Poetry Corner: Broke Down Fence

by Pat Darnell


Broke down fence
I feel like
a busted slat
I dangle like that

A broke down fence
I feel like
a fallin' down picket
where my posts failed

I slope
at my gate
where once
I stood straight

I feel like
a broke down fence

my hinge don't rotate,
supports -- dry rot ate
invisible in these trees
posts are nests
for carpenter bees

yes, broke down old fence
you get no argument
from me, at best,
coulda' used augments

Shor' enuff
could use a rest
layin' down
with Nature's best

rest my self
'neath giant cactus
Broke down fence
I do attest

Survivor: TEXAS, from Chris and Josie

Everything in Texas is Bigger
Retrieved from email by Pat Darnell

Friends:
Soon will air on CBS "Survivor Texas Style." Read the Press Release message, to understand the complexity of this type of Survivor Style. I just hope and pray someone will return at least alive.
::Steve Pommer, also: [Alamo City Pundit]

FWD: FWD Email Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 11:24:08 AM
Subject: Survivor Texas

We need to show more sympathy for these people, the contestants and directors:

* They will travel miles in the heat.
* They will risk their lives crossing a border.
* They don't get paid enough wages.
* They will do jobs and stunts that others won't do or are afraid to do.
* They will live in adverse conditions among a people who speak different languages.
* They rarely will see their families, as they face adversity all day ~ every day.

Texas Developers say "Let's bring Survivor back Home!" Due to the popularity of "Survivor" reality shows, Texans plan to sponsor one extra-large season titled, "Survivor, Texas XXL." Thirty-two Castaways, and thirty-two stunt doubles will be chosen for the event.

Part One Survivor Texas starts just South of the Texas-Mexico border in Chihuahua, Mexico. Their first challenge? You guessed it: they must find a way to get into the United States and reach their first destination -- Odessa.

Once those who survive are regrouped there, they form two clans and travel to Corpus Christi, Del Rio, El Paso, Childress, Midland, Grapevine, Lubbock and Amarillo.

From there they will go on to Abilene and Fort Worth, all over Texas... but the challenge is in riding on the backs of Hell's Angels' Hogs and Pan Heads, through choking dust of the Texas Panhandle.

Contestant's health will likely fail in the first leg, as will many of the carburetors of the antique Harleys.

Yes there is always a catch. For instance those survivors that get voted into exile by their fellow players will be cached off to Gitmo. Of course they will be held there indefinitely, or conscripted into working for Haliburton. And awaiting the exiled contestant is the handsome stranger... identity to be disclosed, maybe.

Survivor Leaders who have won initial individual challenges will enjoy Texas Hill Country winery and hospitality, while they coerce, seduce, bribe and stab other players in the back, forming brittle alliances.

This will be the first ever "Traveling Survivor TEXAS Road Trip, and Wine tasting Hoedown;" like a show within the show.

That leaves us to the end of Part One:

Par TWO -- The finale: Surviving Contestants will drive in groups of their own choosing, to Huntsville, Waco, College Station, then Austin. In Austin the trials and tribulations will take on a more serious swerve.... For instance some of the action is listed;

• Huntsville: Prison Lock Down Mock Prisoner Riot Immunity Idol Rumble Break Out Chainsaw Massacre
  
• Waco: Branch Davidian bonfire and Bobbitt missdewiener roast... ending in tattoo\bonding party-drug inspired woodsie
  
• College Station: Test brain power of contestants as they are locked in Presidential Library of George H W Bush, and must find a solution to Swine Flu...
• Austin: Will be a major elimination trial for the players -- as they must dodge live sniper fire from a Floridian dishonorably discharged ex-Marine, plumber's son, who abuses amphetamines, and has a Glioblastoma brain tumor, perched in the University of Texas Clock Tower with a Remington 700 6mm bolt-action hunting rifle fitted with a 4x Leupold Scope.

After this exciting cull of the tribes, Survivors tour San Antonio during Festival, travel east to Houston where everyone says: "Eh?" -- then blast off to NASA.

