I'm Late For a Very Important Date

Good afternoon and I know I have been gone, gone, gone but just busy and didn't take time to write a posting. As you can see above we went a couple of weeks ago to Roy's high school class reunion where a good time was had by all. It was in Selma, AL and was a lovely weekend spent with old friends and some new friends. We ate some good food at the St. James hotel and Selma Country Club with lots of good, sweet iced tea.

Class reunions are always interesting, especially for the spouses who did not go to the school who is having the reunion. We kind of laugh at the right time, smile a lot, and keep explaining to people why they don't remember you. It's kinda funny when someone comes up to you and says aren't you ??? and didn't we have ????? class together and did you marry ?????? After you explain you are the wife or husband of so and so, they walk away looking confused and wondering why they thought they knew you.

Of course we here down in the South just keep smiling, remain polite, and try to connect with them somehow like who is your mama and daddy, where were you raised, where do you live now and other such polite questions. After awhile you'll find something in common and the conversation continues ar they walk off muttering that you sure look like the person they thought you were.

If you really want to confuse them, forget to put on the nice name tag they provided for you. At our age, we either wear tri-focals, bi-focals are the little reading glasses on the end of our noses and we spent most of our time trying to read the names and when I forgot to put on my tag many spent their time trying to figure out who I was, who I belonged to or what in the world is she doing here. I kinda left Roy alone to do his thing and see and talk to old friends without having to worry with me so I just observed a lot. Now I can't write down a lot of my observations for I promised a couple of ladies that I would "be nice" and as a lady of the South I will keep my word.

We did have a good time and was good to reconnect with some old friends and catch up on the news of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in a few cases. Friends from the past can be interesting and that is all I am going to say on the matter.

Now back to the present. My favorite time of the year is here for we have fresh strawberries and peaches ready to eat and we have been to the farms and they are good this year. The strawberries will only be here about 2 more weeks but the peaches are just coming in. Early peaches are not my favorite for they are the small, yellow, cling peaches which make good pies, preserves or peach pickles. I don't make preserves or the peach pickles but we sure are enjoying eating them with cereal or dessert. It won't be long before the larger peaches are ready and then it will be peach ice cream time.

The strawberries are beautiful and I have frozen several quarts for the winter. I like them sliced with a little sugar and just eat and eat. When we get them from the farm I eat them all the way home just blowing off the dirt and eating them like candy for they are much better straight out of the field. Fruit and vegetable farms are wonderful places to buy the freshest produce from the fields and we have several around us.

Our raised bed garden is doing well and we will be picking yellow squash next week. The tomatoes, peppers and eggplant have blooms and the lettuce is about ready to cut and add to salads. I had a couple of potatoes which had sprouted and become quite shriveled so I cut them in half and planted them. They have grown to about 8 inches and are blooming so I am hoping for a least a few "new potatoes" later on. Like our daddy, I don't believe in throwing away anything which might grow food.

The grapefruit, orange, lemon, and blueberry trees and bushes are loaded with fruit. Blueberries should be ready within the week and the citrus next fall. If all of the little fruit stay on the tree and mature we will have lots of fruit to share with out friends and I love it. The red grapefruit were abundant last winter and enjoyed them a lot.

Well, I am back and have a couple of recipes to share tomorrow so ya'll come back to see us and be careful going home.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Class Reunion

Now and Then

Good evening. Ya'll come on into the 'Net Porch and sit awhile and have a coke with me. We have had a great weekend but I am TIRED or as our pastor said this morning, "I am plain wore out." But as he said, it is a good tired for we had a great experience yesterday which I will blog about later. We had a Community Day sponsored by our Valdosta Baptist Assc. and in cooperation with many other churches we ministered physically and spiritually to between 7,000 - 10,000 people with over 150 making a decision to follow Christ for the rest of their lives. It was a wonderful, blessed day and I will tell ya'll all about it later.

Right now I need some advice. As you see from the pictures and title of the blog I am getting ready to attend a "big event." My high school graduating class from Wilcox County High in Camden, AL is about to celebrate our 5oth class reunion. Now why would I admit to that year for it tells you I am older, advanced in years, a senior citizen, old as dirt, or any other name you want to give it? Well let my tell you honey chile, when you get my age and are still kicking high you tend to brag about it and thank the Lord for your good health.

The advice I need is how do I prepare for this big day? As you can see from the differences in the 2 pictures above, there have been some changes. The hair went from black to white (but at least I still have mine), the weight went from 98 lbs to my business and not yours (just say a few have been added), no glasses to having to wear them all the time and no wrinkles to a few. So now what can I do about it? Well, I have started to do a few things and let me share them with you to see if there is more I can do to make me look a little better.

