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Burningtown News, Sunday, November 22, 2015
Good Evening to All the People All Over the World,
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
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Next Sunday, Joshua Holland, son of Brian and Tammie Holland, will be
bringing the message at Burningtown Baptist Church. Joshua is a student
at Fruitland Bible Institute. Please join us for this service.
There are no announcements from the library this week.
ARTICLES, LETTERS, POEMS, PICTURES AND THINGS
I believe
the message in the photo above is one we all can relate to. It seems
especially true this time of year. What should be the happiest days
spent with family, being thankful and counting our blessings are also
some of the most stressful. When you factor in all the commercialization
and financial burdens, it can be hard for anyone to handle. When you
feel like you've had all you can handle, it's time to stop and "grab
your bible, get alone with God" The Bible tells us in Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God:" God is there for us in
any and all situations. I plan to try and turn all the negatives of
this time of year into positives, keep Christ at the center of it all
and keep repeating Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me." Have a blessed week and a very
Happy Thanksgiving from the Mathis family. Donna Mathis :)
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"I'm
Thankful For Having Running Water"
Larry Alan Reeves, Region A Long Term Care Ombudsman
Southwestern Commission- Area Agency on Aging
I was sitting in the audience with about 100 other folks. The elementary
school kids were dressed in homemade costumes. It was the Thanksgiving
program. The children were dressed as pilgrims, Native Americans, deer,
turkeys, and so forth. They were cute as they pranced around all over
the floor at the front of the gymnasium. Those dressed as pilgrims had
speaking parts. Of course, some of them mumbled their parts while others
panicked when they forgot their well-rehearsed lines. I thoroughly enjoyed
watching the turkeys as they strutted about, scratching in the "imported
from someone's yard" leaves, with high-pitched sounds of cackling
and gobbling, and even acting as though they were swallowing a piece
or two of grain they had retrieved. The program ended with enthusiastic
applause from an appreciating audience. Afterwards the children were
surrounded by proud parents, grandparents, other related family members,
and folks from the community (like me). It was a delightful way to spend
a portion of an evening.
The part that I enjoyed the most was viewing the gallery of posted drawings,
colorings, and writings from the children that adorned a hallway leading
from the gymnasium towards the classrooms. Since it was the season of
Thanksgiving most of the artwork had scenes involving cornstalks, pumpkins,
fruits, feasts, and so forth. For the most part, the writings spoke
of things the children were most thankful for like parents, siblings,
other significant people, pets, homes, toys, and the like. It was fun
seeing all of those things. No doubt, I was seeing the works of a future
Rembrandt or Longfellow. However, the piece that caught my attention
and captured my heart was a simple statement, written by a youngster
known simply as "Johnny". The name was hard to read as it
was written in very small letters, scribbled in the lower right corner
of the paper. Johnny had written, "I am thankful for having running
water in my house".
I wish that I could tell you some fantastic story about "Johnny",
but I cannot. If only I could relate to you some great ending to some
very meaningful exchange between Johnny and I, but to do so would be
deceitful on my part. In all honesty, the only things that I know about
Johnny is that his name is "Johnny", that he wrote his name
in very small letters, and that he was "thankful for having running
water in my (his) house".
During this season of Thanksgiving I want to be mindful and grateful
that I live in a house that has running water. I do not have to hunt
shoes, a warm coat, and flashlight if I need to go to the toilet in
the middle of the night. My bathing does not involve having to heat
buckets of water (that I carried in from the spring across the way)
on the top of the stove in preparation for having to pour the water
into the tin tub that is sitting in the middle of the floor in a cold
room. Rinsing out the toothpaste is easy for me while I stand at the
sink in the bathroom. It is easy to wash the plates after dinner when
I just stick them in the automatic dishwasher. Doing the laundry only
takes a short while. Shucks! I've got it made! I too "am thankful
for having running water in my house".
Maybe we can all squeeze in some time, and room, to find a way to be
thankful for some of those things that serve to make our lives easier
during this season. I take so much for granted.
--
Larry Reeves
Long Term Care Ombudsman
Region A, Southwestern Commission
"I love the unimproved works of God." (Horace Kephart, 1906)
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THERE'S
ONE IN EVERY FAMILY
By: Nita Welch Owenby
As the old saying goes "there's one in every family," but
we must admit that we don't always know who that "one" is.
