‘These Are The Birds Of My Feather’…

‘These Are Birds Of My Feather’…
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

 

Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

Believe it or not… there are ‘birds of my feather’… I’ve met them, personally. I was amazed as I watched, listened to the way they spoke, how they thought. ‘Pure amazement’… wow! People ‘like me’!

Now, this doesn’t happen very often… it’s rare. I don’t meet ‘many’ birds of my feather… that often. When I do, I treasure them… I’m always glad to see them. Though, I’m not around them… I keep them in my life.

Yes, I’ve had people ‘fool me’ for a time… but, my nature is to always sense, feel people … it never stops doing this… no matter how far into a ‘friendship’ I get. I can tell ‘when the honeymoon’ is … over. I, forever… lose interest in a person who has ‘fooled’ me. You can’t win me back… it’s gone.

They have to go their way, I go mine… if you were ‘real’ in the first place, I’d kept you for a …’real’ friend. If you aren’t a bird of my feather… then, we don’t have a common ground to stand on… I might be afraid of what … you stand for.

Like you, I have things I look for in another person in order to like them, care for them. I can care for others, though… I don’t like them. I just stay away from them. I was just wondering…. ‘can I like someone… not care for them’? Mmmm…mmm, that’s different, I never thought about that.

‘Different’… different… that’s a magic word to me. I love people who are different, interesting… never the same… yet, the same person.

I love unusual people who do unusual things… dress differently, not afraid to be themselves. I don’t mean ugly people who like to be vulgar, nasty…. but, good people who do fun, colorful things… happy, smiling people. You know… ‘birds of my feather’!

I love the unusual way they think, talk. That catches my interest in a blink of an eye… my attention is dead-centered… on them. I’m ‘all ears’… I’m excited ‘to see what will be said, done…next’. Color after color… I want to see them all! Happy colors… now, they are the colors of ‘birds of my feather’, are.

Yes, I know… I haven’t been very colorful for some time…my son died… Tommy died. I have to make myself say it… I have to tell myself… it’s true. Doing that doesn’t lessen the pain at all… what it does do is to ‘make me face reality’. Why? Because no mother wants to know her child has … died. He won’t be coming back.

Do you know how that stabs me inside as I write that? No, you wouldn’t. That’s okay… the point here is… I face reality…. I don’t fool myself … I like people who are like that. They know ‘life really can happen’… they are going to face it head-on.

I love artistic people who constantly create with ‘everything’…. or even more fun… ‘nothing’! I love that… that gets my attention quicker than anything. I love to paint, draw, write… play with colors, play with words… I really love being around ‘these birds of my feather’! I’m at my one of my happiest times… happiest people!

I’m always ‘different’… yet, I’m always the same person. It’s like being a beautiful, fluffy, white cloud up high in the blue, blue sky… that’s constantly changing shapes… happy shapes, ugly shapes.

The cloud is always changing when the wind blows it, the conditions in the atmosphere, change… yet, it’s the same cloud. Interesting… one never knows what’s going to happen next. Or… be said, next. Or.. what color next… or, what shape!

Exciting… that special feeling in one’s chest, stomach… mind. I love to be around good, fun-loving, different people. Who knows what fun, wonderful thing can happen next?!

The wonderful ‘unexpected’… that’s a beautiful color of ‘the birds of my feather’. Who knows what special is going to happen… next!

This is only a very few things to describe ‘birds of my feather’… but, you get the idea. Sometimes, ‘birds of this feather’… might not appear to be ‘interesting’… if you overlook them… you ‘have missed’… a lot. Because… when they go into action… who knows when they feel they want to do that… these birds of my feathers can ‘show you a thing or two’. Exciting things, charming things… colors of every kind… just who knows!

