Renee🌻

Believe You Can Fly And You Will

These words had to have flown on the wings of an angel to fill my heart and little space in this blogosphere with so much peace and joy! Straight down from heaven I tell ya!💯😍

Oh my heavenly stars!!!!! I love the rainbow effect this song had on my spirit! I’m really not sure if this is old or a new song. If you haven’t heard it already, here it is.

Try/Dolly Parton

I could see my mother in this! I’m sorry I just had to pause a moment and ugly cry. It’s been 37 years since she passed. At this point, my mind struggles a little to remember all the wonderful memories she brought our family through the years.

Miraculously though, I can still recall her deep alto voice when she sang or spoke and the way she shrugged her shoulders, while pursing her lips into her most comical, sideways smirk. Oh, the beads of sweat that would break out as those grey-blue eyes (that I inherited) gave us “the look” when we had done something we shouldn’t have. The “we” being my kid brother and I who were only 18 months apart. I was the oldest, although everyone thought we were twins when we were very small.

I had a conversation with Steve at Steve’s Country a while back on how my Moma did some of the same things his dad loved to do. He said I should write some of the stories. So here I am…finally getting around to it. 🤦‍♀️ Sorry, Steve, I’m a little slow on the draw! 😆

Moma just loved Dolly!…..I can remember her getting her guitar out, strumming and singing some of her songs, like Coat of Many Colors. That one always gets me every single time! There is one particular verse in that one that Dolly, so full of her wisdom makes, worthy of passing along.

“But they didn’t understand it, and I tried to make them see,

that one is only poor

only if they choose to be.”

~Dolly Parton~

Ok here’s where I confess it’s my secret dream to meet Dolly some day. Not so secret anymore it would seem! Anyways…

During my childhood, my Moma worked off and on at different garment factories, helping Daddy make ends meet. She would bring some of the sewing scraps home and make quilts of all sorts, throw pillows and even reupholstered our own living room couch.

That particular couch had a wicker backing. An antique now. I sure wish I had a picture of it. Maybe this is where I got my love for the color green? The cushions were covered in a lovely shade of velvet, forrest green. Like the shade below in the collage of my mother’s pics. 😍

Moma looking into the dresser mirror fixing her hair, and someone calling her name…she turned around while they snapped the pic, top left. In the top right pic, she was drinking coffee and visiting with her sister in Idaho. The next is a professional shot years back. Don’t know the particular year. The last one was when my Daddy was at war, I think. Posing with my two oldest brothers.

Moma loved the outdoors. We took many nature walks around our ten-acred woods growing up. Several particular spots behind our home were our favorites.

A place we called “The Caves seemed magical to my baby brother and I when we were wee high to a grasshopper. 🙊 It was a place that had clay bluffs that literally looked like caves, although they weren’t.

She told us stories of ghosts and aliens that were so far-fetched, that I know now that they were made-up stories we begged to hear over and over again. One was even about a Gypsy and something she called the Wompus Cat! 😂 She was a gifted storyteller in my book. 😉

There was the “Waterfall” —Home of one of the coldest creeks I have ever swam in! (The other being on the north side of our property where I currently live. Brrr!🥶) So cold, I lost the feeling in my legs one time at that old creek, got dizzy and almost fainted! (Frostbite in summer?! 😱) It had a trickling flow of water running off a bluff, I think, is the reason it looked like a waterfall. I haven’t been there in years! We would walk along hunting for old bottles and Native American arrowheads. There were stories about those, too, which turned out to be true though.

Moma was a collector of things. Old bottles. Arrowheads. Bottle insulators. Old coins, costume jewelry, a few real pieces thrown in the mix, antiques of all kinds, coal oil lamps, books, phonograph records….and people.

Making friends everywhere she went, she never met a stranger. She loved the simpler things in life – conversation and coffee around the kitchen table. Laughter was a big part of it all. She dearly loved to laugh. Of course, I took more after my Daddy, who was the more serious one and a little on the shy side.

Most importantly, Moma taught us to love. Love others as self, regardless of color, race or age— And respect for our fellow man.

She had this uncanny way of seeing straight past the outer shell of the humans who cared to grace the thresholds of our humble little abode. The skin you were clothed in wasn’t important to her, or how much money you jingled around in your pocket, what car you drove into the drive. A person could feel rich just by knowing her.

Looking back, every birthday seemed so special because she baked us a cake with her very own two hands. We always got to lick the bowl after the cake was baking in the oven! And there was ice cream! There wasn’t much money, but Moma managed to buy us one toy and a suit of clothes every birthday.

After Moma passed, Daddy would go by the local grocery and buy one of those cakes that had the yellow, plastic happy face stickers on it. It was just as special.

I ALWAYS chose a doll as my gift. Those that looked like real baby dolls. If you are old enough to know what green stamps are, I still have the doll that I begged her for when we went into a store that catered to those stamps that Moma had saved up for so long. She was finally going to trade those stamps in and buy herself something nice. And then I had to go and spot that confounded doll lol! This one didn’t look as real, but I just had to have it! She wound up buying herself something anyway. Probably out of pocket. I’m so glad she did though. She sacrificed so much for us kids.