Families are put together in many different ways. Sometimes a married
couple has no family living near them, so they are actually a two person
family. Then there are families that have two or three sets of grandparents,
the husband and wife, and so many children they stop naming them after
the tenth one and just start calling them by numbers. They have several
dozen aunts and uncles, and more cousins than could be counted in a
month of Sundays, and those are just the first cousins. Well, my family
sort of ended up in the middle of these families because we did have
two grandpas and two grandmas, and there were five of us kids. We have
several uncles and aunts, but not all that many, yet we do have our
fair share of cousins, nephews and nieces.
My brother Beauford came along first in our family, and that was way
back when. Mamma always did say he was the meanest youngen in the family
when he was little, but never when he could hear her. He thought he
was real good, and as the rest of us came along, we just continued to
let him think that. But I remember lots of stories Mamma, others members
of the family, and neighbors used to tell about him. Mamma and Daddy
were living in an old wood framed house back then, and there were a
few cracks here and there, since the house wasn't located in Beverly
Hills. Mamma said she was washing the dishes one morning when Beauford
was just crawling, and he got real quiet. She knew right away that he
was into something. She wiped her hands on her apron and went looking
for him. He was sitting in the living room digging dirt out from between
the cracks in the floor and eating it. It's no wonder he was such a
fat baby, or so they all told me. A short time later, she caught him
sitting in the middle of the dining room table eating a raw onion. He
sure did like food, and apparently dirt, too.
Another time, Mamma and Daddy were visiting Mamma's sister and brother-in-law,
Aunt Maude and Uncle Edgar Queen. Aunt Maude had cooked a pot of pinto
beans that morning and had set them on the window sill to cool. While
she and Mamma were sitting on the back porch catching up on all the
latest news, they heard a terrible noise coming from the other side
of the house. Nine or ten puppies were howling and making an awful racket.
So they jumped up and ran around the house, and Beauford, "the
little angel", had put all the puppies in the bean pot and was
trying to put the lid on. Fortunately, the beans had cooled enough they
didn't get burned, but the seat of Beauford's britches smoked a little
after Mamma got through with him.
There was another time, some years later, Daddy caught him and several
other boys playing poker down the road behind the slaughter pen and
that was considered the devil's work, especially to the older folks.
They all took off running when Daddy showed up, as I remember it like
Daddy told it. That was just a short time before Beauford left home.
Daddy took their cards, brought them home, and destroyed them. But,
before he destroyed them, he showed us girls how to play a few hands
of poker. I always did wonder who taught Daddy how to play poker, and
when. Then Mamma came on the scene and broke that up real fast. So I
think maybe Beauford took after Daddy a little bit, and Daddy knew it,
but he didn't admit it.
I was so young when Beauford left home that I can barely remember him
ever living with us. He took off for Norfolk, VA to try his hand at
work, and I guess he did pretty well there. I remember Mamma sitting
on the bed crying, and I was standing by her knees trying to comfort
her. I had never seen her cry, and I thought Beauford had done something
terribly bad to make her cry like that. I didn't realize that she was
just being a mother watching the first child leave the nest. I can remember
him coming home for visits. One time, he brought me the biggest peppermint
candy stick I had ever seen. My little fingers wouldn't even go around
it. I carried it around for a while just enjoying the thought of having
that much candy at one time. But my love of candy won over, and my two
sisters and I busted the big candy stick with a hammer. They knew it
was mine, but I always shared. Another time, when Beauford came home,
he had the mumps. Most of us had already had them, except Grandma, and
it almost scared her out of her bloomers. She wouldn't get close to
him the whole time he was home.
One year, at Christmas Time when I was about four years old, I was expecting
one gift which was what we usually got, along with a sack of oranges,
nuts and stick candy. But, I got a big surprise. Beauford gave me a
little white tin stove, and my other brother, Beachel, gave me a tin
tea set with all kinds of food that could be cut out of the cardboard
so I could played with it on the toy stove. I also got my gift from
"Santa" which was a little doll that would open and close
her eyes. She had molded hair, a precious little pale yellow dress on,
with white shoes and socks. I was in hog heaven. To me, it was almost
more than I could believe, getting all those toys at once. To this day,
I still have that little doll, made by the Horsman Company. Oh, I played
with her, but I took good care of her, and that was the start of my
hobby of collecting dolls.