They don’t feel the need to brag, or draw attention on the good things they do. They don’t have to prove anything to anyone. They are ‘good birds’… that’s all that matters. They make a difference in life… at unexpected times, to unexpected people’. Now… ‘these are the birds of my feather’! :)))

 

 

Casting Webs…

Casting Webs…
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

Look, there he goes on that brand new car
See that big smile on his face
He’s looking at those girls he just passed by
Pretending he is looking straight ahead

He’s going to catch him one
That’s why he drives this brand new car
It’s candy apple red, sure to please
He’s casting his web, sure he’ll catch something

Catch something… he does
A beauty with blonde hair, blue eyes
A big smile on her face, pearly whites showing
Her hair blows in the wind, as she tosses it back

This man must be rich to afford a car like this
I’m going to catch him, though he thinks he caught me
Caught me… he has cast his web
Using his brand new car as bait to lure me

She lowers her eyes, acts sweet and shy
While he sits there driving, boasting of all he has
They are both after something… both unknowingly
Are casting webs, he to catch her… she to catch him

When he stops the car, they look into each other’s eyes
Let’s get married, we both know what we want
She thinks he has lots of money, he thinks she’s sweet
They go get married… not long, the honeymoon’s over

I’ve got to let this new car go back, I can’t pay bills
As long as I have to pay this high payment on it
I don’t have the money you think I have
She looks at him with evil in her eyes

I’m not as sweet as you thought I was
I just wanted your brand new car
You cast your web, I cast mine
Neither of us… caught anything

I’m tired of being a spider he thought
It’s time to go fishing in the sea
He bought a boat and wore his speedo
No more casting webs, it was time to cast… fishing lures!

Everyone knows there’s more than one fish in the sea
Isn’t that what we are all told, every day of our life?
Catch one, throw one back… there’s always another one
If that one don’t taste good… you don’t have to keep it

He caught a whale of a woman
Who wanted to ride his boat
She didn’t care if he had a car, or not
She turned out to be really sweet

She didn’t require a whole lot
Only a little water to moisten her skin
She could get that in his bathtub
He didn’t have one… so, he had to toss her back into the sea

He didn’t have a car, a boat no more
He was out of web casting material
What was a poor man to do
At least he had on a good pair of walking shoes

He walked, and walked hundreds of miles
Tired, weary he stopped at a tent in the woods
He saw a woman, her shoulders slumped
From the weight of the world

Their eyes met… it was instant love
No one had a net to cast out to catch the other
Only their eyes told the other what they wanted to know
They walked off into the beautiful sunset… lived happy ever after

Mama, If I Die One Day… I Want To Come Back As Yours, Skip’s Dog…

Mama, If I Die One Day… I Want To Come Back As Yours, Skip’s Dog

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

 

 

 

 

My son, Tommy, as a young boy… I miss you, Tommy, I miss you with my very Heart.  I miss a strawberry-blonde haired guy with a big sunshine smile… sparkling blue-green eyes.  You were so funny… interesting.  As my son… I not only loved you… I liked you as the person you were…

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

 

 

Just months before Tommy died, he was at our home; he said something I never forgot.  I remember stopping whatever I was doing, I can’t remember what… and looking at him.  He stood there with that bright, sunshiney face, grinning at me.  I felt pride when he said what he did to me.  I didn’t know he thought about such…

 

 

We were always laughing, joking about something.  Skip and Tommy were always matching wits; and seeing who could come up with the funniest jokes.  They truly enjoyed that.  Afterwards… they’d walk away, and I could look outside, see them sitting, talking about real life events.  Sometimes, I would stand quietly, thank God for both of them.  They were my whole world… Skip, Tommy, and the Pups.  I’d watch their expressions… laughter, heads nodding to each other… their posture would be in harmony… mirroring each other.  I’d go do something else, smiling inside… thinking I was so fortunate to have my husband, my son.

 

 

Secretly, Tommy would ‘gather Skip’s jokes’ to make them his own.  :)))  This was so when he was out on the road, he’d could tell them to other drivers.  He’d tell them to everybody… he admired Skip’s sense of humor, and how ‘quick Skip was to get on his feet’.  Skip could come back with a reply to anything… never searching for words to say something funny.  He is a natural… he has the gift of gab.  Secretly… Skip was proud that Tommy ‘stole’ his jokes, sayings; he and Tommy were very close.

 

 

Tommy was just as funny!  He could say the funniest things, keep us laughing.  He just didn’t know what he admired about Skip… he, also… had the natural ability to tell funny jokes; to come back with something quickly… he always had ‘words’ to say.  Tommy had the gift of gab… he could ‘talk up a storm’…

 

 

What was so funny… was when Tommy would forget…  tell Skip his own jokes!!!  I would watch Skip, loving what I’d see.  He’d put on a mock-face of being indignant… and say, “Tommy, you are telling me my own jokes”!!!  I would laugh; Tommy’s face would begin to turn red… and then, he would laugh so much.  Skip made him laugh harder with the funny things he’d say…  I truly miss these days… times.

