I read all of your letters and always find something interesting, something that usually makes my life easier and more fun. I just had to let you know that I agree 100% with your “you really do have it all. You have love. You have money.” “You have time……..” is a little off base. I am eighty years old, so that means even if I live to be one hundred, there is still not time for me to do all the things that I have planned to do. I have resigned from my job as Mgr of 93 (at the peak) Skin Care Consultants as of Dec 31 2007 to give me more time to take care of my personal Clients. Much as I love my Clients, they are not #1 in my life. My family, friends and Church are V E R Y important to me. I have always thought my children were a gift from God and the way I treat them is my gift to God.

My children nor Grandchildren have ever thought I was an old fogy or at least they never let me know it. My immediate project for them is to write a book in answer to all their questions of “How did you ever have any fun Granny, without TV, radio or electricity? Are they going to be surprised! ! ! I have probably 2,000 pages of wonderful memories to share with them because I grew up in a Christian home with fun loving and devoted parents who thought we should have everything we wanted and should see the world. Mainly, we were taught compassion. Having been born in 1928 and my brother was born in 1930, (we had two other siblings born in 1934 and ‘37 but electricity had come to our rural area by then. ) we grew up with our first memories being of the depression. We had no idea we were poor because we had more than anyone we knew. Even then, we had it all. Everything you could think of was in our pasture to play with. Our cousins to this day remind us of what a treat it was to be able to come to our house on Sun afternoon to play. We had basketball and goal, football, softball with a real bat, flying ginny, see-saw, jumping jack, and a cable ride that consisted of a metal cable stretched between two trees with one end so high we had to climb a long ladder to get hold of the metal pipe that we held on to for our 90 foot ride. We had a swimming pool in the lower pasture. Not a concrete one as you might think, but a dug one that was dammed up with dirt and rocks. It was probably 20 X 30 feet. Large enough for us, our friends and cousins. Only a few of our cousins were allowed to get in the pool. Their parents excuse was they couldn’t swim. I think the real reason was because they didn’t have a swim suit. That didn’t hold water because we swam in our shorts and top because Mother said the muddy water would ruin our swim suits. This doesn’t count all the trees we had to climb, and the trees covered with kudzu that we loved to play on. Daddy would take all of us to the mountains to look for chestnuts, coon grapes and muskedimes, even if he had to take the pickup to pile all of us in. We spelunked plus experienced all the bluffs in sight

Why am I telling you this? I have no idea. Maybe you will need these words one of these days to help you through a bump in the road……….or maybe you will have a friend who needs encouragement.

Thanks for your encouraging and inspiring letters.

Sincerely,

Colleen