Stories

Daddy

Daddy

Bull, Mr. Billy, Daddy, and Poppa Bear were all names for my father, William Homer Saunders.  The nickname Bull was given to him when he played football...
Momma's Shoes

Momma's Shoes

My mother, God rest her soul, always had a closet full of shoes. From early childhood this was a source of fascination to me. There was every kind of shoe...
Trees

Trees

I loved to climb trees when I was growing up. It turns out that I still do, but my current tree-climbing is greatly limited by social expectations for people...
Hills and Mountains

Hills and Mountains

My first sight of a mountain in North Carolina around age 11 was a wondrous experience. I couldn’t believe how the land rose up and was framed by the sky. Our f...
Poem by my mother, Ruth J Saunders, written August 6, 2003

Poem by my mother, Ruth J Saunders, written August 6, 2003

Inspired by overhearing her granddaughter, Rebecca, telling her younger sister, Crystal, “You can’t put a frog in a book bag.” You can’t put a frog ...
Letting Go

Letting Go

For me summer begins when the hummingbirds arrive and ends when they leave. I remember seeing my first hummingbird feeding at a Mimosa tree blossom in the backyard...
Ice Cream

Ice Cream

Saunders Family Recipe for Homemade Ice Cream Few memories are more delicious than those of home churned ice cream in the summertime. Here is the Saunders...
Fishing

Fishing

It doesn’t take much imagination to know the outcome of my first and only fly-fishing outing in a boat: I hooked Daddy in the back. In the long view, no harm w...
Learning from Tadpoles

Learning from Tadpoles

The nearly flat soybean field surrounding our childhood home was bounded on its lower side by a drainage canal, fondly known as the “big ditch.” The clear, sti...
Learning on the Job

Learning on the Job

During high school summers I began learning about characteristics of my preferred occupation by experiencing jobs lacking these features. It was like having to...

A Challenge: Create ten oil paintings in ten days

NEW! Fall 2020 “10 in 10 plus 4”

Spring 2020 “10 in 10 plus 3”

Oil Paintings

Pastel/Gouache

Graphite/Charcoal

Excerpts from my Mother’s Book Low Country Children (1986)

Briggsey

Briggsey was one of the mules my Grandpa Prentiss used for general farm work many, many years ago when...

Doc

When my mother, brother, sister and I moved to Walterboro in 1936, we lived on Warren Street. It was...

Doc's Cats

About the time I became the owner of Sugar, my adorable cocker spaniel, my veterinarian neighbor, Dr....

Driver's License

When it occurred to me that I had become eligible to be licensed to drive a car World War II was in...

Uncle John

My mother’s oldest brother, Uncle John Prentiss, died in 1976, after a long illness. He was a good, h...

The Bing

One spring a hen of ours hatched out a brood of chicks and, as usual, all the chicks did just fine,...

Middle Aged Jogging

At a more than middle age of life Pushed by a yearning to be fit, I decided to take up jogging; ...