 

 

Tommy always reminded me of his beautiful red-headed grandmother.  She had red hair, blue eyes…  every time I see her in my mind…I see that smile!  Oh, she had a wonderful smile that wouldn’t stop.

 

 

That’s where Tommy got his strawberry-blonde hair, bright sunshine smile!  Imagine that… with golden sunlight all around them… that’s what happens when I think of ‘them’ together… like one and one equals two…  Tommy and his grandmother, Igel… their heads thrown back laughing with pure abandonment; totally engrossed in their own joking, happiness being around each other.  One sensed they couldn’t wait to see what the other would say… like volleying a ball back, forwards across the net.  Neither one of them was going to ‘miss’ it!  Their words, laughter was … non-stop.

 

 

 

 

Tommy got his ‘gift of gab’ from his grandmother; his father’s mother.  When Tommy was little, it was fun to see both of them, joking each other.  He loved his red-headed grandmother!  She talked to him constantly, when he was a little fellow… and he talked back to her before his words were… words.  How could he resist with such a happy, kind, face with jolly blue eyes, and beautiful red hair?

 

 

Tears come to my eyes… no one knows the love I had for her.  Tommy knew, Skip knews the love, respect I had for her.  He met her… in just a few minutes he saw ‘why’ I loved her; why I had such a wonderful impression of her.  He fell in love with her, too.

 

 

She became my mother, also… for almost 14 years.  Beautiful, sweet Arzie Igel.  I’ll never-ever forget you.  You meant the world to me in my young world when I had no one.  I ‘feel’ you in my heart as I write about you.

 

 

Before I go on… I have to remember two other people here, that I loved very much… back then.  They are two more ‘red-headed people with blue eyes with those bright sunshine-smiles’.  They were Tommy’s grandmother’s brother, Charles…. and her sister, Dip.  This… is where Tommy’s bright sunshine smile came from… and his fun ways.

 

 

I have to remember Dip, Igel’s sister.  She would get me to come spend the night with her… oh, what fun we had laughing, talking.  I grew to love this red-headed woman with the blue eyes, sunshine-smile, too!  This lady was Tommy’s great-aunt.

 

 

Charles used to live on our property in his RV.  We’d walk down to see him; sit a while laughing, joking, talking.  His blue eyes would twinkle, and his red hair would shine in the sunshine.  His two sisters didn’t have anything on him… his laugh, smile equaled theirs!  I loved him, too.  He, like his two sisters… let you know with those eyes, if they liked you.  Their eyes would sparkle with laughter, love… or they’d be cold as stone… they always sparkled at… me.  Tommy’s eyes did the same… his eyes so like theirs… eyes so like mine.

 

 

When I moved to the North Carolina mountains as a very young girl… these three people stood out to me.  I loved them on instant sight… I didn’t meet them all at once.  Through time, I met them… it was like meeting Igel all over again… more sunshine!  My son had that special smile… just like them.

 

 

Golden sunshine…sparkling blue eyes… Tommy’s eyes blue like theirs-green like mine; depending on what he wore; the colors around him. My grandchildren, Tommy’s children… have the same eyes… ones that can make you feel so loved, special.  But, if you don’t do right… eyes that can stop you in your tracks.  Like Tommy’s… like Igel; Dip; Charles… like mine.

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing how one can ‘see’ different family members in one child.  I’m always amazed seeing such… as children begin to mature.  For a time, they look just like one person only, to look like someone else in their families.  Finally… one day they look … like themselves.  :)))

 

 

Oh, Tommy… how I miss your bright, sunshine smile.  I sit here with tears in my eyes, a smile on my face as I ‘see’ you in my mind… with your Grandma Igel…a little strawberry-blonde haired boy with a beautiful, young red-headed lady standing out in the sunshine… the golden light surrounding you both.  I remember you both with such special love in my heart… my precious son; my friend, mother, sister… all in one special woman.

