Life In a Small Town

You know you're getting old when the music you grew up with starts getting called "classic" or "the oldies". I seem to amaze my children when I know all the songs in a movie we're watching, or when they tell me of some "great new song", and it's a remake of somehing I knew as a kid. "Everything old is new again" seems to be an especially true sentiment for music. Growing up, I remember my mother playing records all.the.time! She loved music. Rock music mostly. (or what she considered rock back then...more pop really.) I knew all the words to such albums as and My dad was more of a gospel lover. Every Sunday morning as we got ready for church, he'd put on one of these albums. (and I do mean ALBUMS) (this one was one I really loved...) I was more into "hip" music. Some of my fave albums were and I remember knowing every song on this "golden oldie...

A house is made of bricks and stone, but a home is made of love alone. I came across Mocha with Linda's entry today and really liked it. It got me thinking about my home growing up. Really, there was more than one, but for 18 years we stayed in one house. THAT is the house I grew up in. Let's flash back, shall we? I was born in Tulsa, OK in 1967, but we lived in Sapulpa. My dad was managing the Zales Store in Tulsa, and we would get transferred around alot in the next few years. I think it went Sapulpa to Lawton, OK...then to West Memphis, AR for couple of months in the summer of 1968, where my brother was born (I think we lived in a motel most of the time we were there, then got a house, only to have to move again a month later)..then back to Lawton, OK I believe....then finally to Hot Springs, Arkansas, on Halloween night 1970, where I grew up. (but not in THAT house...there was still one more move to go.) The house I grew up in, from ages 5-22 was a 3 bedroom brick house on...

ahhh...that wonderful time of year! May is so full of promises...graduations, end of the school year, (a wedding for me!) But it's also so full of love! Spring has sprung, and the faint music of golden oldie love songs waft through the air. It's PROM Month! I remember proms. I went to 4 during my highschool experience. Well...3 official proms and one psuedo-prom. 1982: My 9th grade year I was dating Scott. He was a junior at a different school. We did not go to his prom, but rather went to an "alternate prom" sponsored by his church and several other churches in our area. He was a Church of Christ member and they hosted some sort of thing at the CoC college several towns over..a lock in thing. I had to borrow a dress...and hated it. Yellow...knit..but it was all we could come up with. I don't remember much about that night (which was 30 years ago now) but I'm sure it was fun. 1983: My sophomore year I wound up going to Prom at another school with a friend. Bor...

If you've read me very long at all, you know that my familiy celebrates everything. The smallest event turns into a grand celebration. Any reason to break out the good china! Growing up birthdays were always a big deal. Not in the *spend lots of money on ponies and clowns* way...but in the "make the birthday honoree feel special* way. My mom would prepare the guest of honor's favorite meal, we'd eat off the good china, and there was always cake! Still is! As for guests, there was always a family celebration, and then later a "party" with our friends. Growing up, my grandparents rarely made it to family birthdays b/c we lived many states away from both sets. We are in Arkansas, they are in Kentucky and Nebraska. BUT...that's not to say we didn't have local grandparents. We are the kind of people that just "monitor and adjust"...we make do with what's available. We adopted a set of grandparents...a couple from our church, about 20 yrs olde...