A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....12-18-02

Billie, Molly Pitcher, daisyscarlett

[daisyscarlett]

A Few of FR's Finest.....
......Every Day

FR is a Treasure Trove of talented, compassionate, patriotic, wonderful people who gather every day to discuss the latest news and issues; salute and support our military and our leaders;  tell a few jokes;  learn a new word;  write poetry;  pray for those in need;  and congratulate those who are deserving. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for giving us the vehicle in which we can express ourselves.

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   I can remember lurking when there were only a few regulars who posted, and now there are over 60,000 who have registered for posting privileges. The forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest November 11, 2001

So many people have written me since my original Veteran's Day Tribute, asking how they, or a loved one, could be included in that tribute. Since I can no longer add the photos to the body of the thread, I've been including them in additional posts as I received enough to make another collage.

Still that doesn't seem to be enough. I think there's never been a better nor more appropriate time to keep the faces of our own Veterans and Active Military in front of FReepers--every day! That's why I wanted to do yet another Daily Thread .....ABOUT FReepers .....and FOR FReepers. But not only about our Military FReepers; for all FReepers! Wouldn't it be nice to get to know a few of the other FReepers as well? That's why, in addition to seeing FR's Finest Military Personnel every day, I thought it might be fun to feature a different FReeper (or FReepers) each day. If you would like to be pictured, or know someone who would, please FReepmail me and we'll turn the spotlight - on YOU - for the day!

And do let me know if you'd like your picture added to the groups of Veterans/Active Military below. I will keep this page updated, and continue to add them to the comment section of the original Veteran's Day thread as well.

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TOP: Q6-God, Scan59, Mama Bear and JKPhoto's son, ofMagog.
MIDDLE:  Big'ol_freeper, JustAmy's great uncle, Prodigal Son.
BOTTOM:  JustAmy's husband, JustAmy's brother-in-law, JustAmy's brother.

TOP:  ValerieUSA's son Grant, SK1Thurman, kd5cts, RangerVetNam,
dansangel and .45man's son-in-law Tony
BOTTOM:  rangerX, Old China Hand, Trish, Howlin's dad, Mustang

TOP: ladtx #2 son; DiverDave's twin Don; petuniasevan and husband
poorman; Mustard; ladtx #1 son;
BOTTOM: AlamoGirl's brother Floyd; AG's dad; AG's brother Jim (inset);
WVNan's husband; ladtx Aunt Eva.

We now have eleven groups of veterans/active military; we will post each group of three or four twice a week, with thumbnail/links of the remaining seven or eight groups on each thread. Click on any of the thumbnails below to see the group full-size.

         

GROUP 1A: TOP: Logos, SwedeGirl's hubby, Neil E Wright, FallGuy, 1John, Sneakypete MIDDLE:  T'wit, COB1, LadyX, Dick Bachert, 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub BOTTOM:  YankeeinSC, Delta21, JoeSixPack1

GROUP 2A: TOP:  Bosniajmc, AFVetGal, Archy, A Navy Vet MIDDLE:  4TheFlag, Aeronaut, 68Grunt, Xinga BOTTOM:  Codger, AAABest, Clinton's A Liar, Duke809, dcwusmc

GROUP 3A: TOP:  mc5cents, Norb2569, LBGA's son, VanJenerette MIDDLE:  Jim Robinson, KJenerette, davidosborne, KG9Kid BOTTOM:  gwmoore, Equality7-2521, SAMWolf

GROUP 4A: TOP:  porgygirl, Phil V., MudPuppy, NorCoGOP MIDDLE:  RaceBannon, OneidaM, rdb3, jwTexian BOTTOM:  USMC Vet, TheMayor, Vineyard, rhododogma

         

GROUP 5A: TOP:  spectr17, RightOnline, SERE_Doc, Tet68. MIDDLE:  FutureSnakeEater, RightOnline's wife, CIApilot, Clamper1797. BOTTOM:  usmcobra, onedoug, DiverDave, Joe6-pack.

GROUP 6A: TOP:  g'nad, AgThorn's son Justin, SLB, AgThorn's son Brett. MIDDLE:  fish70, razorback-bert, CheneyChick, Leroy S Mort, Mark17. BOTTOM:  Terry's Take, Taxman, DinkyDau.

GROUP 7A: TOP:  ValerieUSA's son Grant, SK1Thurman, kd5cts, RangerVetNam, dansangel and .45man's son-in-law Tony.BOTTOM:  rangerX, Old China Hand, Trish, Howlin's dad, Mustang.

GROUP 8A: TOP: ohioWfan's son, MamaBear's father-in-law, MamaBear's dad, ladtx. MIDDLE:  The Mayor's niece, M.Kehoe, Beach_Babe's son-in-law. BOTTOM:  deadhead's dad, HiJinx, Severa's hubby, viligantcitizen's granddad.

