Where I’m From

By:  Samantha Stanley 

I am from the country, dirt roads, many fields, relatives all around me.

I am from picking the family’s future meal from the garden to picking coffee weeds out of the cotton patch for punishment.

I am from big family eats at Mema’s and Aunt Nancy’s.

From the sweetest tea, grits mixed with eggs, homemade veggie soup, hoe cake, the best turkey and dressing, and all kinds of casseroles.

I am from fun family parties where we play games instead of wild ones where everybody gets drunk.

From the big, huge yard with grass that always needs cutting.

From Sunday softball games and volleyball to listening to the loud guns during the men’s regular skeet shooting episodes.

From backyard barbeques and swimming get-togethers.

I am From “let’s fix our plate in order of our age,” and I am therefore always one of the last ones to eat.

I am from the same old 20 year curtains hanging in the dining room windows.

I am from a home with 2 washing machines and 2 dryers with clothes still sitting in the utility room waiting to be washed.

I am from the family who can’t keep a pet because unfortunately they always get “run over.”

I am from “Mousersize,” “The Mickey Mouse Club” and episode after episode of “The Torkelson’s” on the Disney Channel.

From arguments with my sisters over who cheated in our at home game of “Let’s Make a Deal.”

From big Christmas’s with the biggest stockings.

From “notes” to daddy when you wanted to apologize but didn’t know what to say or how to say it.

From the daddy who LOVED to scare his children by getting halfway underneath the car and sticking out his hand and growling like a monster when you walked by.

From “singing days” in the car because my sister knew all the words to every song and I got tired of it and pitched a fit.

From my sister’s piano playing and “family” movies like the “Buttercream Gang.”

I am from a small country church where you are definitely a “heathen” if you miss two Sunday’s in a row.

From “I can’t wait to tell your daddy” to “if I say jump, you say how high.”

I am from a hard-working southern gentleman who has many talents.

I am from the best teacher in the world, one who along with that hard-working southern gentleman, taught me almost everything I know.

I am from “The Lord will provide,” and “Trust in Him with all thine heart.”

I am from a family of faith. 

From a family who most definitely believes. 

From a family who doesn’t always know the right answers but knows who to look to when they have lost their way. 

This is what I’m about.  This is where I’m from.