SOMEWHERE IN TEXAS...WILD PEACH LIES

(( "Sure a little bit o' heaven fell
    from out the sky one day..." ))
       .....Old Irish Song

Photo by W.L.M.

Somewhere
    in the south of Texas
that grandest place
    is a "little bit of heaven,"
as the song says
    about Erin   and maybe it too
fell from the skies    one day

I have never been there
    but hope     to make it
someday   ah, just to
    rest and absorb the
beauty, peace,
   and solitude...of the
Place

O they say.
    those who know--
that it is a Land
    of milk and honey,
perennial green grass,
     gnarled old oaks,
pecans to be picked...
     gardens with food,
grazing cows and
   plucking chickens...

And a beautiful pond
    full of jumping catfish,
and crappies    and
    green wing teals have
been known to zoom
    over it...

It is said to be
    a Texas Glocca Morra---
a Beulah Land  yes heavenly!

And they tell
    there is an old avuncular
scientist   some say he's
    quirky-- but lovable--
who hangs out there
fishing    and growing plants
   and is seen walking
his grounds...

And they say,
     the peaches growed there--
are to die for...

Where is this place, you ask?

Well, I'd tell you if I could
    but I'm not even sure
I could find it    and I think
    its direction
is sort of a secret.
----------
BY MIL
23 FEB 2019

THERE IS BEAUTY EVERYWHERE...IF WE WOULD ONLY SEE

"Dear mother earth who day by day

    Unfoldest blessings on our way,

O praise Him! Alleluia!

    The flowers and fruits that 

       in thee grow,

Let them His glory also show!

     O praise Him! Alleluia!

Alleluia!"

     ..... St.Francis of Assisi

                  (1182-1226)

 THERE  IS BEAUTY EVERYWHERE...IF WE WOULD ONLY SEE

O there is inspiration and beauty
   in a peaceful quiet West Texas
picture...do you see and feel it?

Do you see the dark brown hues
    the tans, near blacks--and the whites
of the cloudy sky    the poetic trees--
     can you  almost taste the fresh air?

Do you see the wind-blown prairie...
      the eternal Texas winds
have almost cleared of weeds
   and

that hard-packed country road,
    not wide or fancy   just
an old path traveled for years
    mostly by
 hard-working farmers, checking
    fences and livestock--
driving pickups down packed
     dirt ruts...

Don't forget to check out there
   in the distance    a farmhouse?
Is there a windmill too?
     Must be a windmill...and people

Wait wait... it's wintertime
   Things will be better--
Flowers and colors will be back....
     come next spring
as they always do    in time--
     even in life's troubling days...

We must learn a lesson while here
    on this earth---
There is beauty in everything,

even while Evil walks. ..we should
   open our eyes...   and see.

This simple bucolic scene
     reminds me of a hymn
(as do many images
      along The Trail)

"All creatures of our God
    and King
Lift up  your voice and
 with us sing:
Alleluia, Alleluia!"
---------
Mil 2/18/19

Photo by Betty Bynum

ON REACHING "MIDDLE AGE"....SOME PITHY THOUGHTS

ON REACHING MIDDLE -AGE,....SOME PITHY THOUGHTS

Yesterday another birthday rolled around
and BE outdid herself and fixed us a nice
filet mignon, baked potato (loaded), salad
with great Ranch dressing, and fried crispy
zucchinis !  Wo!

Being a writer and all, I mused all day long,
and wrote down eight pages of wisdom
in my "real writer's" leather notebook.

Oh I rambled and rambled...stuff a bard
is taught not to do; but anyway have
tried to "edit down" (is that a redundancy?)
my "take on things" for you young 'uns.

"THOUGHTS, MUSES, OPINIONS, &
    WISDOM: THINGS I HAVE LEARNED
        OVER MANY  DECADES"

Mil, in thought, on a warm autumn day..

1. On eating--favorite things:  cornbread,
"red beans" & chow chow, hamburgers,
hot dogs, scrambled eggs, biscuits &
gravy, fried okra & zucchinis,  coffee,
iced tea, steak fingers, biscuits with
peanut butter & jelly...diet Pepsis...

2. Texas is one of the Great Places on
 this earth.  Newcomers, please don't ruin it.

3. Women are the grandest beings in
All Creation. Write it down! No contest.
God's gift to all...no, not "nasty wimmin,"
or snarling wimmin' or Marching Ones...
This I have learned, easily...

4. The beginning of wisdom oft comes
to people in their late sixties  "Don't live
your life to please every 'Tom, Dick, and
Harry,' " as the saying goes. Be yourself.