                     

Today we are pleased to have One of FR's Finest, Molly Pitcher, as a guest writer. She has contributed three vignettes of some sweet memories of "places from her heart".

Thank you Molly Pitcher. Your words paint a lovely picture of these special places and memories that reside in your heart - memories that are recalled by you often, but especially at Christmas time. We appreciate your sharing them with us!

"PLACES IN THE HEART"

shared by

Molly Pitcher

PLACES IN THE HEART.....it's the title of a movie starring Sally Fields, and that's about all I remember...oh, and it took place in Texas. I hope Sally won't mind my borrowing the title for today's FR's Finest theme. But I want to use that phrase in a certain way, and tie it into Christmas...

Christmas...We think of the season and nostalgia and memories overwhelm us! How could they not? We think of loved ones, family and friends, not seen for awhile.....past Christmases and the trips we took to join our families. We remember our children, when they were young and seeing the season through their innocent eyes. Actually, we carry these memories with us all year round, but at this time of year, the images and awareness of them is heightened...more vivid than most other times.

And that brings me to "Places" because for me, that is a special nostalgia category. This particular category is filed away in my heart throughout all the months, but as Christmas comes, the memories and joys of these locations gain strength and power, and I remember...

I remember the coastal plain on the mainland north of Galveston, Texas, where I was born. When I lived there as a girl in the 1950s, there were few trees or natural objects rising above the flat, low land. My father planted a few trees in our new yard to provide shade as did our neighbors, but the pine and oak forests were away to the east of us on the plain. The land itself lay at about sea level or rose a few feet above it. What did rise above the bayous and land? Why oil wells of course! And refineries, and houses on tall stilts,and the Causeway from the mainland to the Island. That structure did not rise high enough however, because whenever too-tall ships would pass through the Bay, up would go the center section, halting traffic (and restless children) for what seemed like hours.

As a little girl, closer to home, I loved to be outside - even in the steambaths that passed for a Gulfcoast summer.

The restless horned toads in the field behind our house, the fragrant flowers of the oleanders which lined our driveway, and the flat, wide leaves of the banana tree next to our front door captured my attention and study.

And at the end of the street were the tempting dangers of the bayou!

Well, I survived childhood, giving my mother early gray hairs along the way.

My father was transferred in 1960, and we moved away, "up North."

It was years before I was able to return...busy, busy years of school, marriage and young children...

And, when I finally did, the intervening years fell away in a second. My heart recognized its familiar landscape!

Those images had never really left me...were only stored away in my heart.

The second location I carry with me always is Fauquier, Co., Virginia.

That's pronounced "Faw-keer" for all you non-Virginians!

This northern county of that beautiful state lies north of the Rappahannock River, and south of Manassas.

The rolling hills form the Piedmont Plateau, leading to the western mountains, the perfectly named "Blue Ridge."

Here and there the red clay hills are dotted with ash, beech and maple trees...and flowering dogwood.`Hawks patrol the skies.

Blue lobelias and laurels grow along the lowlands on either side of the Runs. Elk Run, Cedar Run, Licking Run, Tinpot Run...all flow into the Rappahannock.

My mother's family farmed property along these creeks for generations....But I've often wondered just how productive that red clay soil was....

Whenever possible I return to these graceful hills. The sight of them renews me...rewards me with their beauty and spirit.

And now my father is buried on one of them, in the middle of an old family plot, watched over by the soaring and vigilant hawks.

In the summer of '93, my husband, our 2 sons and I, made our first big trek to the West & Denver....and the route I'd planned took us along the old Oregon Trail, all through Nebraska and eastern Wyoming, following the Platte River.

We drove as far as Casper along this route, before dropping down to Denver.

But I, planning the trip, and with an agreeable husband, didn't choose the quickest route south.

Oh no! We had to take two little travelled roads down to Medicine Bow - remember The Virginian?? Starting out that morning, I confessed to my husband that this was our true destination and the object of my interest!

The road took us through an intermountain area, called the Shirley Basin.

South of Casper, there was little to see, except some old mining properties, pronghorn sheep, and the Cheney Ranch. The typical western gate and sign graced the entrance to the property. The dirt road led off to the west, if my memory is correct, no buildings visible.

But there was something more of interest along the way, at the juncture of the two state roads: a rest stop... a SOLAR-POWERED rest-stop. Newly built and as modern as it could be, the facility stood....in the middle of what most of us, if not the good people of Wyoming, would call "nowhere."

My family laughed at the incongruity, wondered at the number of visitors, and yes, we admired its operation....so much so that 2 years later, on another Denver trip, we returned there, going out of the way to make the pilgrimage.

Years later, we still laugh at the serendipity! On our way to deserted Medicine Bow, we found the world's most modern rest-stop!