Here’s that doll. Moma liked to tease me about it, because it was the only doll I kept through the years. She told me she was going to sneak it into my suitcase on my honeymoon! I told her I was NOT getting married. She just laughed about that one! 😂

Moma loved music! Her side of the family was a family of musicians, but that gene skipped me! 😂 Both my oldest brothers played guitar and the oldest the keyboard. My Grandpa played the fiddle. At the family reunions back then, there was lots of singing and harmonizing, fiddles, banjos, jews harps, spoons, and even wash tubs! Lots of bluegrass, country and southern gospel and especially food.

Moma made everything fun, especially outdoors! Everything from washing the car in the rain to showering in the rain on the front steps in our swimsuits. Even letting us stomp in the mud puddles afterwards.

There were no phones for distractions or video games. We actually enjoyed playing with sticks and making pretend forts. Swinging on swings, riding bikes and playing badminton. Playing mud pies. We loved to throw rocks up at the bats that swooped down underneath the security light. (Hey, it was fun, even though we never hit the first one!)

These are just a few memories, along with the nicknames she called me that I seemed to despise lol. That will keep for another day…. 😉

 

Here’s another good song I enjoyed! There is a Record Book/Rhonda Vincent

Published by Renee🌻

Life is a series of lessons we learn by way of the school of hard knocks. I feel I have a degree in this one. It has made me who I am today--I am Renee--My name is French, meaning Reborn. I believe there is a lot in a name, because that's just who I am. Spirit-filled. Encourager. Reader. Author. Blogger. Lover of love, God, His Word, hearts, dragonflies, nature and coffee!~❤️Aka Nonna. 3 grand-boys, 3 grand-daughters-- 2 girls. 💌 Married 28 years. “May God grant you always...A sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering angel so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.”~~Irish Blessings~~

54 comments

  1. Wow, Renee! How you’ve brought your Mama back to life here in this post!! I feel as if I know her, and with some of the things you said, she could easily have been one of MY Mama’s friends 🙂 So many things you said about your mom rings true for mine. We didn’t get the big “to-do” on our birthdays… although she did bake cakes for each one. Now Easter was my Mama’s time to go all out! She either bought or made up new dresses, socks, shoes, and special bows for our hair. For Easter baskets, she would use a butter bowl and crochet a beautiful cover, complete with a “bail” (or “bale”??? lol) for carrying it! Those were so special! It’s those little things… those precious memories that mean SO MUCH to us as we grow older!!

    And by the way… my Mama always sang Coat of Many Colors to US too!! 🙂 ❤

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    • Stacey, thank you! I was hoping I could paint a mental picture of her. It’s hard to show just how beautiful she was to me. 😢
      From the things you have relayed to me before, I believe our moms would have been the best of friends! Yes! My Moma loved to make a to-do over Easter, too! We boiled and dyed eggs, had an Easter hunt and got a suit of clothes each. Sometimes they were homemade by her and sometimes store-bought. We got to pick our own Easter basket out from a local department store. Oh those frilly dresses that stood out! I had one that had a bell sewn on the inside of the built-in slip! 💜

      And always got those huge chocolate bunnies! Of course, we had to play that extra energy off from the effects of it and the other candy! 😂
      Yours sounds like wonderful memories to hold on to. You should do a post on your Mom! I would love to hear!

      I’m guessing that Dolly must have been a favorite for so many. 🥰😍💜

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    • Thanks, Debbie! That brought tears to my eyes! She was the epitomy of love! And she loved to sing.

      I no longer get Netflix. I would love to see her show! I can imagine it’s down to earth, like her.
      Thanks so much! 💜

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  5. That was beautiful Renee! She sounded so much like my mom, what precious memories you have there. Keep sharing those stories, they can and will be an inspiration to others. That one pic of your mom drinking coffee at first glance looked so much like my mom who even wore a sweater like that one. So many great times to remember and I think it’s important to record these memories for others, especially family, to enjoy. But everyone will enjoy them too. Have a wonderful weekend Renee!😃😺🌞

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    • Thank you Betty! Mom loved working in factories! She worked in 3 different local ones through the years. She would come home and tell us some funny tales at times! Those ladies loved to laugh and enjoy their work.

      Wow! I can imagine that was so exciting for your mother and you! Branson is nice!

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  14. Family memories are to be cherished. I just made a note to remind myself to share more of them with my grandchildren when we finally meet again. Renee, I am like you for I stop in my tracks to listen to Dolly sing.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Richard, I think that is a lovely idea to share with your grandchildren and even on your blog! I love to hear stories of “home!”
      Her voice is phenomenal! She has done two songs on Christian radio that I know of. One with For King & Country and Zac Williams, I think. I love them both!

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