Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

If I could just stop time and make it stand still, the year 1981 would be the year. My sons were at an age to be enjoyed, and they were still a part of our home. Pat and Brian were old enough to make me mature. Steve was young enough to keep my steps quick. My life was good. Good Family, good friends. I felt fortunate to live where we do.

There are more things I was thankful for in 1981: the smell of the back room at Right Way Grocery Store; a warm bath after a hard day's work in the yard; happiness is an old windmill still running after a hundred years; my family in church on Christmas Eve; it's a pleasure to watch a candle burning on a cold night; happiness is lots of leftovers; checking the cows at calving time with the Frerichs; our female fawn sucking from her bottle before she went to the zoo; happiness is organization; a fide in the jeep without its top—a feeling of freedom, people smiling and waving at me; the smell of corn at tasseling time; the first red tomato; a drive up the back road through the Macon Hills to Abe and Donna Rae's; geese and cranes going north in the spring; happiness is a vanilla candle; aromas, like something good cooking; Steve on his job at Kahrs Farms (it helped make him strong); going to the north end of our farm to the ruins of Great Grandfather Sharp( I can just hear their everyday life, we have pictures of that home as it stood); the smell of a Christmas catalogue; happiness is a visit with Jonquil Volk; reading the mail after a long trip; oatmeal on a snowy morn; the pages of the 90's in the Congo Church Hymnal; I transplanted the lilac and the iris to our new yard from the old Sharp Farm up at the North end of our place(the poppies won't grow), I am thankful for what I did; Janea, Bonnie and Coletta for a visit; Thanksgiving at Ruthie's home; a walk in the warm water of the Republican River in October ; a new can of fresh opened coffee…ahhh good life; and, too, the smell of lilacs, fresh bread, baby powder; a walk with a friend in our creek, with its mulberries picked and pie made, and small children at our side; 20 dozen donuts made; friends and I; baseball gloves, ball bats, hot bleachers at Alma; My son's first dances at Franklin School; picnics in our creek (we had time for that); Steve, Lisa and Lana's little handprints in poured concrete; Pielstick's Gambles Store and toys sold in the basement (they wrapped them); carrots eaten on the way to church so no one's stomach growled; Duane planting our wheat field with our little tractor; Diamonds and Rust Acres(our farm); cherries picked from Janea's trees; pine cone wreaths made with brown linoleum paste; drivers license of sixteen-year-old boys (wouldn't have missed it); time going so fast; all stories for another day.

I had so many blessings to be thankful for when I started my thoughts book in 1981. It was a simple spiral notebook, and some of my first efforts at writing. I pray that God will continue to send me memories all my life that I will look back on and consider as "The Good Ol'Days." And…I am still working on how to slow life down.

Carry love and thankfulness into your new year.

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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