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Jewels From The Word
August 21, 2017
I was about 7 and tall for my age the first time I sat on a horse. That horse was as tall as the barn. I felt as though I would die if I fell off. The farmer set each of us kids on the back, one at a time, and I thought I would cry. The farmer was one of our fo...
Jewels From The Word
August 14, 2017
My mama had a lady friend who came to town about once a year and spent a few days with us. We kids had to carefully obey Mama when she was there because she expected strict obedience. She expected us to call her "ma'am." We girls were given the privilege of co...
Jewels From The Word
August 7, 2017
The sight brought wonder to my young heart, while sitting out in the backyard at twilight, seeing the twinkles in the air around me. We called them lightening bugs. And we pulled off their little lights and placed it on our ring fingers, like...
Jewels From The Word
July 31, 2017
Do you remember your first store-bought clothes? When I was about 12, a church lady told Mama she wanted to buy my younger sister and me a couple of dresses. One of my dresses was a light yellow shirt-waist dress, with short sleeves. I felt lik...
Jewels From The Word
July 24, 2017
Mom used to say that when I was a kid I ate more corn-on-the-cob than their old mules did on the farm. I love corn on the cob. I could eat it every day, three times a day, 7 days a week all summer long. White corn, yellow corn, mixed white-and-yellow corn...
Jewels From The Word
July 10, 2017
After I moved back to Vinita, Ok. in 1977, my little son and I would go to Grand Lake fishing with Mom and Dad sometimes.Daddy would say, "Let's go fishing," then head outside to mess around with his fishing poles and tackle. Mom packed crackers and cheese, app...
Jewels From The Word
July 3, 2017
My daddy smelled like strong coffee, cigarettes, and Coalgate Foamy shave cream. I loved to pat his soft cheeks after he shaved at night and kiss him goodnight. Perfume companies spend millions trying to come up with the perfect smell. They have found that...
Jewels From The Word
June 26, 2017
My living room feels perfect at 75 degrees. 76 is too hot, and 74 is too cool. The position of the AC vent in the living room affects it, since that vent blows directly on my recliner. If the thermostat is set on 75, and I feel warm, I have a nice cool washclot...
Jewels From The Word
June 19, 2017
I’ve always been proud of my maiden name Hightower, a combination of the words ‘high’ and ‘tower’ so that the combined meaning refers to a high or tall tower. When I first became aware of the meanings of words, my unusual last name...
Jewels From The Word
June 5, 2017
Our cousins from Wichita always came in to visit for Memorial Day and some years our California cousins came too. Grandma and Poppie Swift, and our aunts and uncles from northeast Oklahoma all gathered for reunion usually at our house. Th...
Jewels From The Word
May 29, 2017
Mama worked in the yard when we were kids, growing perennial flowers and a big vegetable garden all the way across the backyard. She had snowball bushes, rose-of-sharon bushes, and two types of roses (one was a miniature wild rose.) Mama grew daylilies wh...
Jewels From The Word
May 22, 2017
When we moved into this house several years ago, the first thing I wanted to do was plant roses. The existing landscaping was beautiful, but a woman wants to add her personal touch to make the new house her home.I planted 3 kinds of roses—hybrid tea roses...
