Well, vacation has come and gone. We left Danville last Sunday about 11:00AM and got to Atlantic Beach about 4:30 or 5:00PM. The trip down was uneventful.........didn't get lost or have to go to the john or anything>

The weather was beautiful on Monday and Tuesday, but it rained most all day Wednesday. It did clear up enough for us to walk on the beach about time for the sun to set. Thursday and Friday were also gorgeous days.

We saw what we think were porpoise fins way out on the horizon, saw a couple of kids sailing on those big kites, and saw a couple of OLD men trying to skim along on those boards at the waters edge. A couple of little girls were doing it really good........you sorta skim the board along in front of you and then run and jump on it and ride up the beach in the surf. These two old guys would skim the board, run and miss and end up on their butts in the surf. It was really funny!!

The most interesting thing was that on Tuesday when we went back down to the beach, there was a square of poles wound with orange ribbon with a sign tacked on it. The sign said that this was a sea turtle nest and the roped off section was to protect the turtle eggs and its a 5 year sentence and a $200,000 fine if you're caught messing with the eggs or the hatchlings. I read a book not too long ago that took place on the Carolina coast and it was about sea turtles and their nests. Only thing, in the book and also on the Rush Limbaugh show (when he was discussing sea turtles) they said that the hatchlings, probably 50 to 200 per nest, would be attracted to light and instead of heading for the ocean would head toward the light, thus being even more of an attraction for predators than they normally would. The book also said that out of 150 little baby turtles probably fewer than 40 would actually make it to the water.

We went to a restaurant called Channel Marker Wed. evening and unlike the place we ate last year, this place had really good food, that was fairly reasonable. Bobby cooked most evenings, but we usually eat out one night when we're there. I'm gonna learn how to make crab cakes and scallops........ummmmmm!

Last night the boys across the street went and got some fireworks, so we had the 4th early. They used the middle of the street to set them off and at one point they had so many going that a guy coming in had to stop and wait until the fireworks finished doing their stuff. It was nice. We just sat up on the balcony and enjoyed.

Today we had to leave, although Rachel and I wanted to stay on. I always hate to come back home when I go to the beach. It used to be the same way when I went to see Geraldine. Oh well, maybe we can go back for a weekend before the end of summer.

When I was a little girl I thought my daddy was the meanest person I had ever seen. For a long time when I was young, he worked second shift in Dan River Mills and could walk down the street, go down some steps and go through the mill gate to get to work. He always told me when he left to "Stay in your own yard".

One day, the little girl across the street who was my age, was on her porch. As soon as daddy went down the street she called me to come over to her house. I walked to the edge of the yard and checked to make sure he had gone down the steps and ran over to her house. We were playing when all of a sudden I looked up and there stood my daddy. He had forgotten his lunch and come back home to get it. I got a spanking which didn't hurt my rear end as much as it did my pride.

As I grew older I finally figured out that he had his reasons for the rules he made and all of them were for my benefit.

For instance, my cousin and I and two friends walked up to Lea's drugstore on North Main to sit in the booth and drink limeade. One friend had snuck four cigarettes out of her mom's pack and we all lit up. I was facing the door and to my surprise, my older cousin, Jim walked in. We all dropped our cigs, but mine landed in my rolled up jean leg and smoke started coming up from under the table. He walked up to the table and told me that he was gonna tell my daddy as soon as he saw him, that he might make a special trip to tell him. Well, he did. However, my daddy said that he'd prefer that I didn't smoke, but if I was set on it, to do it at home, not to sneak around and do it. That took all the "fun" out of it, so I never got that bad habit.

As I grew older, either he mellowed out or I began to understand what made him tick. He loved to garden, plant flowers, especially roses. He could break off a piece of rose bush, stick it in the ground and it would root and turn into a beautiful rose bush. He also liked to fish and hunt, but after he retired he devoted himself to gardening.

