A Walk in the Woods With Mom …

Published on by SoLynnish2 Comments
From March 20, 2010 …
It’s been the longest, hardest Winter I can ever remember. Truly. Bronchitis hung on to me almost the entire season, so believe me when I say I’m THRILLED to see it go.
 
On Cherry Mountain there is a tiny little spring … so tiny that if you were hiking through the woods across the mountain a week ago, you would step in it and scarcely realize that you had just crossed one of the most charming features of the mountain. But if you were to pause for a moment … really pause and breathe in the surroundings a bit, you would realize you were standing between two upward slopes. At your feet you would look down and see that you were standing on rock, and perhaps then you would hear the faint, ever so faint, dripping of water. Watercress and moss lay like carpet at your feet, and the only other sounds you would hear are the chattering of birds and perhaps the scurry of squirrels in the trees.
 
Up until yesterday, my life felt very much like that spring … dripping, tired, and unseen in many ways. I felt as if I had little more to offer, for that is what being shut up all winter can do to you. The world around me had buried me … covered me up … and nearly made me feel invisible. I knew I had potential … I knew that somewhere inside myself, all I needed was a little dose of Springtime and I’d feel myself burst back to life. But Spring always seemed just out of reach … always a week away … another frost … another cold front … always coming and coming, beating me down and down until I was even LESS than a drip.
 
I was stagnant.
 
All this talk in metaphors brings me to this:
 
Yesterday, for the first time in a while, I talked to my Mountain Mother. To my surprise, she and I have shared this metaphor all winter. It has been as if we’ve been walking side by side all winter long, scarcely aware the other one was there. You cannot know the immediate comfort I felt in knowing that when looking back on my long lonely Winter, I was never really as alone as I felt. My Mother was walking with me and our closeness carried the two of us through the hardest of winters.
 
Then, yesterday afternoon after we talked, she took a walk down the mountain for the first time all Winter. It was as if something was pulling her along … one foot in front of the other down a path she had walked a million times before. Across the road, down the drive, around the bend and through the deep Cherry Mountain ground cover she went. I can close my eyes and see her … her heart thumping … her eyes on the greenest spot in the woods. I can see her stepping determinedly … her hand firmly clutching her walking stick … I can hear her breath quickening.
 
Squinting her eyes, she takes a closer look … then opening wide at what she sees! For years it had only been a lingering drip, and now, there it was a Spring Branch … flowing freely over the rocks again! The Spring head was alive and somehow Cherry Mountain worked it’s magical spell and she, as well, felt herself coming back to life. She breathed in deep … so deep that her lungs filled for the first time all winter.
 
And I, a hundred miles away at my home in Atlanta, felt it as well! It was as if she breathed in enough for the two of us and slowly I felt a gentle sigh flow through me. Winter was nearly over … tomorrow it would be Spring!

Branch

To Whom It May Concern …

Published on by SoLynnishLeave a comment

“Finally … I’ve had enough of your cold ornery ways!
I’m tired of your lying, cheating and backstabbing!
I’ve had enough of your leaving …
making my heart soar as I happily packed up your clothes
and stuffed them out of sight (out of mind)!
And then, three days later …
you’d show your ugly face again … back at my door
expecting me to be happy to see you!

So once again
I pulled all of your heavy moth-ball infused clothes out
and hung them all back in the closet …
angrily, I might add.
Never again will I trust your tawdry”signs”!
Your “I’m leaving this time for good” song and dance
no longer enchants me because
you ALWAYS come back!

Well, you cold, bitter,
what-ever-you-want-to-call-yourself today nuisance ….
I’ll have you know that I’ve put your clothes away
once and for all.
I have in my possession a box of ten-penny nails
and I intend to use every last ONE of them this time.
That’s right … I’ll be nailing the door shut this time
with your heavy as lead clothes inside.
You heard me right … you no longer have access
to what everyone from Washington to Delaware
refers to as “your clothing”!

I’ve found another and will no longer
have room for you in my life!
So let this be our final “goodbye” ….
Spring is upon me and I simply don’t have
room in my life OR my closet for you.

Goodbye Winter …
Don’t let the door hit you in the icicle on the way out.”

Finally

slideshop

FAILED CHILDHOOD THEORIES

Published on by SoLynnish5 Comments

You cannot catch the tooth fairy in a mouse-trap. Only your Daddy.

You cannot hide your uneaten peas, broccoli, liver, etc on the shelf under the table-top forever. Eventually the cat will out you.

Switching the Castoria with Hersheys Syrup only works if you fake gag and don’t offer to lick the spoon.

