Leaves, Leaves, Leaves

Just like every year before!  Yesterday and today, I spent two hours each day raking, and yet hardly made a dent in the leaves.

With every king size sheet load of leaves I tug and drag and haul away, I wonder if I will be able to do this yet another year.  Raking leaves is a favorite job of mine, but a very tiring job!  Hard on the legs!!

These pictures do not even include the back yard, and down to the pond!  

Makes me appreciate my blogging friends so much.  This is the first time ever, that I have been able to show anybody all my leaves. :)  Every year I rake and grumble and complain to myself that Poppy has no idea all the hard work required to rake up this many leaves.  So, thank you, blogging friends!!

The babies made through the two coldest nights so far.  In fact, all five are lively and seem to be healthy.  Can you see the baby peeping out from it's mother's wing...

Thank you for looking at my blog.

Love,

Henny Penny 

The dogs and a shaggy me

Hope I still have a few readers.  Sorry, I got a little carried away with my memories of Robbins and talked way too long. 

Shelby and me dancing the shag at the wedding...

Shelby was a beautiful "mother of the bride".  I looked a bit shaggy!  Just right for dancing the "shag"!

Poppy went hunting this morning instead of working at the deer processing plant.  He left walking, bundled up in his thermals, hunting clothes, heavy coat, etc., carrying a camo chair and his gun.  It is a cold 23 degrees.   I was outside also, on my way to the pen down near the pond to check on the baby Guineas.  I was carrying a bucket of feed and a jug of warm water.  I got almost to the pen and and saw two dogs, part Pit Bull, that had escaped from their pen, running toward me. I love dogs, but I  am afraid of these two.

These dogs live in a pen across the woods, they get no attention, and have gotten loose before. Last time they killed a neighbor's duck. I dropped everything and got inside the pen with the Guineas...screaming "DAN, DAN, DAN"!!!  as loud as I could scream.  My screams frightened the dogs away.  I waited until the dogs were out of sight and then started to the house and met Dan (Poppy) half running, half limping, shouting "are you alright"!!  Yes, I said, two dog were running after me...Poppy looked mad...he said "well I fell and just about killed myself and almost tore my gun up trying to get here...I heard you screaming"! 

Everything is good now.  Poppy went back into the woods.  The baby guineas made it through the freezing cold night with their mother.  Again, all is well that ends well!!! 

Thank you!

Love,
Henny Penny

The Wedding Trip

The wedding!  The view from our hotel window Sunday morning in New Bern.

The bride and her Dad...

I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed being at my Niece's wedding.  Who doesn't love a wedding!!  Maybe I don't get out enough...guess that would be the understatement of the year!!!  The whole event...the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids, the prettiest little flower girl and handsome young ring bearer, the dresses, the flowers, the reception, the food, the music, the dancing...I was simply overwhelmed by it all.  Truly, I need to get out more!!!

Poppy and I rarely go anywhere.  Poppy's vacation days are reserved for the various hunting seasons.  We happen to be in the throws of deer season now...the third phase of deer season!   First is bow season in September, then black powder season, and now regular gun season.  Late February, we begin preparing for turkey season.

No complaints.  Poppy is a hardworking man.  Even on his days off, he is up early going to work at a deer processing plant about three miles from our house.  He processes deer that the hunters bring in.  Many of the deer killed are donated to "Hunters for the Hungry", which helps feed the homeless.  He puts in six hours there, comes in for lunch, then goes hunting.  The extra money he earns there usually goes for something special.  Big note here!!!  Yesterday, Poppy said,  "I guess this year I will use the money to get me some new glasses and you a donkey"!  That's what I heard alright!! :0

Back to the wedding!  I should have lots of great pictures to post!  But, no, not me.  I get really self-conscious trying to take pictures...like the focus is on me.  I relate to the comedian that used to say, he didn't like going to football games because when the players got in a huddle, he thought they were talking about him! Seriously!!  Was that comedian Rodney Dangerfield??

I did get a good shot of Lynn, and this was by accident!  I turned quickly to get the bride and groom as they entered the reception and, well...

The drive to New Bern with Lynn was nice.   We talked and we laughed.  We shared a hotel room.  We drove home together.  Haven't had that much time with Lynn in quite a while.  To add to my joy...Andee, Todd, and Madison were there! 

There were many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends at the wedding that I haven't seen is a long time.  And listen,  I didn't do much dancing, mostly because I didn't have a dance partner, but, Shelby and I got out on the dance floor and danced the "Shag" to some great beach music.  If you don't know about the Shag...it is the swing dance of the South.  It began at Myrtle Beach, SC...Sorry I don't have a picture of this!

