My friend, Jean, asked me about how the baskets were used. I e-mailed my cousin, Lisa, who know everything there is to know about anything that happens on a farm. She’s just amazing! She raises these teeny, tiny little horses now. So cute. Anyway, she said this,”the baskets were used to stack tobacco on. The farmer carried the sticks of tobacco to the market. When they got there, they took the bundles of tobacco off the sticks and stacked it on the baskets to be sold. The baskets actually belonged to the tobacco market.” Just thinking of this has brought back so many fond memories.

I used to spend a good bit of time every summer in NC. I had several uncles who were tobacco farmers. I can remember getting up early with my Uncle Arthur Lee. He would let me go with him to pick up the “hands” which is what they called the workers. He would buy me a pack of crackers and a coke at the store for breakfast. I always thought I was getting away with something when I had that! 🙂 All the hands would get into the back of his pick-up truck and off we would go to the fields. Now, my Uncle Arthur Lee was larger than life in my eyes. I adored him. He would “give me a job to do”…which I am sure of now , amounted to keeping me out of the way of those doing the real work. But, he made me feel like it was a very necessary task. He even paid me. We would take a break around 10:00 or so, and go back to the same store for another coke (every soft drink was a coke) and pack of crackers. Back to the fields to work till lunch. Then, we would take all the hands somewhere for lunch and me and Uncle Arthur would go home to a dinner fit for this hard working team. It was always amazing the amount of food that was prepared for lunch every day. And always these huge biscuits. The cook was either my Aunt Marie of my Granny Merritt who lived next door. Oh, the amount of food my Uncle Arthur and his son Harry could put away. And the tea… they always had the biggest glasses I had ever seen. And they would have them filled 2 or 3 times. After lunch, they maybe would talk for a few minutes…then it was time to go gather the hands and get back to work. It was about this time that I looked for an excuse to stay at the house. Sometimes it worked, sometimes, it didn’t. I can remember my Uncle saying to me one day as I was trying to escape the work of the afternoon, “You said you were going to work, and that’s what you are going to do. You have a job to do and you are going to do it. Don’t be telling me you want to work and then quit when it gets too hot. Use those lily white hands to do something.” You better believe I marched my little self to the truck with nary another word. And I did my work…without complaining. He always tried to sound tough and gruff about things like that…but he was just an old softie! I sure do miss him. He died from lung cancer years ago, but I hold him near and dear to me in my heart still.

I remember little bits of the tobacco work. I know the workers sat on the back of combines as they travelled down the rows of tobacco. They would pick some of the leaves and lay them across the sticks…first one way and then another. It was tied on with string, I think. So that there would be tobacco hanging down on both sides of the stick. These were then hung in the barns to cure. They had heaters in there and we would have to go check the barns several times a day to be sure all was well. I can still remember the smell when you would open the doors to the barn where it was curing.

My Mom said that when she was a little girl, she and her brother and sisters would take turns staying in the barns at night with their daddy. I think they had fires then. She said that is one of one of her dearest memories. They would pick ears of corn from the fields as they went and roast them in the fire.

These are people who are so dear to me. Uncle Arthur Lee lives with Jesus, and Aunt Marie, his wife, is the one who helped us so much with Ian. She is an angel in my eyes. My Aunt Evelyn, who I have always though was so beautiful, is such a sweetheart, and my Uncle Charles is just a crazy old man!:) He’s always cutting up, and playing, but he is a dear soul. They have 2 kids, Chris and Lisa. Lisa, is the go to girl for info on anything farm related. And Chris still does some farming, I think. As a matter of fact…The folks at GAP came down to Chris’s fields several years ago to film one of their national TV commercials. My Uncle Jefferson was a chicken farmer…he had about a million or so. And his wife Aunt Della Mae…such a sweet lady. There was also Uncle Elwood who ran a little country store…the kind where the hands would go to eat b’fast or lunch, and his wife Betty. Oh and lots of other cousins:Kaye, Tony, Jeannie, Kim, Debbie, Cheryl Lynn, Woody. And now they all have kids of their own.

Family…what an all encompassing word. How blessed I have been to have only sweet memories when I hear that word and when I think back on my childhood. I realize how fortunate I have been. I can see the wisdom of my parents encouraging my sister and I to spend part of our summers there, in another world from the one we lived in in Alabama. Learning a different way of life, not better or worse…just different. I believe that all the things we experience in our lives help to mold us into who we are today. And the lessons we learn from people along the way go into our storehouse of memories to remind us of who and what we should strive for in this world.

“Thanks for the lessons…and the memories”

TOBACCO BASKET
Originally uploaded by Tonja Owens

This is one of the treasures that hangs in my sun room. It is an actual tobacco basket from my uncle’s farm in North Carolina. It is even stencilled with the name of the town. This one was actually used, and shows its wear and tear. Now that so much is automated, they don’t use these, and they are getting harder to find. I hung this little sign I made on it to remind me to go the extra mile.

