mostlyfrommemory

[mostlyfrommemory]

200: A Milestone in Writing

This is my 200th article for what began in 2016 as Mostly From Memory, a blog where I started sharing short essays on my memories from growing up in a small town in Alabama. Since the statute of limitations has not run out on a few events, I am kind of out of material for the childhood stuff unless I want to run the risk of getting sued. Or I could start making stuff up. Which is how I think that…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Dementia

I have been blessed with a unique opportunity to sing at the nursing home as a part of my job. I have lost count of how many nursing homes I have visited. One of the most interesting and moving experiences I have had so far is singing in the memory care units. The memory care units I have visited have been in assisted living centers, not nursing homes, and are for residents who are dealing with…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Available Music

“Give me a guitar lesson Dad.” Hollynn demanded earlier this week. So I sat her on my lap and showed her the difference between a downstroke and an upstroke. We then had to back up and learn how to hold the pick. I’m not sure if there is a right way or a wrong way to hold a pick. Maybe there is just a faster or slower way. Or a more accurate way. I didn’t get into all of that, I just showed her…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Fog

I had to drive in the fog this week. I’m not talking about the kind of patchy fog you drive through while you’re crossing a bridge and then you are back in the sunshine. No. I drove for two and a half hours through the kind of fog in which Edgar Allan Poe set all of his stories. At least that’s the thick fog that I imagine when I read him. So naturally, I decided to do some drive-by photography.…

[mostlyfrommemory]

All Quiet on Pew Number Seven

There was a wedding at church on Saturday. The kind without all the fuss of rehearsal dinners. Or rehearsals. Or the hassle of getting a hotel room. No frivolity, just a simple wedding like I remembered when I was a kid, with cake and punch in the church foyer. I really like these kind of weddings. As my family sat in the pew on the Bride’s side waiting for the wedding to start, I noticed that…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Magazines

I just finished reading A Hunter’s Fireside Book: Tales of Dogs, Ducks, Birds & Guns by Gene Hill. If you were not aware, I am not a hunter, but I appreciate good writing no matter the subject-within reason of course. Good writing can make even the most boring pastime seem interesting. While I don’t necessarily think hunting boring, I do think Gene Hill was a good writer. And I really enjoyed the…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Some Thoughts on Truth

While I was working my way through college I noticed a phenomenon that happened with alarming frequency. Things that I had been taught in high school as fact were now being challenged and subjected to heavy source criticism. Post-truth: relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. It…

[mostlyfrommemory]

New Beginnings

I burnt off half of my yard earlier this year. Because I did not want to mow it, I allowed the brush to grow up to the point where I could not mow it. While it is not the only way to tidy up a yard, burning is perhaps the best way to begin a clean start. It is a conflicting feeling to watch the fire take over the yard. The flames will not selectively burn just the overgrown, stubborn weeds that…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Rev. Oliver Murray

I got the news this week that Bro. Murray had passed on. He was my childhood pastor. The man that baptized me in the horse trough on an Alabama September night in 1994. I remember him driving to my house in the middle of the night to pray for me when I was about three years old. I was running a fever, probably giving my Mom fits, and I guess I wasn’t having any of that pray over the phone…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Gas Station Food

“I hope this the one that got them free boudins today.” The man holding the door for me said as I stepped into the gas station. I didn’t know him from Adam’s house cat, and I wasn’t planning to even go inside but the pump didn’t print my receipt, but he had me asking the same question: what about them free boudins? I like gas station food. I’m not talking about Funyons and a Grapico, or anything…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Fiddlesticks

It was my grandmother’s most often used expletive. She only used it in frustration. Like when your pouring oil out of a frying pan into a glass jar through a strainer to use later and you spill the oil everywhere; that’s a proper time to say fiddlesticks! There was always a tinge of resignation in her voice when she said it, as if it was declaration of surrender to the task that had just…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Diabetes: A Health Topic

I was asked to speak at the Senior Center about Diabetes because November was Diabetes Awareness Month and that would be a good “Health Topic.” When the lady said that over the phone I had a flashback to the fifth grade when I was assigned a body system to do a research report on. I don’t remember what my assignment was, most likely because my Mother probably got carried away “Helping” me, but I…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Hard Questions

David has some of the most pointed and direct questions in the Bible. “Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.”‭‭Psalm‬ ‭77‬:‭7‬-‭9‬ ‭ “How long, Lord? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like…

[mostlyfrommemory]

How To Write About Grief

I have been working on this draft for almost a year. The fact is, I don’t want to write about grief. I would rather write something that will make you laugh. Laughter, as the scripture says, does good like a medicine. But I feel compelled to write about grief. And reluctance to write about it won’t make it go away anymore than ignoring makes actual grief go away. It is natural to want to avoid…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Clapping: Your First Lesson in Rhythm

Do you clap on 1 & 3 or 2 & 4?

O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. Psalm 47:1 Did you grow up around live music? If so you probably clapped along, and probably never had to be taught how to clap. Its one of the first things you ever did. I have a little nephew and all he knows how to do is fill up diapers and clap. Its just in us naturally and most of us never even think about…

[mostlyfrommemory]

The Secret Society of Bald Men

“We need to get haircuts this week Wes.” “Yeah. Those couple of strands of hair in the front look weird on you.” “Oh yeah? What do you think I should do?” “Well it make take some getting used to, but maybe The Bro. Sutton.” Let me tell you about Bro. Sutton’s hair: He’s bald. Not just any bald, but shiny bald on top, with hair still around the sides. You know the haircut. This is how my own…

[mostlyfrommemory]

Church Clothes: An Essay on Discomfort

Do you remember when you were a little kid and your momma would make you wear really uncomfortable clothes to church?

I’m supposed to be packing my church clothes for a Youth Conference that I am attending later this week, but I am procrastinating. This is what I do when I procrastinate: write essays. This essay is about church clothes. Having been going to church for 37 years-and 9 months before that-I have a long and conflicting relationship with church clothes. I was raised-and firmly believe- that you ought…