Sideroads

Been thinkin’ ... about yesterday, about springtime. Springtime always perks me up a little, stimulating my brain and stirring my memories. I have to admit, though, that getting the thought process to work is slow and I forget a lot at my age.

I am writing this column on the first day of spring. It’s “coolish,” but didn’t we have two great days earlier in the week. It was so nice to walk outside and see the hills and valleys coming to life around me.

When I stepped outside my apartment yesterday, I was greeted by clear blue skies, warm sunshine and cool breezes. The air around me was filledwith song. Talk about “surround sound.” Birds everywhere! In trees, in bushes, on power lines, on roof tops and hopping in the grass, singing their songs of joy. If I could whistle, I would have joined them.

To my left, there’s a bed of golden jonquils near my neighbor’s door. In front of me, red bud trees stretch their arms as they march up and down the mountain ridges as far as the eye can see. Some of them have wandered away from the pack and planted their roots in the yards of the neighborhood where folks can enjoy their beauty up close.

#Looking to the right, there is a smattering of pear trees dressed in the white of full bloom. Not far from the white blossoms of the pear trees, here and there bright yellow forsythia bushes greet passersby.

And behind me on a creek bank, the long limber branches of green willow trees sway to the rippling sound of water.

All of this takes my mind to days gone by when things were a lot different than they are now. But there were some things, though, that weren’t so different.

Some things, whether different or not, are pleasant to remember. I don’t want to forget how it looks and feels when spring comes to the hills...Daddy and Old Buck plowing the garden, making it ready to receive seed, and collecting fishworms from the soil for our first fishing day of the year.

I always want to remember strawberry patches on mountain tops; cold watermelon or a cup of cold well water on a hot summer day; removing my shoes and wading the creek with my siblings on the first day of May; climbing mountain ridges and feasting on ‘possum grapes, persimmons and pawpaws; the tinkling of a cow bell at twilight and catching lightning bugs on summer nights.

#And I never want to forget family and friends gathered on front porches to rock and rest after a hard day of hoeing or canning; a big country breakfast of home-grown sausage, pork chops or ham, fresh eggs, hot biscuits and redeye or milk gravy, and Sunday dinners when family and friends gathered around large tables to enjoy fried chicken, dumplings, mashed potatoes, green beans, hot pones of cornbread smothered in home-made butter and strawberry or peach cobbler.

There are some things, though, I’d just as soon forget...I wasn’t crazy about going to an outdoor toilet in the winter when icicles hung from the roof or in the summer when wasps flew in and out of the cracks in the door during 90-degree temperatures. Blisters on my hands from cutting weeds with a reap hook surely did hurt. I didn’t like holding the cow’s tail when Mama milked. Freezing on one side and baking on the other in front of a grate fire in zero weather wasn’t very pleasant and shoveling mule and cow manure from the barn was a really nasty job.

But you know, I learned a long time ago you can’t pick and choose your memories. Things come to us - happen to us - whether or not we choose them and all of these, whether good or bad - whether pleasant and the unpleasant, become a part of the fabric of our lives.

And, somehow, time and God’s grace have a way of healing old hurts and softening harsh memories so we can look back with a smile and sometimes a tear when we recall our yesterdays.

I have seen many springtimes come and go and it seems that my memories have grown sweeter as the years go by and each spring is prettier than the ones before.

Among my best memories are the lessons of life I learned from my elders ... the importance of faith in God, the value of family and friends and important things like honor and honesty and commitment and hard work.

When spring comes and new life grows from roots in the ground, I remember my roots and my memories remind me of how blessed my life has been.

God bless.