I love green mountains

These girls were dancing at the Highland Games held at Grandfather Mountain near Asheville, North Carolina.  Because most of my ancestors were from the British Isles (Scotland, Ireland, and England), I was excited to attend those Highland Games about forty years ago.  Now look at what my brother posted on Facebook today.

The Scottish Highlands and the Appalachians are the same mountain range, once connected.  Remnants of this massive mountain range include the Appalachian Mountains of North America, the Scottish Highlands, Ireland, parts of Greenland and Scandinavia, and the Little Atlas of Morocco.

Musing on a photo

Not to brag or anything, but today I'm meditating on this photo of my baby brother (on the left) with the president of the United States.  Jim's son photoshopped this great picture for his dad's birthday last week.  My brother looks considerably older than the young Lincoln, don't you think?

Mom's Monday ~ 100 years

Mildred Inez Reynolds Setliffe (1917-2004)

My favorite photo of my mother was taken in 1987, the year she turned 70.  Today marks a century since she was born.  One hundred years ago!  That's hard for me to fathom.

Reynolds family at home at 3208 5th Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Here's a photo when she was 12 or younger, since her dad died in a traffic accident when she was only 12 years old.  That's her on the front row, a tall girl with her sister Bonnie (behind her), their six brothers, and their parents on the left.

She loved her four children, twelve grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  I'm not sure how many great-grands she had before she died, but seven of them were my grandchildren.  This photo shows her with one of my sister's granddaughters.

Here's our family about 1944, when I turned four and Billy was about a year and a half old.  Later that year, Dad was drafted and had to sell our grocery store.  Mother couldn't run the store.  She was pregnant, had the two of us children to look after, and ― besides ― Dad was the meat-cutter in the family.  With him gone, Mom had to learn how to drive.  He didn't see Ann until she was several months old.  They didn't have Jimmy until 1949.

So what would she want me to tell you about her, besides her love of family, of course?  Maybe .....

• that she taught an adult Sunday School class for more than forty years;
• that she was president of the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) of my elementary school two different times;
• that she went back to school and became a cafeteria manager (she always loved cooking), 
• that she took college courses when she was Assistant Manager of the Food Service at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga;
• that a grandson called her "gallivanting granny" when he talked to a trucker while they were on the road visiting family;
• that she never seemed to sit down when she had the whole family over for dinner because she was too busy getting things for everyone.

Nah, she wouldn't want to brag, but I'm doing it anyway.   I love you, Mom, and I miss you.

Edited to add what my daughter Sandra sent in an email about her "Jamma" (Auntie is my Aunt Bonnie):

Mom,  I loved the pics and biography you wrote.  However, when you mentioned "taught a Sunday school class" I wish you had taken it a bit farther.  Knowing Jamma, she would want her biggest legacy, being a strong Christian, to be given more emphasis.  When she was in her last stages, her memory often failed on so many things.  She often "switched" family generations around and she thought I was you and you were Auntie.  However, one thing she could always remember perfectly was:

"Jesus loves me this I know,

For the Bible tells me so,

Little ones to him belong,

We are weak but He is

      strong. 

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

The Bible tells me so."

I truly love remembering how happy she was, even when nearing her end, when we would sing this together. 

Happy 100th, Jamma!

Sunday Salon ~ books and authors

My life in books

I completed seven books in January, five books in February, but a whopping total of fifteen books in March.  Wow!  That's a lot, even for me.  As you can see from this week's list, I have read 28 books so far in 2017, finishing that last one today.

25.  The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord's Prayer ~ by John Dominic Crossan, 2010, religion, 9/10

"I would find in that prayer what the historical Jesus stood for ― or knelt for" (p. 7). ... "Could it be that love is a style or mode of justice, so that you can never have either alone?" (p. 189).

26.  Finding Jake ~ by Bryan Reardon, 2015, fiction (Delaware), 9/10

"...neither Jake nor I talked to anyone else while at the bus stop.  Thinking about how easily my daughter melded into 'the group,' I wished, not for the first time, that I could be more like her.  I also wished (although I would never admit it) that Jake could be more like her, too" (p. 125).

