Issue #9 Mother's Day Edition
Vacation Indeed…
I think it was the early 80’s.
My mother inherited a chunk of money - just enough to do something interesting with. Like maybe a second house in case things went pear shaped.
Mom was always a “seat of the pants” sort of individual so one day she loaded up the car, complete with my younger sister, and set off on the great “find a piece of land for the end times” road trip.
I don’t know how many days it took her, or how many states were on the menu, but she found fifty-four acres on the top of a “mountainette” somewhere in Virginia.
There was a petite empty house but no “for sale” sign. Not a problem for the dynamo who is my mother. She was sure “this was it” so she asked around until someone in the area could point her to the owners.
It was complicated. Seemed the place was in the hands of something like a hundred different relatives who all had to be tracked down and convinced to sell.
And sell they did. (Never get in my mom’s way.)
So there she was with her own mountaintop, a freshwater spring, a small forest and a ramshackle house with no electricity or plumbing.
There was a lot to do down there in Virginia, furniture to move in, wasp nests to clear, outbouses to build…
Everyone in the family pitched in. Except me.
Mom was convinced it was because I was a lazy so-and-so.
This was not the reason.
The reason was the snakes.
Did I say snakes?
I meant SNAKES.
Let me clarify - that part of Virginia is populated by:
Rattlesnakes - can kill you in anywhere from six to forty-eight hours.
Copperheads - less deadly than the rattlesnake but still potentially lethal.
Water Moccasins (Cottonmouths) - much less dangerous than rattlesnakes and copperheads but poisonous enough, thank you very much.
I have always been quite attached to the version of myself that has remained snakebite free.
Sorry mom, but I’m still staying home.
Copyright© 2023 Anne Morse Hambrock All rights reserved.
That Rhubarb Again!!
I know you are all sick of pictures of my Rhubarb. But I’m serious when I say I think it’s an alien plotting to eat my entire family. It has now added flowering stalks and stands about 5 feet high…
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I appreciate the feedback and knowing how often I have struck a chord with your lives.
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