Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Talking to My Daddy!

 
Even when my Dad is wearing glasses, I think you can still see that twinkle in his eyes!  (And when he was a young man, he didn't wear glasses, he thinks he wore them in that  photo above just to be funny.  Yep, that sounds like him.)
 
When we were at the Sunflower Festival last year, he waited a while to get on this toy tractor just so I could take this photo!
This is what my Dad looks like on his real tractor! "Nothing runs like a Deere".  Daddy is plowing his field to plant peas!  (Not what we call English peas...no, they are called field peas and there is nothing better than to eat them with a big piece of Daddy's onion cornbread!)  I took this photo just a few weeks ago.   (And if you are wondering, my Dad is 87 years old!)
I took the photo of my Dad's garden sometime in early summer.  See the buckets with the sticks in them?  That is to deter the deer from his vegetables.  The deer have been hunted for so many centuries now, that it must be ingrained in them to look out for anything that looks like a gun!  And also,  Daddy just told me that he likes to splash some men's cologne around the edges of the fields.  Once again, that will deter the deer since they know from that smell that a hunter could be after them....  Why does my Dad do this?  The deer can come in and just eat so much.  He has also set up some electric fencing too but he says that he really likes to use the sticks and the men's cologne.

OKRA!  It is so wonderful when it is freshly cut from that stalk.  Before it turns into that pod of okra, it is such a pretty flower, especially against a Georgia sky!
Now, I love talking to my Dad and learning his wisdom in the garden.  I just wish you could hear him speak!  He has a North Georgia mountain dialect, and I have it too when I am speaking with him...I had to lose it when we moved to the Atlanta area as a kid, lose it or get ridiculed or beat up!  As my grandmother used to say, "I hope YOU'UNS are being good!"  
 
I found a video of Wendy Bagwell telling a funny story and he sounds a bit like my Dad, so much that it is why it is here and also, I think it's funny!  (I have written of Wendy Bagwell before, he was a gospel singer...Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters!  And my Aunt Jean cut a record with him once, "When The Wagon Was New".  If anyone ever finds that record, let me know!)  Enjoy!

28 comments:

  1. Nice to see your dad , aren't dads great !
    Wendy is funny :)


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    1. Yes! My Dad is great and he's funny too, and he loves to hear stories too!
      I'm glad you liked Wendy! "Well, you had time to bring me that little cracker, didn't you?" That made me laugh!

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  2. Your Dad still has the same great smile, then and now!

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    1. Yes, it is still the same!
      Thanks, Debra, you would love to hear his stories too, he's very funny!

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  3. He's doing really well - I'm glad he can still garden and drive tractor! ("Drive tractor" is a Midwestern phrase.) :)

    What a lovely photo of okra - I had never seen the blossoms before.

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    1. Drive tractor, that's so funny, I didn't know that was an expression! Yes, he still can!
      I always take photos of the okra blossoms, I love them!

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  4. Memories with your father are priceless. Keep them close always.

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  5. If I had a glass of champagne handy right now, I'd raise it to your Dad! But as it is only 7.00 in the morning on a work day, my "The Sims 2" coffee mug will have to do :-)
    You know how I love reading about your Dad - if I didn't have mine, I would want yours, he he
    From the size of your Dad's "garden", it could also be called a vegetable farm, couldn't it. As soon as your vegetable beds are big enough to be worked by a tractor, it's a farm!
    Wendy... and here's me always thinking Wendy is a woman's name (think Peter Pan's Wendy).

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    1. He would love that you toasted him with your coffee mug! My Dad has so many kids, I am sure he would not mind having one more! :-)
      I keep telling my Dad that he needs to sell some of his vegetables at some of the local farm markets, but he won't do it...he cans or freezes everything or else, he gives it away to lucky folks like me!
      And remember that I spoke about Wendy Bagwell before? I think Wendy is short for Wendell! Before Peter Pan, I don't think that Wendy was a name at all, I think J.M. Barrie made it up!

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  6. It's wonderful that your Dad is doing so well at 87 and still enjoys his gardening. I didn't know there were different kinds of peas. I do learn something new every day!

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    1. Daddy has a few health problems but then, he is 87! And peas! Goodness, there are really lots of different kinds of fields peas...my Dad grew some pink eyed purple hull peas this year and canned some and gave them to me! Don't you just love that name?

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  7. Your Dad sounds like such a delightful man! I'm glad he is living his life with such enjoyment. There are two records on ebay called When the wagon was new by Umy and the Goodtimers, but isn't that another group?

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    1. Thanks, Kristi for trying to find that song for me, I appreciate it!
      It really needs to be Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters....featuring Jean Grooms singing "When The Wagon Was New". I hope to find it one day!

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  8. What a wonderful garden! As much okra as we eat around here, i've never seen it growing.

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    1. You know you have to have okra to make gumbo! Isn't it beautiful? I love to see it growing!

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  9. Love the twinkle in your Dad's eye! That quite the garden he has, and onion cornbread sounds delicious.

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    1. We have the best onions in Georgia, the Vidalia onion, can you get them there? Chop some up and put in your cornbread, the next time you make some, it's very good!

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  10. PS - love the header. Is that Atlanta in the distance?

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    1. Yes! That was taken this past weekend from the top of Stone Mountain and that is Atlanta in the distance. It's usually clearer than that but this was early morning and there was already a heat haze on the horizon!

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  11. I love this post, Kay...a love insight. I feel as if, in some small way, I've gotten to know your father. He looks like a fine gentleman with a lot of wonderful stories to relate if those sparkling eyes are a hint. :)

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    1. You are absolutely right! My Dad has some great stories and many of them are very funny! He likes to listen to a radio station here and one of his favorite characters is the "Professor of Useless Knowledge". He loves to tell me what he learns from that radio show!

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  12. I love your posts about your Dad - he sounds such a character and now I can imagine him talking to you after listening to the video. I'll have to play it for my daughter as she loves mimicing American accents! Thank you for the photo of okra too as I've never seen it growing. I had no idea it had such pretty flowers. x

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    1. Thank you, Julie! You would love my Dad, he IS a character!
      I am amazed at how well the British can mimic the American accent. I can't, I am just like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins! LOL!
      Happy to share okra flowers with you, I do love them very much! xx

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  13. You've made me sit here and reminisce in my thoughts about conversations with my Dad. Pleasant times.

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    1. Yes, Graham, recall a happy memory as often as you like, you can never wear it out. ;-)

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  14. Those are such wonderful memories.

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    1. Thanks, John. Hope you doing well these days.

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