My Kind of Music

Tonight Jim and I went to Enterprise to attend the first Coffee County Arts Alliance program of the season. It was held in the Sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church, a beautiful old Gothic type building built in 1903.

We were treated to beautiful voices of the Enterprise-Ozark Community College Wiregrass Honor Choir. Students from area high schools auditioned to sing with the college group. They were directed by Dr. Thomas Smith, retired from Auburn Univ.

The choir opened with the Star Spangled Banner. Then we settled down to Bugler's Holiday. The band left and then the choir took over and sang mostly acappella. Or with faint strains of piano accompanient. The harmony of the voices was beautiful. Three of the selections were in Latin.

They sang a very moving and haunting selection at the end that has become a symbol of the terrible tornado three years ago when lives were lost; "May the Music Never End". Many of the choir as well as the audience were wiping their eyes as they remembered their family and friends who lost their lives.

Afterwards there was a reception in the new fellowship hall where we met up with friends and had an opportunity to congratulate the students for their moving performance.

Tonight was "home grown" talent. Future programs will be artists who were selected to appear during the year. We are looking to hearing "Three Red Neck Tenors" from Paris, TX in February.

The music was different from the last concert we attended in the NC mountains a few weeks ago. We enjoyed both types of music but tonight was more our kind of music. We loved it!

Homesick Cafe

I once read a book called "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" by Anne Tyler and the title intrigued me. I think often of foods we ate when I was growing up and I get "homesick" for some of them. Unfortunately my husband Jim did not grow up eating the same southern dishes I enjoyed so I don't prepare my favorites too often. He does admit to enjoying fried canned salmon patties.

Last night at a Chamber of Commerce "Taste of Elba" dinner where many local restaurants served their specialities, I latched onto one of my childhood favorites - rice and tomatoes. Mama Wilson made the best, and it always had a lot of black pepper in it, and was probably seasoned with lots of butter and chicken stock. Mama was a good Cajun cook although she lived all her live in rural south Alabama.

What I don't miss is having to chase the chickens to have for a meal. Have you ever seen a chicken with its head cut off? When I was a young girl, we would catch a chicken from the yard, and that chicken would have the "honor" of being our Sunday lunch. Sometimes we would just "ring the neck", but other times we would actually cut the chicken's head off by placing the head of the chicken on a block of wood and actually chopping the head off with a hatchet or ax. I did NOT like doing this! But I loved fried chicken or chicken and dumplings (and still do).

Of course, we use the saying "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" to imply a lot of "activity", but no real "direction"! If you're like me, you probably feel like you're racing about like that proverbial chicken. Life just has too many options, too much stuff, and sometimes way too many issues that demand our attention. This shouldn't be the case of retired people. I wonder how we ever found time to "work".

When we have family coming to visit us I start getting food ready to bring the family together over food. I go to Kelley Foods to get the delicious sausage we grew up on, and their good hams. Then I make sure I have peas and butterbeans (no okra, please!). I buy extra fine corn meal to make hoecake (cornbread). And lots of cookies and other desserts they relate to "home cooking".

I guess I related to the book since Ezra Tull tried using the restaurant to get his family together as his mother Pearl was dying. What a dysfunctional family in that book. Ours isn't anything like that. We all love one another and love to eat and get together - every chance we get.

Okay, Judy and Guy, the homesick cafe will be in business the 2nd week of October when you travel north from central FL to visit us for our little country school reunion. You will find all your favorite foods on the table that day. There will probably be a big pan of fried fatback for everybody to enjoy and chicken and dumplings.

Our week-end get-away to Mountain Song Festival in NC

Jim and I experienced something new this week-end when we traveled to Brevard, NC to attend an open-air music festival at the Brevard Music Center. We've taken picnic baskets and spread our dinner on the ground and listened to orchestras in several cities where we have lived but we've never gone to a music festival that goes on and on....

First we drove to Charlotte, NC and spent the night with one of my younger sisters (Alice) and her husband Jerry. Then Sat. morning we left Charl0tte and drove to Brevard in the NC mountains for Mountain Song Festival. They love attending bluegrass festivals in N. Wilkesboro, NC every year and thought we might enjoy going to an "indoor" festival with them.

The music center is a large covered facility with beautiful stage and lighting, but no sides on the building - it's open for the nice mountain air to flow through. The padded seats are very comfortable and the acoustics very good.

We met our granddaughter Nerissa who drove up from nearby Clemson and parted around 1 pm for us to go to the music center and find good seats for the concert. She stayed behind to study all afternoon.

