Shovels

What we needed here in Harper this week was snow shovels. I don't think there was one to be found. I kind of made a little game of asking people what kind of shovels they had in their garages or barns. The types mentioned were spades (a lot of people have those), grain shovels, roofing shovels, square shovel,  and trenching shovels. One guy even had a coal shovel that he inherited from an uncle up in Pennsylvania. I think next time I go to Jackson or New Orleans I will look for a snow shovel. My having one may just keep the snow away. I'm not superstitious but after our first child we gave away our crib. After the second child we gave away that crib too, After the third child we put the crib in the attic and we didn't have any more children. I'm just saying.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Ducks Only, Please

This morning when I looked out my back window I saw that Harper Lake was frozen over. I reckon the ice was less than a half inch thick, not enough to support anything larger than a duck. I did see a family of ducks skidding around on the surface, but they were gone by the time I got my camera out. I guess they were camera-shy. A few minutes ago I spotted Hazelhurst Westbrook headed down to the lake with a pair of ice skates over his shoulder. I walked out and told him a little white lie. I said the ice would not support him and I was certain about it because I saw a mother duck go walking out and the ice broke through. I retrieved her but not in time to save her from drowning. Hazelhurst bought this sorry tale. I can't imagine anyone would believe that a duck had drowned but now I know there is at least one human being on earth that would. I doubt I saved Hazelhurst from drowning but maybe I prevented a bad case of pneumonia.

ps. Somebody else caught them.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)

An Unexpected Guest

As I was telling yesterday we have snow here in Harper County. We are not equipped to handle such a thing and cars have been sliding all over the road. One of Dorothy's friends, a woman who used to play Bridge with her, had an unfortunate accident during all this confusion. A driver coming from the other direction swerved and the friend hit a curb and came into a neighbor's yard to keep from colliding with him. I happened to be looking out the front window at the falling snow and saw the whole thing. I called Dorothy and she bundled up and we walked out to see if we could help. The friend was in tears and said she had three miles to go and had been traveling for two hours just to cover the two miles from where she worked to the site of the accident. Dorothy did not hesitate to welcome her into our home. We had a nice supper of chicken and wild rice soup with avocado salad. The friend was given access to the second floor with bed, bath, and den. We did not disturb her and she slept until after eight this morning. She said she usually arises at 5 AM without an alarm but was so exhausted she right through. We had a nice breakfast and lunch and were settling down to the weather news when she received a call from her husband. He had just been able to get his truck up the hill in his neighborhood and was headed to pick her up. It took him over an hour to cover the three miles to our house. She just left. Glad we could help.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)

Preparing for More Snow

It's happening again. Snow. This is strange; going from snow every seven years when I was a boy to snow every year. And this year twice. People down here go nuts even when a few flakes are falling. I looked out the front window this morning at the traffic on Harper Lake Road. There was not five seconds that passed without another car or truck. I reckon the Piggly Wiggly will run out of milk and bread like they usually do when a flake is spotted on a windshield. Thank goodness for Dorothy. She can whip up a loaf of bread in no time flat. And the house smells good too. We have milk frozen in the downstairs freezer, all our prescriptions have been filled, and the firewood is stacked close to the back door. We are ready.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)

Wasted Letters

I got to thinking this morning when I heard people on the TV talking about the money we waste as a country. It occurred to me that if we wrote the way most people talk we could save a ton of money on paper, ink, and other printing supplies, not to mention time.  Down here hardly anybody speaks a word that ends in "ing" by pronouncing the "g". We say runnin', drivin', swimmin' etc. Now the important thing is everybody understands what everybody is saying. I mean even people from up north that do pronounce the "g's". I  mean even people from England understand. I ain't no economist or CPA so I wouldn't be able to figure out what the savings would be, but I figure is you consider all the newspapers, all the books, and all the magazines that are printed everyday and multiply that number by all the years you want to consider it might turn out to be a bunch of money. Then we can get to work on that "ph" thing people use instead of "f". And all the words that contain what they call silent letters. If we really got to work on this a lot of adjectives and adverbs could be eliminated too, just by choosing the right noun or verb to express what we want to say. Got to be runnin cause I got to go to the farmacy to colect my hart pils.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)

A Funny Guy

Clairborne Burnside is a funny guy. But not everybody appreciates his sense of humor. Actually very few people get what he's saying. This morning, as example, he came into the barbershop with a mischievous look in his eye. We all stopped what we were talking about and waited for him to speak.

He did speak. "This morning I read my Bible verse as I usually do and this is it."

Then he read to us from a little piece of paper he was holding:
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 

After a pause, he said, "I've been thinking about this all the way down here and I have determined I ain't got nothing to say. Nothing to say to none of you."

With that Claiborne turned and walked out. I reckon you got to understand that guy to see where he's coming from. One thing I know he'll be back tomorrow with more of his silliness. 

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)

Snow in Harper

It don't happen often, more now than when I was a boy, but we got some overnight snow here in Harper. Our driving was not affected that much, there may have been a little more traffic than usual with people out gawking at the white stuff. Something I noticed was things you can see with snow on the ground that you can't without it. I reckon the snow just makes things stand out more. Looking across the lake I can clearly see Dr. Hoke's house up through the trees. When the ground is devoid of snow it is hardly visible. Maybe noticeable is a better word. This morning J.K. Mullinhouse was telling how disappointed his little grandson was that school was not canceled. I did notice when passing the school the kids were out on the playground building snowmen and throwing snowballs, having fun while it lasts. I figure most will be gone by noon tomorrow.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)