Story Behind the Song "Up Against the Wall . . ."

Ray Wylie Hubbard on Redneck Mother

Let's Welcome Our New Member

We have a new member!!! Everyone welcome Beth Hobgood Clark and give her a big blog hug. Beth persevered, asked questions, gave up yesterday, asked for help, rallied today and made it. She joins the ranks of those listed on the right sidebar under "Profiles of Members Registered to Blog." We are looking forward to Beth's posts.

Post from Beth

I FINALLY got on this thing. About the only thing that has changed for me in the last five years is my husband, Harold, passed away Dec. 6, 2006, and I now have five great grandchildren and another one due in February 2009. Looking forward to seeing you at the reunion in October.
Beth Hobgood Clark

Over 11,000 Hits Since May 4, 2008

Tomorrow is our 2-month anniversary since our blog was formatted and the counter added. Since that date, May 4, 2008, we have had 11,000 visits to our blog. This is cause for celebration and says that many are enjoying coming here. Let's make it better by more participation. This is not only a place to share your autobiographies but to share daily events, news, photos and whatever you would like to post. Blogs are online journals and should be posted to daily. The best posts concern you personally and your photos.

Corrections to Directions to Sign Up and Post

Thanks to Beth, I know that some directions previously given to you do not work. I appreciate Beth letting me know. I called Beth and while we were on the phone together, I signed in with her user name and password. I could see then what her problem was and that the directions I had given you earlier would not work. Please, dear people, let me know if you are having problems. I have unlimited long distance service and will be pleased as punch to talk with you for as long as it takes to get you signed in and posting. Below is the link to revised directions.

Meridian High Wildcats '58: Directions on Signing Up to Post#links#links#links#links

DENDROBIUM ORCHID - MY FIRST!

I am so excited about my dendrobium blooming that I just had to share it with you. I have a whole stalk full of these delightful blooms. I finally found a spot under the trees on our back patio that the orchid likes. I always killed the plants before they bloomed, so this is my first success! If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Who said that? Churchill?

Lessons in Life - Getting Permission

Getting Permission

The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.
William Shakespeare
1564 - 1616

Do you remember when you were in first grade? You had to raise your hand to get permission to talk, and you had to raise your hand to get permission to go to the restroom. The teachers did this for a reason: to maintain order in the classroom. But we certainly got conditioned to ask for permission before we did anything.

Do you remember your first job? Someone taught you what you were supposed to do and what you couldn't do. If you were like me, it didn't take long for a situation to come up that you weren't authorized to handle. So what did you do? You went to your supervisor to get permission.

When you decided to get married, what did you do? You probably discussed your intentions with your parents and your future in-laws. In short, you got permission.

The point I'm trying to make is that, for most of our lives, we've been conditioned not to do anything without getting permission.

When we're young and we don't have a lot of experience, that's probably a healthy thing. After all, we don't know all the consequences that might result from our actions. So there's some safety in getting permission.

But unfortunately, old habits die hard. All too often, we carry this habit over into our adult lives. And what happens? We have the need to get permission, but there's no one to give us permission. We often have the nagging feeling that we can't do something because we aren't qualified or don't have the experience -- in short, we don't have permission. This problem usually comes up when we're trying new things. I often see people who are highly qualified in a particular field, but are afraid to fully engage because they feel the need for approval.

Where do they seek approval or permission? More often than not, they ask someone who is really not qualified to give it. They ask a drinking buddy, a neighbor, a spouse or a close friend -- generally someone who is safe.

I think there are two lessons here. One is to be aware that your need for approval or permission may be holding you back from achieving your potential; don't let that happen to you. The second lesson is not to seek permission or approval from someone who isn't experienced or knowledgeable enough to give a meaningful opinion. There are plenty of people who will tell you that you aren't qualified to do something. If the Wright brothers had listened to everyone who said it wasn't possible for man to fly, the world would be a lot different than it is today. The same is true for Edison, Bell and a host of others.

The quickest way to kill your dream is to seek permission. You're no longer in the first grade. You don't need permission to pursue your dream.


Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're probably right.
Henry Ford
1863 - 1947

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING PETTICOAT

As I stir the lemon cake batter for our daughter’s 42nd birthday (can’t believe she and I are THAT old) while listening to the soft strains of Miles Davis’ “Laura,” I am thinking about how I’ll tell the story of the 1958 missing petticoat. Now, boys, I’m SURE you didn’t know about the under accoutrements of the female gender unless you had sisters. However, all of you will remember that we girls in high fashion – on the days when we didn’t wear tight pencil skirts - wore very full skirts (yes, we had tiny waists back then and looked good in them), and it was necessary to have very full, stiff, ruffly petticoats underneath to make the skirts poofy. My dear Aunt Mary who was a professional seamstress toiled many hours sewing for me an extremely full petticoat full of ruffles made of heavy sheeting that could take a good starching. Now you who laundered these know that after the starching and drying, spread out on the lawn or over clothes lines, these petticoats were never ironed, as ironing would flatten them. At any rate, I was (or believed I was) the envy of my girlfriends whose petticoats weren’t quite as poofy. One day after dressing out for Ms. Fredna Cross’ gym class in those y-u-g-l-y blue shorts and white shirt, I returned to the locker room to dress for the next class, and found my petticoat, which would never have fit into my tiny locker and which I left on a bench, was missing. My friends helped me search all over the room, and finally resorted to pulling up full skirts of all girls they saw the rest of the school day to try to help me find my petticoat. To my complete embarrassment, Mother phoned the Principal Dr. Carson the next day and demanded that something be done about the missing petticoat. I’m sure that for once he was speechless. I wish I had been privy to that conversation. Eventually it was decided that short of an illegal strip search of all girls, that nothing could be done. At any rate, this was the next day, and the petticoat could be long gone and far away by then. It was never recovered. However, that’s one story from high school that I’ll never forget. Mother and I had many good laughs over that one, thinking of my friends yanking up skirts all day, searching.

God's Minute

Let my prayer rise before you
as incense,
the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice.
Psalm 141:2

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

For All The Mississippi Steel Magnolias

My mother was a very good photographer. She took this photograph the old fashioned way, without a digital camera, originally developed on a slide. Later we had it transferred to a CD. I have this beautiful magnolia hanging over our fireplace.

Tee Mann - Autobiography

Tee At Home In Meridian

You say you don't remember a cascading fountain in Meridian? I'm referring to another Meridian, a neighborhood, fifteen blocks north of The White House on 16th street, or the "Avenue of the Presidents", where I moved in 2005. I live across the street from this beautiful spot in a new townhouse that has panoramic views from the east, overlooking the Capital to south, the Washington Monument, west to the new Air Force Memorial and all the way north to the National Cathedral.

I was drawn to investigate living here for two reasons. The first is obvious: I grew up in a town I loved named Meridian. Second, is a piece of family history. Where I am sitting is where my father proposed to my mother in 1933. Meridian Hill Park was closed from 1968 (following the riots in DC when Martin Luther King was assassinated) until 2005. Fate brings me to this place.

Other news since 2003 is that I continue to have the good fortune of excellent health, as do both of my daughters , their husbands, my six grandchildren, my 92 year old mother and my two brothers and their families. My former and current spouse have not had the same good luck. Ed, my ex-husband, father of my daughters, was diagnosed in November, 2007, with aggressive, light-chaining, multiple myeloma of the spine. He is quite diminished, is in a nursing home, and my older daughter, who had a baby in February, is his conservator. Ed and I are on good terms, so I have been involved in his care, primarily helping my daughter and Ed's wife. Jay, my second husband, has emphysema/COPD and has been hospitalized numerous times in 2008 for inability to breathe. Both Ed and Jay are wonderful men so I am saddened by their failing health.

Today is June 27th. So far, my pick for the best film in 2008 is "The Edge of Heaven" and the best read is, "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle."

Enjoy summer.

I Married My Boy Friend

My boy friend and I were married on May 28, 1982, Trinity Episcopal Church, Pass Christian, Mississippi. We were married by my old friend, Don Morse, who was Rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church when I lived in Oxford, MS. It was a beautiful Church and a beautiful place to be married. Here Tom and I are, celebrating our first anniversary, drinking champagne in front of the Church.

I'm sorry to say that Trinity Episcopal Church was destroyed in Hurricane Camille and in Hurricane Katrina. They are rebuilding.

My Boy Friend

This is a picture of my boy friend, Tom. Isn't he cute. He was a World War II pilot, stationed in Italy, just a kid. Part of that Great Generation. He was a B-24 pilot, 757th Bomb Squadron, 459th Bomb Group. He also flew in Korea. Air Force.

He remains in touch with members of his crew with telephone calls and e-mails. He has great stories from his service time, one of my favorite being how he drove to Assisi in a jeep as the war was ending and visited the tombs of St. Francis and St. Clare, long before I did.

He's a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he played baseball. Every football season nothing preempts his watching his favorite college team, the Okie Sooners, on television. He is a loyal fan.

Tom is my husband. We are both converts to the Catholic faith and are Secular Franciscans. Tom would be quick to profess his love for his Lord and for his Church. There is nothing like the zeal of a convert to the Catholic Church. He identifies with the prayer of St. Augustine, "Late Have I Loved You" and likes the writings of G. K. Chesterton. He watches EWTN Catholic television station daily and knows much more about the Catholic faith than most cradle Catholics. He also loves to read.