Here's the catch -- Each alliance\tribe will be driving 2009 pink Volvos all over TExas with bumper stickers that read:

• "I'm Gay,"
• "I love the Dixie Chicks,"
• "Eat more Wild Hog, Fatboy,"
  
• "Boycott Beef,"
• "Tomorrow I'll be sober: but you will still be a Pussy Texan,"
  
• "I Voted for Obama,"
• "George Strait Sucks,"
• "Hillary in 2012" and
• "I'm here to confiscate your guns.."
• "I [Heart] Hugo"
• "Press Two for Espana: 'Alto Immigracion Ilegal Ahora!'”
  

The first one to make it back to Dallas Texas Stadium, alive, is considered the Survivor -- and wins a chance to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader... now isn't that sounding Fun?!

God Bless Texas: God Bless Yawl All, and Me ya'll, too...

What's in a Hynds?

How I became so Pragmatic
by Pat Darnell

I heard rumors all my young life. My Grandfather whom we called "Old Pop," Lloyd Orion Hynds, was in the final stages of life, giving up the ghost, to cancer. That was in 1979, and to my recollection Old Pop was always a bit rotund, and dogmatic. He had many professions, and many mannerisms that puzzled his family and friends. He was an enigma to his own children, but he let some of his grandchildren into his methods and moods. It was natural for me to go to be with Old Mom when Old Pop died. I had been chosen the day after my birth, I suppose, by my Mom since she named me Patrick Hynds Darnell.

As grandson, when I had stood next to Old Pop, I felt a change in atmosphere. He always wore clean, pressed, smooth white, lapel shirts, with a soft tank-top tee-shirt under. He tucked those into his clean black pants, held in place with black belt. He had a large nose that held up his trifocals, and a bald head. I learned later he just didn't like hair, so he shaved his head. Otherwise he would have had a full white bonnet of hair like his "Hynds" relatives I would meet in his wake.

As I stood by his coffin to view my Old Pop, I turned to Auntie Fran Hynds and said, "Wow, when Old Pop gives up the ghost, he really gives up the ghost." Fran got it, and gave me the twinkly smile she should have patented when she was alive.

He had lost so much weight, I was a bit stunned to see him so thin lying here, in state. But I knew the condition of his body was now an empty vessel. Old Pop had put his affairs together much earlier.

You see, Old Pop had become a fisher of men at age fifty. He preached a rural route on Sunday mornings, at three Methodist churches. Old Mom held fellowship in her own Hynds Circle, a women's Methodist group that today is still going strong. And now in 1979 he had prepared to pass on to his next stage of life. That is when I learned more about much, while being around my cousins and second cousins, at Old Pop's funeral.

Old Pop and Old Mom had lasted through rural farming existence, urban living, very hard financial times, and now Old Pop had returned to his roots.

Old Pop and my grandmother, "Old Mom," lived in lots of places. Hyndsver was their home. Hyndsver, a Burroughs of Martin, Tennessee, is the location of the original Hynds family farm. It also remains the site of oldest family cemetery, although still farmed by owners, they are no longer named Hynds. But there remain plenty of Hynds around town.

Hafford Hynds sat next to me in the kitchen, talking with me at the funeral home. He was my second cousin, only he was thirty years my senior as it turns out. He had panache like Old Pop did. However I could never pinpoint the family trait that kept popping up in my new found Hynds relatives.

So later I had a chance to sit with Old Mom. I talked about how much I enjoyed meeting all my Hynds "distant" relatives, like Hafford. Old Mom is so quiet and deliberate that I always know that what she says to me will be a humdinger of a thing. A thing to not forget: a remembrance. She didn't let me down this time:

"Those Hynds boys, they are so clever," said Old Mom. It was my affirmation. My mom handed me her maiden name, so that I am Patrick Hynds Darnell. Since a name is supernaturally important to me growing up, ... I had to know the Hynds trait as it pertained to my own preamble and someday eulogy of life. Says Old Mom, so say we all: "We of the Hynds and affiliated clans have a clever gene."

________________________References
Please See: Also
(Carol, Mary : Weakley County Coordinator. © 2001-2009 by MaryCarol Weakley County [SOURCE]: This is truly a Tennessee Volunteer web site, many kind Weakley County Cousins have volunteered materials and time over the years to make it what it is today. You will find LOTS of old photos.)[HERE]

You may be a ...