Now I don't want to go overboard here for my brother had an experience several years ago at his class reunion which I just know is going to happen at ours. One of his classmates came in and she looked just like she had 30 years before or almost. No wrinkles, hair the same color, everything was perky and not droopy and she looked great. Sam was a little puzzled since the rest of them had aged gracefully or ungracefully and she hadn't. He wondered if somehow she had found a time warp but after questioning one of his friends who knew the "rest of the story" he found out it was not time warp but "the knife" of a skilled plastic surgeon.

It seem that this classmate had found a very, very dear and sweet friend of the opposite sex who paid for her operations. She had been lifted, sucked, tucked, augmented, and molded into this youthful appearance and she looked good. Now if I had been there, being me, I would have asked her who the surgeon was for I think maybe I could use his services just a little bit. But you know something? All that stuff she had done was going to have to be redone in a few years for gravity is a never ending downward force that keeps going just like the "Energizer Bunny."

I don't want to go to that extreme but let me tell you what I have done. I began doing my walking exercises but I think I waited too late for I began last week and the reunion is in 2 weeks. Do you think I can walk off 20 lbs. by then? I also began to eat a lot less and lower the calories big time but I'm not sure even walking till I drop and starving to death is going to do it. My next question is what to do next?

Clothes they say make the difference and I began to read articles about how our choice of clothes can make us look like we lost 10 lbs. and that's better than nothing. Do I go for the black pants with no pleats, slim pockets and tummy control or the the black dress? Neither one, for it is May in South Alabama and the black pants would be way too hot and the little black dress would be too dressy. You see I can't be over dressed for that is as bad as under dressed if you are a Southern Lady. It's like you can't wear white shoes until after Memorial Day or wear a flouncy dress to a casual affair. You have to be dressed properly or the "Fashion Police" made up of older Southern Ladies will have to shake their heads and remark on how that reflects on your Mama.

What are my other choices? Maybe dark, cropped pants with no pleats or gathers, the shirt that hangs below the waist but has a tuck at the waist. I'll have to be sure the shirt has short sleeves for the "bat wings" will be showing if I go sleeveless. Then maybe some longer, straight earrings to elongate the face and a necklace with a long pendant to draw the eye down rather than across. Of course the shoes have to be the same color as the pants to not break the color line and the shirt has to be lighter to draw the eyes up away from the hips. What do you think? If I leave the shirt unbuttoned and wear a colorful tank top this will add a little color to the faded look which white hair gives you. Maybe that will work.

Undergarments? Well, there is a big choice there. I can wear the long, spandex girdle which encircles the body from just above the waist to the just above the hem of the cropped pants but that pushes the stomach up and your legs feel like they don't belong to you. Maybe the shorter one will be more comfortable but I just can't let it all hang out! I'm Southern lady enough to want to look my best.

The hair is just going to stay white for I gave up long ago dyeing it but I am getting a hair cut before I go and Robert has promised to make me look younger. Maybe one of the moussed up spikey looks? I will probably keep the one I have all the time for I keep it short, perky and not tightly curled like n old lady. I just refuse to have the curly, football helmet, hair sprayed look. I like the short, slightly mussed sexy look.

Makeup? It's going to be dreadfully hot so a little has to go a long way or it will melt and drip right off. Of course minimal for me is a little foundation to even out the shadows, a slight brush of pink on the cheeks, hightlight for the eyes, mascara, and little bit of eyebrow pencil. I'll have to outline the lips with the special pencil so the lipstick won't bleed into the wrinkles and that should do it. Have to be careful and not look like the "painted lady" but I don't want to look all faded, washed out and washed up.

I almost bought some of that regenerist potion but do you know it was $30 dollars for a little ole jar? Just not worth it for one weekend and it said it took 30 days for you to notice the difference and I don't have that long so the wrinkles will just have to wrinkle.

Well, what do you think? Will it do? I'll be sure and take some pictures to show you the results. Now, honey, I do realize the rest have aged also and have put on few or more than a few pounds, the hair has turned grey or they are dyeing it, the hair has fallen out or they have on a wig, and the wrinkles are there unless they have gone under the "knife but I am going to do my very best to bring home the "least aged" trophy! Right, and if you believe that I have a beach side house for sale in the Okefenokee Swamp for sale at a real good price.

It should be fun and I do look forward to seeing many of my "old" friends. We have lived away from home for many many years and I have not seen some of my classmates since graduation so I hope they name tags are in LARGE PRINT so I can read them.

It's been good visiting with ya'll tonight and come back to see me and be careful going home.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach