Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

September 13, 2006

Today’s announcements

Today is the anniversary of Bob Johnston and wife, a friend and publisher of Starfish and Sandolar online newsletters.  Please take the time to send them an anniversary card from the Storytime Tapestry gang b-kjohnston@comcast.net:

We also wish a very happy birthday to our gifted poet, Mary Dees: marlena7694@yahoo.com

Now onto the good stuff!

Today’s Queue Stories

~**~**~

I REMEMBER

Sharon Bryant

Someone asked me today if I remember where I was at when I heard about the first plane striking the Twin Towers in N.Y.  I remember very well.

I was sitting here at my computer and had my television on in the room.  I was writing a story when I turned my head to the TV and saw the Twin Towers.  Suddenly I saw a plane coming in low.  I thought it was a movie they were making, and knowing how tricks are done in television making, I knew the plane was too low to miss a building. 

(I've always wondered why a camera was fixed on the Twin Towers even before a plane appeared) 

Then the first plane struck.  I thought to myself, "What a movie this is going to make, imagine, a plane hitting the WTC."  It was a couple minutes later that someone screamed on the TV that the Twin Towers were struck.  I still thought it was a movie they were doing, until the bulletin came over from my network saying what happened.  I remember I picked up my Nextel and radioed my husband and told him.  He was as shocked as I.

I was watching all that was being broadcast when I saw the second plane, and then I knew.....I knew something was going on that had never happened in my lifetime.  I knew it was going to be bad, and my stomach started churning.  I was yelling into my radio to my husband, "Someone's hitting N.Y. and they're hitting it bad." 

Like the rest of this nation, I stared in horror and shock at what was happening.  I couldn't believe it.  I couldn't believe people would or could act with such force, such horror and such hatred to do something so horrible.  Stories my family had told me about Pearl Harbor crossed my mind in a split second.

The world today is not the same world that I grew up in.  The people have changed through the generations.  There is too much greed today.  So much hatred.

I don't believe that is why all of us are put on earth.  I believe we have a purpose for being here.  I do not believe it is to hurt children, burn buildings, kill and torment people, and destroy lives in any manner.    Sadly, there is too much horror today in this world.

Sharon Bryant

1946@bellsouth.net

Poetry Section

~**~**~

Dear Carol,

We have this little preacher that drives 160 miles to bring a short sermon to the folk

who live in our manor nursing home.  He's been at it for well over ten years.  August 3,

his 81st birthday and I wrote this to give him.  He is adapt at incorporating his human living days into his sermons, and everyone likes it so well.  He prints out all the scriptures and

lets each person have one.  I have made reference to some of these items in the poem, so it might not be what we'd like to share with the world, but on the other hand, it might and so

I'll leave it to you.  Here is :

Brother Jim

Joan Clifton Costner

Brother Jim, dear brother Jim!

Don’t know what we’d ever do without him!

Every week he comes just like "old faithful"

With printed out sermons and we’re all so grateful!

Brother Jim makes it all so simple and plain ,

How much there is to lose ~ and how much to gain ~

He lets the Lord’s love show through each and every song ~

Makes us feel important as we sing-a-long.

Now, Jim’s not just a preacher, but a farmer/rancher too,

And uses all experiences as teaching tools...

Like how smart old cows like Teeny get (opens up a gate!)

And the ones that figure out where the ‘lectricity ain’t!

Brother Jim - He knows a bargain, and grabs it up fast!

That ring he put on Juanita’s hand will last and last.

I bet his kids can still recall that pancakes do that too,

He made them all ~ on just one day ~ to last the whole week through!

He’s been a lot of places, done a lot of things,

Won a purple heart - wrote the song we sing;

Jim’s put his arm around the shoulder of a friend who’s blue ~

Let a tear drop fall as he’s prayed for you.

He comes a lot of miles just to do the Lord’s biddin’

And he sure tells it plain - not a bit of it hidden.

If you ask him to pray - he does! - and takes it home too,

So you know your burdens shared and he’s prayin’ with you.

We really hope he has a birthday filled with many thrills...

Hope we can convey how all our hearts feel ~

And we’d like to ask the Lord to keep an eye on Jim’s big toe...

He likes to put it on the floor and...go man go!!!

So, maybe ~ slow it down a little, ‘cause of someone’s love...

Wait a little longer ‘fore ya join the ranks above...

We’re pullin’ for you, Brother Jim, now stick around;

And let up on the lever, don’t put the hammer down!

For we need you, don’t you see, to help us hold out to the last

And we’d like to help you see another birthday get past.

Keep our eyes on Jesus, with every word you say

And we’ll be back next week when you pass our way...

We love you, Brother Jim...

Happy Birthday...

Joan Clifton Costner

copyright 2006

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant...."

P. S.  He's getting notorious for a little fast driving on a lone highway out here.

Has received quite a few "warnings" and even a real speeding ticket.

Once he brought a couple of newborn kids (goats) for the rural people to touch

and see.  When he took the twins home, the mother refused to take but one of them

back, so he had to raise the other on a bottle!  :-)

Joan Clifton Costner 

jody@ptsi.net

http://underhiswings0.tripod.com
http://www.heavenlypoetry.com

~**~**~

GRANDMOTHER’S PLACE

Joan Clifton Costner

Grandpa gone, and Grandma sad -

She came to share the best we had.