 

 

I smile as I remember the words you said to me that day.  You were petting our Rottweiler, Fairchild, talking to him.  You looked up, said to me:  “Mama, if I die one day… I want to come back as yours, Skip’s dog”!

 

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

 

 

 

Could it be?  :)))  How do we ever know?  Kissy Fairchild Bates above… with his little-big perfect head, spoiled self….. :)))

 

 

Note:  You might get a smile out of this, we do now… thinking about it.  If it were possible, then… it’s true.  If not, it’s fun to talk about, remember………. If Tommy were here, he’d get a kick out of this:

 

 

Our Kissy Fairchild Pup’s birthday is 11-02-2010

Our Tommy’s birthday was 11-20-1969… he died 2010, on May 29th.

 

 

I can ‘see Tommy’ grinning in my mind, his mouth moving…. did he say something?  Could it be that he is saying, ‘I told you if I died one day… I wanted to come back as yours, Skip’s dog’?

 

 

Why?  Because we love our Pups, care for them.  I was thinking that ‘if I died one day’… I’d want to come back as something ‘with arms’… I just ‘feel’… that I’d like to keep my arms, hands… so, I can do things with them!  :)))

 

Oh, I’d like to have my legs, feet…. my head full of wonderful hair… don’t forget, I want to have my eyes… I like to see with my eyes…. oh my, this list could go ‘on and on’…. Oh!  I would want to be little again… not a little girl… but, a …… size 9, once again!  Ha! Ha! Ha!

 

 

 

Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee… Remembering Tommy, my son.  Remembering other special people who passed through my life… into the other world… one we’d like to believe our loved ones, have gone to.

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Laughter (allinmythoughts.wordpress.com)

The Many Faces Of Granny Gee… A Walk On The Wild Side… Many Photos!!!

 

THE MANY FACES OF GRANNY GEE… LOOK IF YOU DARE!!!

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee   (and “yes, I did do that!”)  Ha! Ha! Ha!

 

 

 

Well, I’m going to show you some secret faces of me, Granny Gee, Gloria Faye Brown Bates.  :)))

 

It’s not very often I let anyone ‘see the real me’…. Tommy and Skip knows the ‘real me’… I can be quite comical, amusing.  It’s just been such a long time when I’ve felt like having fun…

 

Skip swears that I can sit and entertain myself all day, if I want to.  He is fascinated by the things I do sometimes.  Tommy… well, Tommy and I had quite a lot in common… he was quite entertaining, also!

 

Skip… he can be so funny.  No one knows what he will say next… when he does say something, I can stand back and watch, hear the laughter, see expressions on everyone’s face.  When both he and Tommy were together… I’d just enjoy listening.  I knew Tommy was ‘gathering funny stuff from Skip’ to use later when he was back on the road.  He admired Skip, loved how ‘quick Skip was on his feet’.

 

What was so funny was… later in time, Tommy ‘would forget where he learned some funny stuff from’…. and ‘use it on Skip’.  Skip would stop, look at Tommy, begin laughing, and say:  “Tommy!  You’re using my own material on me!”  I loved seeing Tommy’s special grin as it dawned on him that… he was doing just that!  He would laugh so much… his cheeks would be alittle ‘red’… and I would begin laughing.  I loved those times!

 

I used to sit, play on the webcam… doing silly things unexpectedly… send them to Tommy on the road… he wouldn’t be expecting ‘his mama’ to do something so silly… and would get a big laugh.  Of course, he had to tell Skip… he and Skip were always ‘telling each other things on me’!

 

Now… if I feel I want to be silly… Tommy’s not here to appreciate it!  So… I guess I’m going to have to be ‘silly’ here… sometimes… now, I’m only like this …rarely.  So, think how ‘I could become a collector’s item’… you won’t see this very often!

Sometimes… there are ‘pages in my book’ that you won’t ever know about… so, ‘read, look along for a few minutes’… be entertained.  I like funny things, too!  I haven’t been funny in a long time!

 

Below… are some of the ‘Many Faces of Granny Gee’…… Look if you dare!  :)))

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please everyone… ‘don’t be hating!’  I’m sorry (no, I’m not!)… I couldn’t help myself!  Life is like this sometimes… one never knows what will come up ‘right out of the blue’… Do you know what?  This was fun!  Yes!  I did that!  Love, Granny Gee (see, I told you I’m not perfect… and now, you know that I like to laugh, have fun… too!)

