Grandma's Prayer

I'm working on two books, both about my early adventures in the Cotner family of Logan County, Arkansas and Cotner family folklore. Here's a small excerpt from one of them.

"...Boys being boys, I’m sure my brother David and I drove our parents and grandparents to distraction most times with our shenanigans and adventures. The both of us used to get into all kinds of mischief and engage in many activities that probably put early gray hairs on our elders.

In the coldest of cold weather, sometimes with snow falling, wearing nothing more than faded blue jeans, thin socks and tennis shoes that had long since seen better days we’d be out playing football for hours. Or, we would go playing around the creek that flowed through the woods and pasture lands below the house—we had no gloves, no mittens to our names but we’d be breaking ice, wading the creek and throwing snow at each other in frigid, freezing temperatures until sunset. It was all great fun. It never seemed to bother us but it sure bothered our grandmother.

We’d straggle back home, numb, cold and wet to the bone.

“You boys are gonna’ die of pneumonia,” Grandma would say, shaking her head in despair.

Looking back on it now, I think that might have been wishful thinking..."

Happy Fourth of July 2010

I remember one fun-filled festive firecracker celebration of the Fourth of July back in the early 1960s at my Uncle Bill’s house in Booneville. Fireworks and sparklers all around. Everyone was having fun until my cousin Kenny stuck a burning sparkler up his sister Mary Evelyn’s nose. There’s a memory.

Happy celebrations everyone and remember this holiday safety tip: keep all fireworks outside the body and have a fun and safe Fourth.

The Fourth Of July

…Was My Dad’s Favorite Holiday

In the late 1940s and beyond, we lived in the Hodges’ Addition of my hometown of Booneville, Arkansas. From there, looking south, are the Ouachita Mountains. Perched on the northern edge of those mountains was the State Sanatorium where every year that I can recall as a child (weather and financing permitted), the annual fireworks display would be visible for miles around. Every 4th of July since those days, memories of that era come back to me. Family would sit out on the front lawn in the white Adirondack chairs my dad built for my mom, waiting for dark and the arrival of the bright, colorful pyrotechnic displays and listening to the stories of those gathered around. I remember homemade, hand-cranked ice cream, honey in a big mason jar with the honey comb still in it, ice cold watermelon, egg salad sandwiches, firecrackers and sparklers and chasing lightening bugs. All these memories and more, come back to me every year as the country celebrates Independence Day.

Hope everyone makes some of their own wonderful memories this year. Have a safe, fun Fourth of July!