There was another time I remember Beauford coming home for a visit.
I can remember back to when I was 2 ½, but I often get confused
about the time things happened. Beauford and I went for a walk out by
the old barn that smelled like a barn, well used. He always called the
contents on the floor of the entry fertilizer. We stepped over and around
the cow pies as best we could and walked on up the river. Daddy had
gone fishing that day and had crossed the river to the other side. Beauford
told me to get on his back and hold on. I would always do what they
told me, since I knew they would not put me in danger. So, I wrapped
my arms around his neck and he swam across the river with me on his
back. It was very deep where we crossed. He talked to Daddy for a few
minutes, and then headed back across the river, leaving me with Daddy.
Later, when Daddy finished fishing, we walked up the river to where
it was much more rocky and shallow. Daddy held my hand and walked across
the river, keeping my head just above the water.
We were all thankful that Beauford got over his "naughtiness"
as he got older and became a good Christian man. But one more thing
I remember about him. I think he and some boys had been playing cards
again down at the slaughter pen, unknown to their parents, I'm sure.
It was dark when he headed home, and as he was walking along, all the
stars in the sky suddenly started changing places, as he told it. It
really scared him, so he got home in a hurry that night. I had a feeling
back then, that might have been when he started getting religion, that
experience affected him so deeply. I'm not sure if it was or not, but
I do know that he is now a devout Christian and won't dare miss church
unless he is sick. It goes to show that good things can come to anyone
if they live their life like God would have them to. I love my old Bro
and I'm glad I remember a few things about him from the Good Ole' Days,
even if some of them were filled with a bit of mischief.
-
WHY
WE DON'T FALL UP
By: Roy Owenby
Gravity became known when the first cave man, Homo erectus, stubbed
his toe on a rock and fell on his face. As he got up and dusted himself
off, he said "&*^%(#" thus inventing the first cuss word.
Homo erectus' direct descendants, the Chinese, refined the use of cuss
words and wrote them on the backs of turtle shells. Archeologists spent
years trying to interpret them, and upon learning their real meaning,
told the academic world that the words were the names of Chinese dynasties.
Sometime around 4000 B.C., another group of people got together and
called themselves the Sumerians. These guys figured out how to make
gravity work in their favor by floating their pottery downriver in barges
to barter with other Sumerians. Naturally, they had to walk back until
their high priest invented a paddle and taught them how to overcome
gravity by applying a little elbow grease and paddling back upriver.
Ignorance survived another four thousand years until the Greeks came
along. They believed that the earth was the center of the universe and
that all objects fall toward it in a straight line. They came to this
conclusion when Aristotle's cook dropped a pan of hot baklava in his
lap causing him to say "viaka" which is Greek for "&*^%(#."
Despite this, they concluded that the planets fell in a circle around
the earth. Aristarchus said that the sun is the center and that the
earth moves around it, but all the other Greeks thought he was full
of baklava. Plato, Ptolemy, Archimedes, Euclid, Aristotle and a long
list of other Greek scientists played with mathematics, philosophy,
geometry and physics but they never came to any conclusions about gravity.
They thought that if they fell down, it was because they had angered
the gods, so they hiked up Mount Olympus to appease them. They believed
that the gods dwelled on Olympus even though they couldn't find any
when they got there.
The next guy to fool around with gravity was Galileo. Everybody knows
the story about him climbing to the top of the Tower of Pisa and dropping
rocks on people's heads. When everybody below got mad, he switched to
rolling balls down slopes to determine their speed as a function of
the slope and the size of the ball. This is how bocce ball got invented.
A hundred years came and went and Isaac Newton burst upon the gravity
scene. The story goes that old Isaac was goofing off in his apple orchard
when a ripe McIntosh fell on his noggin. This story is only partially
true. It wasn't a McIntosh, it was a Winesap, and it didn't fall on
his head, it fell on his sore foot while he was searching for his pocket
knife to cut the apple. Even so, Isaac fooled around with gravity for
a long time. He even developed calculus to explain his theory of gravity.
