After the Southern ,instead of flying back north to Vermont I continued south to Naples ,FL to visit my mother in an assisted living facility . We spent 4 days visiting, she will be 100 years old on Oct. 9th ,2011. I my add she is in fairly good health . Allan

A friend of mine's Mother lived to be 101. When she was asked what did it take to get to 100, she said "You get to 99, then be VERY, VERY careful"

Allan, Your Mother's age lends credence to the last line of a poem I remember...

"Long life to her, for there's no other
Can take the place of my Dear Mother"

Balm-
 

-- many dairy farmers for years have used a product called Bag Balm- a healing compound- from the Bible it was derived from the sap of the Balsam trees from Mt. Gilead. May be mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah FYI--:bigbye:

Mine also, my friend-
 

My Mother also passed in 1977- one month before her 60th Birthday in Nov 1917 (my birthday is Nov 1941). My Mother had a great 'spur of the moment' flair- like somewhat the Lady author Erica Jung- she had a "fear of flying", whereas my boyhood dream was to be a pilot- but she loved to fly kites with me, and later my gas engine remote control airplanes- I was quite the model plane builder back in the "Stromberg Kit" days of the 1950's- lotsa balsa and banana oil dope on my workbench-- So to remember her, every Mother's day, I get a helium balloon with a "Happy Mother's Day" logo, cut the washer weight from the string, and let it get airborne towards the clouds until it is out of sight-

When Nazi Rudolph Hess bailed out of Germany in 1940 in a ME 109- he parachuted out and landed in a farm field in Scotland, and was rounded up by area folks armed with pitchforks- Several of the men, recalling Dunkirk, wanted to string him up- but a wife interceded- she said "After all, he is still some Mother's only son"--and he spent his life in prison instead.:bowdown:

So we "Leave it to beaver"??
 

-- There are several ways to remove resin and tree sap from your bare hand(s) but the best way I have found is to take a big glob of smooth JIFF peanut butter and smear it on the sappy area, rub for about a minute and form a ball, and it will lift the sap off- next time I have to do this, I'm gonna bag that sappy ball and take it to a nearby beaver pond (one of my wood duck and teal early season hunting spots in Oct) and lob it onto the top of a beaver's abode. If you are kind to the beavers, the beavers will be kind to you--:bigbye:

"There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin sick soul.

Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work's in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again.

Refrain

If you can't preach like Peter,
If you can't pray like Paul,
Just tell the love of Jesus,
And say he died for all."

Refrain

Best Regards To All........George

Amazing. What other gun website could morph into a recitation of Negro spirituals. Can I get an AMEN for that?

AAAAAAAAMEN, AAAAAAAAMEN, AMEN, AMEN.............George:bowdown:

Another thing I like about the South-
 

- to borrow from the late, great Phil Harris--As an avid Blues and Bluegrass guitar player- so many great Blues songs and musicians come from the Delta region- and many are indeed based on the old Negro spirituals- the repeat of the first line as the second (called a tag) and a first to third to first chord phrase repeat (called a turnaround) all are based on that great tradition of hymn singing- recalls to my mind the great stories the late Robert C. Ruark wrote about his "raisin' up" with the Negroes in the 1920's- near Wilmington NC--and the fabled "Willing But Slow" railroad--then Jimmie Rodgers, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and others learned from such Negro Bluesmen as Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters- Bob Dylan, who will turn 70 on May 24th this year described Blues music the best-IMO anyway- he said that playin' and singin' Blues is like wearin' an old worn out pair of pants with no pockets-:bigbye: