For the Love of Music - and Life

These folks above make up what is called they Town & Country band. They play at our town's Sr. Activity Center every Friday. Patrons love to tap their toes to the old fashioned blues, hillbilly and gospel music and plenty of folks get up and dance. These musicians are all senior citizens themselves with the guy on the far left (fiddle) topping the charts at 94 and the guy with his leg stretched out is 86. Isn't it great?

Honor is Alive

Friday, September 13th was POW/MIA Day. I've told you before how patriotic smaller communities seem to be. Well, in a neighboring town, the VFW started a project last year. It's called the Veterans' Walk of Flags.

Families or individuals pay $100 for a flag to be included in their display which flies some 287 flags seven times a year. The one time fee pays for the purchase of the flag, along with an engraved label and care for perpetuity.

The display is tastefully executed on the grounds of the local hospital, and black tape is bound around the flag pole to indicate soldiers who are deceased.

The project is requested to march in local parades. Above is a family portrait. These folks gather from surrounding towns every exhibit day to pay honor to the gentleman with the sunglasses who served in the army infantry during WWII and to pay respects to his fellow soldiers who never returned.

Remember and honor your loved ones. Veteran's Day is coming up. Make it a point to support the local veterans. For more information, call #501-354-0869.

It's That Time of Year

It's that time of year here in Arkansas. As soon as the slightest cool air blows from the north, a certain portion of the population heads out to stalk wild things in the woods and lakes.

These friends smoke 150 pounds of deer meat every summer to give as gifts. Oh man, it's good!

They gave me this Deer Chili recipe- Enjoy!

Deer Chili

2lbs deer hamburger

1 onion

1 bell pepper 2 - 3 cloves garlic

1 can light red dikney beans

1 can tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1 - 2 jalapenos

1 -2 cans water or beer

3 - 4 tsp chili powder

salt & pepper

1 pkg chili seasoning mix

Brow deer, onion, garlic & pepper together.

Add reamining ingredients and simmer 30 minutes.

Pray Tell

"Pray tell." I love that expression. I heard it a few days ago as in, "Pray tell, another hurricane isn't coming our way."

Well, at the time I couldn't tell the person that because, in fact, we thought Hurricane Ike was sending storms our way, but we were pleasantly surprised.

Although some folks did lose electricity in our parts for the weekend, we didn't have a lot of damage or flooding here though I know in other parts of the state they did. We thought it would be a lot worse.

We just got over snapped electrical poles from Gustav (see photo outside by front door), so everyone was much relieved

So, even though the weather didn't go quite as the weathermen were telling us, it was reason enough for everyone to pray...

Bless their souls

We were hit by Hurricane Gustav's storms where we live in Arkansas ( between Okahoma and Little Rock) with power knocked out for two nights and a deluge of rain for three days. Half of our work crews had gone to Louisiana to help down there, and so we had workers coming in from Kansas and Oklahoma. All through the darkness their big trucks traveled from one transformer to the next. We are grateful to everyone who helped us out.

Boys Just Want to Have Fun

Sometimes there isn't a lot to do for kids living in small towns. We all know kids with nothing to do can get in a lot of trouble. Kudos to our town for having the foresight to build a skateboard park ... it's going to be well worth the investment.

Teach Your Children Well

I never understood why some folks don't value their stories - where they came from - who their ancestors were. I think it's fascinating to know about past generations - not just your own childhood - that is so limiting!

I love it when my mother tells my daughter that she has the same shape head that her great-great grandmother had (as she strokes the back of her head and neck). Then, she tells a story, of course, of how her grandmother used to wear her hair, etc...

We have a lot of Native Americans around here and this girl in the photo was caught off-guard during a pow wow recently. She is learning the ways of her ancestors even if she does live in a brick home and ride the school bus to school. Equal energy is spent learning the old ways.

May you share that connectiveness today with those whom you love... and drink a glass of sweet tea for me!