If I were to write a book about our family's travels, I think a picture of this building would decorate the cover, as a symbol of the unexpected finds & laughs of family vacations.

And that is the third, special Place in my Heart.

Do you have such favorite locales?

What are they? WHY are they?

Tell us and share your heart!

Molly Pitcher

Our thanks to you, once again, Molly Pitcher, for being a guest writer today.
.....daisyscarlett

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 12-16-02 Christmas Is...FReeper Memories 12-17-02 FReeper Pets on Parade

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer! 1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar. 2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up. 3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit. 4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it. 5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me an FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

[daisyscarlett]

Good Morning, GailA. Thanks for the coffee etc. Only one week till Christmas. Will you get to see Matthew on Christmas morn?

Merry Chrismas! DaisyScarlett

[Pippin]

Hi, Daisy and Molly!

one of my places of the heart is East Tennesse, around Greeneville and Knoxville, My dad grew up in a small town near Greeneville called Limestone. I remember going there in the summertime to visit my grandparents and aunts and uncles. My grandparents lived on a farm with a huge farmhouse (I suspect this house was haunted).

I remember the big front porch and the chickens that had free range of the side and back yards, LOL! they didn't have indoor plumbimg so if we had to "go" we'd have to go down a pathe passed the garden to a rickety outhouse that was drafty and we used old newspapers for "cleaning" ourselves with, but as I kid, I didn't know it wasn't supposed to be fun. GROWNUPS! ach!

I remember my grandparents would always have company as my dad had seven sisters and two brothers and they had lots of children! I remember one summer we had a big party and picnic celebratiog my granparents' 50th wedding anniversary in 1968.

I remember the big kitchen and the pump at the old sink were we had to prime so it would bring watwe for washing and for cooking.

Both the house and my grandparents are gone. grandma died in 1969 and grandpa died in 1975 and the house was torn down sometime in the earlu eighties, but the memories still remain! So do most of my cousins and aunts and uncles!

[daisyscarlett]

"Here I am, and for most of the day, too!"

Yikes, not only do you take time to write a "column" for us but you are going to stick around for most of the day, too?...Wow, you are a dear...

I have to sneak out for a while and get some exercise (none too brisk walk) and run errands etc.

Will bbl. and look forward to "catching" up on the thread.

[Molly Pitcher]

Good point about the whole of the beautiful USA!

I love Cheyenne too. Have had a couple of good steak dinners there.:-))

lodwick, that is a good question about the "big sky" phenomenon.

Is it possible that just the rise in elevation makes all the difference? Also on the hi plains, there are often limitless vistas...no trees, nothing to obscure the horizon, and that is part of it too.

[Molly Pitcher]

Lovely Pippin! Do you still go back to East Tennessee?

[Molly Pitcher]

you are going to stick around for most of the day, too?......

Well, daisy, I understood from Billie that that was part of the arrangement:-)

I want to make sure EVERYONE comes up with at least one locale! LOL!

[LadyX]

The settings of my life have been from the Florida Keys of my native Florida to above the Arctic Circle in Alaska - up and down the Eastern seaboard into Canada on that side of the continent, and in Ohio and South Dakota.
Living in countless places, large and small, in eight states, there are many I could describe from seasides to mountainsides to plains to cities to tiny Chincoteague, Virginia.

What stands out are all the places of God's glory.

One of the last was in North Carolina south of Greensboro near (don't laugh here) Liberty, where my home was nestled on a lovely wooded lot in the country.

From there to one small town was a seven-mile stretch of rolling terrain that was identified in my mind with All Things Lovely from a lifetime.
That drive connected me in a powerful way with appreciation and peace of mind.

Here, I give you my Back Road ~ ~ ~

There is a back road that is my haven when I am in need of a lift of spirit and feast for eyes and soul. This one winds from my home toward a tiny town named Ramseur through an especially beautiful section of country dotted with farmlands and woods and sweeping valleys and foothills.

In all seasons it provides exhilaration and a special joy, but autumn is surely my favorite for viewing. I identify strongly with this season, although the others draw me, too.

Spring is hope and expectation - summer is the gathering and tasting of knowledge and experience - and autumn is the blend of all that, culminating with maturation and true richness.
Winter? Time to rest and reflect and look forward to a new beginning.

I am keenly aware of God's handiwork, appreciating every minute detail, drinking in light and shadow and shape. There is not just the October blue sky strewn with woolly clouds and colored leaves whose splendor takes your breath away.... there is the slope that draws your gaze from its emerald gown to the adjacent freshly turned field.... red soil with 'stubbled beard,' remnants of last month's corn crop.... a pond with unexpectedly vivid green algaed crust, dinner host to a white heron.... among the riotous golds and bronzes and yellows and red, God whimsically scatters a 25-yard stretch of lavender wildflowers beside the road.... just to see if anyone will notice?

