“I was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but spent most of my childhood on the family farm in Romulus southwest of town surrounded by family, grandparents, aunts and uncles.” The Sound of a Diploma by Dorothy Graham Clements Gast This fall my first husband died, and I relived memories of a first romance and failed marriage. […]
I Hate Privet Hedges by Dorothy Graham Gast I hate privet hedges. In the mid 1900’s privet hedges were used in southern landscapes as cheap fences. A row of bushes 3 feet apart would soon grow into a dense barrier. If untamed they might grow 15 feet high and serve as a windbreak or feeding […]
BEARS by Dorothy Graham Gast I love bears. Not the seven foot grizzlies that chase careless tourists for their picnic baskets, but the manmade fluffy varieties carried by firefighters to calm frightened children after trauma. The kind teenagers leave on their pillows each day and the kind grandmothers rest their arthritic elbows on as they […]
I Remember December 7th by Dorothy Graham Gast “Pearl Harbor has been bombed. Many ships were damaged or sunk” was the alert that interrupted the Sunday afternoon radio broadcast on December 7, 1941. We were living at 708 10th Street, Pascagoula, Mississippi, where the family was listening to the Gene Autry show, when the […]
SUPER FOODS by Dorothy Graham Gast In the 1940s in Romulus, Alabama we didn’t worry about “superfoods”. We nibbled anything that looked interesting and avoided those that were forced upon us as being good for us. In early spring we robbed Daddy’s clump of asparagus and dared each other to eat. He couldn’t understand why […]
Share this important story with your friends! Never go to Walmart go see if you are having a heart attack by Dorothy Graham Gast Early morning on April 6 after a delightful evening with friends, I felt activity in my chest. No real pain, but the feeling that a couple of large mice might be […]
Watching the sun go down by Dorothy Graham Gast My earliest memory is watching the sun set as I leaned against my grandfather’s wicker rocker while he held my little brother. I must have been three. Grandpa’s house faced west and we loved to watch the clouds change color and shape as the sun sank […]
Where Have All the Chinaberry Trees Gone? By Dorothy Graham Gast Seventy years ago the umbrella shaped chinaberry tree was in almost every county yard. The tiny purplish spring blossoms with their faint sweet smell gave way to glossy green berries hidden in the darker green leaves. Those berries were ideally suited for pea shooters […]
NEW LAND By Dorothy Graham Gast In the port of Larne, Ireland, John Cork and his wife Elizabeth, heavy with child, boarded the ship, “Lord Dundee” in high spirits. October 4, 1772 seemed more like summer than fall. James Gillis was the captain of the 400 ton ship that carried a group of Protestant refugees […]
Do you remember the book mobile? by Dorothy Graham Gast The Christmas I was ten, I asked for and received a 10 book set of reading classics. It had Heidi, Robinson Crusoe, Black Beauty,Little Women, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Tale of Two Cities, Call of the Wild, Alice in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, and Treasure Island. I read and reread these and finally began to […]