More views from our room...

Thank you for stopping by...

Love,
Henny Penny   

More Memories

Posting last Friday about growing up in Robbins in the 1950's really got my emotions stirred up.  I went to bed thinking about my childhood and at 3:00 Saturday morning was wide awake trying to remember every detail of all the stores in downtown Robbins...knowing I had a wedding to attend in New Bern later in the day.

Walking the sidewalks to town on Saturday with twenty five cents allowance in my pocket was my excitement...except for my dolls!

Leaving our house I walked down the hill past the mill then crossed the street to get on the sidewalk.  The sidewalk carried me past houses all the way up to Haithcock's store.  Many times I spent my twenty cents lunch money in Haithcock's buying packs of Kool aid.  I liked to pour the Kool aid in my hand and eat it by sticking my tongue to the tart powder.  Across the street from Haithcock's was Robbins Grammar School and next to Haithcock's was Mr. Brady's house, Principal of the school.   Mrs. Brady was my fifth grade teacher and their daughter, Mary Ann was in my grade.

The grammer school was on the corner, so at this point I crossed the street and continued on to town past the tall brick Methodist church on my left.  I have memories of mama going up those brick steps to church one Sunday morning...tall and slim and beautiful, with her short, dark hair, wearing a fitted red suit with a fur collar.  She wore black high heel shoes and a dressy red hat that had a black feather on the side. 

  Seems like then I passed a small cafe and a service station and then Parks grocery store.  Mr. Parks, his wife, and their teenage son worked there.  I remember the white aprons they wore and Mr. Parks was the butcher.

Next was a drug store...the one that gave you a free ice cream soda....if you had a slip of paper written by Dr. Vanore, because he had given you a shot!!!  This also was the drug store where Shelby carried the film to get her pictures developed.  Shelby had a camera, her very own camera!  Wish there were more of her pictures from the 1950's!

I may be wrong about the exact order of the stores, but Dr. Alexander's office, Kinlaw's Cleaners,  and Ray's clothing store was somewhere along there.  Mama went to Ray's when we needed nice clothes for special occasions.   Like our trip to Charlottesville, Virginia.  Daddy got a job offer there and was invited up for the weekend.  He took the family and what a special trip this was!  We all got new outfits and the drive through the mountains to Charlottesville was exciting.  We stopped along the way to look at the sights.  Shelby took pictures of course.   My new dress with the black velvet tie belt, came from Ray's.

We stayed in a hotel in Charlottesville.  At least I think it was a hotel...I remember the lovely mahogany bed and dresser in a small room, and the white bedspread.  The room had a long window with a view of downtown, which impressed me so because of the steep hills, the streets, and the shops on either side of the street .  Mama and us children waited in the room for Daddy.  Oh, and how vividly I remember the beautiful hotel dining room where we had dinner that evening.  So many many beautiful tables with white linen cloths and large folded napkins.  Men waiters with trays.  Beautiful silverware and crystal glasses.   Funny, I remember when our dinner was served, the first thing Jackie ate from his plate was the Parsley...and mama telling him he should not have done that...that the green leaves were to make the plate pretty!  I probably ate my parsley too!  I always managed to do something embarrassing!  Then Jackie wanted ice cream with a cherry on top...which Daddy asked the waiter to bring !!!

Back to Robbins...rounding the corner...to Lee's dime store with all the wooden bins.  I loved Lee's!  Lee's is where I bought my first little blue metal tube of lipstick for fifteen cents.  The main attraction in Lee's was the candy counter in the center front part of the store.  You could buy a scoop of warm roasted nuts for a nickle.  I can still smell those roasted nuts.  The nuts turned slowly on a tray under a light which lent a red glow to the counter.  

On down the street was the theater where I got into trouble with daddy one Saturday for sitting through the movie, Cinderella too many times...not realizing night time had come upon us.  I remember the night all of us, the whole family went to see the movie, "Joan of Arc".  It was good, but the cartoon was great.  Jackie and I begged daddy to stay a little longer to see if they were going to show another cartoon.  Seems like those news reels took forever...but the cartoon was short!

Down a ways, and maybe the last store on that side of the street  was Cheeks Western Auto.  On second thought, seems like Dr. Vanore and Dr. Brady both had offices along there...with blinds in the windows!  I have never liked blinds!  Western Auto was the store where I bought my roller skates...the kind you wore over your shoes and tightened with a key. 

