Get on the Road

Before I go on to anything else this morning I'd like to remind you all to check out the information for the give away I'm doing on May 21, 2010. Don't forget to leave your contact info too! (Look at yesterday's posting "Connection Rules", above the blue sky photo.)...

  Okay, today my thoughts are all over the place about what I want to talk about. My problem is that I need to pick one subject! From a brain like mine, that is no easy feat! What will it be? Traveling......or trees?....Traveling!! I've been talking for a few days about my family and that has gotten me in the mind set of going down memory road. In some respects it has been a very good thing. Not all of my memories have been bad ones. In fact, I have some very fond memories of the place I grew up! It was a small town, yes, but small is not always a bad thing! Sometimes small can mean closer knit families, hospitality, and a slowed down pace of life. And that's what Thomson Georgia was for me. I remember running barefoot through back paths to get to the store, my change all dirty and sweaty in my hand from squeezing it so tightly. Oh no, I didn't want it to slip out of my hand and get lost in the dirt! *Teehee* I was so excited at the thought of being able to get a whole bag of penny candy to myself!
   Thinking about those days also reminds me of how much fun it was to just get in the car and go heading 'down the road' to Georgia. Actually 'down the road' was more like the 3 hour tour of "Gilligan's Island"! LOL It took us more than 16 hours to get there!!! And that included a lot of fun stops along the way at rest stops. Us kids use to race each other to every bathroom...I never really thought about it until right now, but what must other travelers have thought when they saw all of us kids peeling out of a huge white Cadillac, with flip flops on our feet and all of us girls with a head full of pink curlers?!! Ha!
   Now that my health limits me from taking that trip, I'm thankful for my poetic mind because it's as clear as a bell tucked away in words. And it's a trip I can take whenever I want to! Wanna go?!

Down Home

When I say the words "Down Home"
my deep emotions come alive.
My memories of riding in the car,
heading South on I-95.

I pass right on through New Haven,
and the Washington Bridge flies by;
The "New Jersey Turnpike's" traffic
makes me almost want to cry.

But its when North Carolina's
scenes of country life begin
that "Down Home" becomes a feeling
in which I'm comfortable again.

When I'm close to route I-20,
"South Of The Border" is what I see,
and soon I'm "Down Home", feeling
Georgia's southern hospitality.

There are things about the North
that make me happy that I live there,
but the dirt roads of the south
I seem to need like I need air.

People fishing for their supper,
cooking bass and fried catfish;
On Sunday, rocking on the porch
(What's in the north as good as this?!)

From "Down Home" there's 'salmon patties',
'Beanie Weenies', pone and grits,
country music, rock and soul-
everybody's greatest hits.

But I know that what I'm missing
is more than "Down Home" Southern pine;
It's the feelings and emotions
of the Georgia in my mind.