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Showing posts from July, 2012

Rehearsal Dinner

January 11, 1974 Our rehearsal dinner was held in the fellowship hall at the Methodist Church in town. I remembered it had rained for days and most of the nights. I told Sammy a few months before he was in charge of coming up with the music for our wedding, thought I'd give him something to do. He took charge alright, he wanted a 4-5 piece band to play. We had to meet with our preacher ( Bro. Jack Williams ) a few weeks before, as all couples do. You know to have that "Talk" just in case you wanna jump ship now, instead of later. We ask right before we left, if we could have a band play in the church. He said, that would be wonderful..So the night of the rehearsal dinner Sammy was a little late getting there.( I thought maybe he did jump ship) Finally, he showed up with the band members and a organ. The reason they were late was, they had to wade across a creek to this guys house  to get the organ. He said, the road had washed out and they had to carry that organ a goo

Just a little talk with Jesus

Have you ever had a day when nothing goes right? Well today and tonight is mine.Tonight I'm just gonna write how I feel right this minute but later this week I'm writing about our rehearsal dinner, wedding and honeymoon. Woo Hoo, three for the price one. Wanted to put some pictures with these three stories but I gotta wait till my girls can help do that cause I ain't that smart. I'm learning a lot but I got a longgggg way to go. 'Nuff said, Look who I've been talking too. Me: Lord could I have 15 mins.with Sammy. You see, my tv is all messed up and I don't know what                                button to push.     I don't know anything about paying bills, banking, cars, retirement, or insurance. I need to know where the key to the golf cart is so I can ride his ole dog around cause he missing him too. Lord: You child of mine. Have you ever heard the saying, "If I give you an inch, you'll take a mile." Me: Yeah and your right

Calls in the night

Y'all, we lived in Sheffield, Al and we hadn't been married very long when all this happened. Same house where he lost his arm. For you, out-of- towners, O'Neal bridge is in Florence Al just up the road. Once in the middle of the night I woke up to a girl just a screaming. I lay there trying to make out what she was a hollin' about. Finally, I woke Sammy up and said, I wont you to listen to that girl a hollin' outside.It was pretty scary and she was real close, not far down the road, but I couldn't make out what she was a saying. I told Sammy I thought we needed to call the police cause she sounded like she was being raped. It was AWFUL!!!!!! Sammy: Laughing, You hadn't been around many animals, have you? Me: Nope, just dogs. Sammy: Well .....that's cats mating. Me: It ain't a girl? Sammy:Well......one of them is. Another middle of the night, our phone rings and you know how starling that can be. I answer and it's one of his

I. O... Them

Those of you who came to the funeral have heard this one, but if I'm gonna write a book I gotta include this one.HA! Oh yeah,  I'm about 14 1/2 years old in this story. In December,1970, my grandmother (Mama Helen) and her friend (Mattie Beard ) were asked to come to the radio station to sing on the air. Best I can remember there was some kind of  benefit going on where you call in and pledge money, so someone called in and wanted them to sing. I was the lucky one to drive them to the station and that's where we ( Sam and me ) first laid eyes on each other. I really wasn't interested in him right a way; my only concern was how he played those records. So that was about it for us till about March. In January on a Saturday night, this boy (not Sam) called me, and wanted to know if he could come over to my house and watch some TV. You know me I thought maybe their TV was messed up and that's why he wanted to come over. So he comes over, we sit down on the couch, and

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve in 1973 Sammy came over to the house to have that TALK with Daddy. I was up in my room and didn't even know he was in the house. Daddy was in the dining room putting a bicycle together for Lisa from Santa Claus. Sammy thought that was the perfect time to ask Daddy if he could marry me. He told me he got down in the floor and as they talked he would hand Daddy tools.Said, he had been dreading it all week cause Daddy was a little intimidating. You see he had shown Mama the ring early in the week and she said, he had better ask my Daddy first. So they are putting the bike together, Sammy said, he was sooooo nervous ( should have ask him if he practice at home first. Ha!) Apparently, Sammy did all the talking and Daddy did a lot of gruntin'.( I'd wish I could have been a fly in that room) Anyway, Daddy gave him the go ahead and Mama wasn't happy at all. They got the bike together and hid before Keith and Lisa got home. A few hours later the informers ( Keith

When Love Hit Us

Just reminiscing tonight, thought I'd share. Growing up in the Bryant household we didn't use the word Love that much. Now we always knew we were loved but that was something we just didn't go around telling each other. I guess we took it for granted; why mention it if you already knew it. I'm sure them spankin's we got was done in Christian Love. Like now this is gonna hurt me more than it will hurt you, uh! yeah! right! Well shoot, don't do it then. No, honestly y'all I can't remember ever getting a whoopin' from mama and daddy. Can't speak for the other two ( Keith and Lisa), but personally they needed a beatin', but I love 'em. I guess what I'm getting at is, we just didn't throw them I Love Yous out to our families or anyone else for that matter back then. So with that said, heres our story. Let me just say we ain't at the Iuka Drive-in, might have supposed been but you know sometimes plans can change. Hey I'm not

We're Smokin'

One afternoon after school Sammy came over to see if I could ride around with him till time for him to go to work. He was on the air from 6-10 at night so we had a few hours. Normally this wasn't allowed during the week but weekends were fine. I don't know what mama was smokin' that day (ha) but I got lucky and she gave me the go ahead. Sammy drove a yellow car with a black vinyl top, maybe a ford. I really don't know cause I don't know anything about makes and models. Heck, I don't think that kinda stuff is important,all that matters is the color and where to put the gas. Anyway, this beauty of a car smoked really bad. I don't know why and neither did he, apparently. When he got about 3 blocks away from anywhere and if you were standing outside you could see him coming. You know it didn't bother me cause I was liking that driver a lot.  Oh we rode all over Iuka that afternoon, just cruising and listing to the radio, me sitting as close to him as I pos

Have You Seen It

I know I can write some of the stupidest things but I promise all these stories are true, who could make this crap up. Just read on, you'll understand. Y'all we hadn't been married long, maybe 9 months, and it was late at night or maybe early morning hours, I really don't know cause I was asleep. Anyway, Sammy wakes me up just a hollerin' said his ARM was gone. Now,you know how it is when you are dead asleep and I sure wasn't use to anyone hollerin' in the middle of the night. Lord I sat straight up in the bed, of course I didn't have a clue even where I was at. So I looked to my right and there he was just a carrying on. I said, WHAT IS IT!!!!! He (a little excited) said, its my arm, its Gone!!!!!! Well.you know me I think its my wifely duty to get up and look for it. Y'all, I tore that room up looking for it. I'm tell ya I got busy, I yank all the covers off the bed, I looked under the pillow , under the bed, even picked up one side of the m