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 in high school and came from his tendency to put
his head down and push ahead no matter...
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 one can
imagine: athletic shoes including walking shoes, running
shoes, tennis shoes; sandals...
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 of my age (late 60s) and a body that is
increasingly assertive about protecting its chronologically...
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 family made many more trips to the Blue
Ridge Mountains of South Carolina, Georgia, and North C...
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 in a book bag‘Cause in there he really can’t seeThe grass and the pond and the sunshineHe ...
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 when I was a child.
I
marveled then, as I do now, at what wondrous creatures they are,...
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 family recipe as recalled from my childhood. Ingredients 3 packages of vanilla...
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 was
done, and it is amusing now. But it was not funny on that hot summer afternoon
with Daddy b...
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, still water in the canal created the ideal
habitat for toads at all stages of their life cycle. The...
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 find the
puzzle pieces before being able to put them together. At first, I thought being
able...