|
Burningtown News, Sunday, March 20, 2016
Miss Harper Rose enjoying the daffodils.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please
remember the following in your prayers this week.
Lucy
Mason Ken Shepherd Nell Duvall Welch Lori
Impagliatelli Harry Henry Melba Martin Melba
West Meredith Jones Clarence Scott
Linda Campbell Pamela West Bob Bryson Sue
Martin Oweila T F Sue West Beatrice
Deweese Wayne Powers Charles West Tom
Needham
Please
let me know if there are names listed above that should be taken off.
Thank you.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rev. Brian Holland brought a message on forgiveness today, Sunday, March
20, 2016, at 11:00, at Burningtown Baptist Church.
ARTICLES,
LETTERS, POEMS, PICTURES AND THINGS
"I Do Not Know The Reason Why My…"
Larry Alan Reeves, Region A Long Term Care Ombudsman
Southwestern Commission- Area Agency on Aging
He was always complaining. The weather was a favorite topic of his.
If it was hot, it was too hot. If it was cold, it was too cold. If it
was dry, it was too dry. If it was wet and rainy, it was too wet and
rainy. He complained about the wind, or the lack thereof. He would complain
about snow, fog, frost, ice, humidity, mud, dust, or whatever else he
could come up with that was somehow (even remotely) weather related.
He did not like any of it.
He,
also, complained about politics, the price of things that he needed
to buy, the church he attended, the preacher/pastor, the traffic on
the highways, the noise made by children while playing, his wife's snoring,
his in-laws, the doctor, the hospital, any and all restaurants, the
newspaper, and on and on. It did not seem as though anything or anyone
was pleasing and/or acceptable to him. It was a puzzle (still is, as
a matter of fact) as to how/why his lovely wife would choose to be married
to such a negative, pessimistic, sarcastic, grumpy, grouchy, and whatever
other descriptive word one can come up with. Needless to say, he was
not the type of person one wanted to be around for very long periods
of time. To be perfectly honest, if I saw him heading my direction I,
if possible, would go the opposite way as quickly as possible. A conversation
with him could absolutely spoil a whole day.
He made it very clear that one of his least favorite things to do was
to tend to his lawn. He hated, with a passion, to mow his grass. In
fact, he could easily spend an hour listing all of the things that he
despised about mowing from lawnmower to edge-trimmers to weed-whackers
to dandelions to clover blossoms to whatever else came into his mind.
Unfortunately,
he lived just down the street from me. Therefore, it was not always
easy to avoid him.
One
afternoon, in the early Spring season, he told me of his plans for an
upcoming vacation trip for his wife and he. They were leaving the next
morning and would be gone for about a week and a half. In preparation,
he had just finished his yard-work in hopes it would suffice for the
time of the vacation. Of course, I had to listen to a whole litany of
his complaints about the just finished tasks and his dismal expectations
for the journey ahead. I was delighted to see him head back down the
street towards his house. That was the best part of the encounter.
Somewhere,
along about 3:00 AM the next morning, while I lay sleepless in my bed,
reflecting upon the conversation of the previous afternoon, I decided
my course of action. After determining that indeed he was gone on his
trip, I went down to the hardware/farmer's supply store and purchased
100 pounds of fertilizer, with all of the right minerals, guaranteed
to make grass grow. I waited until the middle of the following night
to begin my efforts, lest I be seen by some nosy neighbor or by-passer.
I retrieved the fertilizer and my spreader and sneaked down to his house.
For the next hour I covered his lawn, very carefully, with fertilizer.
When I finished, I hurried home. I told no one what I had done.
Thankfully,
it rained for three days in a row following my escapade. I marveled
at how quickly his lawn turned a healthy shade of green. His grass grew
rapidly, and the turf really got thick. Upon his return, he found the
grass in his lawn to be almost knee-high and dark green and healthy
looking. Almost every other lawn in the neighborhood appeared to be
malnourished and sickly, compared to his.
Well,
it goes without saying, he had to mow once or twice a week the whole
Summer just to keep it under control. In addition, he had to sweep/rake
the lawn each time he mowed it just to be able to keep the dried thatch
from piling up. He spent hours consumed by this chore.
I came
across him one day in the parking lot of the local post office. With
my tongue firmly planted in my cheek I commented on the beauty of his
lawn and the frequency that he seemed to be mowing. In response to my
comments, he said "I do not know the reason why my grass is growing
like it is. I hate to mow! But dad-gum-it, if I don't mow it every day
or two it just gets too big to do anything with. If I did not know better,
I'd swear somebody must have fertilized it or something." In response,
I just nodded my head, got in my truck and silently drove away.
