"Let Us Cross the Bridge and Rest Under the Trees" General "Stonewall" JAckson"

Following the Battle of Chancellorville in which he led his troups around the Union right resulting in victory he was returning to his camp when he was wounded. His left arm was amputated and he died of pneumonia ten days later. General Lee said "He has lost his left arm but I have lost my right arm." The words above were the dying words of General Stonewall Jackson. He was beloved of his soldiers. He was very devote and disliked fighting on Sundays

The Smell of Bacon

Our first pig became kind of a pet. Her name was LaWanna, affectionately named after grandma. She was purchased on a trip back from the coast as a little wiener. Everyone fought over feeding her. As the first piglet she gained a lot of attention. Scraps from the table added to her regular fare. She was in a little coral down below the barn. She would escape with regularity and chase kids around. Everyone knew what would eventually happen. When I see the movie "Babe" and the other animals talk to Babe about the purpose of pigs and that pigs are pork I know exactly what they are talking about. There were many comments from children about how they would never eat LaWanna. Well after nearly a year the fateful day arrived. There was some moaning. I kind of wondered if anyone would ever eat LaWanna. Ann said there was nothing to worry about. Several weeks later on a Saturday morning I awoke to the smell of fresh bacon permeating the little red house. I don't remember much about breakfast. However there were no vegetarians that morning.

Red Haired Teacher Chapter 1 Ernest Tigner

That spring marked my first term in school. We had a school teacher that was something else. She was a nervous wreck. She had very red hair and a temper like no woman or man I have ever seen or heard tell of since. The poor thing was sick. She had to be.

Her favorite way of keeping everybody in line was to take a ruler and slap you on the back of the hand across the knuckles That never happened to me because she had the fear ingrained in me, and so I was a real nice. boy.

But I will never forget one day. There was a young fellow ahead of me, a new boy who had moved in and started attending school. As the teacher came down the aisle, she asked the boy to hand her a pencil. She had a paper or something in her hand and needed a pencil. So the boy handed her a pencil, point first.

She grabbed the pencil, threw it on the floor, grabbed that poor litlle fellow's hand, and started slapping him on the back of his hand with her ruler. Of course the little fellow started crying, and she informed him that she would teach him never to hand a pencil to anyone point first.

That ruler had cut into this boy's hand and the blood started flying. The older children, like my brother and the other boys older than him, saw all this commotion and everybody in shcool was pretty much fed up with what she had been doing.

It happened to be real chilly, windy day in the spring of the year. We all had to go outside in the hallway when it was stormy to eat our lunch. The teacher would shut the door and lock it, so no one would interrupt her rest and lunch hours.

In the corner of the schoolyard was a large pile of rocks that had come to the surface of the ground. A farmer had cleared it and piled it up at one end of the shcoolyard. These boys got together and recruited all of us to pack the rocks over, most of which was about the size of a grapefruit.

We packed a large pile of it and put it on the floor in front of the door. When the boys figured we had enough, they took those rocks and started in on the door...and they pulverized it with those rocks!

The red-haired school teacher was inside screaming. The more she screamed, the more the rocks flew. This may sound kind of cruel, but ... (to be continued)

USS Beca Tina

You will remember the USS Becca Tina that proudly floated on the little pond until its rear end rotted out and it sunk to the bottem. It has been proudly raised from the deep and now sits below the little red house along the road as a flower pot full of tulips. I have a light shining on the name. Ross and Derek helped me put up swings this weekend. Four swings one especially for little kids one huge rope swing, tire swing and then another swing swing. Okay we have plans for other boats. We will soon float the Kaisa Annie, and then the Melida Marie. The Anneli proudly sits in Uncle Lars Driveway