27.  Girls Will Be Girls ~ by Franklin Folger, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, cartoons, 6/10

Woman standing in front of seated women, all wearing hats, at a meeting:  "Since many of you applauded when it was announced that we have a large deficit in the treasury, I feel I should explain what that means" (p. 64).

28.  Keeping Sam ~ by Joanne Phillips, 2015, fiction (England), 8/10

"Just how much else had her amnesia made her forget?" (loc. 278).

Donna and I went to Left Bank Books to hear Ferguson Wellspring Church pastor F. Willis Johnson discuss his book Holding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community (2017).  The book points out the complex causes of violence in the community, including racial prejudice, entrenched poverty and exploitation, segregation, the loss of education and employment, and the ravages of addiction.  I read the book in January and rated it 9 of 10, an excellent book.

"People who are hurting
need to be affirmed in their hurt;
people who are angry
need to be affirmed in their anger" (p. 54, repeated on p. 60).

My life outside books

This photo shows the progress of the blooming trees where I live, and today my son and his wife are celebrating their 31st anniversary.  When my friend Joan moved from the apartment complex next to mine last week, I "inherited" some of the food from her shelves.  While looking at the "Best by" dates to decide what to use first, I found "Philippians 4:6-7" stamped beside the date on one box.  Naturally, I looked it up in my Bible (NRSV).

6  Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Yes, I know that's another book I just quoted from, so let me get back to life outside books by sharing a yoga video.  You may remember I'm in a Gentle Chair Yoga class, so here's "Yoga for Yankees" featuring Yankee humorist Fred Marple.  If the video quits working, view it on YouTube.

Edited at 9:35pm:  I just got a call from my daughter Barbara relaying the news that my brother Bill died.  Jim, my other brother, asked her to call me.  He's my only sibling now, since our sister Ann died in August.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Celebrating at my house ~ with books, of course

Jaxon, my 1-year-old great-grandson, with his grandpa (my son) holding him and First 100 Animals, a board book.  Jaxon kissed that big tiger picture.

Raegan, my 2-year-old great-granddaughter, reading Blackboard Bear by Martha Alexander.

My daughter Barbara, on the right, with her three children:  Chase, Cady, and Cali.  Barbara is holding her copy of the family stories book I gave my children.

My daughter Sandra, trying to figure out why I gave her an old pink doll blanket.  Ask me, and I'll tell you the reason.  Her husband, Pat, managed to stay out of all my photos.  Behind her are her granddaughter Raegan, her son-in-law Michael (whose head seems to be missing), and her twin sister Barbara.

My grandson Jamey with his other grandmother (Patti) and his girlfriend, Amanda.

My granddaughter Kenzie, mother of Raegan.  Kenzie's husband, Michael, didn't get in any of my photos that turned out.

Jaxon, with his parents Whitney and Kendall, David, and my brother Jim behind them.  Jim's wife, Carol, avoided being in any of my photos.

My granddaughters Cady and Brandy, with Sharon, my favorite (and only) daughter-in-law.  I am blessed.

My son-in-law Greg, who is Cady's daddy.

Raegan, playing the piano for us, one note at a time.

David, wearing Jaxon's Cookie Monster backpack on one shoulder.

Our salon discussion today takes place here, in my living room.  Although temps have dropped below freezing a few times, it hasn't really been cool enough to light a fire, which is why I could line gifts up on the hearth in front of the fireplace before the family arrived.  Hey, Bookfool, that carefully assembled pile of books in the corner is the book tree that never reached the heights I imagined for it.  At the rate it was NOT tapering in, it would have had to reach the ceiling before it looked like a pointed fir, so I simply topped it with a steepled church (which has a light inside to show stained glass windows) and put the lights around it.  The red thing?  That's a wide ribbon hanging from the mistletoe on the ceiling fan.

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