Larry
Reeves
Long Term
Care Ombudsman
Region A, Southwestern Commission
"I love the unimproved works of God." (Horace Kephart, 1906)
LIVING
ON THE EDGE
BY: Nita Welch Owenby
Did you ever stump your toe on a big clod, knock the nail off your toe,
and run home to let Grandma pour kerosene on it and wrap it up in a
rag? Grandma always believed that kerosene would kill any germ alive,
even though she didn't believe there would be any germs out there in
the field in that clean dirt. She would soothe us by telling us that
we could now watch for a new nail to appear on our toe and that sounded
right interesting. Daddy would find an old pair of shoes and cut a hole
out where the toe was so we could wear them to church, or wherever shoes
were necessary. That was just living country life on the edge a bit.
We kids were always stepping on rusty nails around the farm, but I don't
think anybody had ever heard of getting a tetanus shot back then. Grandma
would always get out that kerosene can again and none of us ever got
lockjaw. People believed that the good Lord took care of them in their
time of need back then; even people that just didn't know any better.
I got to thinking later that maybe germs back then were not as harmful,
or maybe grandmas today just don't have kerosene cans.
We kids had lots of jobs to do on the farm when I was growing up, and
I guess a few of them could be considered living on the edge. But mostly
it was just a way of life in the country. Mamma and Daddy always had
some cows and a bull, and everybody always thought the bull was a mite
dangerous, but I only got run out of the pasture one time. Heck, that
bull was too lazy to go under that barbed wire fence like I did. Separating
out and getting the necessary cows back to the barn was always a challenge.
The ones with new calves and the ones that had to be milked had to be
herded to the barn, and the others left in the pasture with the bull.
That bull stayed pretty happy as long as he had a few of his harem around
him, and the necessary cows knew when it was time to get their udders
emptied. Getting the proper cow in the stable with the proper calf took
a bit of doing, and Daddy would always put a little grain in the empty
stables so the milk cows would cooperate. It was jumping all them cow
pies in the barn entry that was difficult for us, and not always possible.
I guess that added fertilizer on our feet was partly what helped us
to grow strong and healthy. It does the same thing for tomato plants
and cucumbers, too. We would just have to wash our feet in the branch
on the way to the house so Mamma would let us in. But, you folks who
reads this just remember, cow pies are only grass and water; right?
Working in the garden and fields were our major jobs, and there were
always the animals to look after. Now, you take those two big white
hogs Daddy got every year. They were cute little pigs when he brought
them home, but once he put them in the lot, it wasn't long before he
had to put rings in their noses to keep them from rooting under the
fence. Grandpa once told me that a hog could root up an entire field
of potatoes in two hours if he didn't have a ring in his nose, but I
decided he was just funning me. (Wonder if that is where the young people
of today got the idea of wearing nose rings?) Those hogs got lots of
slop, plantain and some grain to get them all fattened up. They got
so big we could have ridden them, but that is one thing we never tried.
Hogs can get downright mean if they want to be.
But we did try to ride the goat that we labeled Nanny, and even taught
her some tricks that Daddy wasn't too happy about. Daddy bought the
goat because my brother had an ulcer and someone told him that goat's
milk was good for ulcers. Nanny was very frisky, as goats usually are,
and she had horns about six inches long. She would come up from behind
and playfully butt us in the rump, and this gave us the idea for one
of the tricks we taught her. She would hook those horns in the seat
of our britches, pick us up and pitch us in the air. Now that was fun,
even if we did land flat of our face in the dirt sometimes. However,
Daddy didn't think it was fun when she caught him one day. Of course,
it gave us kids a good laugh, but from then on Nanny was kept on a chain
when she was out of the lot. Also, it had come time to start milking
Nanny and that chain came in handy. She was not about to stand still
and be milked. It was also a lot of fun watching Daddy get frustrated
trying to make her do something she didn't want to. Finally he figured
out how to milk her. He put some grain in the feeding trough in one
of the stables. Then he leaned a plank up against the trough. Of course,
Nanny would go skinning right up that plank and into the trough to get
the grain, and Daddy would tie her head to the wall and milk her. We
kids really enjoyed that show, but we didn't get to go watch every day.
Daddy taught me to drive the tractor in the flat corn fields when I
was about four years old. They would pick the corn and toss the ears
into piles, and later it had to be loaded in the trailer behind the
tractor. It was then driven above the barn and unloaded in the loft.
