RRN Online Volume 389

November 15 '03

Volume 389

Birthday Celebrations Laughable And Strange

In our Sweet Sixteen family, the fall of each year is filled with birthday celebrations. Sarah Brown and her son Brett have birthdays in September, as does Lee Carter, James’s son. In my older brother’s family, Fred fathered three children with September birthdays, Fred Jr., Bob, and John. Carter family members with October birthdays include James’ daughter – Diana Coker, Fred’s daughter – Mary Sue Preble, and my granddaughter, Merilese Adams. Others with October birthdays include my son-in-law, Anson Adams and my favorite brother-in-law, Gene Crouch. My oldest granddaughter, Anna Butler, waits each year for November 6^th to arrive to begin her birthday celebrations. This year Anna turned sixteen, sweet sixteen.

I had waited ten years from the year that Anna started to school for this special day, and still I forgot to remind her of a couple of observations she made in the First Grade. I wrote them down somewhere to have as a backup to my memory, because I thought it would be fun to remind her on her sixteenth birthday of how she once viewed the world.

At the end of day one in the First Grade, Anna told her mom, "That cafeteria food is some kinda’ good."

I would also note that Anna was never a picky eater, not even as a small child. Not many three-year olds in her day loved a tossed green salad.

After riding the bus home one particularly sweltering August afternoon, Anna exclaimed, "Mama, did you know that bus doesn’t have air conditioning?"

Anna’s still not a picky eater, though I doubt she’s as crazy about cafeteria food as she once was. Having grown up thus far in a largely protected environment, and, compared to my childhood, not all that far from the lap of luxury, Anna hasn’t experienced many trials of life worse than riding on a hot school bus, but then she’s still young.

Anna has managed quite well, despite her biological parents’ divorce, as both parents have remarried, resulting in her gaining two additional parents, two more sets of grandparents, and virtual adoption by these extended families. So, when it comes to vacations, holidays, and birthdays Anna’s life gets a little busy. She’ll vacation in Florida and South Carolina several times each summer, and her time with family members is stretched thin each Christmas as she makes time for a handful or more family gatherings, and her birthday parties aren’t much different.

Anna made it to our home for a birthday dinner several days after her birthday. We didn’t do the cake and ice cream bit, but we celebrated nonetheless. We celebrated mostly with laughter, for Anna and Anson started recalling lines from some of our favorite Christmas movies.

Anna began it by asking Anson to, "Show us how the little piggy eats."

She was referring to a line in "The Christmas Story" in which a mother had to coax her younger son to eat his dinner by allowing him to eat it like a pig. Anson did a decent vocal imitation of a pig but spared us the face-in-the-mashed-potatoes part.

Anna and Anson’s laughter triggered a few more "Christmas Story" memories, and in no time at all we were all recounting our favorite parts and lines from "National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation." Every family member has several favorite parts of Christmas Vacation, and no one is bashful about sharing. We must have spent thirty minutes remembering and laughing ourselves silly.

In Anson’s family, whenever a family member celebrates a birthday everyone sings Happy Birthday. However, all singers strive to sing off key and out of pitch with everyone else. It sounds pretty awful, but they love doing it.

Birthdays are celebrated in differing ways and in differing places, and it might make for an entertaining article for readers of this newsletter to share how their particular family celebrates birthdays. With that in mind, I’ll share the most unusual birthday celebration that’s been told to me.

Mrs. Cordis Young of Pontotoc, MS, better known as Miss Cubell, recently shared a birthday tradition once observed in the Roye family.

"Have you ever heard of ‘put’n ‘em under the bed?" she asked.

I don’t recall how we got off on the subject, but her older son, Derwood was present at the time. It could have been a day or so after Derwood’s birthday, October 25^th. Derwood shares the same birthday as Barbara’s brother Gene Crouch and little else, except a common interest in this newsletter.

"What’re you talking about?" I asked. "I used to run under the bed whenever my mother got after me with a switch."

