Wednesday, May 21, 2008

About me

Click to enlarge.

I am Rose, or Rosemary, depending on who you are talking to,
the daughter of Sarah and Ellison,
youngest of eight children that survived to adulthood,
of those eight I am one of the two that was born in a hospital,
and probably the only one that does not actually remember living without electricity.

I lived in the shadows of the East Tennessee mountains
till adulthood
Claimed by them as if a part of the evening shadows that filled our yard so quickly come evening,
Filling me with their peace
till no place else can ever totally claim me.

I feel as if I were a part of the very earth from that place that will forever be home.

I grew up knowing how to sew on treadle a sewing machine
and do the wash with a wringer washer,
and sit by the fire and dream.
Helping to raise about all the food that we ate,
Planting, hoeing, picking, cooking, eating, canning, freezing
Making sure every jar on the place was full and the freezer so full it was almost hard to close.

I ate mustard greens and cornbread, and still do to this day
And ate fried taters and soup beans and considered them as fine a meal as could be had
Grew up watching my mom make biscuits from scratch,
never measuring a thing
She made pies and dumplings and cornbread the same way.
Oh, what I wouldn't give for some of those biscuits or the chicken and dumplings...
the cornbread I actually make myself--the same way--never measure a thing.

For entertainment there were swings in the tree,
Barns to play in with hay in the loft
Creeks to wade, a pond to swim in, fish to catch
Calves to play with
a horse to pet, dogs to hug,
And each other
We had hide-n-go seek on summer eves after dark,
Sitting on the porch and talking,
Listening to the whippoorwills
While planning the work for the next day.

And there was ball--baseball, basket ball, football, and wiffle balls. I must have drove my brothers nuts,
But with four of us, we could always play something
We didn't own a baseball bat,
but would find a stick or short board and whittle a handle,
That served the purpose just fine.

The three siblings that were close to me in age were my brothers George, Neal and Robert
So some of what I like about myself is due to them
I am not a woman that is afraid of her shadow
I can use an axe or gun or rifle as easily as my sewing machines
I come from a home that had guns and hunting
and that was just a part of life.
We were taught to be responsible from a very young age...

We didn't get fireworks on the fourth of July--too afraid of starting a fire
Our time for firecrackers was Christmas--at night
We always hoped for snow, but it didn't matter
Just build a fire and
have a brick of firecrackers and a few M-80s to made a big bang
Specially when you collected the firecrackers that didn't go off the next day
Unroll them and collect all the powder, get a piece of fuse, bore a hole in a piece of wood, poor in the powder, place the fuse, and make or find something to make a plug
and Presto, you have an even bigger bang



And we survived it all!



So Good To Be Home

This is the chimney at our old home place...

And the song playing is and probably always will be my favorite song of all time...it so captures the strong emotions I have when thinking about Tennessee. I have always been a person to play a song to death, over and over, but usually it is replaced from time to time, with a new favorite. But I never stop loving those favorites...just a new one will take centerstage for a while. However, I don't know if any will ever replace this. I will leave it on for a bit, and hope that someone else will like it just a little bit.


One of my childhood friends, Debbie, that now lives in Pennsylvania liked another song by The Everybodyfields and had me listen to it...well, I got to listening to their other stuff and I will forever thank her because through her I found this song. Their My Space page has a different version than the one heard here...I definitely prefer this one. You can get this version from Emusic.

Anyway, listen to the song and read the words--

SO GOOD TO BE HOME by The Everybodyfields

I was sick about the time we hit Virginia,
I had tombstones down both sides of my face.
Driving all night home from Boston,
I was so tired of being away.
Thinking about summer time and heat waves
And a town, it hardly ever snows,
Hitting apples with a baseball bat in August,
That's where I want to go...
So good to be home.

Well sidewalks down here, they go forever
and they always seem to meet you with a smile.
If they don't park the cars out where they shouldn't [??]
I believe you can see clear for a mile.
Well there's a tree on Maple St., it turns so yellow,
it turns lose the leaves; the ground, it turns to gold.
My car, it always knows what gear to be in
and my feet can always take me home.
So good to be home.

Well the lights here, they can spin the head of a young man
into thinking that the whole town loves you.
But your heart is not protected from the city
it might help to get you through.
Well the downtown has given me some problems
and we've all had some growing up to do,
walking on cars and across the tops of buildings,
I think that God was probably laughing too.
So good to be home...

Down the street my neighbor's son is walking,
the north side is getting bigger all the time.
I owe the girl down at the library some money,
she says she's just gonna let it slide.
In my mind every single day is sunny,
it's so bright it almost hurts my eyes to see.
When the rain is pouring out over the gutters,
thank the lord just to be here in Tennessee.
So good to be home...

Half a mile now from the border,
half a mile just to roll my windows down.
Sitting, staring at the windshield,
telling myself "not too much further now".
I call David up to see what he is doing
and I pass him as he's getting in his car.
Down the road and take a right down State of Franklin
and we'll p__ the night away down at the bar.
So good to be home...