Our journey begins with a simple, elegant flower that represents perfectly how “little things” can be so powerful in our lives.
White petals nestle together among the dark green leaves and a sweet floral scent draws you forward to take a sniff. Ah… there is a depth to the scent that creates the need to sniff once again. It is sweet, floral and oh so beautiful. You lean forward…
It’s the little things-
From North Carolina,
L
May 3, 2015
I cannot write so colorful as Lavonda and Richard but such vivid memories growing up in Western North Carolina has been such a blessing to me. Until I was seven I was raised in a community called Newdale six miles from Spruce Pine and 6 miles from Burnsville North Carolina. Had cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and a mother who lived up and down the road. We had no car so we walked everywhere. Lost my father when I was just one year old. My grandfather and uncles took over that role,
I went everywhere my grandfather Rositer Tulius Ensley went everyone called him R.T. . He was everything to me. He was a detective , traveled with power company hopping trains and eating off the land, sweet pototoes, watermelon, apples whatever he could find as he traveled. After settling down married my grandmother at age 21 she was 15. He was a typical farmer. He had scrapnel (spelling) in his shoulder and had glass eye from injuries in the war. He raised hogs, cows and horses at one time,.Had tobacco crops that I can still see hanging in barn. I remember following him with horse and plow dropping the tobacco plants in hole and going back to cover up. Really not know how he did it all. They had five daughters. He built 3 large ponds which he planted with minnows to sell for fish bait. He would make us sit quitely on the side and wait and watch, he would throw cornbread into the top of netting he built with a pole. All of a sudden he would pull it up and catch so many minnows. We let the bull frogs so back in the water, He had concrete place with water and he would keep them in container and men would come from all over to buy fish bait from him.
I remember that my grandfather would kill his hogs and they would can and fix hams to hang up from barn rafters for the winter. With the gardens they planted , they sat around fixing the vegetables and can them. It was so much fun watching my mother, grandmother and aunts sitting under tree which is still there, talking and laughing while this beautiful North Carolina mountains surrounding us. There was no better childhood. We had no money but did not want for anything, We made our own toys and played all day in the woods making mud pies, catching lizards to sell my grandfather for candy money.
My grandfather also taught himself to be a taxidermist. I saw him tan hides that people brought him and once a bear that he made into a rug. He was not the hunter just trying to make a better life for his family. He would occasionally trap a rabbit. The man worked from morning until night providing for his family and this a tribute to such a fine man my grandfather,
I treasure all the memories that my family left me that has provided me with a lifetime of things to reflect and build from .
The views are still pretty and the old home place is still there that my grandfather built the road took mothers little house and some of the mountain but it can’t take away my memories. Thank you God for such a rich heritage.
Will have more to say later. Thank you for having such a nice blog to read about the great things in life.
Brenda Smith Atchley