Donna's Stone

I went to the cemetery the other day. I was going to see my aunt's grave. She was buried beside her first husband and her daughter's grave. She passed away in January. 

My cousin was just twenty years old when she died mysteriously at home. They never did find a definite cause for her death. She was married to a guy who did some awful things after she died and I guess the family decided not to leave the gravestone like the original one with her husband's name on it.

When I went up there I saw Donna's new headstone. The old double stone had been removed. I say good riddance and good for Donna. Her life was cut too short for her and she wasn't married long enough time to endure his name for all eternity. I have little doubt that Donna would have divorced her husband if she had lived long enough. I will always hate the way she passed away.

Donna deserved someone to love her and honor her. When we pieced together the last events in her life we became aware of several puzzling and heartbreaking episodes she had to endure. Her husband spread rumors and lies around the family and had us all questioning his motives. 

We will never have all the answers we were searching for but I am thankful Donna won't be going through all eternity shrouded under that other name. She was too good for him. Her legacy shouldn't be entwined with him forevermore.

If Donna had of survived she would be fifty-five years old this year. It's hard to imagine her as an old woman but it's harder remembering her as a young girl on the brink of life before it was cut short. I wonder how she would have turned out if she had lived. It's a never ending cycle. I'm always thinking about 'what if'. It's an endless game.

AS ALWAYS

PIO

PBS 8-24-14 Sunday 4:19 A.M. EDT

What A Week

I had to make an emergency appointment with my dentist this week when I noticed my gums were inflamed. My gums weren't the healthy pink color they normally are. They were a greyish pink color and swollen. I pressed on my gums with my finger and some puss oozed out. That sent me into a frenzied shock because I have worked so hard trying to take care of my teeth after surgery a couple of years ago. My dentist had used donor tissue to help build gums around my loose teeth. I could hardly wait to call his office the next morning and schedule an appointment to be checked.

Dr. Phillip confirmed my suspicions about having infection in my gums. He gave me antibiotics to take to fight the infection and told me that I was lucky because if I hadn't had the previous surgery I would have likely lost my front teeth. I will have to go back to see him in 10 days to make sure the infection has cleared up. I'll let you know how it goes.


The other day a man knocked on my front door and told me he was cutting the trees on the right-of-way and wanted to let me know he was going to cut my beautiful Magnolia trees. I saw how they cut our neighbor's Magnolia trees and told him not to cut ours that drastically. Only cut the limbs that are next to the power line. He told me they would have to cut them ten feet away from the power lines, straight up the trunk. I was furious! I cuss like a sailor when I get mad. After blasting them with my salty language, the leader of the crew promised to have someone from the electric company come down to discuss it with me.


I had trouble with the tree cutters last time when they tried to butch my Magnolia trees. I don't know what it is about me, but I'll fight anybody over cutting a tree. I had a meltdown with them last time and they told Don to contact them if we ever had any trouble again. We lost the phone number, and the name of the guy, so I guess that won't help this time. I'll just have to stand up to them and demand they don't destroy them.


We have two beautiful big Magnolia trees in our front yard parallel to the highway. The trunks of the trees are very big around so they are pretty old. We've been living here 23 years, and they were grown trees when we first came. I don't know how old they are now but they are too beautiful to be destroyed by some idiot in a lift-bucket and a chainsaw. They are my favorite part of our front yard. I have a little park underneath the Magnolia's. Sometimes I sit out on a bench, enjoying the shade, and watching cars go by.


I used to try to figure out what my purpose was in life, or what I was meant to do and the only thing I have come up with is the fact that I am not afraid to engage anyone in a battle if I think I am in the right. I get sick of having to stand up to people and argue with them about every little thing in the world, it seems, but I realized that if I don't protect the things I care about somebody is going to come along and try to destroy them. It doesn't matter if it's a tree, or a dream, or a person. When it concerns me, I don't give up without a fight.


My grandparents used to have a beautiful, majestic Live Oak tree. It was in the backyard near the creek. I've seen them hang hogs up in the branches to butcher them. When we were little we played in the hard packed dirt underneath the tree like it was a sandbox. We took little sticks to make fences and mark off our 'farms' and homes. We played with little cars and plastic farm animals creating what we thought were magnificent farms.


My grandparents threw scrap metal at the base of the old oak tree and lightning struck it once. It had a scar down the trunk of the tree. The tree still looked strong and health but my uncle and cousin convinced my grandparents that the tree was rotting and becoming dangerous. 


My grandparents hired someone to cut down the beautiful old tree before informing anyone of what they were going to do. I didn't realize they were going to cut it down until I saw a crew out there, starting to cut on it. 


I went out to my grandparents and demanded to know why they were cutting their old tree. My grandmother said that my uncle and cousin thought the tree was dying and needed to be cut down. I blew up and pitched a bitch fit about it. I kept saying "Why are you cutting the tree?" I was so mad. I've never been as mad at my grandparents as I was that day.


I couldn't stop the tree cutters from cutting down the tree and I was disgusted to see my uncle and cousin standing by with their chain saws getting ready to cut the tree up for firewood. 