 

P.S…..

 

Thinking about what I just did… will make the rest of my day better…. embarassing, a red face, disbelief I showed ‘myself in such a light’… too bad, because…

 

P.P.S……

 

Good girls want to have fun… too!  I just did!  That ole Granny Gee has still got it!  I hope I made you laugh… because I just had some good laughs that I needed so… I needed to ‘walk on the wild side for a few moments’… now… I feel good!  Silly?  Yes, but… so fun!

 

P.P.P.S…….Love me or hate me… I’m just Granny Gee

I just wanted to have some fun!I’m Granny Gee… I’m the one!  I’m not ‘the man’… I am the ‘wo- man’!

 

Forgive me Lord, at this moment ‘I know not what I do’

I’ve just had a bout of insanity!

I just did this without my own permission

Can I do this, and say

The devil made me do it?!!!

 

Ha! Ha! Ha!

:))) :))) :)))

 

The more I think about it… I might just delete this whole thing!

Mmmm-mmmmmm……….

 

Nope… no can do!

:)))))))))))))))

 

Love, Granny Gee (not Gloria Faye Brown Bates… she didn’t have anything to do with this!)

:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Related articles

• Yellow Panties… and Buttercups! Does ‘Yourself’ Make Jokes For You To Laugh At? (grannyscolorful.wordpress.com)
• Giggling Really Is Good for You (everydayfamily.com)

Like A Drunken Jumping Jack With Binoculars… SNOW!

 I took these photos while we were out last night… trying to ‘capture the snow as I saw it’… these photos look nothing like what I saw with my ‘binoculars.’  Granny Gee/Gloria :)))

…………………………………………………………………………..

 Like A Drunken Jumping Jack With Binoculars… SNOW!

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

Last night, we got our first snow of the year!  It wasn’t a lot of snow, but… while it was falling… it was wonderful!  ‘It looked like it was going to snow forever … thick, beautiful, white … nature was really outdoing herself for a little while, here.’

We were out driving as it came down.  The flakes were huge, and the downfall thick, fluffy-looking as it hit our windshield.  In the lights of my truck … there was quite a show going on!  

The wind was blowing the snow from one direction to the other … trees would block the snow’s fall … for brief moments, making it appear that it wasn’t snowing hard… when in fact, it was!

I wanted to see ‘into’ the snow!  How could I do that, I wondered?  I wanted to ‘watch it forever’.  

I told Skip that I … so, wished I had something like a huge snow globe… where it snowed forever … not just when one shook it up!  I wanted to be able to ‘stand there as long as I wanted to … to watch it snow, without it stopping.’

When I say that, this is from a person who has been in real blizzards, real storms of all kinds …. I mean it in a different way.  I have seen it snow all I wanted to … but, not like … I want to.

I’ll give you an idea of what I mean.  Last night, Skip was driving, I was free to watch it snowing … but, I didn’t want ‘to just watch’… I wanted to ‘really see it’, to really ‘feel it’.  How could I do that?

Well, I accomplished the first, I was already too cold to accomplish the second … I really didn’t ‘want to feel it.’  :)))  I’ll tell you what I did, and I did it without thinking … when I became aware of what I was doing… I felt like a child.

Picture this…. I began cupping my hands in ‘binocular’ fashion… to concentrate on the snow flying toward the windshield.  Oh, how beautiful it was!

Thick, white snow coming toward the windshield, the wipers pushing it off as it made contact.  ‘Never-ending snow’… I didn’t want it to end.  I became frustrated because I wanted to watch it ‘forever.’

The snow was mesmerizing … I felt like I was hynotized as I watched it… I wanted it to last, and last… and last.  

I had leaned all around in my seat to watch it with my ‘binoculars.’  I never thought of how I looked to Skip as I did that!  I may have looked like a drunken jumping jack in a box… leaning all around from the waist!

If so, then… this jumping jack enjoyed watching it snow!  I wish I had ‘something’ … that I could watch it snow ‘all I wanted it to’ …so, I could sit as long as I wanted to … to watch it.  

