News from the Mountain

By CAROL GUNTER

Sure hope everyone is up-to-snuff this Monday morning and had one great weekend. My weekend is always special when I get to be in the Lord's house and worship Him.

Aubrey's aunt, Nornia Willard of Nashville, is not feeling too good at this time. she is 89 years old. Her left hand and two or three fingers were broken in a fall she had about a month ago. Recovered from all of that but now has the problem with the "sciatic nerve" that has been going on for over a week now. Please keep this grand lady in prayer.
Alene and Melvin Ferrell recovering nicely glad to report.

Can you believe - and will wonders never cease - this girl back at it working very hard this morning cleaning on our house? Looking a lot better and I am very pleased about the progress I have made. Why I always put this off beats me, but as I tell myself, I am an outside person and this is not my cup of tea to be doing housework. Surely other people let this happen, too, and I'm not in this boat all by myself.

Last night "WAS" going to finish decorating our Christmas tree "UNTIL" all of those rock n' roll classics from the 60's came on the PBS station and brought that to an abrupt halt! Sure was hoping I didn't disturb my neighbors as I always crank up the volume quite a bit. I had to sit down in the recliner and put it in park, as "Aubrey" would say, and check out all the different groups and performers with their great songs that it seems I have loved forever.
In the sixties, I was a teenager and those were the most memorable years of my life. A price couldn't be put on my memories from way back then. Could have been killed with all the racing and romping that was going on here on the mountain. When you're young, though, you think you are immortal and nothing can happen to you. The Lord was watching over us, I have no doubt about that now as I recall all those close calls. "Aubrey" was really a good driver but even good drivers are involved in terrible accidents. He was such a wonderful man and as I told his friend, Aaron Tippin, "the mountain will never see the likes of this kind of a man" ever again. For me, "only once in a lifetime," if you are lucky, does a man like "Aubrey" come along.

Speaking of Aaron, one time Aubrey and Aaron and some other guys went to pick up I think it might have been three or four old International Dozers and bring them back to our place. Well, where the dozers were, it would have been back in what I call the boonies. While getting some tin and other debris out of their way, they encountered snakes under a lot of this.

Needless to say, gunfire remedied the situation with the snakes. One time when Aaron shot, the bullet ricocheted off a piece of equipment and hit Aubrey's leg. He told Aaron it was nothing and he was fine. At home that night Aubrey told me about all the fun they had that day and about his leg. He then asked me about some crutches that his sister "Glenda" had let him borrow, when his foot had been broken. Of course, I asked him what he was going to do. He said he was going to pull something on Aaron. I said surely you're not going to do that. He just gave me that grin.
The next day he went to Aaron's place and was using those crutches as he got up to where Aaron was. Naturally, Aaron wanted to know what was wrong and why was he on the crutches. Aubrey told him his leg had got to hurting so bad in the night that he had to go to the emergency room and there might have to be some surgery done on his leg. Aaron, as I found out, was just as gullible as I had always been when listening to Aubrey so seriously explain something that had happened. Well, Aaron fell hook line, and sinker, as they say, and told Aubrey how sorry he was that this had all happened and that whatever was needed, he would take care of it.

There was always that pause when Aubrey knew that the person had believed what he had said, and then he would look at you and just grin and you knew you had been taken in by this big guy. He was so good at doing thing. Quite a remarkable man who was talented in so many areas.

Talked with Aubrey's sister, Betty Sue Hullett, who lives in Indiana on Sunday. We have to catch up on all the happenings here and in Indiana concerning the family. She is doing okay.

Excitement is building around here as Friday, December 13th, is getting ever so much closer to being here. "Clyde" and my birthday celebration hopefully will go off without a hitch at Short Mountain Market. I do hope "Bobby" behaves himself as this is really a deep concern for me. Clyde seems to thing there might be a parking problem. The only parking problem I can see could be me parking the "monster truck". We have joked about if either one of us had written a book like "Wayne Gunter", Aubrey's cousin, we could "kill two birds with one stone", and have a book signing and people could come in droves for that. There might even be a parade. Oh how our minds do wonder!
I was about to say also there could be lights, camera, and action to go along with all this silliness and the fun that we are having, but I'll step on that note. Of course, I will report to all those that follow the happenings on the mountain in the column about his grand event later.

If you have any news for the column, just give me a call at (615) 563-4429.

The most important command is this:.. Love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.
Mark 12: 29-30