One day when they were loading the corn, I was running along probably
getting in the way, and Daddy always felt that everyone should be doing
something worthwhile. So he sat me on the tractor and showed me how
to push down the clutch to stop it and to step off the clutch to go
forward. He put it in granny low so it just crept along, and there I
was, in control of this big monster with back wheels twice as high as
I was and then some. Well, I got on the clutch so Daddy could put it
in gear and the clutch didn't move. I wasn't heavy enough to push it
down. I was a determined little towhead, so I pushed up on the steering
wheel and down the clutch and I went. I'd turn loose of the steering
wheel to make it go, and I was on my way to driving.
Now, use of the little Ford tractor did entail a touch of danger now
and then, as do all tractors. My sister and I used to ride on the front
end of the tractor when Daddy was pulling a trailer load of corn up
the hill to the barn to keep the front from rearing up. That was kind
of scary. I kept wondering, if it did start rearing up, would I jump
off or would I have the nerve to hang on? One year we had our potato
patch up the river and one end of it was on the side of a hill. Daddy
would hook the old wooden plow behind the tractor to break the potato
rows as that was the hard part, and then he used the mare to plow out
each side of the rows. It was my job to drive the tractor and that was
when I found out that tractors don't like loose dirt on a hill. When
I turned up the hill at the end of the patch, I had to step on the clutch
and put it in reverse, and it was Daddy's job to get the plow out of
the way. This all works until the hill got rather steep. When I started
backing up, the front end of the tractor started sliding. There was
nothing I could do but hang on until it stopped. There were bushes at
the end of the row, and when I finally got stopped and looked back I
didn't see Daddy or the plow anywhere. Finally, Daddy poked his head
out through the bushes and said "Okay, let's go."
We worked hard on the farm, but if everyone would learn to mix a little
fun into their work, life would be a whole lot simpler and more enjoyable.
I would suggest that you watch a child work and find out, but children
don't work today. They'll never know the joys we experienced back in
the Good 'Ole Days.
--
GOD'S
UNIVERSE
By: Roy Owenby
Humankind has not yet invented words to describe God in his original
state. He just was; there was no time and no space. He didn't need either
to exist. For reasons known only to God, he decided to create a universe;
that is, our universe. It may be the only one, or there may be many
others. There is no way to know, and there may never be, for he truly
works in mysterious ways. The Bible says he was lonely. Perhaps this
simply means he was alone. I don't think it means loneliness in the
human sense. Within himself, God had all the power and glory he needed.
Even so, he decided to created companions. Perhaps he really was lonely,
or maybe he just wanted something to do. In order for these companions,
whom he called humankind, to exist, God had to create a place for them
to exist.
He formed within himself a tiny seed of super compressed energy that
was dense beyond our imagination. From this seed, he would build everything
he needed to support life. Satisfied that he was ready, God created
space/time so the seed could grow. Like a baby being formed in the womb,
he commanded the seed to expand, and it did. The expansion was so rapid
that humankind cannot comprehend the speed of the expansion. At this
point, space and time divided and became separate entities. The result
was a superheated cosmic soup that had no form except continued expansion
guided only by the space it created. The components of this soup were
infinitesimally small, so tiny that an atom is millions of times larger.
The soup began to cool, and in less than one second, it reached critical
mass. In the blink of an eye it exploded. Not an explosion like TNT
or dynamite but a super rapid formation of hot plasma. Next, he created
other forces to make his system work; gravity for attraction, electromagnetism
to control atomic structure and a strong force and a weak force to bind
his particles into basic atoms such as hydrogen and helium.
Now, he commanded his particles to coagulate, controlled by the mathematical
harmony of his four forces. In some 400,000 years, the component parts
cooled enough to start forming more complex matter. One by one, he created
the heavier elements such as sodium, nickel and iron. Microwave background
radiation permeated the cosmos, and still does today. For another 100
million years, creation continued in total darkness while gravitational
forces pulled and tugged particles into enormous objects that were millions
of miles across. The great clouds of matter formed into galaxies. Slowly,
the galaxies formed into stars, magnificent furnaces that burned at
thousands of degrees. Now, the dark ages had passed, and the stars produced
light. From the instant of its creation, the light traveled at 186,000
miles per second. Its speed never varies, for this is the universal
speed limit set by God.
Matter combined and recombined. Some elements had a short life and disappeared
forever. Others were stable, and formed into quasars, pulsars, red,
blue and yellow stars. He set aside dark matter and dark energy for
future projects.
God's creation could now be called a universe, and over billions of
years, millions of galaxies spread across the cosmos. Many strange and
beautiful things formed out of the galactic material, and weird and
wonderful creations shone across the infinite void.
