Little Spooners

Norman Rockwell the Little Spooner or Sunset was my inspiration to write a story.

Two best friends sitting on a bench looking at the moon recalling their friendship.

Drugged by medication my mind drifts back in time to my youth.

I see myself and my best friend sitting on that old wooden bench which I am sure has long decayed like my youth has faded with old age.

A tiny tear trickles down my cheeks as I remember the crystal blue waters of

the lake and me sitting next to my best friend with his arms caressed with mine as he snuggles close to me.

I lay here in this dark cold room on a bed not my own, looking at the face of the clock hanging on the wall.

I am sure that the clock could tell many stories as he looks at me.

I can see my life in the clocks face just ticking away.

I wish it would stop and smile at me but it just keeps on ticking.

When I was young, I never thought much about time or a clock because all my time was spent with my best friend.

Our love and friendship were timeless.

We shared that same love with Spot.

We found Spot when he was just a pup.

His mother had died during birthing her pups.

The owner had taken the mother and her pups into the woods to leave them to die.

We found the mother and six little pups all dead except one.

We buried all of them and nursed the living pup back to health.

We gave the tiny pup the name of Spot because her coat was spotted with black, brown, white, and red fur.

We shared the love of Spot but Spot lived at my house.

Wherever we went he was there trotting along behind us.

Spot was a shorthaired Beagle.

His ears, head, and back were black and brown, his legs and part of his back and between his eyes were white.

He had beautiful big brown eyes and around his eyes were patches of red fur.

My mind now drifts to our fishing hole and how Spot responded when we would catch fish.

Spot would let us know by barking, that he was ready for dinner for he loved to eat fish but it had to be cooked. 

Sometime we would build a campfire and bake the fish just for Spot.

Sometimes I could see and feel Spot on the bed next to me. I would reach over to stroke Spot’s back but I soon realize that it was just a dream.

It is good to dream it gives us hope of a better day so we can forget about the aches and pains of old age.

My best friend and I built the old wooden bench that we sat on when we were just spooners.

We cut two young saplings for the bench legs and dug two very deep holes to place them in.

We had brought a wooden plank from home to make the seat. The plank was unfinished so we would have to be careful not to get splinters.

It was called our Little Spooner Seat.

We had borrowed a shovel, saw, hammer, nails, and a hoe from my dad’s barn to make the bench.

We had to remember to return the tools or my dad would have had a cow.

It took us all day to cut down the two saplings, dig the two holes, and put together the bench.

We did not mind and time didn’t matter.

We would sit in our special Spooner place and watch the sunset even Spot was silent at this time.

The love we had for each other was eternal and we shared this love with Spot.

Spot lived over fifteen years and it was a sad day we had to put him in the ground as if part of our hearts died that day.

It has been many years since I heard Spot barking.

Thinking back to when I was a girl of thirteen that is when we found Spot.

My best friend and I went to college in our hometown.

It took me four years to become a registered nurse.

My best friend wanted to be a Veterinarian so he had to leave town to attend college for a few years.

We married soon after he returned home but never had any children.

My best friend treated many animals and I was always at his side.

I had trained to be a nurse but went to work for my husband for we both love animals.

Spot had a special place in our hearts because he had been our first pet together.

We tried for many years to have children but finally gave up.

I guess it was just not meant for us to have any children.

We would have had beautiful children for both of us were of Irish descent.

I always had long flowing red hair that I kept platted with a ribbon tied at the end.

I was a tall lanky girl with a freckled face.

My Spooner was a handsome man he had short red hair, a freckled face, and long legs.

He had to wear suspenders to hold up his pants because he had a skinny waist.

If he bought his pants, long enough they were too big in the waist.

I dearly loved my Spooner.

I traveled with my husband to help him take care of other people’s animals and we were both too busy to have any animals of our own.

We both volunteered at the animal shelter helping take care of the unwanted animals.

One summer we volunteered to go to South Africa to help set up a veterinarian clinic and to train the people there on how to care for the wounded animals until a Veterinarian could come and take our place.

I will never forget that adventure.

We had an alligator that had swallowed a log, it was hung in his throat, and we had to remove it. That was a trip.

We had a lion that had been attacked by another lion and left to die.

We nursed him back to life.

We had a giraffe get his neck stuck in the top of a tree.

We had a rhino get stuck in the mud and it took a huge truck to pull him out.

All those memories soon began to fade as I fell into a deep sleep.

My mind seems to come, & go some days life seems so real, and other days like a dream.

Sadly, I no longer have my pet Spot or my best friend who was the love of my life for both left this world many years ago.

I never thought I would outlive my best friend but here I lay in this bed all alone with just my memories and some days no memories at all.

Growing old is not so bad but I sure would be nice to have my best friend at my side.

Little Spooners

Being someone’s first love may be great, but to be their last is beyond perfect.

2013 ~ Thursday, October 11, Day Trip to Montgomery, Alabama

Hubby and I rode to Montgomery and left the house at about 8:30 A.M.

Ate roast beef sandwiches at Arby's in Athens.

We stopped in Clanton, Alabama, and filled up with gas at Jet Pet pump number 16. The pump held 13.34 gallons at $3.30 per gallon, which cost $44.00.

Freshly baked peach pie topped with homemade peach ice cream

We then went to Peach Park, where we shared a sizeable peach cobbler ($4.75) and peach ice cream ($2.75).

Hubby ordered a drink, a hotdog ($2.75), and onion rings (2.00).

Hank Williams Museum

We went each to Hank Williams Museum, Alabama's Troubadour, at 118 Commerce Street, Montgomery, Alabama, for $10.00.

