Saturday, September 26, 2020
City and Country -- a Poem for The Sunday Muse # 127
. She milked the cows;
he farmed the land
She was a city girl, young
on her first job
They had met before in a
neighboring town
The girls all knew, "stay away"
from that fast town
She went there anyway, met
her future man
Married, this city girl young
cried the first night
Not accustomed to farm life
there by themselves
Barely knew a pig from a horse
she'd learn a lot
Husband was beside himself
gave her a calf
The calf wasn't like her cat
it stayed apart
Never sat in her lap but
stayed in corral
Sort of a pet but still its
future uncertain
To market when it was grown
or milking cow
Please a milking cow begged
this city girl
Keep it they did, calved and milked
called her Blackie
Blackie still her pet corralled
with other cows
Knew her name leader became
"Queen of the cows"
Blackie loved this city girl
she loved her cow
A country girl became, they
love their pet cows
_ _ _
- Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2020, All Rights Reserved
- I am linked with Carrie Van Horn with The Sunday Muse * 127 for the picture inspiration prompt at http://thesundaymuse.blogspot.com/2020/09/weve-got-cowsand-footnotes-muse-127.html?m=1
- Before I started high school I was in 4H and had a Brown Swiss calf as a project. Dad kept the calf, soon named Brownie, as a milking cow. She gave a lot of milk and had good feeding calves, he kept her for a long time, probably until she died of old age. In high school, as an FFA project for my last two years each I raised a litter of pigs. Those pigs, 8 and 9, became farmstead pets who followed us around.
- And my mom was a city girl before marrying Dad. She was away in Lincoln, Nebraska, working as secretary for a state legislator. Dad share cropped on one of his father's small farms, half of all the crops went to Grandpa until he died and Dad became its owner. They were married for 67 years until Mom died. She raised the chickens and took care of the egg production. She also milked cows until I was age five and took her place. She was Dad's helper from husking corn to slopping pigs. When they retired they, having purchased a home in town, moved to it.
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Labels: Family, Poem, Sunday Muse, Syllabic Form
Thursday, September 24, 2020
The Letter "M" -- Weekend Roundup and Reflections
The thirty-ninth issue of Weekend Roundup for this year, 2020...
(THE THIRTEENTH LETTER FOR THIS SERIES)
- the Letter "M" Prompts are:
[large picture worker picture] [super sized worker picture] [large picture above] [super sized above]
[large picture] [super sized]
(D) Reflections: The rain water retention area at the end of our street got a little workout from our Hurricane Beta. We only had six inches of rain in our area and the winds had diminished to the mid twenty MPH. Note the bird's Reflection on the right.
1. What is your favorite "M" word? Mine will be Mule. Stubborn, beast of burden, even a line and a verse of a song, "... or would you rather be a mule? ..." (see below or Click here for Frank Sinatra singing it, )
2. Tell about one of your experiences with mission, student, or other purposed travel. We enjoyed mission trips, to Hawaii taking our daughter in 1988; two to Albacete Spain 2001 and 2004, taking the two older granddaughters with us as a treat and to help with the kids; two (Mrs. Jim the first only) 2007, 2008 to Guatemala, and Mrs. Jim two to Mexico while I was working.
(A) Starts with the Letter "M";
(B) "Many" (Tom's Choice);
(C) A Favorite; and
(D) Reflections.
_ _ _ _
(A) Starts with the Letter "M: Monkey starts with "M". I haven't shown this guy playing with me here for a long time. I found him in the courtyard of our hotel on our first mission trip to Guatemala.
[large picture worker picture] [super sized worker picture] [large picture above] [super sized above]
(B) "Many" (Tom's Choice): Many kids wished me Happy Birthday (October 30) on that mission trip. Our purpose was to upgrade the living facilities there and conduct a Vacation Bible School.
We installed a hot water heater for the boy's bathroom and overhead lighting in the girl's dorm so that they could read or play games and stuff after dark.
We also did a lot of painting. Oh yes, one man in our group was an electrician, we were his helpers.
[large picture] [super sized]
(C) A Favorite: McDonald's delivery motorcycle, in Guatemala City. Note that I went back for another mission holiday the next year, 2008 for this shot. He got ahead before I could get the camera turned on, this is a zoom picture from our bus.