I recall my younger brother, James, used to do the same thing, and Mama would try to poke him out with a broom handle. I also remember that the last time I ran under the bed from Mama she threatened to tell Daddy if I didn’t get out and take my punishment. I decided to take my chances with Mama but soon regretted it. She used the wire handle of a fly swatter to thrash the backs of my legs. It was my last time to run under a bed to avoid punishment, but it was also the last time Mama had to spank me.

"I’m talking about putting the birthday person under the bed," Miss Cubell continued with a mischievous look in her eye.

"You’ll have to explain that ‘cause I’ve never heard of it," I responded.

"There were ten of us young’uns, and whenever one had a birthday, the rest of us grabbed that one and put ‘em under the bed," she explained.

"I can’t say I’ve ever heard of such," I replied. "How did that get started?"

She didn’t have an answer to that question, but Derwood remembered the practice still being observed after he came along.

"We’d all be sittin' around the table talkin' after everyone had eaten. It’d get quiet and someone would say, ‘It’s time’ and they’d all grab the birthday person and take ‘em to the bedroom and shove ‘em under the bed," he recalled.

Miss Cubell remembered a time, after all her brothers and sisters were grown, they decided to put Papa (her father) under the bed on his birthday.

"We tried and tried; we tried everything, and we couldn’t get him under the bed. Finally, some of us held him down and several more picked up the bed and set it down over him. That’s the only way we could do it," she recalled.

"When he got out from under the bed, Papa said, ‘I ought to whip every one of you.’ And, he should have, too," she confessed.

Your birthday memory or celebration may not be as unusual, but if you’re willing to share it, we’ll print it.

Where’s RRN Been Washington D.C. No Less

Several readers have vacationed this past summer and claim to have forgotten to pack a Ridge Rider for the purpose of sharing where RRN has been. When I learned that my sister, Sarah Carter Brown of Pontotoc, would be traveling to Washington D.C. as part of a group from Pontotoc High School to receive a prestigious national award for school excellence, I reminded her to pack both a newsletter and a camera.

Sarah is shown below, RRN in hand, standing outside the Hilton Hotel where she and the group from Pontotoc were lodged during their stay in the nation’s Capitol.

I have asked Sarah to write an article or series of articles regarding her Washington trip. One such article appears below.

Washington Trip Religion Trumphs History

Three schools in the Pontotoc City Schools District have been named Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. State Department of Education. D.T. Cox Elementary has the distinction of having received the award twice, 1990 and 1999. Pontotoc Jr. High received the award in 1993 and Pontotoc High School in 2003.

This year the award has been changed to "The No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School Award" in order to reflect the current administration’s implementation of its current accountability standards.

Keith Davis, principal of Pontotoc High School, Mina Davis, Dr. Miriam Clark, and I attended the awards celebration in Washington, D.C., October 30 and 31.

Lamar Carter, my uncle, came from New York to visit during some of the time allotted for sightseeing. His niece and my cousin, Rebecca Franklin, arrived Saturday evening with a crew of nurses on their way to New York for a session on HOPE in the nursing field. Of course, accepting the award for the high school was rewarding and filled us with pride for our school, but, as the keynote speaker told us, accolades are soon forgotten, and we return to our schools to continue the task before us of closing the gaps in student achievement.

Holding a minor in U.S. History, I was surprised to discover that the most impressive site for me was not Arlington, the White House, the monuments, memorials, or even Georgetown. On Saturday afternoon, Uncle Lamar suggested that Miriam and I go with him to the Washington National Cathedral, located on Mt. St. Alban, the highest point in Washington.

The cathedral’s Gothic architecture is beautifully carved of stone, however it was the stained glass windows that first caught my eye. Most of the windows are traditional, but one located about halfway into the nave, the Space Window, has a moon rock imbedded high in the center of a planet in a grouping of celestial bodies representing the vastness of the universe, and the design of the window is more modern than the others.