The museum is filled with Hank Williams memorabilia, including his baby-blue Cadillac, 17 Hank Williams Suits, two life-size portraits owned by Hank and Audrey, some of his boots, ties, overcoats, hats, horse saddle, 1947 Gibson Guitar, and many more items.

Hank Williams

Historic Markers inside the museum

In 1938, young country singer Hank Williams won a contest on the stage of the Empire Theatre. Born in Butler County, south of Montgomery, on September 17, 1923, Williams learned to play the guitar and sing on the streets of Georgia. Writing songs and performing, he made his way to Nashville, wherein, in 1949, his "Lovesick Blues" stopped the show at the Grand Ole Opry. Other acclaimed compositions include "Your Cheatin' Heart," Jambalaya," and "Kaw-Liga."

Williams died on January 1, 1953, and is buried in Montgomery's Oakwood Annex Cemetery.

St John's Episcopal Church

We were given a grand tour of St. John's Episcopal Church in Montgomery, organized in 1834 by a small group of pioneer settlers.

The church has many interesting memorials, including ceiling medallions, 1885 bell chimes in the tower, and stained glass window art by Charles Connick of Boston.

Capitol building's dome.

We took a self-guided tour of the Capitol building, where we saw the 52 governors of Alabama hanging on the walls. It has a cantilevered stairway that spirals up to the third floor. We saw the old Senate Chamber, the House of Representatives chamber, a sculpture of the only woman governor of Alabama, and the dome overlooking the rotunda on the first floor.

Outside, we saw the Confederate memorial, several statues, a rose garden, and an avenue of flags.

It's not a fancy building by any means.

I met a family from Wisconsin. They were meeting their daughter in Montgomery and taking his parents to Florida. We talked about the magnolia trees, the pecans that lay everywhere on the ground, and how our pecan trees at home were making but falling off the trees with blight.

Montgomery's Capitol Building

We walked up and down many streets, taking pictures of historic markers in downtown Montgomery.

Montgomery City Hall / Funeral for Hank Williams

Montgomery Theater

The Elijah Cook/City of Montgomery vs. Rosa Parks

St. John's Episcopal Church Organized 1834

Montgomery Freemasonry

Montgomery's Slave Market

Montgomery's City Hall was built 1936~37

Montgomery Learning from the Past

Brigadier General Richard Montgomery/

St Johns Episcopal Church Montgomery Labyrinth Gardens

Black Members of the Alabama Legislature Who Served During The Reconstruction Period of 1868-1879

Murphy House

A Nation Divided/Cradle of the Confederacy

Starke Alabama School 1888~1968 "Omnia Vincit labor~ Work Wins"

History of Alabama State Bar-Dexter Avenue

Court Square

Professor John Metcalfe Starke" Fessor Starke 1860~1941" / Starke University School 1888~1968 located Dexter Avenue

City of Montgomery

Marquis Lafayette

Lucien Dunbibben Gardner Twenty-Second Chief Justice - 1940-1951 next to RSA Dexter building

James Edwin Livingston, Twenty-Third Chief Justice 1951-1971

Howell Thomas Heflin Twenty-Fourth Chief Justice – 1971-1977

Clement Clay "Bo" Forbert, Jr, Twenty-Fifth Chief Justice 1977-1989

Ernest C. "Sonny" Hornsby Twenty-Sixth Chief Justice-1989-1995

The Alabama Appellate Court

Battle Flag of the Confederacy-located four corners of the Confederate flag

First National Confederate Flag (Stars and Bars)-located four corners of the Confederate flag located four corners of the Confederate flag)

The second National Confederate Flag (Stainless Banner) is located on four corners of the Confederate flag.

The third National Confederate Flag is located on four corners of the Confederate flag.

Alabama Confederate Monument 1861~1865 Consecrated to the memory of the Confederate Soldiers and Seamen ~Infantry, Artillery, Cavalry, and Navy.

Albert L. Patterson-Capitol lawn

Camellia Designated Alabama State Flower-capitol lawn

United States flag Raised over Alabama Capitol April 12, 1865 – capitol lawn

Alabama First Capitals/Alabama State Capitol-capitol lawn

Jefferson Davis June 3, 1808, December 6, 1889/Soldier Scholar Statesman-capitol lawn

John Allan Wyeth Marker-Capitol lawn

Selma to Montgomery March N. Bainbridge Street, north of Dexter Avenue

Black members of the Alabama Legislature who served during the Reconstruction Period of 1868-1879

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Organized at 1877 Dexter Ave

Grave of Hank and Audrey Williams

We rode to the Oakwood Annex Cemetery, where Hank and Audrey Williams are buried.

There were many markings on his tombstone, Including his hat, his guitar, and his boots.

1.      Now I am so happy. No sorrows or insight.

2.      Luke the Drifter

3.      Hey Good looking

4.      Kaw-Liga

5.      Jambalaya

6.      Cold, Cold Heart

7.      Lovesick blues

8.      I just told Mama goodbye

9.      Men with broken hearts

We met a young man sitting at Hank Williams's gravesite. He said, "I just had to stop and have a drink with Hank." He had a can of beer in his hand, and he was sharing with Hank.

He was traveling from Florida to Southern Virginia.

Montgomery Confederate Hospital

We rode through the Oakwood Annex and St Margaret's cemeteries, where I took several pictures of tombstones of Confederate soldiers and several historical markers.

It was a very interesting day, with lots of historic places and makers. We visited the tombstone and museum of Hank Williams, toured the Capitol building, toured St. John's Episcopal Church, and walked up and down many streets, taking pictures. We also toured St Margaret's Cemetery.
We had a safe and uneventful ride home.