[Note the out flow through a culvert under the walkway. the day before it was gushing over the walk in tandem with the smaller culvert.]
_ _ _ _
Bonus Questions:
1. What is your favorite "M" word? Mine will be Mule. Stubborn, beast of burden, even a line and a verse of a song, "... or would you rather be a mule? ..." (see below or Click here for Frank Sinatra singing it, )
2. Tell about one of your experiences with mission, student, or other purposed travel. We enjoyed mission trips, to Hawaii taking our daughter in 1988; two to Albacete Spain 2001 and 2004, taking the two older granddaughters with us as a treat and to help with the kids; two (Mrs. Jim the first only) 2007, 2008 to Guatemala, and Mrs. Jim two to Mexico while I was working.
I had six weeks off in the summer, Mrs. Jim had 10, both working in education, each year we would generally have a big trip and then smaller to see parents in Louisiana and Nebraska. A lot we drove, even in Europe and the Caribbean Islands. As we became older we would cruise more. We've been to all 50 states and most western European countries, even the small ones. The last one of those was to Andorra in 2009 where we also took our youngest son, father of the older girls. Be went from Barcelona to Bruges Belgium and back to Paris. I drove.
Oh yes, 2014 was the last year I drove in Europe, from Britain to Northern Wales. We've crossed the Arctic Circle, and been in the Southern Ocean, near Antarctica but not to it. The other continents, yes. My bucket list was trhe Panama Canal, Moscow Russia, and China. We did those quickly but didn't stop, all parts of the world, some more than others.
Would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a mule
A mule is an animal with long funny ears
Kicks up at anything he hears
His back is brawny but his brain is weak
He's just plain stupid with a stubborn streak
And by the way, if you hate to go to school
You may grow up to be a mule
Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a pig
A pig is an animal with dirt on his face
His shoes are a terrible disgrace
He has no manners when he eats his food
He's fat and lazy and extremely rude
But if you don't care a feather or a fig
You may grow up to be a pig
Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a fish
A fish won't do anything, but swim in a brook
He can't write his name or read a book
To fool the people is his only thought
And though he's slippery, he still gets caught
But then if that sort of life is what you wish
You may grow up to be a fish
A new kind of jumped up slippery fish
And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo
Every day you meet quite a few
So you see it's all up to you
You can be better than you are
You could be swingin' on a starWriter/s: Johnny Burke, Jimmy Heusen-van
Publisher: BOURNE CO.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind _ _
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a mule
A mule is an animal with long funny ears
Kicks up at anything he hears
His back is brawny but his brain is weak
He's just plain stupid with a stubborn streak
And by the way, if you hate to go to school
You may grow up to be a mule
Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a pig
A pig is an animal with dirt on his face
His shoes are a terrible disgrace
He has no manners when he eats his food
He's fat and lazy and extremely rude
But if you don't care a feather or a fig
You may grow up to be a pig
Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a fish
A fish won't do anything, but swim in a brook
He can't write his name or read a book
To fool the people is his only thought
And though he's slippery, he still gets caught
But then if that sort of life is what you wish
You may grow up to be a fish
A new kind of jumped up slippery fish
And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo
Every day you meet quite a few
So you see it's all up to you
You can be better than you are
You could be swingin' on a starWriter/s: Johnny Burke, Jimmy Heusen-van
Publisher: BOURNE CO.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind _ _
_ _ _ _
The fine print:
- [Click on any picture for larger, click it again for extra large]
- I am linked with Tom of "Backwoods Travel" (Link here to click for Tom's Weekend Reviews)
- I am also linked this week with James of "Weekend Reflections" (click here for his Reflections Photos).
- The pictures mostly are all mine and rights are reserved to me under Copyright Law.
The fine print:
- [Click on any picture for larger, click it again for extra large]
- I am linked with Tom of "Backwoods Travel" (Link here to click for Tom's Weekend Reviews)
- I am also linked this week with James of "Weekend Reflections" (click here for his Reflections Photos).
- The pictures mostly are all mine and rights are reserved to me under Copyright Law.
Labels: Friday's Weekend Roundup 06, Guatemala, Guatemala(2), Jim Does, Reflections, Travel