You can change an “F” to a “B” but you can’t change a “D” to anything, so it’s better to make an “F”.

Just feed all the Baby Asprin you don’t like to your cousin or hide them in your mothers potted plants.

When faking “taking a bath”, don’t forget to wet the soap and re-wet the tub after drying it with the towel (so the towel is wet). Be sure to moisten your skin and rub some soap on yourself so you smell clean. Dampen the bottom edges of your hair.

Use caution when using a light bulb to raise the temperature on the thermometer. It’s very difficult to explain a 109 degree fever to a hysterical parent.

A fake cough will always turn into a real cough if you over play the cough-card.

Never hide your report card in a library book and then return it. There is a level greater than “lost” that only a kid understands.

None of the exercises will make your titties bigger before you’re eight.

I was notorious for cleaning up my room and sticking stuff under my parents bed just because they had a dust ruffle.

It is absolutely possible to dig to China if it weren’t for childhood curfews.

If you need to do an oral book report and just plan on casually asking your Dad last minute what it’s about, don’t count on him giving you a straight answer. For instance, “Island of the Blue Dolphins” is not a true story about an island that football players went to in hopes of becoming a championship team and the quest of a little native boy on the island who wanted to become a Dolphin. However, an awful lot of boys in my class asked to read that book next though! (And thank heavens I got an “F”!)

Theory

Pulling the Scotty

Published on by SoLynnish5 Comments

PULLING THE SCOTTY

 

I am tossed from side to side

between my Mother and Daddy

as the little green GMC pickup truck

slowly makes it way up Old Cherry Mountain Road.

 

Every so often Mother would yell “Stop, Cecil!”

Daddy would explain for the dozenth time that

he’d have to get to the curve first.

Once we were at the level place in the road,

the three of us would climb out and trot

back down the road to retrieve the rock Mother

wanted for her rock garden.

 

Daddy would place it in just the right place

in the back of the truck and we’d all climb back in.

Occasionally I’d lollygag and end up sitting by the window

where I stretched out my hand to snap off

long fronds of Queen Annes Lace that happily

grew at the edges of the old road.

 

Daddy would go through the gears on the steering column,

first, clutch, second, clutch … and the truck would balk

at the idea of switching up to third gear, so we’d settle

into second as the rock in the back lurched backwards.

Mother laughed and Daddy would shake his head …

Mary Alice and her rock obsession! He adored her for it.

 

Merrily rolling behind us was our turquoise and white

Scotty Camper, rocking side to side like a happy drunkard,

the yellow ping-pong ball smiley face hanging in the window

seemed to echo its elation. It had followed us from

South Georgia along the slick concrete freeways that

ker-thunk ker-thunked beneath the wheels, and later

along sharply curving mountain roads where Mother was

certain it would tip over at every switchback.

 

We finally rolled into Bill and Nancy’s campsite

on Cherry Mountain and Daddy set the emergency brake.

My cousins, Tim and Jeff climbed out of the creek

shaking off water as they ran up the hill.  Mother opened up

the Scotty and began bringing out lawn chairs.

Daddy used the rocks in the back of the truck to

keep the Scotty from rolling down Cherry Mountain.

 

That night I slept in the overhead bunk in the Scotty

gazing past the Smiley Faced ping-pong ball at the same

moon I would come to adore over the next fifty years

with the cousin I would someday learn to call “Mom”.

 

-Lynn Hamilton-Rutherford

 On the Road

THAT TIME WE WERE HIKING …

Published on by SoLynnish5 Comments

… and I looked down into the treetops and was shocked to see clouds gathering around my feet!

Puddles are magical things.  My brother and I were walking my mothers two dogs, Sasha and Roxie, down the old mountain road after a cold winter rain during Christmas several years back.  I had stopped to re-lace my hiking boot and sat there in wonder.  There at my feet, clouds were gathering.  The tops of trees were gently swaying in an icy winter gust as leaves fluttered past me.  It was as if I were frozen … afraid to move … not wanting to break the spell.

Then my brother saw it too.

The two of us silently gazed into it as if it were another world.  I slowly took out my camera (as if not wanting to frighten it away) and captured a photo of that magical puddle to another place.  We vowed the next day we would bring our aging Mom down the mountain to see it.  During the night, though, the doorway was closed. Nothing but mud remained where the beautiful window to the treetops had been.

To this day after a heavy winter rain I will often ramble down the mountain to the place where the puddle once was. There is no sign it was ever even there except for this photo.

My brother and I laugh that maybe that puddle wasn’t a reflection at all.  What if it really WERE a … … … but no …

… that would be unimaginable.

