A REMEMBERAMBLE APRIL 30, 2026

Hello! It is Thursday morning, and we got no measurable rain earlier in the week when many did, nor did we get measurable rain yesterday or today. Lately, watching the radar, it is a pattern that is all too familiar, with widespread rain that fizzles out as it approaches Garfield. Several years ago we watched that happen regularly. Rain would surround us, but it was as if there was a force repelling the rain, causing it to dissipate just as it reached us, then it would coalesce again just after passing us by. The forecast calls for a 50% chance of rain tomorrow, and 100% for Saturday. We shall see. The old saw, "March winds bring April showers," has not held true for us this year. Speaking of March winds, we looked forward to March because we enjoyed kite flying! Now that is something that has fallen by the wayside, yep we and most kids flew kites when we had good steady winds. We made our own, but store-bought ones worked best, and they were sold in convenience stores and the "five and dime." I have not seen a display of kites for sale in decades.

HI-FLIER brand kites were sold almost everywhere, they were cheap and came in many colors and styles. A kite purchase got you a pair of thin wooden sticks rolled inside of the kite, you put the ends in the pockets made for them, and voila, a kite was born!

Now and then, a kite would go up and up until the string ran out, and it flew high, and it was awesome. But most of the time they would start to ascend as we spooled out the string, only to have it suddenly nosedive into the ground. Occasionally a broken string left a kid staring up into the sky as their kite said goodbye and flew off to parts unknown! Kite flying was so popular with us kids back then, in the 1960s and 1970s, our Emanuel County Sherrif's department held a kite flying event and competition for kids each spring, just outside of town in a large field. There were several categories for handmade or store-bought kites, and that Saturday in March was eagerly awaited by many of us. I will finish this morning with an observation of how different each generation is, in ways big and small. I guess this "thing" began about twenty years ago, or at least that is when I became aware of it. In our time, boys and men alike carried billfolds. We could not imagine not having one, and carrying it with us at all times when we went anywhere. Of course "foldin' money" was kept there, along with pictures...men's/boys wallets had dedicated clear photograph inserts for photographs...I don't think billfolds today have those. We have our pictures stored on our phones. But drivers licenses, membership cards, and such were kept there also, and yes, money was kept there, if we had any. At some point back about twenty years ago, as I said, it became unfashionable for teenage boys and young men to own, posses, or carry wallets/billfolds. In fact, a billfold was considered so "old mannish," as to become an object both loathed and ridiculed by the young. It became the norm for them to have money wadded up in a pocket or two, a drivers license stuck somewhere, and they spent a lot of time digging in pockets for things. Those of us who still carry billfolds wonder how those who don't keep up with things. It remains a mystery to me! I understand that teenage boys don't have business cards, insurance cards, credit or debit cards...generally speaking...fishing licenses, and the scads of other things men have. The idea of poking things in various pockets and leaving home without a billfold is akin to the prospect of old ladies going to town without those big ole pocketbooks! A side note, I am sixty-seven years of age and I have owned only four billfolds in my life.

This is my prized billfold made by and given to me by Bryan Sparks and family, for Christmas of 2021. It looks like new even after five years

Okay, let us close out with a quiz question: what is the meaning of the word, "nuss," in the rural south?

NUMBERS 6: 24-26 KJV

we boyz three, babee conway, lil merle, & me