Whilst my extended weekend getaway with The Fella continues, I have once more prevailed upon official TDtC, TCtI sidekick Ed to help out with the old posting duties. Take it away, Ed…

Hey people, Dirk asked me to do a guest Blog. These things aren’t as easy as they may seem. I’ve started it over again several times. Here is a Poem called “Old October” by James Whitcomb Riley. 

“Old October’s purt nigh gone and the frosts is comin’ on little heavier every day–like our hearts is thataway! Leaves is changin’ overhead back from green to gray and red, brown and yeller with their stems loosenin’ on the Oaks and Elms and the balance of the trees gittin balder every breeze–like the heads we’re scratchin’ on! Old October’s purt nigh gone. I love old October so, I can’t bear to see her go–Seems to me like losin’ some old-home relative er chum–’Pears like sort o’settin’ by some old friend ‘at sigh by sigh was a passin’ out o’ sight into everlasting night! Hickernuts a feller hears rattlin’ down is more like tears drappin’ on the leaves below–I love Old October so! Can’t tell what it is about Old October knocks me out! I sleep well enough at night–and the blamedest appetite ever mortal man possessed, last thing et, it tastes the best! Walnuts, butternuts, pawpaws, Oiles and limbers up my jaws. For real service sich as new, Pork, spareribs, and sausage too–Yit, fer all, they’s somepin’ bout Old October knocks me out!”
 
Let me tell you about my Grandparents on my Mom’s side. Grandpa Edson was a giant of a man. He stood 6′ 7″ and it is said he could lift a model T Ford while it’s tire was being changed. My Granny was barely over 5 feet tall but full of spit and vinegar. Grandpa was a coal miner and a preacher. He laid on his back all day digging coal deep underground. He would walk to whatever church that God told him to preach at that Sunday. They had 4 children that survived to adulthood. One day my Grandpa took his oldest boy hunting along with my great uncle George. My Granny stayed with George’s wife Emma. It was the first day of Squirrel hunting in 1940. The Coal mines had bought Grandpa’s old farm and he had moved the house to this new area closer to town. He had big plans for the house but it never happened. Raymond the oldest boy was 10 years old and he got tired of hunting so Granpa took him back to George’s car. He was putting Raymond’s rifle under the back seat when his own shotgun fell and hit him in the face with a blast. George took him to the nearest town then they transferred him to an ambulance and on to the hospital. Half of his face was blown off. There was no plastic surgery back then. They let him catch his own blood in a pan until he got too weak. As soon as my Granny saw George she knew something was wrong and passed out. They took Granny to see Edson in a wheel chair because she was too weak to walk. Grandpa Edson passed away and Granny was left with four kids to raise. Times were hard but they got through. Granny used to have a coal stove and would walk behind the train cars picking up coal. Some of the train folks would knock coal off for her to pick up. She picked berries in the Spring to sell for 50 cents a gallon. She did washings for her neighbors. Granny died in 1974 I’m sure she is with Grandpa now. Another James Whitcomb Riley poem says, “he is not gone he is just away” I think that is true because I can still feel my grandparents watching over us.