We share our love for our Maltese dogs and fostering for Northcentral Maltese Rescue. Our dogs - Tashee, Juniper, Pal - and our fosters - Rosie and Molly - are our children. We are mourning the recent loss of our precious Poppy, our first Maltese. (Poppy's blog is http://poppypage.blogspot.com/ )

Tom is still a kid - forever young - and has a great sense of humor. As I write he is on his computer and enjoying all the New Orleans music at the bottom of our blog page. I can hear Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and Ray Charles. Last night he was listening to Pete Fountain. He has discovered music on U-tube, thanks to us.

Elvis fans, this will make you green with envy. Just before Elvis enlisted in the Army, Tom ran into him in New Orleans at the Roosevelt Hotel. Tom had good visit with Elvis in his suite and met his mama and Tom Parker.

For all of you who say too old for this computer stuff, I say too bad. It is a matter of attitude. It is a matter of being young at heart like Tom.

I will concede that dial-up doesn't work well - too slow to enjoy today's internet. I had rather have an enema a day than go back to dial-up. Tom agrees. Boomer Sooner, he says to all.

Time is On My Side

ALSO - HOLD ME WHILE I CRY - Irma Thomas

BUTTERFLIES AT BIRMINGHAM ZOO

Here are 5 photos I took at the butterfly enclosure at the Birmingham Zoo. It really uplifts your spirits to walk through the flowers with hundreds of varied varieties of butterflies - up close. Enjoy!

Mississippi

Millie (Majors) Jones sent this to me and asked that I post it. Enjoy.

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God. "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."

"Balance?" Inquired Michael, still confused. God explained, pointing to different parts of earth, "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth but cold and harsh while southern Europe is going to be poor but sunny and pleasant. I have made some lands abundant in water and other lands parched deserts. This one will be extremely hot and while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel , impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land mass and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God. "That's Mississippi -- the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful beaches, streams, hills, and forests. The people from Mississippi are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent and humorous and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking and high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."

Michael gasped in wonder a nd admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance!"

God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the idiots I put in Jackson ."

A MISSISSIPPI BLESSING
Note: If you are not a resident of MS or never have lived in the hot, humid South, you may not understand the weight of this blessing!
Bless this house, oh Lord, we cry. Please keep it cool in mid-July. Bless the walls where termites dine, While ants and roaches march in time. Bless our yard where spiders pass Fire ant castles in the grass. Bless the garage, a home to please Carpenter beetles, ticks and fleas.
Bless the love bugs, two by two, The gnats and mosquitoes that feed on you. Millions of creatures that fly or crawl, In Mississippi , Lord, you've put them all!! But this is home, and here we'll stay, So thank you Lord, for insect spray.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN MISSISSIPPI IN JULY WHEN. . . .
The birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.
The trees are whistling for the dogs.
The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
Hot water now comes out of both taps.
You can make sun tea instantly.
You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.
The temperature drops below 95 and you feel a little chilly.
You discover that in July it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car. You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.
You actually burn your hand opening the car door.
You break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m.
Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"
You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.
The potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter, salt and pepper.
Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.
The cows are giving evaporated milk.
Ah, what a place to call home. . . . . . . . . . .God Bless Our State of Mississippi!!

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God's Minute

Psalms 122

A song of ascents. Of David.

I rejoiced when I heard them say: "Let us go to God's house." And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city strongly compact. It is there that the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord.

For Israel's law it is, there to praise the Lord's name. There were set the thrones of judgment of the house of David.

For the peace of Jerusalem pray: "Peace be to your homes! May peace reign in your walls, in your palaces, peace!"

For love of my brethren and friends I say, "Peace upon you!" For the love of the house of the Lord, I will ask for your good.

* * * * * * *

This is to remember that as a people of the Class of 1958, we were deeply rooted in our Christian or Jewish heritage. As individuals perhaps this was not true, but as a group, during the times and in the place where we grew up, this precious heritage was a significant part of our lives, even if only a family or cultural thing without much spiritual depth in our young lives. Now it seems our society worries about being politically correct and worries about offending everyone except God and his people.

Peace and All Good,

Ouida Tomlinson, SFO*

*Secular Franciscan Order

ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS OLD BOOK FROM MERIDIAN?

I found this at a Meridian yard sale years ago. Inside the front cover reads, "Presented to Anthony Walker, Meridian, MS, Jan. 18th, 1882 by his mother Mrs. H. E. Walker.

The title is "Poplar Grove."