I never saw so many people and so many cars, and not very many parking spaces. I am glad we went early.

The music started at 2 p.m. and different groups performed every hour. We had never heard of the any of the entertainers except for actor Steve Martin who can really play the banjo. He played with a group from Asheville, NC called the Steep Canyon Rangers. They received standing ovations and had to keep coming back for encores.

The 2009 Mountain Song Festival kicked off Friday September 11 with a Pre-Party program featuring local favorites, Moon Shine Babies, Town Mountain and Steep Canyon Rangers. Shannon Whitworth and the Refugees, The Seldom Scene, Steep Canyon Rangers, Steve Martin and the David Grisman Quintet.


We enjoyed walking around outside the auditorium to check out the arts and crafts, as well as the food vendors. You could smell the barbecue cooking outside while the music was being made inside.

We left the festival around 6 pm to take our granddaughter and her boy friend out to dinner and later we returned to the music center to hear the last performers of the day. It was a quintet made up of these instruments: flute, mandolin, bass fiddle, drums and guitar. After listening to them for a hour, we decided we had heard enough and decided to try to find our way out of the park. It was so dark outside. We got back to our hotel and I was so tired and had breathed so much fresh mountain air, smelled so many good "smells", and listened to so much pretty music, that I hit the bed and don't remember anything else until this morning.

Watching the sea of faces filled with delight as they listened to their favoritemusic groups was a great experience. Something I will treasure for a long time. While we enjoyed this experience, I think we will settle for one concert, one group at the time. Maybe we're getting too advanced in years to sit still that long. I'm just thankful we didn't have to sit on the lawn on a blanket or folding chair like many of the people were doing. It was certainly worth the extra money to have a ticket for the inside cushioned chairs!

By the way, I observed that the crowd was mostly over 50, including a lot of gray hair or bald heads, and people with canes to help them get around. Maybe this was the grown-up Woodstock crowd??

Lunch at Frazer Methodist Church in Montgomery today

Frazer United Methodist Church, Montgomery, AL


Today I traveled to Montgomery along with 6 friends from Elba United Methodist Church to the monthly salad luncheon at Frazer, and listened to Dr. Don Hill talk about Building Character.


This beautiful church has so many area ministries in the Montgomery area. They have a large TV audience, and our son James loved to watch Frazer Road Church. I took him there one Sunday to church and he got to meet his friend, John Ed Mathison, the long time pastor who has now retired.


The luncheon is held in the big dining area and there were lots of people there today. So many salads you couldn't get one of each on your plate.


I thought it was interesting that there was such a diverse group, other religions, and all kinds of organized groups who come to the luncheons. They come from all around the area. One city brings a city recreation bus filled with people. I guess they come for the food, fellowship and the good messages. The cost of the meal is $5 so they aren't coming for a free meal. I enjoyed the trip and got to visit with ladies I only see on Sunday at church.


A bus from our church goes every month and after lunch, the ladies go shopping before coming back to Elba. We went to Eastdale Mall today and I couldn't find a thing to buy! I had hoped to go to a book store but they didn't have one at that mall.


I got home, took a short nap, fixed a quick dinner using leftovers, and then Jim and I went to our church to a special called Church Conference with our District Supt. attending. As chairman of the Trustees, Jim and some others presented a resolution to purchase a new church parsonage. It was a good meeting - no one voted against it! Our old parsonage has mold growing in it from an underground spring under the house. The pastor and family have already moved out and staying in an apartment temporarily. I know they will be glad to be settled in a house again soon.  We have found the perfect house for a parsonage- the old Sam Collier home.

Tiger Town Park entrance - Before and After

TIGER TOWN PARK - to be finished this week. Here are some "before" and "after" photos taken of the old high school entrance way that was left when the school was demolished to make way for a playground/park. The old school facade looked like this for 4 years while waiting to be restored and turned into the park entrance. 

The roof was removed and a new roof put in place. Then a new sign was painted and put on top of the roof. The old doors were opened up and glass removed from windows and doors, leaving the openings for air to flow through, and to maintain the design of the building. Bricks had to be replaced at each side and on the back. A new ceiling was added and the interior painted. Original columns are intact and the steps were giving a new coat of paint.


Restrooms on the west side and a pavilion with round columns on the right side.

Back view with amphitheater attached to the back of the school. A small raised concrete stage is between the steps and the playground.

Check out the new flagpole in front of the school (on left side of photo) - same location as old flagpole during school days.

My Heart Still Bleeds Black and Gold!

