News from the Mountain

By CAROL GUNTER

We have welcomed in a New Year 2014, and if you are like me, you have made some New Year's resolutions. My main one is serving Jesus and letting others know just how great he is.

The other resolutions will probably just fall by the wayside as they always do. Promising to go somewhat lighter on "Bobby Taylor" this year. After all, he did get me the box of crackers and even gave me a diet Dr. Pepper drink for Christmas. Saw Bobby's picture in the Courier (page 9) last week. Guess he will be thinking Debby and I will be wanting him to autograph our copies of the paper since he is somewhat of a celebrity now. If it will keep peace and harmony at the store, of course, we will do it.

t was really a pretty good year for me as I also received the tuna from Debby and Clyde gave me a birthday I will never forget, and he also supplied some molasses and butter for me.

Got to chit chat some with Mouse/ Jeff Keaton at the store the other day. He is the same old mouse. Mama Mouse / Betty doing okay he said. She was organizing a wedding that day. I have got to say hello to the other Jeff and glad he likes reading the column.

Saw Diane Evans and Chloe Evelyn Bogle this evening. They both were doing pretty good. Got to talk with Edith Miller for a little while also.

Please keep Carlon Melton and Mai Nell his wife in prayer. They are somewhat better but still need our prayers.
Christmas for some reason got here before I hardly knew it for I usually send out Christmas cards but failed to get that done. My second resolution will be to get Christmas cards ahead of time and have them ready to mail by December 1st.

Was at the courthouse yesterday getting tags for my truck and saw Ruth Murphy there. Sure was happy to see her as I hadn't seen her in a while and hope here and Med get to be at our Gunter Reunion in 2014. They are like family to me.

Have to tell you a funny story about dad and mom from a lot of years ago. In the kitchen, they had this stove that you could burn wood in to cook the food on top of. Well, for some reason Mom put his large 1 liter Pepsi drink in the oven the night before I guess to have for safe keepings until the next day. A fire was started in the stove the following morning and daddy was sitting in a chair there close to the stove to be warm, while he was reading the newspaper. It dawned on Mom when she heard the spewing sound form the oven what was about to happen with the drink she had forgotten to get out of the oven. She hollered at daddy to get out of there and daddy looked up from the paper and asked what and right then the drink exploded and the oven door blew open and glass went everywhere and where daddy was sitting ashes came down upon him and he was covered from head to toe newspaper and all! No glass hit daddy or mom but daddy from what I was told was sure a funny sight to look at with all those ashes on him. I know God made sure they didn't get hurt and Mom vowed never to do something like that again. Quite a cleanup took place for daddy and a lot of pieces of glass found everywhere.

Speaking of Mom, as I have told you she passed away Christmas Eve 2008 at the age of 94. She was a true role model for me. She loved her flowers and oh how she loved her chickens she raised from baby chicks. The hen house housed quite a lot of chickens over the years. It was kept really warm for the baby chicks she ordered through the mail back then and were delivered by our mail carrier in a large thick cardboard container with round holes in it. I know she would get around a 100 chicks at a time. I want to think she might have ordered more than that, but once again my memory is not serving me so well at this time, so I am not sure. She never lost very many baby chicks over the years. I can remember those cool evenings and being in the hen house with the wood burning stove watching all those baby chicks so fuzzy and cute scurrying here and there and they seemed so happy. Those long trays of their food and I think it was quart bottles of water that were turned upside down and a round top screwed on that made the little moat of water for the little ones to drink from. Later on when Mom quit raising the baby chicks, she had to get those 4-H chickens each year from some of the kids that raised them and sold at the court house.

So many people Mom came in contact with and they would always help her out in helping her get those chickens. She made quite a lot of friends along the way. With having chickens, Mom needed straw for the hen nests and that is where Jerry Powell came in. a man so well-respected by everyone who knew him. Mom would get the straw she needed from Jerry. After Mom passed away, Jerry called me, as he saw she had passed away in the Courier. So much going on at Christmas for everyone, and he hadn't heard about Mom but he wanted to let all of us know what a wonderful lady she was and how sorry he was for our loss. Jerry, at that time, had cancer that he had been battling for quite a long time. he didn't know if he could win the battle with cancer, but he was not bitter as he told me God had always been so good to him in letting him do the things he wanted to do in being a farmer and tilling the soil, being up so early in the morning hours, and the smell of the earth that had just been plowed and tending crops late in the night. He had been blessed with a beautiful and loving family but most of all it was the Lord who he was quick to give so many grateful thanks to. His grandson there on the floor with him as he was talking to me. Never will forget Jerry as someone Aubrey as such a hard-working Christian man and quite an example for all of us to follow. That kind of man like Aubrey will never be forgotten.

If you have any news for the column, just give me a call at (615) 563-4429.
Give, and you will receive. You will begiven much. Pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.
Luke 6:38