Fence posts march like weary, resolute sentries, keeping order between hayfields and roadsides, sagging here and there. Trees which were the first to yield their raiments to autumn stretch their bare arms upward in worshipful gestures.... they are content in their barrennnes knowing that in Spring theirs will be the first burst of leaf to herald new life!

Obscured in a clutch of overgrown brush and trees is an abandoned old shed. I see not the grayed timber and lack of purpose, but how it was when first fashioned by a farmer who gloried in its creation, board by board. (Another case of identity, most assuredly.... my framework no longer functioning so well as 30 years ago, nor is as comely - but the imprint of better days and usefulness is there, and I hope observers notice that.)

Around the next bend is a new home being woven into the tapestry. My mind veers from the farmer (how did he look and act and feel?), long gone, to the next generation building memories on a foundation of hope.... another layer of life upon the land.

I feel them all.... there is something wonderfully profound and comforting in that particular drive, and I return as often as the need is there to find peace and joy and a sense of being closer to Him... and to offer Thanks.

Such places are in your heart wherever you go - wherever you are.

[LadyX]

I love quiche, loddy!
This one looks delicious!

[Pippin]

Not too often like I used to. I did go last year in October and stayed with my cousin in Knoxville, WE went to a lot of different places as I trying to do some family reaserching. We went a couple of times into North Carolina to see the tiny mountian community were my dad's ancestors settled in the early part of the 19th centurary.

[FreeTheHostages]

I've often thought perhaps it is the elevation -- one is noticeably closer to the clouds and they pass overhead quicker -- so they seem bigger?

It's definitely more than just the flatness. I've seen flatness in Ohio but it didn't have a "big sky" feel like Wyoming. Could it also be the wind?

[FreeTheHostages]

Beautiful, LadyX. Thank you.

And as to special places, there's no place like home. Robert Frost, from "Death of a Hired Man":

Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.

[Molly Pitcher]

The wind? Could be....hadn't thought of that before....

Pippin, family history can be so rewarding. Glad you were able to some, and in that part of Tennessee you love.

LadyX, your post is a treasure! I'm going to read that several times today....Thank you!!!!

[dutchess]

Molly. You do paint a lovely picture with words...Thanks for hosting today. Would love to contemplate and share but am off to the airport to pick up my folks...the flurry begins at our household...and...

the mini disasters...had all of our carpeting cleaned the past few days...just in time for our 14 year old cat to decide that its one big new box of kitty litter....yuk!!!!

and...does anyone remember what was happening this weekend 4 years ago??????

The answer....you got it...IMPEACHMENT trial!!!! The focus of our family Christmas that year. I actually taped it...maybe I'll play the tape for the family (and my liberal folks) this year LOL!!!

[FreeTheHostages]

TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT VERMONT

10. How the mountains are all cute "miniature golf" versions of larger mountains.

9. The Long Trail, 180 miles up and down the ridgeline of the green mountains that run up the middle of the state. I'm a member of the Green Mountain Club and my dad's on their board. It's a citizen-run club that protects and maintains these trails through the Vermont wilderness. Some day I'm going to do all 180 miles.

8. The Dorothy Canfield Fisher pines. But shhhh we don't tell flatlanders much about these, so more I shall not say.

7. The secret streams with good trout. Shhhhhh.

6. The fact that women go deer hunting too and drink beer with the guys.

5. The change of seasons.

4. The beautiful white snow and the cold fresh winter air.

3. Mud season.

2. The warm feeling of viewing a town lit in the valley during winter.

1. The colonial churches and the serious religion.

[FreeTheHostages]

"maybe I'll play the tape for the family (and my liberal folks) this year LOL"

Forget about that, just have them read Mudboy Slim's posts. He's replaying the tape every day here on Free Republic! ;) And why not . . . .

[Mixer]

I am so glad you agreed to repost these one day at a time. Thanks for taking the time out.

[WVNan]

If I were to write about some of my thoughts about places in the heart, the words would be almost exactly like LadyX's, for we are kindred souls with similar life experiences. There are many many roads in our lives and each of them has taken us to a new adventure. There is always one particular road that comes to mind I suppose. The memory road I most often recall is the lane leading to my maternal grandparent's house. For at the end of that lane lay pure unadulterated happiness.

[Mixer]

Great thread today as usual. Have a great day everyone.

[WVNan]

I've never understood why Vermont s so politically liberal. I love the state, but I don't understand the liberalness. Could it be that the people lean so libertarian they don't see the danger in liberalism?

[LadyX]

Ah, yes, dear Nan - kindred souls - twins separated at birth so we could meet at THIS end of life to share and marvel anew!

On the way out and will be back soon.
Loveya, Nan ~ ~ ~ will be there in spirit at the Bethlehem Inn..:)))