STORYTIME TAPESTRY

The Newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world

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Sept 11, 2005? 

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Happy Birthday to our valued member, Melba Hartcastle.

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Now on to the good stuff..........

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Today's Queue Stories

~**~**~**~

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LETTING YOUR SOUL WALK YOU

By: Joseph J. Mazzella

? ? ? ?  I had an enlightening and humorous experience walking my dogs this morning. It was a crisp, Spring day full of life and energy. My four dogs seemed to feel it as well. Each one of them was delightfully sniffing the air and bouncing around me as we walked. Then as I was about to head back toward the house with them our Saint Bernard, Buddy and our tiny Labrador mix, Pepper both decided that it was the perfect time for a game of chase. Before I knew it my legs were wrapped up tight with the dog leashes from these two running in circles around me. Thankfully, I was able to drop the leashes before I ended up on the ground. As I bent down to pick up the leashes again, however, my tiniest dog, Julie decided to give me a little help. She grabbed Buddy??™s leash in her mouth and headed for the door. I looked on with laughter as my 10 pound Pekinese Poodle walked our 160 pound Saint Bernard back home.

? ? ? ?  In addition to giving me a good laugh this sight also got me to thinking. If a little dog like that can take the leash of a giant sized one and lead him in the right direction then there is no reason why all of us can??™t take the leash on our own lives and start walking them on the path of love and joy again. Sure we may have huge problems, large struggles, and massive difficulties in our lives, but if we let that smart, little dog that is our soul take the lead they will all fall behind us. That smart, little dog will lead our hearts, minds, and lives right where they need to go. That smart, little dog will lead us back home to joy, love, and God.

? ? ? ?  Let your soul lead you in the right direction then and all of your life will follow you happily.?  Let your soul walk you down the path of love, joy, and oneness with God and your journey home will always be a delightful one even if you do get tangled in the leash from time to time.

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Joseph J. Mazzella
joecool @ wirefire.com

Joe lives in West Virginia with his wife and three children. Various dogs and cats have adopted Joe and his family for their own. Joe enjoys his family, beauty, love and hearing from his email friends. Joe likes to take the time to smell the roses and enjoy the beauty around him as he goes about his daily life.

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? ValueSpeak
A Weekly Column
By Joseph Walker
valuespeak@msn.com

RAINING BACON

Joseph Walker

Allison (not her real name) is approaching the end of her first year as a
single mom.
As you might expect, it hasn't been an especially fun year.?  Countless
lessons have been learned - some pleasantly, some painfully.
"I have gained so much respect for the women I've known throughout my life
who were single moms," she told me recently.?  "I just had no idea what they
were going through."
Allison is the first to admit that as hard as the year has been, she has it
better than many single moms.?  Her brother and his wife live nearby, and
they have helped a lot with childcare, shared meals and a shoulder upon
which to occasionally cry.?  She has loving, supportive friends who have
sustained her.?  And although her relationship with her ex-husband is
understandably strained, they have been able to work together cooperatively
for their daughter's well being.
"I don't know how other single moms do it," she said.?  "I have been so
blessed."
Still, she struggles - especially financially.?  Thankfully, she's been able
to stay gainfully employed, but without a college education or much
employment experience, her options are limited - as is her salary range.
Which is why she started nail school.
"My goal is to have my own full-service salon - hair, nails, make-up, that
sort of thing," she said.?  "So I'm going to start out learning to be a nail
technician, then I can use that training to help me earn my way through my
hair salon apprenticeship.?  Then I can go to work and save up enough to open
my own business."
And that will be great - down the road.?  But for right now, financial
survival is a struggle.?  Nail school tuition and fees pretty much wiped out
her meager savings, and class and lab attendance requirements made it so she
had to quit her full-time job.?  She's working part-time at a convenience
store while going to school full-time.?  Between living expenses, childcare
costs and the high price of gasoline to take her from home to school to
work, there is barely enough to meet the demand, let alone any additional
costs.
Like new nail equipment.
"Our tuition paid for enough stuff to get us through nail school," Allison
said.?  "But now they're telling us that to be marketable in the workplace we
will need to upgrade our equipment.?  Like there's this drill we will need
that costs $150.?  Where am I going to come up with that kind of money??  I
barely make it through the week as it is."
Enter Marie (not her real name, either).
Marie is one of Allison's classmates at nail school.?  Although she is old
enough to be Allison's mother, the two women have become good friends.?  So
Allison didn't think it unusual when Marie took her aside during a break the
other day.
"So, did you get your new drill yet?" Marie asked casually.
Allison laughed a little sarcastically.?  "Yeah, right," she said.?  "When
pigs fly!"
"Better get out your umbrella," Marie replied as she pressed an object into
Allison's hands.?  "It's raining bacon."
Allison looked at the object in her hands.?  It was the new $150 drill she
needed.?  Overwhelmed, she started to protest, but Marie just held up a hand.
"I was a single mom too, and I know how hard it is," she said.?  "I never
would have made it without help from caring people.?  So let me do this for
you now.?  Then someday, when things are better for you, you can pay me back
by doing something like this for another single mom."
Another lesson learned - pleasantly.
Or at least, as pleasantly as possible when it's raining bacon.
# # #
Joseph Walker

