Let Freedom Ring! by Linda Brendle
Published in the Rains County Leader on July 6, 2020:
I loved the Fourth of July when I was a kid. We lived inside the city limits where the authorities frowned on the fun stuff like roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a bon fire and shooting off fireworks. So we usually celebrated Independence Day at Aunt Fay’s. In addition to the fire-roasted treats, the menu also included potato salad, chips, watermelon, iced tea, Kool-Aid, and home churned ice cream. In later years when Uncle Dean bought the first charcoal grill I had ever seen, hamburgers were added.
While the adults prepared the food, the seven kids (me, my brother, and our five cousins) ran around Fay and Dean’s unfenced acreage, making noise and getting dirty. Sometimes we visited the food site to grab a chip or take turns sitting on the ice cream churn. By the time dinner was ready, we needed no prompting to come and eat. Everything was always delicious – food always tastes better when eaten outside on paper plates and sprinkled with a little bit of dirt. (more…)
In May I wrote a column titled “Feeling my age” after spending a week wielding a paint brush on our porch. However, I am finding that there’s nothing like a week with a ten-year-old, my granddaughter Zoe, and a fifteen-year-old, my grandson Mattias, to make a person really feel her age! Don’t get me wrong, I love these two beautiful young people, but keeping up with them as they race through life is a little more demanding than keeping up with Kitty’s nap schedule.
to help with last minute trip preparations. They have lived in their 100-year-old home in Granbury – two blocks from the historic town square – less than a month and don’t have a washer and dryer. Christian, Zoe, and I spent some time bonding over take-out burritos at the Laundromat while Amy was at a meeting and David and Mattias held down the fort at home.
Day two started well enough; we were at the bus stop when Zoe’s bus came, and Mattias was at school in time for band rehearsal. Zoe came home with exciting news – she had received an award for a science test and she had been named Student of the Month in her class – but she was missing her parents. When I told her that, with the near triple digit temperature, a trip to the swim beach was not a good idea, she deflated. We decided to eat dinner first and try the beach near sundown, but she was still droopy and toyed with what little food she took. But just as we were finishing, 
she received a call and was able to share her big news on a Face Time with her parents. She was like a different child after that. Our trip to the beach wasn’t a success by most standards, but the kids were thrilled with our finds: a quarter, several tent pegs, and the rusty head of a three-pronged pitch fork. I was thrilled that, since they were both sandy and sweaty, they didn’t argue about taking bedtime showers.
Friday was crazy – all day long. Not only did I have to get the kids up and ready to leave the house by 6:50, but we also had to be ready to attend the 7:30 Morning Meeting at Zoe’s school. Of course, we did whatever it took to see Zoe get her “Student of the Month” award. Later in the day, we bought tickets for the homecoming game and made another trip to Mattias’s school with black socks for his band uniform. With our grandparent duties done for a few hours, we walked to the square again to check out a few things we had missed the day before, and before we knew it, it was game time. Our team won convincingly, and the band gave an awesome performance of their contest show. Another good day in the books.
Reza Edge of Illusion show at the Opera House. We all loved it and talked about it all the way home for a late lunch. A trip back to the square for candy and ice cream followed by the Granbury Ghosts and Legends Tour ended an almost perfect day. As Mattias was getting ready for bed, he broke out in an itchy, fast-spreading rash. Turns out it’s not a good idea to pose for a picture on a hay bale if you have grass allergies. After a few frantic texts between parent and grandparents, a couple of antihistamine capsules, and a cool shower, sanity was restored and day four came to an end.
No one wanted to get up Sunday morning, but after a quick stop at the donut shop, we made it to Sunday School only a few minutes late. We had a fast food lunch and a fun discussion of 1960s slang, and as I write this, the kids are playing Mind Craft and David and I are watching football. Christian and Amy will be home in 48 hours, and we’ll be on our way back to our quiet, sedentary life. I’m looking forward to spending some time with my old, swollen feet up and no schedule to worry about but my own. Still, I will miss these kids, and I hope we’re leaving behind as many happy memories as we’re taking with us.
According to several on-line dictionaries, community is 1) a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common and 2) a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
woman with a heart that is much bigger than the six acres on which she lives. She has the gift of hospitality, and because of this, she has become the go-to place for strays of all kinds. At present, she has 4 dogs, 4 cats, 7 goats, and 3 donkeys in residence. The dogs and cats have free access through a pet door into the laundry room where they find a variety of food and water dishes which, although intended to be species specific, are often shared equally. The donkeys and goats share their food with each other as well as with the small herd of deer that sidle over when they hear the door to the feed shed squeak open. In addition to the four-legged critters, Julee feeds her feathered friends from countless hummingbird and regular bird feeders. The deer have been known to help themselves to the spillage there as well. Because of her many mealtime guests, especially the goats who have become very well-rounded since coming to live with her, Julee originally named her place the F & H (Fat & Happy) Ranch .
However, the focal point is the White Chapel, also referred to as the Broken Chapel. Several years ago, Julee felt a Divine Call to build a chapel toward the back of her property. She tried to brush the idea off, but it wouldn’t go away. She wanted it to have special meaning, so she sent out a call to friends for materials that were broken or discarded from other projects, and the response was overwhelming. The resulting chapel is more than can be described in this small space, but it is all she had imagined and more.
On Sundays, David and I usually go home after church and have a light lunch, usually leftovers, but this week Don and Carol asked David if we wanted to go out to eat with them. It sounded like fun to me, so when we pulled out of the parking lot, he turned right instead of left. Everyone must have had the same idea, because the parking lot at Sidekicks was so full we had to park at the flower shop. Don and Carol were already seated at a table for four, but Paul had joined them. When Carol saw us, she said, “Oh, David said he wasn’t sure.” Then, she nodded at the empty table for six behind her, and everybody shifted. It was a little like the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland – “clean cup, clean cup, move down, move down.” 
“All roads lead to Rome” is a proverb of unknown origin that has come to mean that everything you do and everywhere you go will eventually lead you to the center of things. In the days of the Roman Empire, this was true because all the empire’s roads radiated out from the capital city.
Photography is a favorite pastime with many members of my family, especially my sister-in-law, JoLynn. She’s very good with a camera, and in the pre-digital days, she filmed many memorable events including mine and David’s wedding. She has gifted many of us with beautiful scrapbooks, and she has become the unofficial family historian.
At the most recent meeting of the East Texas Library Friends Book Club, we discussed the book “The Stranger in the Woods” by Michael Finkel. The subtitle is “The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit.” It’s the story of Christopher Knight who walked into the woods when he was 20 years old and lived there until he was captured 27 years later.
Last Monday was David’s birthday, and Tuesday was my brother Jim’s birthday, so we’ve been celebrating a lot this week. We met Jim, his wife, and his middle son at Tiffany’s for dinner on Monday in honor of the occasions. They had booked a few days at Holly Lake Ranch so the guys could “fish the Fork” and Jo Lynn could catch up on some reading, so we looked for a restaurant around the lake that would be convenient for all of us.
night at A.J.’, but since they’re closed on Monday and Jo Lynn doesn’t eat fish anyway, we weren’t much help when it came to suggestions. Our ladies Bible study had lunch at Verona’s Italian Restaurant once, but they’re closed on Monday, too. Jo Lynn did an Internet search, and we decided to try Oakridge Marina. Unfortunately, they close at 3:00 pm on week nights. It was my turn to get on the computer, and I came across Tiffany’s. We had eaten there once after a book signing at the Alba library, and the salmon was delicious. Besides, they are reputed to have the best pie in town, so that sealed the deal. 