He accomplished all this five years before he could spell the name of
his birthplace, Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth. As a finale, he wrote the
Principia Mathematica, a world famous book. At the time he published
it, nobody understood his theory. I tried to read it, and I found out
that I didn't understand it either. Despite this, the Anglican Church
gave him a ton of grief over it. They believed that if their flock understood
anything scientific, it would reduce their power. In other words, they
might be forced to get a regular job. Apparently, they just didn't understand
the gravity of the situation.
For the next two hundred years after Newton, people just didn't seem
to care about gravity. They were all busy fighting wars, keeping kings
and queens happy and arguing over whether Pope Pious, Martin Luther,
Buddha, Brigham Young or the Dalai Lama had the right answers to the
everlasting. And then along came Albert Einstein on his white horse.
Now, Albert had been a failure at most things so nobody paid him much
attention. He took a job in a patent office as a clerk. Apparently,
the invention business was somewhat slow in those days, so Albert had
time to sit with his feet on his desk and contemplate on profound philosophical
axioms. He knew that if he were going to get any serious attention,
he would have to come up with something original. Realizing the world
was in the toilet, he began to ponder on the state of the universe.
He did this through a device called "thought experiments."
While most of his peers were using up their thoughts to dream about
the cute barmaid down at the pub, Einstein thought about light, electromagnetism
and gravity and how they related to each other. One of his most famous
thought experiments was when he concluded that gravity was the result
of large bodies; that is, stars, the sun and planets pushing down (or
up) on the space-time fabric. No one had ever thought of this before
and this theory still stands today. He also had several other famous
thought experiments, but that's another story.
Fortunately, gravity has been with us since the beginning of the universe.
Without it, we would all float off into in space. Of course, some people
do that anyway. The truth is that no one really understands gravity.
Einstein told us what caused it, but even he didn't know what it really
is. Some scientists say that it is transmitted by gravitons, a name
given to hypothetical particles that may or may not exist. It was posited
as an alternate to Einstein's curved space-time. My money's on Albert
because the graviton has to be massless for the theory to work. Ghosts
are massless, and apparently they fall into the same category as gravitons.
The only person I know who ever saw a ghost was my Navy buddy, Thibodaux,
and that was shortly after he downed his third pint of home brew. Now,
dozens of books have been written by physicists about gravity; none
of which makes any sense to the lay reader. Maybe someday, someone will
figure it out. Meanwhile, watch your step; gravity has caused a lot
of people to say bad words. I know because my dad took me out to the
woodshed every time he heard me say one.
--
ACTIVITIES
OF THE WEEK
Hello
All People far and wide! JG and LG made the long trek from Asheville
to Burningtown with the moving truck this week. Of course we picked
the only day of the week (Wednesday) when there were heavy rain warnings.
But no rain could or can dampen (pun intended) our pleasure at being
here in the cove for good. We've looked forward to this day all year
since we began the remodeling work on our house that turned into a major,
major renovation. So this morning (Saturday) it was with a big grin
that I opened the door to my neighbors, MF and LF. MF and LF are some
of the best neighbors you could hope to have. They fixed supper for
us on the night of the move and gave us supper the next night. I think
the Burningtown angel has found her way down the road. We hope to have
our stuff at least out of the middle of the floor in a couple of weeks
and welcome folks dropping by to sit a spell. Here is a picture of MF
at my "housewarming" which according to MF wasn't warm at
all! Lynne
Monday
LF and I went to Asheville to visit Dr. Henrietta's office where I was
found to be in good shape for the shape I'm in and GT found a nickel.
LG met us and took us for breakfast at the City Bakery (well actually
she drove but I bought). I had a cheese and chive biscuit with bacon
and eggs. It was very good. I don't remember what anyone else had. LG
found seven at the City Bakery last week and she's saving them for me.
KJ played in a softball tournament this weekend. In this picture she's
the only one with her face uncovered. I don't know how the team did
but KJ is really enjoying softball and will be in a softball Monday
and Tuesday of this week.
I was
feeling perky enough to go to preaching today and I really enjoyed the
service.
Alan Alman gave me a piece of peppermint candy.
Here's a picture of Tybee Island Lighthouse from our staff photographer,
Ralph Preston.
We
hope you have a wonderful week and a blessed Thanksgiving Day!
Remember the poor man and his vivacious 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
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