There was something wrong with those skates... I don't remember exactly what, but daddy told me to carry the skates back and tell Mr. Cheek.  As bashful as I was, I walked to town, walked into Western Auto, found Mr. Cheek and told him about my skates.  He looked at the skates and said to me in a voice that sounded to me like a storm overhead, "I can't take these back.  You have already worn them.  The wheels are scuffed up".  I said a little tiny voice okay  and walked the three miles back to the front of the store.  It took a while for me to recover from this...I didn't like the Cheeks anymore,  any of them  (this was a 10 year old Henny Penny. All is forgotten now).  However, a small incident a few days later in the school library helped me a little.  All was quiet in the library.  Hal Cheek, Mr. Cheek's son was leaning back in his chair...one of those heavy stocky square yellowish colored wood chairs that fits under those library tables...well the legs slipped and he fell over backwards.  I hope he wasn't too embarrassed.

Next, crossing the railroad tracks, which I never had reason to go that far, was Kennedy's Funeral Home, then up on the hill, Elise High School.  Crossing the street and walking to town on the other side was Muse's store.  They sold clothes and fabric.  That's where mama bought the green plaid fabric for me.  I was supposed to make a jumper in "Home Economics" class.  I have no memory of a jumper!

Then the Post Office...where we always dreaded daddy stopping to pick up the mail.  Especially if we had all been somewhere and were in the car together.  Without fail, daddy would run up with someone he knew and would talk and talk and talk, while we waited and waited and waited!

Next was another drug store.  Cheek's shoe store was along there too.  Mr. Cheek's daughter worked there and she had the longest fingernail on one of her her little fingers that I had ever seen on anyone!  A really pretty fingernail.  I always wanted to ask her about it!  

Oh my....then there was the hardware store!  I believe the owner of this store was the Mayor of Robbins at that time.  This hardware store is where we bought our little colored biddies for Easter.  We each had our own baby chick to feed and care for, and watch grow up.  They had all colors, red, green, blue, purple...poor chicks!  It's good that stores can no longer do these things.  How many of those chicks were carried home by children who let them starve or die from the cold, or be killed by a cat. 

Again, a few of my memories.  If I have posted any wrong information, or have offended anyone by anything I have written in this post, I truly apologize and will remove it from this blog.  I love Robbins and the people who live there.  I would love to go back and live my childhood all over again.

Love,
Henny Penny

 

Growing up in Robbins

Dear sweet Robbins has been on my mind today.  There was no finer place to be in the 1950's than in the little town of Robbins, NC!  

Oh, how I loved the house we lived in next to the ball park.  And the people who lived near us; not only on our block, but in all the houses across the sidewalks from around our block.

On our right was Dr. and Mrs. Alexander and their daughter Becky.  Dr. Alexander was the dentist in Robbins.  His office was in one of the old buildings downtown...up stairs.  I clearly remember that office with the pale green and yellow equipment...the porcelain bowl with water running in to wash away the spit and blood as it swirled around.  Really scary stuff!  Mrs. Patrick was his nurse.  Her job was to hold you down in the chair so you couldn't move.  At least that's what I thought was her job.   Horrors!  I can remember screaming from the time we walked in until I was safe, back in the car with mama.  Mama used to say she could hear us screaming...and she had gone to wait in the car, hoping not to hear us screaming.  The pain was not as bad as the fear we had.  I had heard it said that Dr. Alexander was an old Army dentist!  I assumed that was something to fear!

In this picture I am holding my baby brother Randall, and my little friend is Becky...the dentist's daughter.  I was having a birthday party for my Saucy Walker doll.  I babysat Becky once in a while when her parents went out.  Of course, our houses were very close together.  I'm sure mama was looking out for the both of us.  One year for my birthday Mrs. Alexander bought me a special gift.  Becky came running over to tell me so.  She said she could not tell me what the gift was, but she said, "it runs, you wear it on your arm and it has Cinderella on it".

Across the street there were small white houses...one after the other all around the block.  My very best friend Becky Brown lived in one of those houses.  

There were so many kids our ages, and we all walked the sidewalks to school, and back home every day.  The Steeds, the Gilmores,  the  Kennedys, the Freemans, and the Patricks, to name just a few.

The Steeds had three children, Jimmy, Billy, and Jane.  Jimmy and I were in the same grade.  When I think of Jimmy, I remember the time he took my fudgesicle from me and slapped my face with it...I liked Jimmy! :)   It was Mrs. Steed who made my beautiful red gown to wear in the piano recital.  That would be the recital where I walked onto the stage, sat down at the piano, and did not know the first key to hit.  I didn't know we actually had to play a piece in front of the audience.  My excitement was over wearing the red dress.