I wish I could ‘get lost’ in it, come back when I was ready to.  I’ve never heard of such a thing (of course!  I never hear of ‘such a thing’ when I wish for some things!)

Skip suggested a snow globe.  “No, Skip, I don’t want a snow globe, I would have to keep shaking it up, to make it snow.”  Why wouldn’t I want to do that?  

Because…. this is most important… I don’t want anything to break up my focus, my concentration so, when I ‘enter the snow world’… I don’t ‘come back here… until I’m ready to!’

Related articles

• Winter Wonderland (stepintothecruz.wordpress.com)

Skip’s Grandma Lois… Hang On Tight, Granny!

 

SKIP’S GRANDMA LOIS…  HANG ON TIGHT, GRANNY!

 

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   aka GRANNY GEE

 

Skip grew up close to his Grandma Lois.  She was his father’s mother.  Grandma Lois was Director of Nursing at the hospital where they lived.  Skip loved going to the hospital as a young guy to talk to the nurses who worked under her.

 

The nurses would be talking and laughing with Skip … he was a handsome young man!  Grandma Lois would come walking up the hall… they’d scatter going back to work.  She was very stern with them, and didn’t like them to be ‘playing’ on the job.  She was of the ‘old school’.  She was very professional.

 

She was a very serious-minded person, though she did have a sense of humor.  She could play music… by ear.  She didn’t know how to read music, but, she could play the old-timey piano she had, singing for family and friends who came to visit her.  Grandma Lois could play the guitar, mandolin, and banjo.  She loved to sing songs such as ‘Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey‘.

 

Grandma Lois loved to eavesdrop … she was on a partyline of six.  Skip would come into the door talking and she’d hush him up quickly!  She loved to eavesdrop on Lizzie, one of her neighbors.  She’d talk about Lizzie after going to church …she’d tell Skip all about what Lizzie wore.  One of the times was that Lizzie wore a tacky hat that day.  Skip asked her did it have more feathers than hers?

 

One day Skip went to his Grandma Lois to tell her about a new car he wanted.  He needed someone to sign the bank note for him before he could order it.  She asked him what kind of car was he wanting.

 

Skip described the car to her, it was a 1966 Chevelle Super Sport, 396 cubic inch engine, 375 glorious horsepower, with enough power ….’to pull the doors off hell’!  (Skip didn’t tell Grandma Lois about ‘all that glorious horsepower’).  It was a beautiful copper-brown color.  The seats were of soft, black leather… bucket seats.  It had a 4-speed transmission.  It was truly a beautiful… fast machine!

 

Grandma Lois called up Jimmy, the bank rep.  She told him about the car, that she’d sign the bank note when the car got there… they’d order it and it’d take 3-4 weeks to be at the car lot.  He told her that she needed to come up there to sign the papers now… Grandma Lois said to him ‘Jimmy, I’ll sign those papers when the car gets here, don’t hand me a bunch of junk now, I changed your diapers when you were a baby!’

 

The car finally came…. Grandma Lois and Skip went to pick it up.  There it sat on the car lot… pretty as a picture!  Skip felt excitement as he stood there looking in awe at it!

 

He and his Grandma Lois went inside the office to join the salesman and bank rep (Jimmy).  She signed the papers, they all shook hands.  It was time to leave in Skip’s new car!

 

They got into the car, Skip drove it gingerly as possible to go through the gears.  Grandma Lois was very relaxed.  The motor sounded like a song bird.  They drove… the trip home was 18 miles…

 

Grandma Lois asked Skip to stop at the local country store where Skip and his friends hung around.  The locals played horseshoes there…  there were always alot of men challenging each other to a game.  When they drove up and stopped, alot of friends of Skip’s was there.. they all looked at his new car.  They loved it!

 

Skip’s Grandma Lois wanted a can of snuff, she wanted Skip to buy it for her.  She never let anyone know that she dipped snuff.  Skip got out, went inside, bought the snuff and two bottles of soda.  He came back out and got inside the car.  He started the engine…

 

His friends began yelling for him to ‘show them what that car could do!’  No one had a car like that around there, they loved it.  Skip yelled back that he couldn’t … his grandma was in the car.

