GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE, OCTOBER 3, 2025

Well, just like it says "right up yonder," GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS! I am hope your weekend was as good as mine, I had some company on Saturday, and then had a helper help take some groceries to someone who was in need, and I was blessed with having plenty for myself and the boyz, due to some wonderful kindnesses from some of you.

We would be destitute right now were it not for God and you. I know that those I speak of who have helped us, would have no problem with passing along some excess to another in need, as we are at this time. One day soon, the government will reawaken, I will begin receiving my Social Security benefits, I will have eye surgery in December, and can resume working some after that, and we will not need a helping hand.

I won't say it is embarrassing to be in need, but it is humbling, and as I have been able in recent years to be of help to many others, I can be needy and still hold my head up. This too, shall pass. Okay, enough of that, I had visitors Sunday also, and it was a fine and relaxing day. It is well to be able to enjoy doing nothing, many folks I know, are restless and unable to relax, a condition I have not suffered from for quite a long while...if ever!

I had a sack of green peanuts for boiling, but took those to "her," "she whose name must not be used on Facebook," because she loves them even more than I do. Also, she will boil them, and share them with me later. I ain't dumb as I look. That reminds me of an old joke about a yankee who was driving through the Georgia backroads years ago, and seeing an old farmer standing beside the road, pulled to a stop to make conversation with him.

Along in that conversation, the yank asked what the farm folks did that time of year when so little work was to be done on the farm. The old man thought about it, and replied, "awe, well mostly me and the ole lady sit in front of the fireplace, eatin' peanuts and tooting." The yank was appalled by such a breach of etiquette, and astonished asked, "my good man, do you mean to say that you toot before your wife?!"

The farmer grinned and replied, "awe shoot, sometimes she'll toot before I do!" I was thinking of some of the television shows that we watched in the 1960s and 1970s as kids, and Dark Shadows came to mind. Looking back, I can't imagine mama letting us, her numerous lil Baptist progeny, watch such a show after school each day. We loved Dark Shadows, were a bit scared of Barnabas, contemptuous of the sniveling Willy Loomis, and enthralled with the lovely Victoria, or lovely Vicki as we saw her.

A funny sidenote, one thing mama detested about the show, really, her only complaint was the name of the actor who portrayed Barnabas Collins, named, "Jonathan Frid." She had a bee in her bonnet and a bug up her butt about that! She maintained that his name could not possibly really be "Frid," and they made it up just because it sounded "nasty."

We were visiting family in Columbus in 1968 and Barnabas, ole J. Frid himself was making an appearance at the K-Mart, and mama forbade our sisters to go see him. I reckon growing up southern Baptist then, in rural Georgia, it made sense to mama that it was fine for us kids to watch a show about witches, vampires, ghosts, the debble, etc., without reservation, other than the actor's name.

I think there was a handbook covering all of that stuff, back then but kids never saw it. We might get whacked upside the head with it by mama, but we were never to read it. The one having nothing to do with the other. Another favorite show then was "Bonanza." The gals liked little Joe. Us boys liked Hoss. No one liked Adam. I know, I know, he was from Georgia, and some of you went to school with him, and were kin to him.

But, he was like Joe on the Three Stooges, no one could stand him. He always garnered a collective groan from us kids, when an episode featured him. We were glad when Adam got a job driving a truck, hauling electrical appliances for Sears Roebuck in Arkansas, the show was much better after that. I bet a few can guess what us boys' favorite character on Bonanza was, although he was seldom seen or heard, when he was, we loved it.

Yes, HOP SING! Today, political correctness and wokeness would never allow a character like Hop Sing, but we would watch a hundred episodes of Bonanza just to see one cameo appearance of Hop Sing blessing out the Cartwrights in "Chinese." Life was good then. Then daddy came home. I have run amok, off the rails, and overtime this morning, and glad of it.

I love being a rebel. I hope you got a smile from me this morning, as I did in the doing of it. Stay safe, be well, and know you have friends right here.

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

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