Geraldine sent him some everbearing strawberries one year and he planted a row of them between his flower garden and his vegetable garden. They grew and multiplied until by the time Cindy came along, he had a nice patch of them. I remember him going out to look for strawberries for Cindy and Kerri even after the weather started turning cold and usually finding a few. If he didn't think it was enough to divide, he would save them for a couple of days until they both had enough to eat.I remember the day he died, he'd been out in the garden to look for strawberries for "his girls" and had found a few. And this was November!

More next time

When Tamara was born in Feb. it was really cold. Back then you had to stay in the hospital for 5 or 6 days and by the time we finally got home, the weather had turned and it snowed for a couple of days.

My daddy, Grandpa James decided that since we didn't have a rocking chair, and of course, all new babies "need" to be rocked, that he would take care of the problem. Only thing, the snow was so deep that he couldn't get the car out of his street, so he walked up to our house carrying that platform rocker. He was so tickled with himself and he got to rock Tami in the rocking chair first. I still have that old rocker down in my basement. Wish I could cover it or give it to somebody who would cover it and use it and love it.

I remember when Keister was very young, he was watching his granpa push the old fashioned kind of plow, "laying out rows" and Keister wanted to do it too, so my daddy put him in front of him and put his hands on the plow and let him "plow" the row. I think the gun that Keister has is one that belonged to my daddy.

Bobby and Linda used to walk behind him in the garden and pick up worms that he took to Uncle Harry to use for fish bait. Sharon was too afraid to pick up worms, but he would show her the "pee dabs"(clay marbles) in the dirt and an ocassional shiny nickle or dime (that he would drop), so she was helping, too.

When Susan came along, she, as Linda put it in a paper she had to write for school, had him wrapped around her little finger. The service station was there by then and he would take her over and buy her candy and icecream. I don't think she ever got her feet dirty in the garden! And then came Kerri and Cindy, his "girls" who loved the strawberries.

It's amazing that he was so strict with us, but his grandkids could do no wrong! I guess that's what being a grandparent is really all about. You can spoil them all you want and then send them home to Mama and Daddy at the end of the day.

Today I was in Rebecca's room making her bed and Brittany and Savannah were in there with me. They had been looking at and chattering about the stuff she had in the floor left from the yardsale we had Saturday.

I had my back to them and a lot of the time they sound just alike when they talk and they both speak very well. Suddenly I heard "F.....g Hell! come from one of the lil dear's mouth. I turned around and said "What"? in a loud voice and two little voices said, at the same time like it was planned, "Dat's a BAD word"! I still don't know who said it, but didn't pursue it because then they think its cute to say stuff like that. They were both so innocent acting, not like they were trying to get my attention, but just as though that was a word like any other. Kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I come from a long line of nutty folks. I had an aunt who was married at least five times. Actually I think there were more like seven husbands, but I was too young to know most of them. The ones I either knew or heard a lot about were Thompson, Short, Hatfield, Hall, and Hall. I remember once she got mad at the Hall husband and threw all his belongings out of the second floor apartment into the yard where the neighborhood kids had a field day getting "stuff".

Her sister, as far as I know, only had two husbands. The second one was a guy who traveled with a circus. I remember finding old picture postcards from the great Chicago fair of 1929 that he had sent her. Sometimes she traveled with him and helped him with his dog act and his monkey act, but when he got tattoos all over his body and wanted her to be the tattooed lady, she rebelled and divorced him.

She then came back to Danville, got a job at Dan River, bought a little house and worked and took care of her Mother until she died, then she sold the house to a niece and lived with my mom and dad until she got sick and died in 1972.

I had two uncles who were some of the original guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The used to have pictures in their uniforms standing at attention beside the tomb.I don't guess they qualify as part of my nutty background, just thought I'd throw that in.

One of the brothers of the aforementioned aunts had a big still in the mountains outside of Lynchburg (the home town of the Halls) where he made a living making and selling moonshine whiskey. Tale has it that he even sold some to the father of Dr. Jerry Falwell, that he was a good and regular customer.

