Honoring Mothers Everywhere
 

"Mothers' Day" is upon us and with the recent loss of my own mother I've been reflecting a bit over the last few days and have been thinking of the mothers in my life.

1. My Mother ca. 1960 or so.

2. My wife Kathy's, mother.

3. My wife, Kathy, the mother of my two daughters.

4. My daughters, Jen and Melissa, the mothers of my four grandchildren.

Here's to the Mothers in my life.

.

My own Mother has been gone since 1977 and I still miss her every day. She was born in Eastbourne, England in 1903, went to convent school in Nottingham and emigrated to the U.S. in 1920. She came with her Aunt, who was a Registered Nurse, supposedley on a visit, but only returned to England in in 1950's for a three week visit. She worked with The Southern Railway for twenty years and then with Troop Movement at Fort Jackson, South Carolina for the next thirty. She was the epitomy of a British Lady and remains the
essence of love seen in my daughter and grand daughter. I long to see her again in God's Kingdom in the next life. There is a Balm in Gilead and it is spelled MOTHER.

Best Regards, George

"Balm in Gilead" - I need some education - We have a softwood tree here in Michigan called a Balm of Gilead. What is 'Balm in Gilead?

Thanks.

my hats off to the MOTHERS out there... those past and those still serving thier familys here...GEORGE you put tears and thoughts in my mind just now THANKS...TRULY LOOKING FOR THE BALM OF GILIED... CHARLIE

See Jeremiah 8:22

I hold a special prayer and sadness for the mothers who have suffered through the most heartbreaking thing in this life, loosing there child. Godspeed to them. ch

John: I was referring to an old negro spiritual that goes: "There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to cure the sin sick soul, &c" As James pointed out it comes from Jeremiah 8:22.

Best Regards, George

I am familiar with Balm of Gilead - the tree puts out a resinous sap which allegedly has healing powers. (Frankly, the tree we have in MI is pretty worthless, unless you are a beaver.)

These images are salvaged from a suitcase filled with very old pics of my wife's family that had been in a flood decades ago. It was destined for the dump but I grabbed it and finally dealt with it last year. Here are some mothers that made it possible for me to find a sweetheart many generations later.

Those are some great pictures Jack. You did the right thing to save them. Successive generations often have no idea who they're looking at so they often just trash the pictures. In my family we always have made sure to write the names or places on the backs of the pictures. We'll see what happens in this age of digital pictures...

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:

Francis: Do you remember "The Darktown Poker Club" & "Preacher and The Bear" by Phil Harris? Two of my favourites.

Best Regards, George

I sho 'nuf do!~!
 

I love the Preacher and The Bear- I might guess that old Phil read a bit of Mississippi's prodigal son and author- that being Wm. Faulkner- Phil wrote that great ditty and made it a big hit "back in the day". He was no small potatoes as a wingshot- hunted dove and quail with a M12 28 gauge and usually outshot the others in the group using 12 gauges.

George- you do indeed reflect your late Mother's English heritage- as you spelled favorites with the added "U", also found in honor and color-If you haven't yet seen the Oscar winning movie "The King's Speech" by all means, do so. One of the best made movies I have seen since "Patton" and "The Godfather -both I and II)--a great turning point in our World History- I often have wondered what might have happened had not the prince of Wales abdicated to marry the American double-divorcee- Wallace Simpson.
The movie portrays her as an absolute *&^%$- like Margot Macomber in the best of two short stories based in Africa Hemingway wrote--Thanks for sharing with all of us your great memories of your late Mother- she was indeed, a true Lady!!:bigbye: