Well apparently the monster pig was a former pet that was named ‘Fred’. It was a Christmas gift to Rhonda Blissit in 2004, the year Hogzilla was killed.
An understatement from the former owner: ‘Stone said Blissitt told him the pig had become a nuisance and that people were often frightened by it when they came onto his property.’
We went to eat with my in-laws at a new local restaurant a few Sunday’s ago. Great part of life in a small community is that you know everybody…and are probably related to a good bit of them. The restaurant is owned by some of my wife’s kinfolks and my daughter of course recognized them. As we were sitting at the table churches dismissed and people poured into Lucille’s for lunch. (Having an early service we get out in time to get seated before the other churches let out. One of my favorite games to play is guess the denomination of the group coming in, based in large part on how long after 11:00 they arrive.)
Anyway, as folks were coming in my father-in-law explained to our 5 year old little girl who folks were, which for a good many of them was an explanation of how she is related to them. She was amazed at how she was kin with most of the town. She’ll probably grow up thinking ‘cousin’ means citizen of Colbert, Co. Alabama.
We’ve had a good weekend. My mom came to visit, great to watch my daughter play, and develop a relationship with grandparents.
My neighbor’s donkey had a baby this past week so we got to go see the new addition to the community. He hasn’t picked out a name yet. He’s been in the habit of naming all of his donkeys after his in-laws.
It has been beautiful so I took some pictures around his pasture, here’s one I really liked, along with one of the donkey and it’s mother.
Turns out that the man whose picture I used for my last post is the grandson of the Rev. George Gilbert, who was an Episcopal Priest in Connecticut. Rev. Gilbert wrote a column for the Rural New-Yorker entitled ‘Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks’ for 25 years.
He was the subject of a 1939 Time article. His life story was published by Harper and Bros. in 1940, Forty years a country parson. I’ve added it to my Amazon wishlist.
Monday’s turn out to be a pretty good day to spend the evening with my daughter. We went fishing again today, apparently the Barbie fishing rod and worms from the flower bed did pretty good. She caught 2 bream, I caught 0.
We’re having beautiful weather today and I got to enjoy my calling to be a father…I took my daughter fishing in our neighbor’s pond. We didn’t catch anything, we did see one jump at the plastic worm I managed to tangle around some limbs. But we spent some time together and saw a cocoon, a turtle and a nice sunset. It was a nice reminder as I work to minister in my vocation as a pastor that I also have a vocation as a father.
If you live in Alabama you’ll be aware of an odd relation between the weather and the grocery store. For some reason, if there is the slightest possibility of snow (and by snow we mean any visible flakes, regardless of whether they ‘stick’ or not) you must rush to the grocery store to buy a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. It doesn’t matter if you are a dairy farmer on a no-carb diet — it’s manditory. (I’ve often suspected the owners of grocery store chains of being in cahoots with the weathermen at local stations.)
Anyone who has lived as far from such stores as we do will know that when you go to town you have to get as much of your errands taken care of as possible. If it takes 20-30 minutes to get to the nearest store you try to cut down on the number of trips you have to make to town.
So a few weeks ago they were forecasting snow, it also happened to be the day a funeral was being held for someone who had lived in our community. My wife came in laughing about how many people she had seen in the grocery store buying their bread and milk. All of the people she named had been to the funeral and on the way to the graveside service…half the funeral procession, including the preacher, had made a detour through the Piggly Wiggly!
You might have seen this floating around in emails. I’ve seen it a couple of times, but it’s pretty funny and very true.
20 Ways To Determine if you are a real Alabamian
1. You can properly pronounce Arab, Cahaba, Opelika, Sylacauga, Oneonta, and Eufaula.
2. You think people who complain about the heat in their states are sissies.
3. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel.
4. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door, but by the availability of shade.
5. Stores don’t have bags or shopping carts, they have sacks and buggies.
6. You’ve seen people wear bib overalls at funerals.
7. You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.
8. You measure distance in minutes. (It’s about 5 minutes down the road)
9. You go to the lake because you think it is like going to the ocean.
10. You listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit.
11. You know cowpies are not made of beef.
12. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date .
13. You have known someone who has a belt buckle bigger than your fist. lol
14. You aren’t surprised to find movie rental, ammunition, beer, and bait all in the same store.
15. A Mercedes Benz isn’t a status symbol. A Chevy Silverado Extended Bed Crew Cab is.
16. You know everything goes better with Ranch Dressing.
17. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how to multiply.
18. You actually get these jokes and are “fixin’ ” to send them to your friends.
19. You have used your heater and air-conditioner in the same day!
Finally:
You are 100% Alabamian if you have ever had this conversation:
20. “You wanna coke?” “Yeah.” “What kind?” “Dr Pepper”
Whoever came up with these was dead on.
I met Dr. Tom Whatley, currently interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Tuscumbia, this evening. He made a great comment about country churches. He said that when he was in seminary, when a nice Mayflower moving truck with professional movers came to take a new graduate to a church he would tell everyone to pray for the new preacher, that he was in for a rough time. When a young minister going to their first call was picked up with somebody in an old cattle trailer covered in hay and manure he would say don’t worry about him, he’s going to be alright.
Amen