GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE OCTOBER 24, 2025

Welcome to this Friday that the Lord has made, for you, and for me. Let's show Him we appreciate it and make it a day to honor Him. He knows from long experience how quickly we get sidetracked from being mindful of Him. I am enjoying the cool weather, but am I ever glad to have central heating. Most of us grew up in old hard to heat houses, with parents who were raised in an era when houses were never heated at night. That is a quite modern idea, and a modern thing in actuality, because in those days it was totally impractical to heat a house at night.

We can do it now with a touch of a finger to a thermostat or even smart phone apps. No one could stay up all night feeding fireplaces and sleep too. Getting up in the morning from a warm bed, was nightmarish indeed. To get ready for school, or work in a house that was the same temperature inside as outside, was brutal in severely cold spells. Our rooms were freezing cold, but we had blankets and warm covers galore. After you crawled into bed, before long, it became a warm cocoon, and was wonderful.

But that my friend, was how the term, "rude awakening," was coined. To leave that toasty womb, and step into the frigid room was always a shock. I could not bear it now. I did years ago, let the fire die down to coals in the big fireplace insert, then get up a couple of hours before Judy and Carl had to be up for school and work, to rebuild a good fire, and have the front of the house nice and warm for them. I would go back to bed. I would sleep a while and leave for work, or to lounge around if I was off.

There were often days when I did not have a load of stumps to haul, so I was able to sleep late. Odd words come into my mind unbidden, and that is fine, but one that bounced slap out of my brain and landed on my tongue this morning was the word "mend." Mend is not a remarkable word, it is common, but not so much as in the past. Mend is becoming an archaic holdover, soon to be forfeited for sounding quaint. There are many such words, that have served generations well, but at some point they lose their popularity.

If they become dated in the minds of the youth, their very days are numbered. We still might say that someone is on the mend, physically, health-wise, but we would not likely use it as it was once used, to refer to making repairs. To ask a tradesperson if they could fix a thing or repair it, would sound natural, but if you asked them to mend something for you, it would sound noticeably off, arcane, and dated. There is no rhyme or reason to how and when perfectly good and useful words begin their slide into oblivion.

As I said while ago, it is the youth of a generation who wield the power to raise up, or doom a word, to bring it out for all to enjoy, or make it a target for ridicule if spoken by a kid seen as too "country," and "uncool." I can recall being laughed at in school for using an "old fashioned" word at school, that we used at home. Believe me, my family was a hotbed of antiquated speech, as rural as they came, and I wish every dang word we had to give up to our "betters," was available today for all to love and enjoy.

We lose the beauty of language and our spoken birthright, when made to be ashamed of our speech. It is such in all cultures, Geechee/Gullah for example, it is a universal phenomenon. If you ask in any nation or population about distinct ways of using words that are considered backwards or ignorant, they could point it out to you. I recall years ago watching an old 1950s Japanese movie with subtitles...(it was late at night and nothing else was on, as we say)...it was about a remote mountain family that came down from the hills.

They walked into the village and the clan's manner of dress and way of speaking was hilarious to those in the village. They were seen as hillbillies, and were derided by the villagers. A crowd followed along and laughed at them, as they walked through the village, in awe of common things that they had never seen. The police came and arrested them for creating a nuisance and disturbing the peace by being themselves. The family did not understand what they had done wrong.

When the magistrate at court questioned them, their responses brought forth gales of laughter from the throng of spectators. It was the first time that I had ever formulated a single thought about this being a fairly universal human trait. If you come here to visit often, you know I make no excuses for how far afield I go in topics, so you never know what to expect from me in a rememberamble. Some make you ponder well, others to shake your head in wonder, and now and then you might walk away.

As you are leaving, you try to decide if what you just read was brilliant or idiotic to the core. It can be both, as one reader is intrigued and the other dazed and confused in attempting to understand if there was rhyme or reason to it at all. I like that. It is good for us to be challenged to exercise our mind, to read things meant to provoke the mind to do some work, to exercise, to shed a few pounds of useless brain-flab. Me? Oh, I am going back to bed. I will see y'all later. Love ya long time...

..... NUMBERS 6: 24-26 KJV

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