Tonight was the first football game of the season for Elba High School, and they played Opp. James loved going to the Elba home games and I felt we should go tonight just for him. It wasn't the same of course.


The weather was nice with a cool breeze blowing across the football stadium. We didn't buy reserved seats this year, thinking we probably wouldn't go to many games. Those metal/cement seats in the general admission section are really hard (and so cold in the winter).


It was fun scanning the crowd to see if there was anybody there "our age" and we saw a few. They were grandparents I am sure.


I had fun remembering how it was 56 years ago when Opp was beat by Elba and we had a year of being undefeated. The games were played in the old stadium by the Pea River - now called Foggy Bottom. The stadium is still being use for special events and the recreation dept. uses it for football and soccer.


The 1989 Elba High School Championship football team, coaches, managers and cheerleaders were recognized at the Elba-Opp game tonight at 6:45 p.m. Everyone welcomed the ’89 Champions in celebration of their 20th Anniversary.

Before the game, among those players being recognized was Ron McKinnon who was an outstanding player for Elba. He played for Univ. of North Ala and later spent 10 years playing for the Arizona Cardinals and one year for New Orleans Saints. He has retired and lives in Bessemer, AL.


The Elba band looked great in their black and gold uniforms. Missing this year are majorettes. I guess nobody wanted to twirl the baton this year. The band selected music by John Williams tonight and it was great.


I remember playing a clarinet in the band and our music consisted of marches. Nobody played show tunes, etc. We didn't need a big truck to transport our instuments. We went to the games via big yellow school buses and took our instruments with us on the buses.


While we enjoyed the football fever and got all caught up in cheering for the home team, we sat there with heavy hearts because we were both missing James. He loved Elba football. So much that a few years ago he was honored at their spring game and presented a jersey and cap and sat in a special section. It was at this game that he met "Miss America" who was at the school that day talking to the students about not taking drugs, etc. and she was also honored at the game. The picture of James and Miss America still hangs on the wall in our den near his TV and recliner. He was so proud of that picture.


We won't have to go to all the local Friday night ball games this year but we will definitely go back for Homecoming. I have a great niece cheering (Bethany Wilson) and a cousin (Chace Sauls) playing on the Elba Varsity team this year. We have to support them.

Oh, Say Can You See??

Last Friday I had my eyelids "lifted" by Dr. Bryant, a plastic surgeon so that I can see better. This came about when I went to Dr. Purvis, my eye Dr., to ask if he would check to see if I had cataracts since I was having problems with vision, especially late in the day or when reading.


During blepharoplasty, the surgeon cuts inside the creases of your eyelids to trim sagging skin and muscle and remove excess fat. After the excess tissue is removed, your surgeon joins the skin with tiny stitches.


I go to Dr. Purvis for an eye exam every year since he checks my "freckles" on the back of my eye balls (little pre-cancers). Last spring he didn't mention cataracts but he checked again and said no cataracts, but that my problem was droopy eyelids that cut out light and that I needed to have them tacked. He sent me to Eye South in Dothan to a plastic surgeon who performed the necessary surgery last Friday afternoon.

He numbed my eyes and they gave me a relaxant in an IV and I was awake during the surgery. There was music playing in the operating room and the young nurses and the Dr. were humming and singing! I remember telling the Dr. to stop singing and concentrate on what he was doing!


They sent me home with instructions to keep ice packs on my eyes every 20 min. for 20 min. at the time except when sleeping. The Dr. called me at 8:30 pm that night to see if I was ok and reminded me to use the ice packs and pain medicine as needed. I took one tylenol tablet before going to bed just in case I might need it. I slept all night.


When I woke up Sat. morning, I couldn't see!! My eyelids were bright red and swollen and all I could see was a thin line of light. That's scary - not to be able to see. It's been a day and 1/2 now since my surgery and I can now see enough to watch TV, read my email, and cook.


I love my 20 minute breaks; get so much done during this time. I even made a pound cake for lunch - thought Jim deserved something for his attentive care. I'm not sure how it will taste but it looks good; almost finished cooking and hasn't "caved in" on top yet.


Have you ever tried listening to TV (without seeing the picture)? Not so good. The only programs I could listen to were music or talk shows. They soon got old so I just sit in the recliner and relax. I really look forward to the ice packs. Makes my eyes feel so good. I might try doing this for my short afternoon naps occasionally.


I return to the Dr. in Dothan next Friday to have the many stitches removed. I will post an after picture later this week. You would not want to see what my face looks like right now!