Like Re-mastered Recordings: These Tomes Keep going off in my head.....
Unknown Source -- FWD\FWD Retrieved by Pat Darnell [June 4, 1955]


Comments Made in the Year 1955! That's only 53 years ago!


1955
'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20.00.'


'Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2,000.00 will only buy a used one.'


'If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.'


'Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?'


'If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.'


'When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.'


'Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls.'


'I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL of DAMN in it.'


'I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas ...'


'Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President.'


'I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.'


'It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.'


'It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.'


'Marriage doesn't mean a thing any more, those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.'


'I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.'


'Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to congress.'


'The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.'


'There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.'


'No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it's too rich for my blood.'


'If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.'

-__________________-
:: Be sure and send it to your kids and grandkids... Grandpa, what was it like?

On Top of it all, This Represents... as Alicia has Shown our Common Thread, Lesan Replies

I read this every week.........Love to all, Lesan [See: also, Comments from Thursday January 15]


BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND MY SLOW STEPS AND MY SHAKING HANDS....

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO NOTICE THAT MY EARS HAVE TO STRAIN TO HEAR WHAT THEY ARE SAYING.....

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO PERCEIVE THAT MY EYES ARE CLOUDED AND MY REACTIONS ARE SLOW...

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO LOOK THE OTHER WAY WHEN I DRIBBLE AT THE TABLE....

BLESSED BE THOSE WHO PLEASE ME WITH A SMILE, GIVING ME TIME TO TALK ABOUT THINGS OF NO IMPORTANCE...

BLESSED BE THOSE WHO KNOW HOW TO TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST...

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MAKE ME FEEL THAT I'M LOVED AND NOT ABANDONED....

BLESSED BE THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND HOW HARD IT IS FOR ME TO CARRY MY CROSS...

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HELP ME MAKE THIS FINAL JOURNEY, TREATING ME WITH LOVE AND TENDER CARE...
January 17, 2009

What Parents When Old, Want From Their Children [and Grandchildren] …

Retrieved by Alicia Geades

When you were small, a helpless kid, Just imagine what parents did, From feeding to keeping you clean –A routine that had always been!

And now when parents are quite aged, They feel like birds both that are caged; Just give them half the love they gave; Don’t lose your temper / misbehave!

When you were small and could not bathe, Mom bathed you with towel to swathe, And wiped you dry and combed your hair, All your mischief, she had to bear!

When parents are now pretty old, Or have a fever, catch a cold, Should not the children care for them, And treat them for each new problem?

When you were just a little child, And parents scolded you so mild, To show you what was wrong and right, And chalk a future that was bright!

And now when parents have gone weak, To walk, your assistance, they seek, Oblige them with a heart all glad: Old age is less happy, much sad!

When you were craving for good food, Your mother cooked it as she should, And heaved a sigh of great relief, When you’d slept, in disbelief!

And now, when parents ask something, Be kind and courteously do bring, They cannot buy whatev’r they feel; They cannot run or walk or kneel!

When you’d joined school for the first time, And could not say even a rhyme, Your mom had taught you how to write, And sang a ‘lullaby’ at night!

When you were children very small, And appeared each, a tiny doll, Your parents helped to dress you up, And without spilling, drink from cup!

When parents elderly now need, A blanket when it’s cold indeed, Should children not offer the same, Avoiding saying words of shame?

As children, you knew not to talk, And parents taught you how to walk, And told you stories, sang you songs, Correcting you in all your wrongs!

Now old-aged parents, need your love, And not the warmth of any stove!

You turned a man, woman o’er years, While parents wiped away your tears, And found a partner good for life, Ensuring days, devoid of strife.

Yes, children, you cannot returnThe love what parents’ hearts did burn; Thank God for giving such great souls, Who led you to heavenly goals.

The least that aged parents ask, Is see their children do God’s task, And live in harmony with allRelatives, neighbors, till Lord’s call! So, do your duty to parentsIn ripe old age in ways you can, And get their blessings on kindred, That stays generations hundred!

Attend on parents in good cheer; Be kind to them and always near; Not all offspring get this chance rare, To have parents old-aged, to care!


Copyright by Dr John Celes 5-12-2008