That is a song and if I wasn't so lazy I would go to youtube and then paste the link here, but basically I am pretty lazy in that department. Pretty lazy in most departments actually. But I can let my mind drift back in time and I am thinking my life would have been so different if I had do overs. Course I would have been screwed in the beginning because I picked the wrong family! Sadly back in the picking days, I did not even know I had a choice, so I just got born into the one fate set me down into that day. So for the first 15 or 16 years I was happy. You know the old saying, "Bloom where you are planted." I bloomed where I was planted and then I found out there were other gardens that actually got watered on a regular basis. Even got a little fertilizer from time to time. Those were the kids that turned into jocks, cheerleaders, musicians, brainiacs, and such.
Sadly I wandered through high school without ever actually participating. I knew my future would be to wed some hardworking man and raise kids. I flunked cooking and I flunked sewing, so the hard working men were out. They wanted a woman who could actually do something. You know, a helpmate of sorts. I guess the saying "Poor people have poor ways" comes in to play here. I am not sure my dad ever went to school at all so an education was not very important to him. Mother had graduated at the top of her class, but it didn't help much on the farm so she married dad who was a farmhand for my grandmother.
My dad's occupation was listed on the census rolls as "farm worker" and mother was "house wife." And that was a good thing, but sadly father liked to drink. He also fought the mechanical advancement in the agricultural movement. He was one of the last to give up is horses and only then because they died. His productive years were pretty well over at that time. We became just simple folk and mother cleaned houses for a living. It was a good honest wage.
A side note here is that I do not ever remember a firearm in our home. Jake hunted rabbits with a sling shot. There just never was a gun, nor was there ever a discussion about a gun. There was corn liquor of some sort in the fridge and dad made hot toddy's when he had a cold. I think he had a cold for all of his life. If he was in a good mood he would let us sip a taste of the hot toddy from a teaspoon . I have often thought I would like to have a hot toddy again just to see if it was as good as I thought it was back then. Seems like it was a shot of liquor, boiling water and I am sure some sugar.
I digressed there, didn't I? So if I had it to do all over again, I would. But this time I would study very hard. I would not even look at boys and I sure as hell would not have drunk that home-brew LaVeta Bankey gave me in my sophomore year. I would not have dated that guy named Gene who brought me a satin pillow case home from Germany. I would not have dropped out of school and ran away to Louisiana with a couple friends in my senior year. I would have been so good. So very, very good. And I would have went to church every Sunday and memorized all my bible verses. I would have been a missionary like I wanted to be when I was 15. Hell, I might have changed my name to Teresa and been a Catholic and fed the hungry in Calcutta slums. But I didn't.
Instead I set here like butter wouldn't melt in my mouth and dispense my wisdom not telling anyone that experience is your best teacher. As you sow, so shall you reap is a favorite passage of mine from somewhere in the Bible. Nothing wakes you up like a good dose of "sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.."
Now back to the subject, if I could turn back time. I can't. Try getting that toothpaste back in the tube. Water under the bridge. Things like that come to mind. I have had some very good talks with God and while he does not answer loud enough for me to hear, he does answer. And he has me believing that I really am not such a bad person and I will have another chance. What did not kill me has made me strong and I hope I can help someone else along the way at some point. Guess we will see.
Sadly I wandered through high school without ever actually participating. I knew my future would be to wed some hardworking man and raise kids. I flunked cooking and I flunked sewing, so the hard working men were out. They wanted a woman who could actually do something. You know, a helpmate of sorts. I guess the saying "Poor people have poor ways" comes in to play here. I am not sure my dad ever went to school at all so an education was not very important to him. Mother had graduated at the top of her class, but it didn't help much on the farm so she married dad who was a farmhand for my grandmother.
My dad's occupation was listed on the census rolls as "farm worker" and mother was "house wife." And that was a good thing, but sadly father liked to drink. He also fought the mechanical advancement in the agricultural movement. He was one of the last to give up is horses and only then because they died. His productive years were pretty well over at that time. We became just simple folk and mother cleaned houses for a living. It was a good honest wage.
A side note here is that I do not ever remember a firearm in our home. Jake hunted rabbits with a sling shot. There just never was a gun, nor was there ever a discussion about a gun. There was corn liquor of some sort in the fridge and dad made hot toddy's when he had a cold. I think he had a cold for all of his life. If he was in a good mood he would let us sip a taste of the hot toddy from a teaspoon . I have often thought I would like to have a hot toddy again just to see if it was as good as I thought it was back then. Seems like it was a shot of liquor, boiling water and I am sure some sugar.
I digressed there, didn't I? So if I had it to do all over again, I would. But this time I would study very hard. I would not even look at boys and I sure as hell would not have drunk that home-brew LaVeta Bankey gave me in my sophomore year. I would not have dated that guy named Gene who brought me a satin pillow case home from Germany. I would not have dropped out of school and ran away to Louisiana with a couple friends in my senior year. I would have been so good. So very, very good. And I would have went to church every Sunday and memorized all my bible verses. I would have been a missionary like I wanted to be when I was 15. Hell, I might have changed my name to Teresa and been a Catholic and fed the hungry in Calcutta slums. But I didn't.
Instead I set here like butter wouldn't melt in my mouth and dispense my wisdom not telling anyone that experience is your best teacher. As you sow, so shall you reap is a favorite passage of mine from somewhere in the Bible. Nothing wakes you up like a good dose of "sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.."
Now back to the subject, if I could turn back time. I can't. Try getting that toothpaste back in the tube. Water under the bridge. Things like that come to mind. I have had some very good talks with God and while he does not answer loud enough for me to hear, he does answer. And he has me believing that I really am not such a bad person and I will have another chance. What did not kill me has made me strong and I hope I can help someone else along the way at some point. Guess we will see.
