooked supper at Grandpa’s house. So there was never a dull moment at supper time.

Mom was a homemaker. She didn’t work at a job other than being a homemaker and a MOM. That was her job. Some people thought she was crazy for not working a regular job. She would always say, I’m doing what God meant for me to be doing and that is taking care of my family.

There is much more I could say about my Mom. And I will write about her again I am sure. But I will stop for now. To say that she played a big role in my life is an understatement. Mom took her role as a Mom very seriously. She taught me things, while I was growing up. She taught me the importance of family. To love God, the Bible and church. She taught me to pray. Theses may not seem like important things to many. But they important to me.  Mom’s guidance and love help to make me a better person.

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT.... Papaw, the Honey Bees, and Me

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT…..Papaw, the Honey Bees, and Me.

            My Papaw Jim raised Honey Bees all my life. And he had me out in amongst the bee hives doing one thing or the other from the time I was old enough to walk. Pap had around 85 stands of bees. They didn’t take much work. But the benefits they offered were worth having them around.

            Now it happened like this. I was in the garden one after noon. I’m not sure what I was hoeing. Probably taters. I was only 9 or 10 at the time. I was hunkered over hoeing, when I raised up and into a swarm of bees. One of the hives had born a new queen and part of the hive left with her. From the looks of it now the hive was originally heading toward my house and the woods behind. But when I raised up they veered off toward Papaws house then on toward Uncle Verlies and Aunt Willa Maes.

            The swarm bypassed Papaws and lit on Uncle Verlies mailbox about 40 feet from Papaws house. I was the only one at home at the time. Pap Jim and Uncle Verley hadn’t gotten home from work yet. Mom was down visiting with Aunt Willa Mae. I have a got idea that they were gossiping, the good Lord only knows about what.

            So I dropped the hoe and went and got a new bee box, and toted it down to Uncle Verlies mailbox. Then ran back up to Paps and got a smoker. I lit an old rag and put it in the smoker. And headed back down. I had helped Pap do this more than once so I knew what to do.

            Did I mention that it was hot and when I was younger and it was hot outside I usually ran around in nothing but a pair of shorts. T-shirts and shoes were optional. So there I was with nothing on but a pair of shorts and flip flops on trying to get this swarm of bees into the bee box. Well Pap had taught me the difference between the queen and the drone or worker bees. Well it didn’t take me long to find the queen. I reached in coaxed the queen onto my hand.

            Now when the queen climbed into my hand the other bees followed suit. So there I am with this young queen bee in my hand. I should point out here that my hand was open so as not to squish the queen.  The other bees were climbing all over my hand and up my arm to the elbow.

            I was just trying to coax the queen out of my hand and into the bee box when Papaw Jim and Uncle Verley drove up on the scene. And about that same time Mom and Aunt Willa Mae came out of the house and onto the front porch. Well Mom takes one look at me and started screaming that I was getting stung to death. I should put in right here that I was not getting stung to death. I was standing there all normal for someone who had about 50,000 bees crawling all over his arm. Papaw told Mom to hush, that I was alright and nothing bad was going to happen to me.

            Papaw stopped the truck in the middle of the road. Uncle Verley and he got out of the truck and walked over to me. I’m standing there looking at Papaw. And Papaw has the biggest grin on his face. He patted Uncle Verley the shoulder. Then he looked at me and said, now be gentle with her and get her into the box. He was saying this while grinning from ear to ear. Now the swarm was crawling over my left arm. I am a lefty so it just seemed natural to pick the queen up with my left hand.

            With my right hand I found the young queen again and let her crawl onto my right fore finger. Then I set her down right in front of the slit that opens up into the bee box. The moment she crawled off my finger the swarm melted off my left arm and followed the queen into the bee box and their new home. Papaw patted me on the back and said well done. Couldn’t have done better myself.

            He asked how I got the bee box down there. I told him that I toted it down. Which was not easy by the way. I weighed maybe 80 lbs. The bee box weighed 10 or 20 lbs, and was bulky. I found the lighter in the shed next to the smoker and old rags. It was simple really. I had seen Papaw do many times.

            Papaw and Uncle Verley set the new bee hive in the bed of Papaws truck and drove it up to where the other hives were set. Then set it up in its new place and that was the end of that.  And I didn’t even get stung. Which is surprising.

            Now once a year if pollen was plentiful we robbed the bee hives to gather the honey hiding there in. The bees weren’t ever happy when we did this. It disrupted their day. But we’d rob them. We’d take the supers and lay them on folded out newspaper, so we wouldn’t get honey all over the floors. Then we would bring in the extractor.

            The honey extractor was this big dark green monstrosity that was circular, and had four slots that the frames set on. Then on top was a crank that we would turn at a fast spin which causes the honey to fly out and on the wall of the extractor then collect at the bottom of the extractor. There was a drain. There was a lever that once pulled up would open the drain and let the honey pour forth. We’d have quart jars waiting for the honey.

            In some of the quart jars we’d put honey comb and others nothing but pure honey. Papaws house would smell so good for weeks after. We ate a lot of honey growing up. We used it in cooking. And we’d sell part of it also.

            I guess I should say here that I have been stung by bees, many times. It was usually because I was running around bare footed and accidently step on a bee while running through the yard.