5. Plowing a section of land out at
Ranchvale, on a big orange Case tractor,
on a hot 95 degree summer's day, with a
thousand flies, gnats, bugs,hovering about
you in a hot cloud of dust...was a grand
experience---one I'd like to repeat...one
more round....then I was too young to know
its value. ("Hep me up on that big orange
tractor. once again, will ya'?")

6. This I learned on the farm: when trying
to get that year's-income-wheat-crop
harvested  in June before a hail....and
the combine breaks down...and a thing
needs welding--- you don't cuss life and
fate---you trust God and sing. I myself
went with H.T. to his barn and watched
him weld a part while he sang under
his breath:

    "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand
       and cast a wistful eye
    To Canaan's fair and happy land
        where my possessions lie;
      I am bound for the promised land,
        Oh who will come and go with me,
       I am bound.  for the promised land."

7. Some of the finest people I have ever
known....were farmers....and nurses too.

8. Evil is marching, marauding, devouring
the whole world. Everywhere...

9. O help us: we don't love enough. I
know it sounds preachy. There are a few
people I know, who are ALWAYS thinking
of others. ("If a man love not his fellow
man, whom he hath seen, how can he
love God, whom he hath not  seen?") It's
there...in the Good Book. 1 John 4:20

10. Having spent half my working years
as a church music director (note, all
those new titles for that job bore me
a bit)---and having directed big
congregations of people...in singing "all
kinds of hymns, and gospel songs,"
plus four Cowboy Camp Meetings---
people often ask: "Well what is your
favorite hymn?"

A good question to ask, but difficult
for a short answer.

First of all, I wouldn't give you a dime
for a whole truckload of the so-called
modern-contemporary-church songs,
"guaranteed to attract the youth."

They don't attract the youth and they
rob old-timers of worship. But anyway,
I could write a book on hymns...and
this will surprise you---a favorite of
mine---an old Southern Gospel number,
mostly for quartets, and sung at funerals
comes to mind:
       "I will meet you in the morning
            by the bright riverside
         when all sorrow has drifted away;
         I'll be standing at the portals
            when the gates open wide,
          at the close of life's long weary
             day...
          I'll meet you in the morning..."

11. What are some of your favorite things?
      Pocket knives
      Log cabins
      Lyceum Theater
      The Red Bricks of Main Street, Clovis
      Chevrolets
      Old WWII radio
      The White Cliffs of Dover
       Irish people
       B 17's and P 51's
       Trail Mix, plenty of Chex
        Books, any and all...
        Stephen Foster
        Monticello
        Old barns...and old crumbling
                domiciles in ghost towns
         Photography and darkrooms...
         Poetry

12. "You have known many
people in your years...what is the
maybe the  most important trait
common to the Great Ones?"
       "Without a doubt, the answer is:
              HUMILITY. No person can
         be truly great     without it."
--------
Mil
1 FEBRUARY 2019
(Still learning...)

BUTCH WON THE DAY

Clovis Main Street

By Guest Writer Vernoy Willis, CHS '50

When President George H. W. Bush died, the faithful

service dog lay bedside his casket and guarded his

master.  The dog's size and color reminded me of my

dog Butch, who lived like a king.  He had plenty of

meat and bones out of our old grocery store in Clovis.

The store was next to the Twin Cronies Drive Inn at

Commerce Way and Ross Street, where Butch often

snacked from the garbage cans.

One of our best customers was a Native American

family, who shopped in our store on Saturday after-

noons.  They were not only good customers, but

we considered them close friends.

Joe, the head of the family, was a tough looking guy

who loved Royal Crown colas.  One day, during the

week, Joe pulled up in front of our store and ran in

to get a cold bottle of cola.  He was in a hurry and

left his car door open.

Well, this was an invitation for Butch to get a free

ride in the back seat of Joe's car.  Joe grabbed his

drink, jumped into his car, and headed down the old

Grady highway towards home.

A few miles down the road, Butch decided that Joe

needed some company.  He gave a loud bark and

jumped over the back seat. He plopped down next

to Joe and gave him a lick in the face.

Joe hit the borrow ditch and went into a spin, nearly

knocking the fence down.  After gaining control of the

car, Joe brought Butch back to the store with a smile

on his face and a great story to tell. He said he thought

a huge lion had attacked him.

This is one of many stories I could tell about growing up

with Butch.  A few weeks before I came home from the

Navy, someone poisoned and killed him.  I missed his

greeting me at the  door, but I still have all those wonder-

ful memories.

Vernoy Willis      CHS-1950       1st Class Petty Officer

US Navy

15 January 2019