 

Then…. Skip sat back in that seat … the feeling came over him that was too strong to ignore!  He wanted and felt he needed to ‘unleash the power’ in that Chevelle!  He wanted to show his friends ‘what that car could do!’

 

He backed out gently into the road…he let the car come to a stop.  He put it into 1st gear………. all of a sudden …’all hell broke loose!’

 

He dropped that clutch, put the accelerator to the floor!  His Grandma Lois was pegged to the back of the seat!  Then…..  he went for 2nd gear!

 

Grandma Lois lurched forward, was thrown back against that seat again!  Skip went for 3rd gear… once again Grandma Lois went forward, and was pegged forcefully against the back of that seat!

 

Skip threw it into 4th gear, it happened again… Grandma Lois was thrown forward and again… she was pinned to her seat.  Skip looked down, he was going 110 mph, they had gone less than a quarter mile down the road!

 

Grandma Lois had begun to holler ..’slow this damn deathtrap down and let me out!’  Skip slowed down to 50 mph.  Grandma Lois was furious!  ‘Why did you take off like that!’

 

Skip told Grandma Lois that the salesman had told him he needed to do that for several times… ‘that was part of the breaking-in process’!  Grandma Lois didn’t say a word.  Skip drove normally the rest of the way home.

 

Later, down at the country store Skip met up with his friends.  They were excitedly talking about his new car.  What a car!  They had never seen a car run like that!   One guy said ‘it ran like a scalded jackrabbit!’

 

Grandma Lois did ride with Skip again, he never took her on such a ride again.  Two months later …Skip left for the Army.  He left his Grandma Lois with the memory of ‘the ride of her life!’

 

 

 

That’s Just Special!

English: Hot air balloons, San Diego, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That’s Just Special!

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

I wonder ‘why?’………. when I was growing up… I didn’t have a nickname like ‘other people’?  All the other kids had nicknames… fun nicknames.  Nick names that ‘said something important about them’.  I think maybe because I was the most ‘unimportant’ person in the world, then.  :)))

Just recently I’ve gotten … 2 … fun, good nicknames from one of my friends on WordPress!  I loved them!  The two nicknames are:      GG/G ….. and Triple G….. Thank-you, Colleen at The Chatter Blog (

http://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/ …… you made me smile seeing your nickname for me …. not one, but… two! 

It just means the world to me!  I love it!  You had no idea that you would touch my heart when you did that… nor know ‘how I always felt about wishing for a nickname, too).  Colleen, that’s …. just special!

Later on, I will have to write about those three words when ‘I’ say them.  It always created a little thing when I would say that … because I ‘put my heart in it….. when saying those words’.  When I said them… I ‘meant it with my very heart’… it just meant so much to me.

It had to do with Tommy, and his family and Skip.  They would begin smiling when I’d say ….’that’s just special!’  I didn’t realize that it had become a ‘trademark’ for me.  I only caught on when I accidently noticed after saying those words…. that everyone began smiling!  and looking at each other!

For several moments… I look back to ‘then’…. I see Tommy’s eyes smiling a soft, affectionate smile looking at me, his mother.  I feel a tear slipping down my right cheek… I keep swallowing to get myself under control…. my thoughts were …. ‘back in the good days’.  I just closed my eyes tightly, rubbed them hard… I think I felt frustration as well as deep, deep grief.  I do miss my son…..

Not long ago, I was called … GG.  It just made me happy to see a nickname… someone gave me!  I never grew up with a nickname like other people.  I never knew ‘why?’

Years ago, I worked at the hospital… I would do art work for different people, and do the monthly birthday poster for the personnel manager.

When I say ‘do the monthly birthday poster’… it wasn’t ‘just a poster’… when I did it… it became ‘very special’.  I put so much love, myself into each of them.  They stood out to people, they recognized that I wanted, loved to do each poster.

I would work for hours upon hours drawing, creating… hours upon hours cutting, glueing small pieces to create one big piece of artwork…. to make a birthday poster.  It made me very happy because so many people would actually… look forward … ‘to something that I did…. ‘me’.  I can’t tell you how much that meant to me.

Well… I did get a nickname from one lady who worked in housekeeping.  Her name was Shirley.  She would come into the office and see me drawing.  She would ask me what was I doing when she would see the black and white drawings I did…. I would tell her I was ‘doodling‘.  She said ‘if that’s doodling, it’s no telling what you can do when drawing!’