God needed a special place for humankind, and in one galaxy, called
the Milky Way, he caused a medium-sized star to form. This star, he
called Sun. He caused clumps of matter to form out of the gaseous clouds
surrounding the sun, and he called those planets.
Now, God was getting to the good part. He rolled up his sleeves and
went to work. He formed one special planet for his race of men. He called
this planet Earth. God stepped back and looked at it and saw that it
was without form and void. He created an atmosphere and caused the Earth
to turn. In this way, he separated the light from the darkness upon
the face of the earth. God saw the light, and it was good.
He covered three-fourths of the planet with water, and the rest he called
land. Now, he needed an environment for humankind to live in. He created
clouds and weather, trees and plants and other green things. He combined
and recombined until it was perfect.
God stepped back and looked at it again, and it was beautiful to behold.
He created fish in the oceans, birds in the air and animals on the land.
Now, it was time for his most perfect thing. From the breath of his
nostrils, he created man and woman, and he gave them something that
nothing else in the universe possessed.
He took a small part of himself and gave it to each man and woman, and
he called it a soul. Now, God said, I will be lonely no more, for I
have made each human a part of me. They will have knowledge to know
me and appreciate me, for I have given them eternal life. They have
only to reach out and take it, but they have to earn it by obeying my
will. I created the cosmos, and I can destroy it. Nothing exists without
my will. I have no beginning and no end. Forever and ever, I and only
I, am God.
--
ACTIVITIES OF THE WEEK
HAPPY
SPRING!
As you regular BTN readers know, MF and LF had their 62nd anniversary
on March 6. One of the gifts from their children and grandchildren is
a new screen door that opens onto their front porch. MF holds a replica
of the screen door. It'll soon be time to leave the doors open and let
the breezes blow!
One sign of spring here in the hollow is the hens and gobblers roaming
the pastures both morning and evening. It's been great fun watching
their antics.
KENDALL
AT ZOO
Judy and Kendall visited the petting zoo this week. Here's Kendall petting
a curly donkey. She's quite an animal lover!
Last Sunday, MF and LF hosted Sunday dinner at their home. It was quite
an event! SF made a BIG pan of lasagna, LG brought salad and bread,
LF made a peach cobbler, and Clara Curtis brought strawberry shortcakes.
The dinner was delicious and the company was delightful! Besides the
usual crowd, there was a nice contingency from Haywood County. Larry
Reeves (whose articles are becoming a regular addition to the BTN) brought
his father, Ted, and friend, Karen Hammett. David and Clara Curtis were
here at the invitation of LG. Clara and LG worked together at the NC
Arboretum. It was wonderful to have such a full house! Near the end
of the meal, Rev. Brian Holland and his son Nathaniel came to visit.
Jim
and Marilyn came up here Friday afternoon. We were not here, but he
left some money with LG. People like Mitchell Owenby, Jim Fouts, Marilyn
Roper, Tom Welch, Mike Fouts, James Roper, Shirley Welch, and Bernard
Huggins had given him the money. He brought $27.12 with them. There
were several notes in the jar. One note said, "From a former Yankee
who found heaven. Scot Maslin" There was another note that read,
"To the poor, poor, poor, man in Burningtown, from The Poor Poor
Yankee from New York. My pockets are empty but my heart is full. Robin
Joroensen. (Palma's youngin)" Scot is principal at Macon Middle
School, Robin is his sister. I hope they come back to Jim's soon.
I shore
do appreciate that there money for the poor man. Jeff Parrish is gonna
dig a ditch up here this week. He will need to be paid soon so keep
on putting that money in the jar, give it to Jim, or me. The poor man
really needs the money. On another occasion this week, I got one five
dollar bill, six one dollar bills and 1 penny plus, a bag of money from
Marie Duval. Marie sent hers in a bag. It had six quarters, nine dimes,
five nickels and nineteen pennies. Dearl Ledford gave me a dollar when
we were at Seay's buying seed potatoes. He knew I would need the money.
I also got a dime in the mail and a penny I found at the Pizza place.
Congratulations to John and Dorothy Crawford who celebrated their 74th
Wedding Anniversary on March 10. A They are really nice people and I'm
glad LF and I know them.
Here is a beautiful picture from our Staff Photographer, Ralph Preston
We hope you have a wonderful week.
Remember the poor man and his hankering to get in the garden little
wife on Lower Burningtown.
MF, Editor
LF, Operations Editor
ST, Circulations Manager
RO, Feature Story Author
NWO, Feature Story Author
AM, Arts Illustration Editor
RP, Photographic Editor
JK, Assistant Photographic Editor
DB, Copier
JB, Assistant Photographic Editor
|