The sad thing about cutting down the tree was when the Dalton Daily Citizen News sent a man down to document the cutting of the tree and wrote in an article that the three was over 150 years old! And, it was not damaged, or diseased, or rotting. It was a perfectly healthy tree that had been willfully destroyed because of ignorance and manipulation. I'll bet dollars to donuts that my uncle called the paper to get the story in the paper.


All my uncle and cousin cared about was the free wood that they would get out of the deal. I couldn't understand why my grandparents agreed to have the tree cut down. 


Years later I figured out that my grandparents must have come to despise the tree because it kept growing and being strong and beautiful, year after year, while their own bodies were weakening and becoming more useless as the years went by. They probably knew the tree would be here long after they were gone so they decided to have it cut down so that it wouldn't survive after they died. That is the only explanation I can come up with for them cutting their beautiful old oak tree down. Instead of getting a professional to assess the tree, they got a tree cutting company to come check it out. Naturally, they said the tree was unhealthy and needed to be removed.


If the tree had survived it would be nearly two hundred years old today. I am sickened to think how destructive, and disrespectful people can be towards nature. I think that is why I get so upset when I see a magnificent tree and fight for it not to be cut down.


We used to have an old pine tree in our backyard. Don wanted to cut it down but I wouldn't let him. It finally became infested with Pine Bore Beetles. Limbs started falling out of the tree. 


We had to hire a tree cutting service to remove the tree because we didn't want it to fall on the house or the neighbor's house. The beetles had sucked out all the sap and the wood was hard as a rock. It took a long time to burn up all the wood and the huge chunks of the trunk laid in the backyard for years getting harder and harder.


I hated having to cut down our big pine tree but realized it couldn't be saved. I don't believe the same rules applied to the oak tree at my grandparent's. I certainly don't believe the road crew should be butchering our beautiful, healthy Magnolia trees in our front yard. Magnolia's grow slowly and don't get close to the power lines for years. A little snip and cut around the power lines, about three feet back from the lines should take care of any problems until the next time they come through here cutting overgrowth.


I know I'm being a bitch but who else is going to protect my trees? Not the power company, that's for sure.

AS ALWAYS

PIO

That's Shocking!

Back when I was growing up we didn't have much to play with. I had the most toys since I was an only child but when me and my cousins all got together we didn't need any stinking toys. We knew how to have a good time and we didn't have to have any store bought toys to while away the time.

We could always walk up and down the creek looking for rocks or minnows or we could run through the plowed fields searching for arrowheads. We would troupe through the woods hunting snakes or blackberries. Sometimes we even snuck up to the top of the hill to sit and smoke rabbit tobacco where we could see all around and make quick our escape in case we were ever spotted. Fortunately we never were.

The most dangerous and the most fascinating game we ever devised was when someone told us about the electric fence and how you could touch it. At first we would take turns running up to the fence with one eye on the fence charger and the red light which showed when the power was on. We would try to touch it before the electric current came back on. After tiring of such game sport we decided there had to be more fun to it than that.

I have to explain that the group consisted of me and my couisins: Randy, Debbie, Stevie and Eddie. Stevie and Eddie were Debbie's little brothers. We usually picked on Stevie and Eddie because they were the youngest and the dumbest in the bunch so we devised a new strategy. We had been taught that the current could run through anything touching it and into the ground. That's why it was our job to go around making sure that there wasn't any grass or weeds touching the fence and grounding it. The electric fence ran around the pasture that was used to keep the cattle in and was only a couple of feet high.

I don't know who got the brilliant idea of making a human chain but I bet it was Randy because he was always coming up with some bright idea. We all stood in a line and joined hands and swore not to break the chain. After a few tries we decided it would be best to put Stevie and Eddie on each end of the line. The one on the end of the line would grab a 55 gallon metal drum used for burning  garbage. The first one on the line would grab the electric fence. The current would come on and pulsate through us all and then flash back off.

While our hands were joined it was hard to break the current so we immediately began fighting and squirming to let go when the power was off. We wanted to get loose before the second jolt of electricity struck us. If the chain was ever broken the last kid standing who was in the line got the full force of the electricity running through them directly into the ground. We never let go if we could help it. You should have felt our sweaty hands and smelled the fear. We were in heaven!

We didn't just play with the electric fence one time and forget it. Each and every time we all got together we made sure to show our courage and sense of adventure by testing our strength and daring with the electric fence. We were united in blood and bonded by our bravery. We were invincible! We were kids.

I still treasure my memories of those times we so foolhardily risked electrocution although I know that the current couldn't kill us now. At the time I thought we were risking our lives. I still wonder who the heck gave us the bright idea of shocking ourselves. It seems to me it was PawPaw or Daddy or my uncle, Bob. Maybe all three. I just don't remember. And I wonder what their bright idea really was. Was it designed to intentionally kill us? Now that I have kids of my own, I wonder. Humm . . .

Debbie reminded me that we also put Stevie and Eddie up to peeing on the electric fence. She said that was the best part. No wonder I though little boys looked like Vienne-Wienies. I guess anybody would if they were being electrocuted.                



PIO