On my dad's side of the family, his sister married a guy who was a genius at fixing anything mechanical. They lived in Bedford, just a hop, skip and jump from Lynchburg, and were visiting one day and somebody had an old A model ford that needed some work done to it. Seems like it would only go into reverse. So, the mechanical genius agreed to fix it, but all his tools were in Bedford. So, he and his wife got in the car and he drove it in reverse all the way to his house and tools about forty miles away along a very curvy, mountainous road.

I don't guess my folks were as zany as their brothers and sisters although when I was a teenager I had a friend who always wanted to go to my house and hang out with my mom because, as she put it, "your mom is so crazy"!

My aunt Lillie/Lily, she spelled her name according to how she was feeling at any given time, was my mother's older sister.

She had two husbands, but never had children although she loved all her nieces and nephews dearly. I remember when I was a teenager, she would tell me to go to Thalhimers ( the best store in town at that time) and buy me something pretty to wear and be sure to get shoes to go with it.

After she divorced her second husband, she moved to Danville and got a job at Dan River Mills, where she was a weaver for 40 years until she retired. I don't ever remember her not going in to work or even being sick. She worked five days a week most of the time, but during the war years she worked six or seven days a week since DRM had contracts with the US Army to supply shirting material.

Lillie was a tall, slim lady with brown hair and gray/blue eyes. I don't ever remember seeing her in pants or shorts. She wore a lot of what she called her "work dresses" that my mom sewed for her. Just plain shirtwaist dresses, but they had to have a pocket on the left side of the top, sorta like a pocket tee shirt. If she ever bought a blouse or dress, my mom would have to put a pocket on them. And no, she didn't smoke. I think the pocket was for her ever present tissue. She never used it, but wanted it handy in case she should need it.

She loved going to the grocery store and buying what she called "goodies".....all kinds of fruit and melons and chocolate candy. She very seldom ate any of it, but she loved to see us devour it.

I guess her one weakness was her beer. After she retired, she would have a cool beer in her room while she read one of her countless books. She was an avid reader and would sit in her room with her floor lamp on behind her chair and read until way past everyone else's bedtime.

I remember the summer Keister was born, we had a cookout down in my parent's back yard. I don't remember who was manning the grill, but there were a lot of folks there, all family, I think. Anyway, Lillie was sitting in one of the metal porch chairs sorta at the edge of where the yard met the field, and there was a little drop off. She was working on her first beer and listening to music that was playing on the radio. She decided to sing along "We'll have these moments to remember", when she accidently pushed her chair too close to the drop off and there she was, on her back in the field. She was helped up and her chair retrieved and the party went on, but this was our sorta theme song for many years.

Lillie was a loving daughter to her mother, a loving sister and most of all, a bright and loving spot in my life.

She died in February of 72, about two weeks before Susan was born. She was so excited about Susan's birth and told me from the time she learned I was pregnant that this baby would have eyes "like ours" instead of brown like the other kids. Well, they WERE like ours for a couple of weeks and then they turned brown.

I wish she could have lived long enough to see Susan because she was so crazy about my other kids. She helped my mom babysit Tami when I went back to work and took Tami to their house everyday. She used to rock Tami and sing "bye oh, bye oh bye oh baby" to the tune of "Take the Name of Jesus With You". Try it, it works!

For a number of years now, lots of things have been disposable: baby diapers, shavers/razors, dishes and cups, storage dishes, etc. I know you could probably name quite a few that I didn't.

A new and unique one has come to my attention recently. Disposable furniture! Every where you go, at least on the north side of town, you see piles of furniture: TVs, bookcases, tables and chairs, baby cribs, bedroom suites. Today on Nor Dan Drive where it turns into Arnett Blvd, I saw the most beautiful bedroom furniture. I slowed to look and it wasn't beat up or broken as far as I could tell. If I'd been driving a pick up truck, I would have stopped and loaded it up.

I've seen a lot of really good looking stuff, but if you go back by in a half hour or so, it's all gone. I imagine then that I'll hear it on Trading Post being sold the next week.

I still have stuff I got when I got married, but now days folks buy, use for a little while, and toss. And probably still owe on it! What IS this world coming to?

I've written about my dad, my aunts and uncles, but not about my mom. Not because I didn't want to, but because there was so much about her that I'd never finish once I started. Unless I did it in installments. So, here goes.