The Freemans had two daughters, Peggy and Carolyn.  They had a pet rooster they had raised from a colored Easter biddie (chick).  I was afraid to walk completely around the block because, if that rooster saw you, he would chase you.  I was as scared of that rooster as I was a German Shepherd dog!

The Gilmores had a son my age named Ronnie...Ronnie looked like Wally, from "Leave it to Beaver".  He was soooo cute!  All the girls liked him.  I had a party when I turned 13 and all those cute boys came.  Ronnie gave me a cedar jewelry chest.  We played spin the bottle and I got to walk around the block with Larry Kennedy.  Thank goodness roosters don't come out at night!

At the very top of the hill in a nice big house lived Doctor Vanore.  It was in maybe 1950 or 1951 that I became sick.  Dr. Vanore thought it might be Polio.  He came to the house every day to check on me.  I remember him having me get out of bed and walk around the room.  Turned out not to be Polio and I got well, thankfully.  Anytime Dr. Vanore gave you a shot, he also gave you a slip of paper to get a free ice cream soda at the drug store downtown.  My, have times changed!

Shelby and I are planning a day together soon.  Our plan is to drive to Robbins and look for all these places we remember.  No doubt, everything has changed, but I really want to go back.  We may even park and walk on the old sidewalks...if still there.

Thank you for listening.  I could probably write a book about growing up in the 1950's in Robbins...my favorite subject!

Love,
Henny Penny









 

A Busy Day

Funny, I had titled this post "Monday Morning", and here it is Tuesday night.   

What a day this has been!  I went in to town, bought hay and goat feed, carried aprons and bonnets to the feed and seed store to sell, delivered 4 dozen eggs to a friend in Wake Forest, left Wake Forest and drove 30 miles to Henderson to pick up prescriptions and buy a gift...then headed toward home.

I was in a hurry because I worry so about the baby guineas...feeling the need to check on them every hour or so.  As soon as I got home I did indeed check and there was a baby, cold and wedged between the fence and a piece of 4 x 4 post, cold and near death.  How in the world they manage to stray that far from the warmth and safety of their mother is beyond me! 

It was meant for me to get home when I did!  I used the warm cloths and sugar water again.  This baby survived too.  It breaks my heart to think how long it lay there, cold and needing help.  Anyway, all is well now.

I am enjoying reading other blogs so much that I hardly have  the time to write a decent post of my own!  :)  I love the donkey stories and pictures, the dogs, the beautiful fall pictures, the walks in the woods, the delicious foods and recipes...persimmon pudding, old photographs, sewing, crafting, the cats and the funny stories, and the altered couture...that you all post about!

Terry, since you requested it, and because you are so nice......Here I am, "swinging" out over the goat lot! :)  No wonder I fell out backwards...look how much hangs over!  Pardon the lovely shoes, my crocs that sit at the front door.

The craft fair was held last Saturday.  The car was packed and I was on my way at 5:15 a.m.  Shelby and Jimmy leave for the market at 6:30 on Saturdays so I needed to be there on time.

Don't Shelby and Jimmy look like people you would love?  Well, they are.  I heard it several times at the market from the vendors and the customers.  It was a fun day!

They sell dozens and dozens of large dark brown eggs.  They also sell baked goods, jams and jellies, and sometimes produce.  There are many flavors of jam on display here, and for sampling.  Sorry there's no picture of my booth.  You can see a bit of a Christmas apron hanging.  I sold a few bonnets and aprons and one doll.   Made a bit of spending money and enjoyed the day.

Looks like Poppy and I will be getting even more sun and light into our place.  The folks who own the property across from us have been thinning out...clearing rows, making room for the smaller pines to grow.  Poppy says this will give him more places to hunt next deer season.

Thanks for visiting.  

Love, 
Henny Penny

 

Just a Note

It is finally beginning to look a little like fall around here.  I was beginning to wonder if we were going to see any pretty leaves.  This one is a Hickory nut tree...

All five baby guineas are still with us.  They seem to be healthy and doing fine.  It is raining here today with a mild 70 degree temperature...which is a good thing.  This will give the babies another day to eat and grow stronger before the next cold front comes through.  They are in a safe place and the pen has a cover for protection, and to keep the rain out.  So far the mother is keeping them warm.  I hate taking her babies from her.  She spent all those long days and nights in the edge of the woods, risking her life to hatch 5 babies. 

Not much of a post, I know.  Tomorrow is the craft fair.  I still have a few things to finish up and pack in the car.  

Thank you.  Hope to be back soon. 

Love,
Henny Penny