I am retired now; that is, I am retired from working with the public. However, I am not retired from life and I am relishing the freedom to harken to a whim and go sit out on the front porch with a cup of coffee or a glass of cold iced tea, a good book
For the past seventy-five years, residents of Etowah County, Alabama have used Noccalula Falls, a 250-acre campground high on Lookout Mountain, as their primary gathering place for Sunday picnics, family reunions, office parties and social club events. When I was young, my family often went to “the Falls” to admire its grandeur and to hike
As a Southern girl I know full well that, on a cold winter morning, there is nothing on this earth like the taste of strawberry jelly and hot, buttered hoe cake bread. My family grew up enjoying this tasty bread along with an assortment of companion foods: sorghum, molasses, syrup, and honey plus all
Let’s face facts. There are just some aspects of life that defy a satisfactory explanation. Without empirical evidence, many matters fall into the abyss of “opinion.” For instance, why do people take a pair of shoes, tie the strings, and toss them onto a tree limb? I have heard from a reliable source (my son),
There are legends, and then there are LEGENDS. Some legends are born of woman. Some legends are born of imagination. Some are born of a combination of the two. Often, in such a case as the latter, it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate fact from fiction. There are those who are ‘a legend
“My mom makes the best chicken and dumplings in the world!” exclaimed my eight-year-old granddaughter. Then, as if to console me, added, “Yours are second best in the world.” Every Southern born man, woman and child from who were living before the fast-food era probably had a mother or grandmother or friend who made the
The tradition of Fa So La singing, so-called Sacred Harp singing, is as deeply embedded in the fabric of Southern culture as chicken and dumplings and “See Rock City” signs. Known as shape note singing originally, Fa-So-La singing has its roots in the “country parish music” of early eighteenth Century England. Practiced mostly in small