Uncle Lamar told us that we needed to walk into the crossing in order to view the windows. He had us look to the west to see the huge rose window depicting the Word of God, which sets creation in motion. Then we looked to the east, over the High Altar and saw the magnificent Christ in Majesty window with Christ, the coming King, crowned in glorious triumph. The window is flanked by the Crucifixion scene on the left and the Resurrection scene on the right.

As I stood and looked at the East window, I remembered that "as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."

Folks who know me well, will testify that I am not easily moved to tears, but there was something spiritually moving and defining in the experience of viewing the East window and remembering the promised return of our Lord. As I walked along the memorial bays, I kept looking up to that window, which was located so high that I could make out few details except the figure of Christ with the crown.

My good friend, Judy Rutledge, and I have often talked about how God does not blindside us with tremendous loss, if we are attuned to the message He sends us. Upon returning home and learning of the gravity of Aunt Jo’s injury and illness, I cannot help but believe that the Christ in Majesty window experience was to prepare me for our dark days ahead by impressing upon me the hope we have in Christ and His return.

Holiday Memories A RRN Tradition

Unless one is a relatively recent subscriber/ reader of this newsletter, he or she is familiar with our practice of soliciting holiday memories. Normally, several individuals share a special Christmas memory, but we are not limiting memories to Christmas. Therefore, if you would like to share a Thanksgiving or New Years’ memory, such would be most appreciated.

Christmas is this writer’s favorite holiday, largely because the traditions passed down through my mom’s side of the family placed great emphasis on this particular holiday. Mom’s dad loved Christmas, and he made Christmas the most special day of the year for his three daughters. I must have heard Mom talk about her childhood Christmases a hundred times or more, but I never grew tired of hearing her stories.

Oral history is fine, but sometimes memories infrequently recalled fade and details are lost. I would encourage everyone to write a favorite holiday memory, not so much that I need to use it in this publication, but that it might be read and enjoyed by family members of future generations. Do it today, before the memory is forever lost. It’s a lot easier to preserve a letter or notebook than a mind.

Memories need not be limited to joyous events and may include family traditions. Disappointments such as Santa never bringing this writer a pair of sidewalk skates or a new bicycle are as important to family history as the toy trucks and cap pistols that found their way beneath the Christmas Tree.

We will not be setting a deadline for submissions, this year, but, if we are to publish all contributions, we need them at least a week prior to the publication date.

Bodock Beau Laughter Central

The following may have been previously published in this newsletter. Sometimes, I confuse jokes I've saved with jokes already used. If you're like me, you can laugh as though you've never before heard them. These date back to 2002.

Female Advice

1. Don't imagine you can change a man - unless he's in diapers.

2. What do you do if your boyfriend walks-out? You shut the door.

3. If they put a man on the moon - they should be able to put them all up there.

4. Never let your man's mind wander - it's too little to be out alone.

5. Go for younger men. You might as well - they never mature anyway.

6. Men are all the same - they just have different faces, so that you can tell them apart.

7. Definition of a bachelor; a man who has missed the opportunity to make some woman miserable.

8. Women don't make fools of men - most of them are the do-it-yourself types.

9. Best way to get a man to do something, is to suggest they are too old for it.

10. Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye-opener.

11. If you want a committed man, look in a mental hospital.

12. The children of Israel wandered around the desert for 40 years. Even in biblical times, men wouldn't ask for directions.

13. If he asks what sort of books you're interested in, tell him checkbooks.

14. Remember a sense of humor does not mean that you tell him jokes, it means that you laugh at his.

15. Sadly, all men are created equal.

Q: Why don't blind people skydive?

A: It scares the heck out of the dog.

A guy wins a toilet brush in a raffle. A couple of weeks later, his friend asks him, "How are you getting on with that toilet brush that you won?"

"I can't get used to it," he replied, "I'm thinking of going back on to paper!"

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