 

 

Out of This World

 

Memorable Christmas Gifts and the Outing of Santa …

Published on by SoLynnish1 Comment

So I just realized while I was putting this blog together how “ungirly” of a little girl I was.  My most memorable Christmas gifts, except for maybe one of them, are not the average “little girl gifts”!  Maybe it’s because as a child I was mostly surrounded by boys … rough neck, frog-in-the-pocket boys, who were pretty much my only choice of play-mates in the neighborhood!

I had a few girly friends, but I’d much rather be playing in the ditches and building forts in the woods with the boys instead of sitting in the front yard brushing the hair of some  bug-eyed baby doll.  There were, I mean, only so many sub-plots you could play before the “Mommy and Daddy” game, got utterly boring.  Kimberly whatever-her-last-name-was, took her Baby Alive and went home when I suggested we see who could throw our dolls further up on the roof of the house.

I never saw Kimberly again and that stupid Baby Alive was still on the roof when we moved away.

Never in a hundred years would I have suggested throwing my all time favorite Christmas gift EVER on the roof …

#1  GREEN TONKA TOY TRUCK WITH WHITE WALL TIRES

download

I got this for my fifth Christmas and I remember circling it in the Sears and Roebuck Christmas Catalog like it happened yesterday!  I’ve no idea where I originally saw it … if it was on TV or if someone in the neighborhood had one, but I made SURE Mom and Dad knew I wanted it.  Don’t ask me what else I got that Christmas because I can’t remember a single other thing … but that Tonka truck … I LOVED that toy!  And yes, I slept with it!  It went everywhere with me and even as a teenager, it sat on my dresser and held lip-gloss and necklaces.  Today it’s wrapped in newspapers and in my basement.  Not even my son was allowed to play with it.  Once I’m in Waynesville I want to have a special place for it so I can show it off!  To this day, that Tonka Truck is one of my most prized possessions.

#2  THE EASY BAKE OVEN

easy-bake-oven

So most little girls played with their Easy Bake ovens until either their cake mixes ran out or the bulbs burned out. Not me.   I loved mine so much that my Mom would mix up little sandwich bags of cake mixes for me to bake!  But that isn’t all!  I remember taking left-over pre-cooked spaghetti, some sauce and cheese and baking tiny casseroles!  I made tiny little biscuits … tiny cookies … and my favorite – a hot open faced Oreo with a tiny scoop of ice cream.  I was wildly inventive and my Dad, ever the guinea pig of the Easy Bake Chef, always smacked his lips and would say “delicious” … even though it probably wasn’t so great.  After all, there’s only so much you can to do to food with two 100 watt light bulbs.

#3  THE TWISTER GAME

twister

As an only child, this game was incredibly boring for me until my Dad figured out that the three of us (me, Mom and Daddy) could play together if one of us held the spinner in our mouth and we all took turns spinning.  It was actually more fun doing it that way than having someone sit on the side calling out the moves, because it always required someone to spin the spinner with whatever appendage was available and the spinner was passed along to the next person …. teeth to teeth.  Yeah yeah … germs were shared, but the laughter was ferocious and some of the best times with my Mom and Dad was spent watching my Dad lift his toe up to my Moms face and them working together to try and spin the spinner!

#4  MY SPIROGRAPH and GREEN PEN

d452d41f1c4ddc6b5c28e3c5169426d9--s-toys-retro-toys

Of all my toys, this one both fascinate and frustrated me the most.  Actually, my Dad enjoyed this toy more than I did, but we would have “doodling” contests to see who could “doodle” the longest before our wheel jumped the track.  I think every Spirographer ran out of green ink first because it was such an unusual pen color at the time and boy did I covet my green pen!

But alas, I got caught by Mrs Wall “doodling” in class with my green Spirograph pen and a couple of gears and wheels, and my green pen was confiscated.  Spirographing was never the same after that.

#5 MY LIONEL TRAIN SET ♥ …. AND THE YEAR SANTA WAS ‘OUTED’

3c8c66dcc5352d4c263e330909b58abc--model-trains-zack

If I live to be a hundred, I’ll never EVER forget the year I got my Lionel Train set, because that was the year I found out the truth about Santa.

It was 1967 and we lived on East Court Street in Hinesville, Georgia in an Antebellum home with beautiful beveled glass doors between the hallway and  living room.  My Aunt Lila and Grandma Hamilton were spending Christmas with us that year  They were sleeping in my room and I was sleeping on the roll-away bed in Mom and Daddys room.  We had all had a traditional cup of hot cocoa before bed Christmas Eve, but since Aunt Lila was there, she made mine “special” and put a peppermint stick in it (and more than likely a hefty dose of Peppermint Schnapps as well so I would fall asleep quickly).

