News from the Mountain

By CAROL GUNTER

Started out pretty dismal looking on the mountain this Monday morning, but then the sunshine came beaming on through those stubborn clouds. A little mist to a drizzle only rain that came our way. The next three days on and off showers we will be contending with but on Wednesday could have some severe weather in our area. We know this is the time of the year for us to have some stormy and unpredictable weather. Always keep a close watch on the weather wherever you are as if can change so quickly.

Someone has told me they like the different little phrases that some of us use that I mentioned in the column a few weeks back. There are a few more of them: fit to be tied, down and out, just a little further, it's dark as a dungeon, don't know which side their bread is buttered on, can out run a hound, too thin to splatter, don't dilly dally, like a chicken on a junebug (I always thought it was like a duck on a junebug - someone corrected me on that), ship-shape, cute as a speckled pup, tough as nails, down the road a piece, and waste not want not. Almost left this one out. Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Since the warmer weather is not that far off, the mowing fever is settling in on a lot of us. We've got to make sure the push-mowers and the tractors are ready to mow down any blade of grass or wild onion they come in contact with. Noticed as happens this time of the year with the yard mowing to begin, the killdeer are running around everywhere. Since they build their nests on the ground, anything can get to the eggs or the little ones very easily. I try to avoid their nests, if I can with each little shower of rain we get, the grass is starting to dominate the landscape once again with its green colors flourishing all over the place.

A ton of alien shows on the TV here lately. Some of them just too scary for me and too much bloodshed going on. Do aliens really exist? I don't know the answer to that question (Bobby probably knows the answer) but usually where there's this much smoke there's bound to be a fire a going. TV producers could be trying to type up a lot of publicity for the little green men theory. King Kong and Godzilla we know they're not real but are so huge where as the little aliens are just so little and wouldn't be detected most likely and could maneuver under any radar. We really don't know what lurks out there on the tundra (well, we know polar bears are roaming around) but other things that go bump in the night, well, it could be those little green fellas getting their igloos in order for their future expeditions they plan to wreak havoc on mankind. Who knows just how many of them may be out there after all these years? Only time and invasions will tell.

March 17th will be St. Patrick's Day so be sure to display some green that day so the luck of the Irish will be upon you a smiling.

Seeing Bernie Braswell here and there and everywhere these days. Such a wealth of knowledge in that head of his about so many things that have transpired over the years on the mountain. A shoe sop of some kind that was behind Mr. Willie Womack's store at one time that make those brogan shoes (a heavy ankle - high shoe). I have got to get an interview with Bernie to get more information on this and who was the proprietor of this establishment. We would like to know about this kind of shop that was once here but is no more.

I'm still wondering (maybe like some of you) why the post office is 200 million dollars in debt and why the government will only pay $255 dollars on a funeral of a deceased loved one? (Would like to know just exactly how the $255 figure came about anyway and when?) Why this and so many other addities have all come about a mystery to me. Doctors, dentists, lawyers and possibly Indian Chiefs, and others will donate their time and expertise for free to people living outside of this country but will deny services to people here who can't help their circumstances without $ up front. Then they are charged an arm and a leg for those services. How people are able to hold their head up high with no sympathy to those less fortunate here but will cater to people they've never seen before, is simply inhuman in my opinion. A day is coming to those that are so heavy-minded and without compassion. Lot of questions to be answered for sure but most likely will fall by the wayside as it seems to many people don't have the integrity to do the right thing when there has been a wrong thing done. The status quo wins out once more as no one should questions matters that would rock the boat.

Please keep the following people in your prayers: the family of Mrs. Shirley Horwath, Carlon and Mai Nell Melton, Edith Miller, Charlie Mai Daniel and Denise Stanton.

If you have any news for the column, give me a call at 615-563-4429. Have a great day!

But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. That ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5: 44-45