I was the second born of five children and one of the first things I remember about my mama was how calm she always was. I don't know how she did it because our house usually had a bunch of folks living there, at least when I was young. Her mom, my dad's folks, a couple of uncles and aunts and a few cousins. By the time I started school, they had all got places of their own and the house only had the Craig family.

My mom liked to sew and would make dresses for my sister and me and for my aunts and cousins and even for the neighbor ladies. I remember one Christmas, she made long bathrobes for her older granddaughters. I've got pictures of Tami, Linda, Sharon and Susan posing in their beautiful quilted robes,all different patterns of Dan River comforter material she had made a special trip to the cloth store to buy.

She made quilts for Keister and Bobby's beds and lots of pillows for the kids to sleep with. Rebecca has her mom's pillow on her bed now and sleeps with it.I guess it must run in the family because when Tommy first came to live here with us, Cindy made him a pillow to sleep with and its still in there on his bed. There's just something comforting about cuddling up with a pillow.

My mom was the best cook and biscuit maker. She had a "biscuit jar" on her stove and when my kids were big enough to reach it, that was their favorite treat at G'ma's house, and it was always filled when we got there. My dad always had a garden and she canned, froze and pickled all kinds of good things. She even cleaned and cooked chittlins!!Of course, my dad and none of the kids ate them. They were hers and hers alone!

All the kids in the neighborhood felt at home at our house and it was because of her ability to make everyone feel at ease and at home. She always had a yard full of kids in the summertime; some kin and the rest neighbor kids who just liked to hang out in our yard.

Once she decided to start going to church, she never missed a Sunday. I remember the fall before my dad died, he decided he wanted to make a quilt. Mrs. Shockley, our pastor's wife was an expert quilt maker and my mom called her and she came over to the house everyday for 3 or 4 weeks and she, my mom and my dad made a quilt. I'm sure my mom could have helped him by herself, but she was wise enough to know that he wouldn't expect her to know enough to help him.

She loved all her grandkids so much. Any thing she could for them or us, she would. I remember one year when Fara had a Miss Revlon doll, mama made her some very stylish doll clothes. This after she told some adult who wanted her to make a dress that"I'm too old for that stuff anymore".

Mama never got old. She was always young at heart and looked at the world as though her cup was half full. I miss her and wish she could meet her great grandkids and her great great one. I can imagine Brittany saying "gweat gwandma lena, what is you doing"? And mama sitting down to tell her!

Last summer, about half way through the summer, Tamara ordered me a couple of earth boxes so I could have a garden on my deck. Since it was late in the season, I got a few tomatoes, but not a lot. And I also had an everbearing strawberry plant, which out did itself this spring.

This year, Bobby brought me some cherry tomato plants and some Better Boy tomato plants along with a banana pepper and a purple bell pepper and some cucumber plants. I dutifully planted them all and I have had quite a harvest of cherry tomatoes and beautiful dark pink tomatoes. I've also had enough banana peppers to satisfy my taste and quite a few purple peppers. So far, my cukes haven't done too well, although I have a few on the vines now.

Saturday morning I went out on the deck and one of my big pink tomatoes was laying on the deck rail, partially eaten, and it made me so mad I threw it out into the yard. I tried to figure out what kind of bird was big enough to pick the tomato off the plant and lay it on the rail. Yesterday I took the babies out on the deck to pick some cherry tomatoes and there was another big tomato laying on the railing about half eaten. This time, tho, I looked out under the tree and there sat a squirrel. Then I remembered the last ones I planted in the yard, the squirrels ate them all. So, I found the culprit. I left the part laying there on the rail hoping that if he got the taste for tomatoes again, he'd just finish that one.

My deck garden also has flowers, one of which is one Rebecca brought home from school for her mom for Mother's Day when she was in kindergarten, in 1999.I also have five from a pot Teresa got me for Mother's Day this year and the latest addition, a cactus Tommy bought about three weeks ago. Also a sunflower from seed and some dill weed that's blooming. And that's about it!