I’ve no idea what time it was when I woke up and heard muffled talking in the living room.  I timidly crept down the hall to the closed glass doors of the living room, where I saw Dad and Aunt Lila on the floor playing with a train set and Mom putting a T-Set out.

My cousin, Mike, was right.  My parents WERE Santa.

I was mortified!  So I did what any kid in their right mind would do …. I kept my mouth shut and crept back to bed just in case they took it all back once they knew “I KNEW”.

Christmas morning when they came in and “woke me up” … yeah, right … I’d lay there all night wondering what else was fake … would my ears really fall off if I didn’t wash behind them? … would my nose REALLY grow if I told a lie?  …. were there REALLY Mommy spies everywhere I went who would tell her everything I did when she wasn’t around? These were things I was doubting now.  And the Tooth Fairy … and Easter Bunny …  and the “President of the United States” …. was HE even real?

Anyway, I played it cool, and my Daddy and I ended up playing with that train set all day.  Aunt Lila crocheted an afghan, Grandma snoozed in the easy chair, and Mom folded up all the used wrapping paper into neat smooth squares. As for me, I just suspiciously watched them all for the first time in my life.

slideshow, alex rutherford, graduation, middle georgia state university

Little Nostalgic Yesterday …

Published on by SoLynnish5 Comments

I don’t suppose I need to go into a long dissertation on how very proud of my son I am … how many times I looked at him yesterday and went “Wow …. that was my little boy!”  I sat and wiped tears through the entire thing  … happiness, sadness, pride, but most of all relief for him.  He did it.

Both my kids went to school full time and put in over forty hours a week at work.  They already know what their careers are like, and I believe they’ve both found the perfect place.

But back to Alex, he loved every moment … looking back every couple of minutes and smiling.  I could see the happiness all over him!

 

 

slideshow, books, benefactors,

The Reluctant Benefactors …

Published on by SoLynnishLeave a comment

INHERITANCE

My poor kids.  Both grown and off on their own, each with their own particular style – but both simple, clean, artsy and bright.

For a couple of years now they have been avoiding the subject of who will INHERIT what … usually it’s in the form of “Alex can just have that” or “Just will that to Aly”.    I’m thinking there’s a motive behind all this generosity.  Neither want to be the one to be stuck with the stuff that I, myself, inherited.  And I inherited a LOT!

IMG_20171213_110616

You probably already know I inherited a ton of rocks which will be used in some way or another when I build the house on Serenity Mountain in Waynesville, NC.  But I was also left stacks of vintage books from my parents, two Aunts and a cousin, a cloth clown that my mother made (its locked in my china cabinet – BTW, I’m TERRIFIED of clowns!), china from a Great Grandmother by marriage, and a blue stuffed spaceman from my husband,

IMG_20171213_110600

Both kids want the Spaceman. The SPACEMAN!

Some things were easy to will away.  My cousin LaWanda wants my mothers buffet, Granny Morris’ sewing machine cabinet, and if I’m ever found mangled from falling off a cliff, the china cabinet will go to her as well … along with my lifeless body stuffed inside (unless the kids change their minds).

Many of the things we’ve acquired over our 32 year marriage will have to be re-homed and upgraded … so my beautiful bedroom suit that will be MUCH too big for the Waynesville house, the dining room suit, living room suit, bonus room furniture and the rest of the occasional chairs will go to a local organization that helps displaced family’s in need.

My parents beautiful cherry wood bedroom suit will become a guest bedroom suit, the mahogany birthing/mansion bed I inherited from Grandma Hamilton will go in my study, and the china cabinet will be placed on it’s own wall in the country kitchen! A friend of mine, Mary Leslie, is painting a big guinea fowl to hang on the dining area wall.  It will quickly become one of my new most prized possessions.  The mirrored bowl and pitcher stand (or commode table that once held a slop jar) will go in the entry-way.

All of these things will someday need a home along with my parents journals, my own journals, photo albums, Bibles that belonged everyone in my family all the way back to Grandma Hamilton, movie films, and all of my Fathers memorabilia from his time in WWII.  Who would want all this stuff?  If I were the kids at their age and just starting life, I’m not sure I would be willing to take it on either.

They may not realize it, but I certainly don’t want to guilt them into taking on stuff they don’t have any desire to have.  As a Mother, it’s one of the worst things you can heap upon your kids conscience.  So, every so often I suppose I’ll be parting ways with something that means a great deal to me … but has the potential to mean at least a little something to someone else.

Maybe I’ll start with the clown.  *shiver*

Naaaahhhhh …..