My Dad, (her son) and Mom and me -

She shared the house with just us three.

Now Grandma couldn’t hear real well

And...you had heard the tales she’d tell.

Her old hands shook - she spilled her peas

At suppertime, upon her knees.

That bothered Dad and Mom - (not me

For I was very young you see -

Not "set", they say, upon my ways

As people get in older days.)

One night she spilled her milk again,

And Dad and Mom with faces grim

Set her a table - all apart,

As I looked on with anxious heart.

We ate in peace and quietness -

Relieved of our "unpleasantness"....

But she cast anxious glances at

The table where we privileged sat.

I thought it must take grown up minds

To understand this act unkind -

Perhaps my Grandmother would learn

To listen, use care - wait her turn.

....One day I sat upon the floor

With building blocks I did adore,

When Father passed and stopped to ask

The end result of my small task.

"A table, Father, then you see

It’s where, when I am grown, you’ll be

To eat with Mother - when you are old

And your hands tremble - fail to hold

Your food securely on your fork -

When you can’t cut that piece of pork...

Or maybe spill your milk or tea -

Or tell again the same story."

At suppertime, I raised my eyes

Delighted with a great surprise,

For Grandmother sat... in pleasant ease

At our fine table...looking pleased.

Restored, forgiven, with Patience King!

My parents, both, to her side bring

Each bowl, and kindly serve her well -

A gracious lesson Love can tell.

 ©© 2000 by Joan Clifton Costner

jody@ptsi.net

Under His Wings Heavenly Poetry

Joan is a Heavenly Inspirations Author.

Readers Feedback

A very happy birthday to David and Robert...  Many happy returns of the day!

Barbara Weymouth

For B.J. Cassady – Re – A Season For All Things – Sept 10^th - Well you are lucky after all for you both had the comfort of love and faith and caring to the last.  A dear friend  of mine, a woman of faith. A teacher and generous friend laid on her death bed and took my hand. “ I am so angry she said.  I am so angry.  I want to take a walk to the brook and sit under that old oak.  I want to kill God”  My heart broke for me and for her.    Louise

This poem was very powerful. My grandfather died of a brain tumor and I saw him slowly degenerate to a vegetive state. That wasn't easy. I was only 18 yrs only when my "guelo Angel" died but his memory and our times together are alive in my mind and my heart. Tannia Ortiz-Lopez

Carol, was it Sept. 8th, 9th or another day that my poem "Dear Dad" would be in Storytime??? So far I haven't seen it there, though I have been reading all the lovely stories... the one by B.J. Cassady about his wife dying had me crying, the one by Pamela Blaine had me laughing at the basted eggs her husband was forced to eat in spite of it not being made the way he did them lol. Thank you for publishing great stories, I'll have to start submitting more of my work! Rosanne Catalano.

^{My Life: Courage is the Key – Joseph Amodeo – Sept 11th -} I am so glad that Joseph realized he wasn't a queer/pervert and sorry that he didn't have parents/relatives to provide him training and encouragement to smack the idiots that taunted him. I'm glad my family provided me with boxing lessons at a very early age to counter that kind of bullying.
Thanks
Mark Crider, Raffish Raconteur

Hartson Dowd’s – September 11^th facts - I used to love to cruise over Ethiopia. At the sound of the Mirages, all the cruel perps would hide and the animals would come out and graze, knowing that they were safe. Mark Crider, Raffish Raconteur

Senior Writers

Chief writer: Sharon Bryant

Chief researcher/historian: Hartson Dowd

Agee, Vance; Apted, Violet; Baker, Kathy; Batt, Al; Berry, Nell; Blaine, Pamela; Boda, Ginger; Booher, Paula; Buhagiar, Victor; Cassady, B.J.; Costner, Joan Clifton; Cavalera, Robyn; Crider, Mark; Dees, Mary; Deming, Barb; Doherty, Maria;  Dowd, Hartson; Dowd, Helen; Gilbert, Robert, Jr.; Gold, Ron; Goodier, Steve; Grisham, Mary-Ellen; Braun-Haley, Ellie; Harris, Kathy Anne; Henry, Linda Ann; Hunt, Sharlett; Hymes, Christina; Jacobson, Gary; Kiser, Roger Dean; Kerens, Claudia; Kevin, Tim; Jenkins, Pamela; Liles, Norma; Lily Jodi Flesberg; Lock, Joyce; Marlor, Janice Bumbalough; Mazzella, Joe; Mizrany, Mary Carter; Morris, Deepak; Ojeibge, Georgewaters; Petry, Dianna Doles; Roberts, Susan; Shiveley, Debra; Shaw, Bob; Sims, Richard; Streidel, Saskia; Swarner, Ken; Vaknin, Sam; Verhoeff, Jan; Walker, Bill; Walker, Joe; Warner, Gordon, K; Walsh, Sue; Weymouth, Barbara J.; Whirity, Kathy;

Wainland, David; Westerfer, Clara; White Robert;

Storytime Tapestry Staff

Carol Roach - Founder/publisher

Thelma Hartselle - Co-Founder, Moderator

Clara Westerfer – moderator

Bob Johnston - moderator