Sometimes what I want to write and what I actually write wind up being two different things entirely. Today is one of those times. I wanted to write about the 4th of July because it’s my favorite holiday (as I’ve talked about before). I’d paint a picture of barbecue smoke hanging heavy in the humid … Continue reading We hold these truths …
Tag: summer
The summer, recapped.
I’ve been as busy as a one-armed paper hanger with hives this summer! It all started in May when I attended the Book Expo in New York where my new book They Call Me Orange Juice was on display. (Read what I learned from that experience here.) Sonny went with me, and we got to … Continue reading The summer, recapped.
Mosquitoes love me. The feeling is not mutual.
A mosquito bit me on the eye the other Saturday evening. Not on my actual eyeball, but on the soft flesh just at the corner of my left eye. Unfortunately, I’m pretty allergic to the little blood suckers, so by the next morning, I looked like I’d been in a bar fight ... and lost. … Continue reading Mosquitoes love me. The feeling is not mutual.
Am I in Hell or is it just summertime?
It's not the heat it’s the damned humidity! You hear that plenty down here in the South. And it’s true! Our close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico means that the air is pretty well waterlogged with tropical moisture. And while this muggy climate is great for your skin, it’s bad for your health. You … Continue reading Am I in Hell or is it just summertime?
You Have to Float Before You Can Swim
Baw* taught me how to swim when I was four or five years old in Puppy Creek, a little tributary of Dog River just outside of Citronelle. We’d take the old truck and head off down the Prine Road and when it turned to dirt at the stop sign, we’d turn left onto the Lott … Continue reading You Have to Float Before You Can Swim
Eat a Peach
That’s the way God intended us to eat peaches — with reckless abandon over a sink, juice running in rivulets down our arms, down our chins.
Who’s Who at the Beach
Going to the beach has changed a lot since my younger days, many of which I whiled away on the white sands of Alabama's beautiful Gulf Coast. My best friend and I would ease on down the road from Citronelle to the coast with little more than our bathing suits and a towel. No cooler. … Continue reading Who’s Who at the Beach
The magnolia tree and its gift
There is a cranny way back in the farthest corner of my brain. In that cranny lives a memory. Buried far beneath the births, deaths, tragedies, joys, holidays, and everydays that have piled on top of it, this little fragment has languished, long undisturbed. At least, that is, until the other day when KA-BLAP!!! Just like … Continue reading The magnolia tree and its gift
The land of 2 seasons
(As I have mentioned before, I belong to a blogging group called See Jane Write. Each November SJW founder Javacia Harris Bowser challenges all the members to publish a new blog post each day of the month — to #bloglikecrazy. This year I'm giving it a go although I've missed a few days so far. … Continue reading The land of 2 seasons
Sook and Sarah
I stood at the foot of her grave, the bahia grass tickling the back of my knees and a cacophony of summer insects loud in my ears. I hadn't come to Monroeville looking for her, but I'd found her. Sook. Twenty-seven years ago, almost to the sweltering June day, I stood at the foot of … Continue reading Sook and Sarah