Sunday after church, Alex and I left for Birmingham. He had an appointment with a new doctor on Monday morning. We had a nice trip up. Had a fine supper at Cheesecake Factory….o.k., we had some dessert, too. We then stopped by Barnes and Noble to see what was new, bought some books and mags, and headed to our motel. We both were tired, so we climbed into bed and looked at our new books. Ian came over to visit when he got off work at 10:30, but he could only stay for a short while.

We got up in time to partake of the breakfast at the motel, then headed downtown to the Kirklin Clinic. Didn’t have to wait long for the doctor. We both liked her very much. She read Alex’s previous reports, and studied his MRI scans. She was very thorough and knowledgeable. Her finding were not much different from what we had been told before, however. She said basically what we had been told by other doctors. His disease is progressive and there is no treatment. She did , however, stress to Alex that he MUST get into an exercise program to strengthen his muscles and prevent them from atrophy, as well. She wants to do some follow up nerve conduction tests on his leg muscles as well as another MRI on the neck and spinal cord. Because there are several types of cerebellar atrophy, it would be of benefit
to us to know exactly which type he has. Then IF there is a breakthrough in research, we will know immediately if it would be appropriate for him. She had nothing to offer us in the way of help for his pain. She said that unfortunately, the pain goes along with some types of the disease. It is real and excruciating she says, but there is no treatment other than what we are already doing. They did a series of blood work while we were there, and we will get the other studies scheduled ASAP.

This is not the news that we were hoping to get. As far fetched as it seems, we hoped to hear that was some great new idea or treatment we had not tried yet. But, I guess we both really knew it was a long shot. This is a hateful disease, and it strikes as it wills. There is no rhyme or reason…it just is. She said that he has had it from birth. You know, that is scary, he had this disease for 12 years and we didn’t even know it. Even though he started having migraines at age 4, we never dreamed it would escalate to this. I suppose it’s good to be in the dark about some things. But, now that we know he has this, we want to know everything, and that is not possible. There are far greater and more learned minds than ours who study this area of the brain, and THEY don’t even know. That, however, frustrates me even more. It’s bad enough to watch someone you love suffer, but to not be able to understand and grasp the workings of this cruel thief is beyond despair.

I know that there is one who knows…and understands. God knows why He allowed Alex to carry this burden. And He, alone, knows the outcome. I know and trust in the wisdom of God. I know and trust that in this universe He created, he knows Alex by name and by heart. He holds his soul in His hands and He will give him the strength to deal with it. Because we believe that NOTHING can happen to us without God allowing it, we believe He has a purpose for Alex to fulfill on this earth. God has allowed Alex to have a brilliant mind in spite of the effects of the Cerebellar Atrophy. He expects Alex to use the gifts he has given him even though it may be harder to do than for the average man. However, we also believe that whatever task God gives us, He will equip us with all we need to carry it out. Now having said all that, it’s only fair to say this, “IT IS NOT EASY!” It is so much easier to lay in bed and try to sleep and get away from it all…to let the world go by and not join in…to get angry that you have to deal with this. So I ask for your prayers, for this family. We want to help Alex in any way we can…but it comes down to him. He has to pull from his own strength and willpower to get through this trial. We can lend a hand, and offer support and encouragement…but it ultimately is his call. He is not angry, I do not want to give that impression. But he is not as forceful in fighting back as we would like. And it is probably not even fair for me to say that, because it is not me, and I can only try to understand how he feels. But, I love him with my whole heart and I want to best for him. And, I want the Father to look at him one day and say, “You did a good job, Alex.” Which is what we should all strive for.

Hi friends…I’m back. We just returned from our week at Santa Rosa Beach and Destin, Fl. It was wonderful. God has created such a beautiful world and his beaches are my favorite. The sun, the sand, the ocean, the air,…it’s the best!

We rented a house and Don, Alex, Suzanne, Adam and myself were there all week. Ian got to come down for 3 nights. Then Don’s sister and husband and daughter came for 2 nights. So we were able to have lots of good family time. We played in the pool, and on the beach, we read, I did craft projects, we sun bathed, we ate, we shopped, we slept, we played Sorry(our fav family game)….we just had a real vacation. I feel very blessed to have had this time with my family. God is good to us. Alex was able to be up and out some of the time…that was an added blessing, and I am so grateful to God for giving him some relief.

I was able to have another GREAT ADVENTURE! I got to meet Kat! Oh, this was fun. We talked first on the phone, then made plans to meet for lunch. I knew her immediately…but she’s even cuter in person! I felt at once that I had known her forever. Our conversation flowed so easily…from one subject to another. When you meet another kindred spirit who has the same values and beliefs as you, it’s as if you are sisters already. And that’s the way I felt with Kat. I know she shared a picture with you, and that will have to do…because my camera had an unfortunate meeting with a sand dune. It is in therapy even as we speak…and my hope is that it will live to record beautiful events again. So, even though I do not have actual pictures of our visit…I have wonderful memories in my heart…that I can play again and again.

I posted some pics for you to see. These were made just prior to the untimely demise of the event recorder. So, that was the last of the pics. And even though my oldest son, the professional photographer, the one with whom I shared my artistic talents, had his camera…he said HE was on vacation, too…and that included taking pics. Oh well…that’s the way it goes.

I am going to go and check on all my buddies now and see what you have all been up to. Catch you later…