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Thank you for stopping in! Please check weekly for new posts. Who knows... YOU might even show up in a new story! 

I sincerely hope you enjoy my stories!  Happy Reading!! *
11/12/2010..Added a new "box" to click after reading each story.  Thanks!





*Dates are not always accurate, because I move stories around occasionally.
*The number of checks in the boxes don't always represent the number of readers.  For some reason, when I make changes to the blog, I lose some.

ADAM'S APPLES

When daddy looked for a good horse, or a good hunting dog, he looked for the right markings.  You don't get to do that with kids.  You get what you get.  I remember my cousin Emma was born with a big black birthmark in the shape of a boot on her left cheek.  (I saw it one Saturday night when we took a bath in the # 3 washtub, and she stood up and turned around).  Cousin Harvey had a peanut on his shoulder which was brown, and he charged a penny for a look.  Now, if you do happen to be born with a birthmark; you only get one, that's the rule.  That was not the case with my friend Adam, who broke that rule for sure.  Adam entered this world with perfectly shaped tiny red apples stamped all over his newborn body.   He was utterly besplattered with them from head to toe.  Some said it was because he was born in a hot air balloon, and it just wasn't natural to get "borned" that high up.  Others said his mama worked the apple orchard too close to birthin' time, but I think his folks ate too many apples, and that's that.  I say it's a darn good thing they weren't raising rutabagas, 'cause Adam wouldn't of come out looking nearly so good.  All the girls thought he was cute, and the boys thought he was bewitched, so he got along fine at school.   Whether Adam liked it or not, he was still somewhat of a sideshow.  Folks who met the boy for the first time would ask him about his apple marks, and he would just laugh and say he guessed he must have been baptized in apple juice.  He was real good natured about it, and that added to his charm.   Oh, he was a charmer, that Adam.  His Maw and Paw never turned anybody away who came to the house to have a look at their boy.  Turned out it was real good for business.  They sold more apples after Adam was born than they could have ever dreamed or imagined.  Eventually, a fella from the city was hired to come out and take a picture of Adam.  Next thing you know, the photographer got rich off of the photo, and went back to the farm.  He put up the money for Adam's folks to build a big two story house, and some good size woodstove sheds.  The family sold apples, apple pie, apple cobbler, applesauce, apple dumplings, apple butter, apple fried pies, apple fritters, apple cake, apple seeds, and apple trees.  With help from the photographer, they also got labels printed with Adam's speckled face on it, and the words, "Adam's Apples" in big red letters.  Of course, like everybody does, Adam grew up and got married.  Two years later he had a son, born with one birthmark. It was always told that the baby was born with an apple in his hand.

DUCKS IN THE FAMILY BIBLE

In every family there's some relatives, which have  gotten misplaced.  These are not the ones who got shot, run off, or put away, because likely as not, they'll show up right before you die.  Sometimes though, you just don't know all your kin folks.  For instance, for most of my life I thought I had three missing cousins named Caladonia, Pocahontas, and Phidelia.  I remember clearly the day that I "found out" about them.  It was after the first snowfall the year I turned twelve, and our family was loaded in the sleigh headed for "yonder field".  We were off to visit Aunt Etta and Uncle Junius again, but daddy never said that;  just always said, "We're going to yonder field".  When we got there, Aunt Etta had set us a big table!  We loved her cooking, well, all except for the gravy.  You could stand a wooden spoon right straight up in the middle of it.  Mama stopped daddy from hanging his hat on it once, and dared us not to let on to Aunt Etta.  Right over beside the old sideboard there was a small table with a crocheted doily and a great big family Bible.  I was particularly curious that day, and the grown ups weren't looking, so I sneeked a peek.  Aunt Etta had carefully recorded pages of births, deaths, marriages, and baptisms.  I found locks of hair and dried flowers in the Old Testament.  When I got big enough to tell mama that I  handled Aunt Etta's Bible after the gravy, I asked how come I never got to meet my cousins; Caladonia, Pocahontas, or Phidelia.  I can't even describe what mama did right then;  it was like she was delightfully insane, laughing hysterically for several minutes.  Come to find out, the three "cousins", were three DUCKS!  See, Aunt Etta was real partial to ducks, and only wanted to raise them for pets.  Uncle Junius had other plans.  The first time he decided to have one for dinner, Aunt Etta cooked it, but she grieved herself to tears.  After, she went over to the family Bible and wrote the duck's name down, hoping that Uncle Junius would take notice.   That first one was Caladonia, then next time was Pocahontas, and last was Phidelia.  Since there weren't any more entries,  I guessed that she got over it, but mama said that Uncle Junius figured if Aunt Etta was going to fill the Bible up with ducks, it just wasn't worth it, so he swore off!  They never ate duck again.  I was real disappointed after all those years to find out I never did have three more cousins.  I had the same feeling the day I found out I got born.  Mama didn't really find me in the bottom of a flour sack...and daddy really didn't have to wait for hot biscuits before she told him.

" HANK'S HILL"

Hank packed up and moved to "Calvey's Corner" right in the middle of a long dry dusty summer.  Folks sure were having a hard time having a good time back then.  The old "Boston Mill" was barely running, and there weren't any peas up on "Peace Ridge".  Water wells were drying and whole fields of crops dying.  The sun felt like it was somehow closer to the earth, but Hank was a brick maker and the sun to him was a willing and friendly "baker".  
With so many farmers out of work, Hank soon had plenty help, and built his house on top of a hill.  That's when things began to change for folks in  Calvey's Corner.  Once his field was plowed, he began to sow seeds in the dry ground.  After all, a man has to eat, so he just went on and did it.  Hank said there was enough water in the ground.  There surely was not any water, but Hank believed it, and his seeds began to sprout.  Word got around, and everybody from town came to see.  Soon families started camping on the hill, sharing what little they had, and waiting for the crop.  At night Hank would sit on his porch and whistle.  He would always wait until the crickets began to chirp and the whippoorwills were calling. His melodies seemed to get caught up in an unseen breeze and carried throughout the countryside.  When he whistled the old hymn, "He Hideth My Soul", trees would sway as if the wind was stirring.  Hank would stop and say, "Listen, do you hear the trees singing?  They're praising God."  It made him chuckle when the children's eyes got real big, and they cleaned out their ears so as to hear.  The moon was so bright at the top of that hill, and folks got to talking about how beautiful it was up there.  Day after day more people would come, and with them, more supplies.  Cabins began cropping up all over the hill, and more fields planted in the parched earth.  Water was too scarce to use on the fields, but somehow there was enough for drinking, and even a little washing.  Hank started making bricks again, and even the old folks gave some of their water for the mixing.  Travelers would stop and buy the bricks, and before long, the whole town was making bricks and selling them.  Stores got built, and the crops matured.  People were happy again, and changed the name of the town to "Hank's Hill".  It rained  after the harvest, and Hank's Hill continued to be an enchanting place where the trees sang, and the children grew.