Growth

***Before I start talking today, let me remind you about my GIVE AWAY! On May 21st, 7 days from now, I'll be drawing a name out of the box for someone to receive, FREE, a book of my poems AND a crochet/bead necklace that I handmade myself! See the "Connection Rules" posting on this blog for the details.***

I know that most of the time my stories probably seem like some kind of stuff I've made up just so that I can write, but...TRUST ME...no one could make up some of the things that have happened to me, or for me. The things that I now call 'my life!' When I look back on some of those things I can see, just like I can see in my yard...there has been growth!

   I've mentioned that I grew up in a small town in Georgia, Thomson Georgia to be exact. But I never mentioned how I got to Massachusetts. Just to warn you, it's not, like a lot of the other things I talk about, a funny story...My childhood actually began in Savannah Georgia. (If you want to see what the city is like, you can take 6 minutes and look at this video. Scroll down a little and click on  on "Experience Savannah!" http://www.savannahvisit.com/  My mom and Dad lived there, near his parents, when they were newly married. Unfortunately my dad had a drinking problem that caused my mother to leave him. I was just a toddler then. My mom got on the train to Thomson Georgia, where her family lived. http://www.facebook.com/ThomsonMcDuffieCountyChamberofCommerce She got on the train with just me and the Second in command. (My sister, in case some of you didn't read earlier posts). My mom and dad still kept in contact through the next years...that's how they also became parents to a baby number 3!
  But my mom, now single and with 3 kids, really struggled. This led to her developing a drinking problem too. Funny how things happen. He STOPPED drinking and has not taken a drink for at least 40 or more years....She started and never stopped...until recently, within the last few months in fact.  (I heard this from my other sister recently. I hope it's true.) Her drinking contributed to the fact that her and I have not had a good relationship for many years now. Drinking is not the ONLY reason, but that's a story for another day. I don't want to bore you to tears with all of that!
  Anyway, circumstances became so dire, living with my mom, that my dad, who had in the interim moved to Springfield Massachusetts, came down and kidnapped...YES! REALLY...kidnapped me and my two sisters that were legally his. (There's another story here too!...Later!) So, off to Massachusetts we went...with only the clothes on our back, sandals on our feet, and in the beginning of winter! The day we reached Springfield was the first time I actually saw piles of snow! We'd had it occasionally in my hometown in Georgia, a quick flurry that would melt practically before it hit the ground, but nothing like I saw that day!!!
   My teenage growing up years took place in Springfield, with a single dad, and a lady friend (not a girlfriend) he had finagled into watching us after school and teaching us all about being proper little ladies. She did a pretty good job...when we let her! LOL (Ahhh! Another story! *Teehee*) Dad watched us like hawks...or thought he did! He even had Jehovah's Witnesses come over every week to have a Bible Study with us! He figured he was over his head and he needed some help from above!!! He was right too! LOL This is one of the reasons why I call my dad my 'Knight in shining armor'...he did a great job for a man who was completely on his own one day, and then raising 3 GIRLS the next!
   My growth would never have occurred without him! I believe that! And even though we didn't continue our Bible Study very long at that time, in years to come I remembered how important it was to him then and it led to my becoming a Bible Student, one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and a Bible Teacher myself! Yet another story!!! Ha! Ha! I warned you in my bio that I was a talker! Are you in?!!
  I've grown, like my yard after all of this rain. And, like my yard, I've had a little good soil put here and there, a little weeding out of the bad, a little fertilizer to keep me heading in the right direction. I continue to be watered every day.

"T"-Town

I came from a small town in Georgia,
where pecan trees and sunshine lines the streets;
where plums and peaches grow like nothing,
and where when music plays, you cannot keep your seat.

I love that little town in Georgia,
 and the people who can't  help but holler "Hey!"
Where back roads just seem to last forever,
and the chickens cackle happy when they lay.

Why did I leave that little town in Georgia,
where swinging quiet on the porch could make your day;
where when it rained, the ground just seemed to flutter,
and the fields were full of horses, cows and hay.

How I miss that little town in Georgia,
where the kids are free to play outside all day,
where the people come together in a crisis,
where they love to sing, and laugh, and dance and play.

One day I'm gonna go back home to Georgia,
and live near the water -  (Oh how I wish!)
And do nothing but lay around and daydream,
go walking in the woods, and catch some fish.

I'm a girl from a little town in Georgia;
the big city couldn't take the country out of me;
"T" - Town will always be the place that I came from,
and the place that's in my heart for eternity.