She began to call me ‘Doodles’.  I never told Shirley just how much that meant to me….  she had given me a … nickname!!!  I would secretly smile everytime she called me … Doodles!  I know you all think this is silly… but, that meant the world to me… I had a nickname!

Do you know that alot of people have my ‘doodles’ in picture frames?  People always wanted them when I finished them.  I would do a ‘doodle’ on a sheet of card stock with a black Sharpie pen…. I would ‘doodle’ until that whole sheet was completed… and it was so neat, so interesting (even to me…. I was always trying to ‘read’ myself!  :)))

Maybe that was why people wanted my ‘doodles’ so, they could have insight into me, ha!  I was always so private… though I loved people, being around them.   I loved laughing, smiling, talking… don’t you agree that when doing that… it’s like ‘when the sunshine comes out on a cloudy day?’

I just ‘felt the sunshine’… when I typed those words!  It’s 4:16 am in the morning!

Oh… when I was driving a tractor-trailer … team driving with Skip (those were the days!  :)))… I did have a …. CB handle/nickname!  I just remembered that!  It was …. ‘Baby Shoes‘!

I can’t remember who began calling me Baby Shoes.  They were always saying my shoes were little… I had little feet.  What they didn’t realize was… that I have ‘big-little feet’!!!  :)))

Well… you can’t see the ‘big’….. in my feet… but, I know it’s there!  I know that I actually have a ‘wide’ foot…. that’s why I said that.  I think it comes from going barefoot often through the years at home.  Then again… Tommy had feet like mine…. but, his foot was a size 12!  Skip has a narrow foot … and he wears size 12.

When I thought of the ‘driving a big truck days’… do you know the first image that pops into my mind?  Hot air balloons with hundreds of happy colors!  and California!  That was a wonderful memory…. driving on the interstate along side of hundreds of hot air balloons… seeing so many colors at once!

You all know how I love happy colors!  I smiled so much as I drove that big truck…. looking out to my left.  Those hot air balloons were over a deep valley ‘so far down’!

I just closed my eyes to ‘see for a moment’….I ‘see’ a woman waving wildly at me … I ‘see me’ … waving wildly back… we both had big smiles on our faces.  I wonder if it was because ‘she and I were women, and we were doing something alot of women didn’t normally …do?’

Happy colors and sunshine!  Smiles, happy faces!  All those wonderful colors, all those hot air balloons… I can feel the warmth in my mind at this very moment!  It’s just like seeing those two nicknames that Colleen gave .. me!  That’s just special!!!  :)))

 

 

 

 

She Woke In The Night To A Sound… Chapter One

She Woke In The Night To A Sound…… Chapter One

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/ aka Granny Gee

She woke up to the nightlight burning in her room.  Her dog lay beside her sleeping.  Something woke her up, what?

She looked around her room.. all was neat, organized.  There was a gate on her doorway… to keep her dog inside the room.  She didn’t want him to run free, to get hit by a car.  He was so special to her.

She heard the sound again, looked to the source.  In the nightlight she saw something she’d never seen in her life.  On the bucket of water she kept for her dog… were three huge …. rats up on the edge… drinking the water.  Oh my God, she thought.

Her dog didn’t wake up, he’d become used to the huge rats that would come in the night to search for his food, drink his water.

Victoria laid there quietly, a sick sensation in her stomach.  She didn’t want to wake her dog, Garraway, up.  Nor did she want to wake up her parents, brothers.

She’d told her father about the rats that visited her room at nights…. he never did anything about it.  Her mother would become defensive when she mentioned the rats to her.

Victoria had come to live with her parents, they took her in when she had no place to go.  She was so grateful to them, she tried never to complain.  She learned to quit telling them the things she saw in the night.  Her dog, Garraway, seemed to resign himself, also.  They stayed quiet.

She shuddered as she closed her eyes… ‘please Lord, don’t let them touch me or Garraway’ .. she prayed.  She was so thankful to be here, rats and all.  She kept her eyes closed, her hand on her dog, petting him for comfort until her hand slowly lay still… Victoria had fallen asleep.

Victoria had no idea of the things she’d encountered on this new path life had put her on.