First Days of Fall, Sep 23 - 26

Thursday, Sep 23

A busy day began with a 10 am dental appointment for a routine cleaning.  I got home in time to pick up my lunch, desserts from Kathy and drive up the hill to the Green's for our monthly luncheon get-together. Kathy is still not well.  Connie, Marilyn, Linda and I enjoyed our lunch and conversation while sitting on  Connie's deck. It was a cool fall day, with clear skies and beautiful vistas across of the Cumberland range.

After lunch, Bill and I had time for a MH walk before it was time for me to go to a LoCo Dem cook-out hosted at their lakeside house by our county chair, Larry & his wife Linda. I got better acquainted with the other members of the executive committee, which was the point of the event.  It was a beautiful setting in Ft. Loudon Estates on the lake across from the dam and marina.

Friday, Sep 24

Marie and I met for lunch at 11:30 at First Watch in Turkey Creek.  The cafe has a lovely patio and the weather was perfect, as was the egg dish we both ordered.  Conversation with Marie is always engaging, interesting and satisfying. After a few errands I was home by mid-afternoon.  Bill was deep into a boat maintenance project so we didn't walk and I didn't get on the treadmill.  Shame on me!  

At 5 we went to the Matzek's for ping-pong and conversation.  Bill was the camp of the afternoon, even beating Mike.  Amanda was planning to go the LCHS football game. She planned to drive herself and meet friends there.  Laura reported that Claire has had a good week and had both her old boyfriend and her new boyfriend visiting this weekend.

For supper I marinated a pork tenderloin in my favorite basalmic vinaigrette, wrapped it in fresh sage and Bill grilled it.  I served it with fried eggplant and PH peas.

Saturday, Sep 25

In keeping with my notion to share more of my thoughts: This week's devotional readings moved from the Book of Esther, to Psalms, to the letter of James and finally to the gospel of Mark.  The daily readings follow the Revised Common Lectionary used by the UMC and always include at least one Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a New Testament letter and a Gospel reading. Quoting from today's "Disciples" reading based on Mark 9:38-41. "A great strength of Jesus' followers is faithfulness.  We want to be faithful and we also want to be 'right.' Wanting to honor God in everything we do is wonderful. Yet sometimes our desire to be 'right' causes us to question the motives or actions of others, and work to stop them if they are not conforming to our particular traditions or expressions. It can be hard to let that go.  But Jesus does let it go. What if we simply focus on discovering what or where the most powerful force of love and humility is in a particular situation and center our words and actions there? That kind of response might be like a cup of cold water in the heat of a desert, something a servant would offer." (underlining is mine)

This is game day Saturday, but Kathy and Wayne are still not well enough for us to be comfortable spending several hours in their house to watch the Vols play football.  It was a 7 pm game anyway.  Bill spent his day on boat and RV maintenance.  I puttered around because my right arm/shoulder is still bothering me.  

From my window

Mid-afternoon, I started a gumbo for supper - Shrimp and Andouille!  It was YUM!  Of course, we lost to Florida as expected.

Shrimp and Andouille Gumbo

Sunday, Sep 26

Thoughts on boarders as David and Trisha complete week 1 of having renters in the basement - friends, a family of 4 with a daughter the same age as Owen and a younger child. David has been working for several weeks upgrading and remodeling the basement to create a small apartment.  It will have a separate entrance at the back of the house. As I have reflected, I realize that whether he knows it or not, he has a history of landlords in the family.  Which brought me to research and recap.

Farrah Family:

In 1917 when my grandmother was 14 her family moved from Montgomery County to Sunflower County to sharecrop on the farm of WE Walker, 3 miles south of Indianola, across the Sunflower River.  In 1920 they mover to another farm close to Indianola which they rented instead of sharecropping.  In 1921 the move again to a 40 acre farm on the edge of town, located there Indianola High School was later built (now middle school.  In 1923, they gave up farming and moved to the Carter House, a boarding house in town which they managed.  My grandfather B Clark Westmoreland boarded there and that is how Emily and Clark met.  They married while he lived there but kept it a secret for a few months.

During the depression, Emily and Clark rented rooms and took in boarders in the house they had purchased on West End Ave.  They did so again during WWII. They eventually developed several low-rent houses on their property and my parents, Clara and John Taylor built a rental house on the property.

After my mother moved to Jackson, MS in the 1980s she purchased a house on Seminole St that had been divided into several rental units. She rented those while she live there and for several years afterward.

In a similar way, Mozelle Renshaw Whitaker's mother took in boarders in the early years of her time in Nashville, when Mozelle was a teen.  It was a respectable way for a widow to make ends meet, along with her seamstress skills.

After church, we spent some of the afternoon getting ready for our camping trip tomorrow.