Please Note: As you read this work, prepare in your mind the image of the perfectly plump grandmother, with her perfect curly silver hair, her perfect red and white checkered apron, her perfectly small reading glasses upon her perfectly small nose, holding her perfectly cylindrical rolling pin and her perfectly square pan full of perfectly round and brown cookies, rocking in her perfectly perfect rocking chair on the perfectly porchy porch.



Oh dear! Would you look at that sunset! What a sight for sore eyes! Mmm, seems to me I can recollect the sun 20 times brighter, and 30 times bigger, setting for much longer than it does nowadays! Oh well, one must take what one can get, mustn't one? Just seems to me that times is different. In fact, I can remember back when I was just a lass, back in the good old days, when a body could get five pieces of gum for a nickel! Do you know how much that is a piece? A penny! Penny-candy we called it, thinking we were a might clever. My friends and me would, after walking back from school in the snow drifts (because it always snowed in the winter back then and when it did it snowed, I tell you!), we'd take the couple of pennies we'd saved from Christmas and buy just a ton of candy. We could hardly carry it all, I tell you! In fact, one time Jenny, my best friend in the entire world, had so much candy that she fell down on the way home. In the snow! And my mother always told me that when it rains, it pours, and so a dog came by and ate all of her candy! We just laughed, and laughed, and she chased that mutt all around town, and we laughed, and she would try to hit it with a stick, and we just LAUGHED as we ran home! As a matter of fact, we laughed so hard that we kept dropping candy. And do you know what was following us, just eating up that candy? More dogs! We weren't stupid like Jenny, though, we bolted for home, laughing all the way. Jenny was mad later for us leaving her, but all's well that ends well, right? Hmm, those were the good days! Back when kids were kids, ladies were ladies, and men were men. Nowadays, you know, kids just don't get that same childhood experience! I mean, look at my kids, they were really kids! They'd go outside at daybreak, play until lunch, then leave again before I could say two figs worth! And they always came back dirty head to toe when I rang the dinner bell, sometimes soaked with creek water! Sure they missed a little school, but all kids do, don't they? Yes, that's right, kids will be kids...but not no more. Nowadays, all these kids do is scribble on computers and sit around all day!

Oh! Oh...what was that! It nearly took my head off, it did! Oh, I see it now, it was a birdy! Oh no! It ran right into one of the windows! Aw, poor dear. It's birdy mate is going to be all sad when it doesn't come home, it will. That's all right, though. There must be a birdy heaven, right! Like my mother always said, when one door closes another will open! And the Good Lord will surely order St. Peter to let loose the doors to heaven for this noble bird! I'll tell someone later to pick up the body and give it a good Christian burial. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, I was about to talk about my new sewing circle! Exactly a year ago, Bertha, my best friend in the entire world, and I formed a sewing community, which we named “The Sewing Circle Community”. We even put what these youngsters are calling a catch phrase to it: for any and all who like to sew. It doesn't rhyme exactly, but, what matter, I'm sure that we will have many happy times there! It's become all the rage in the larger community, we get nearly five people in each monthly meeting! I once told Bertha that we ought to charge! And that's exactly what we did! Now, at five dollars per session, I'm considering franchising! Things just happened so fast. I'm worried that my little business might take on a life of it's own. Like my mother always said, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! So, I do believe I will hold back on that and just stay the good old country girl I am. And what a country it is! No place like home, and trust me there is nothing like this! Just this old house of mine and land as far as the eye can see! We may not have no grass around here, nor plant things, but the good old red dirt is all I need! And the big sky, you can't forget that! No sirree, no one can ever forget that! Nope. Never.


I wonder what life would be like away from here, though. Only God knows.

What is that! Wow! An entire flock of blackbirds! I haven't seen one of those in years! Oh I just have to tell—oh. Right. I had almost forgotten. Silly me! I suppose I will just sit here and enjoy them myself! Not that it will be any trouble. There is a fine art to self-entertainment! Even those that are alone must find a way to occupy themselves, keep their mind from wandering. Like my mother always said, an idle mind is the devil's workshop! Nesting season again. Every year they nest on my roof, and thousands of little squawks I hear in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings! I never see any of them, though. Never a one. It's odd you would think, but no, I never see a one. I'm mostly on this porch so I imagine they fly in from the back to get food, and it is just amazing that I finally saw them! And there they still are! Right on the ground, and more seem to be flying in! Mmm, it's nice to see something different than red for a change, even if it is black. Hello! Hello, all you little birdys covering my land! It's getting hard to see you in the dark, but I can hear you, by God! I can hear you and your din is so peaceful. Like a dark storm to carry me off. There's nothing more out there and I feel safer than I ever have. Safe enough to sleep. Sleep into that good night.

Good night.