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? ? ~**~**~

Good Old Days, Part four

Bill Walker

wildbill6807@yahoo.com

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Use to be a lot of family operations. A special store, sold one thing, or things that related together out of this little hole in the wall. Sometimes they rented space in say a hotel lobby. Times has changed, those no longer are here, died with the times I guess.? 

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I remember the news stand. Here in Beatrice, it was a family operation.?  Had a little store cross the street from the Paddock Hotel. Wasn't very big, hole in the wall one might say. You went there to pick up a newspaper. You would find Omaha, Lincoln, or the Beatrice?  paper. Those was today's papers. They also had Kansas City, St.Louis, Chicago, New York, and other papers. Those would be yesterdays papers, took a day to get here. Those would be just a few copies, didn't have much call for those.

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They had racks of magazines, all kinds of those, for grown ups to small fry. No Play Boy or Play Girl.?  This was before that time, also this was family.?  Mother Doyle would not allow such trash in her store. You seen all kinds of people in looking for a certain magazine. Saturday Evening Post was a big seller.? ? Mr. Norman Rockwell might have the cover picture.

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Son Harry would load up the little delivery truck, and make the rounds. They had? a place? in the two hotels, and a couple other places. Sold papers there and the Post and a couple other magazines. You would be staying at the hotel, bought and paid for? them at the desk.

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Guess they seen times was changing, about 1958, sold it out, and moved away.?  It lasted about another year or? two? and it was all done. The little hole in the wall was no more. They made a living, it was a seven day a week job, the News? Stand, one of the Doyles was always there, if the door was open.

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Then there was the Beck boys.?  The Becks was one of the five respected colored families of Beatrice. There was Washington, and Jefferson.?  They had a barber shop. were related. Thomas, he was shop foreman at a car dealer ship, also the coach for the Legion Boys Baseball team. He took them to Hersey a couple times. One time made it to the Championship game. Lost by a couple runs. That isn't bad for a little town like Beatrice. Then the Scotts. All good people.

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The Becks, well if you needed your boots polished, stop over at the Paddock. They had a stand there in the lobby.?  They could take the worse beat up pair of boots and make them look brand new. Now as I remember they only worked the stand 6 days. Sunday you found the Becks in Church. One of the boys went to college,?  studied to become a teacher.?  Well even in this state, that was a no no.? ?  We can't have a colored man as a teacher of white kids. So? he landed a job on the city street department. It was a good high paying job.?  But Richard every once in a while would be seen helping out in an evening at the shoe shine stand.? 

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The Becks, Washingtons, Jeffersons, Thomas, and Scotts are all dead and gone now. Gone just like the Doyles and many other small family operations of the Good Old Days. I think the world is poorer because of the loss of such small family types of operations. These people worked hard, and long hours at times.

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America grew up on the work, sweat of the little family operation and farmer. Those is the ones that built this nation. Back in the Good Old Days. We have lost a lot by the big buy outs and take overs of the small little people, and their operations. That is the holes in the wall and the small family farms are no more. Every day a small business closed the door for the last time, can't make in no more, eat up by the big chains. They sell for less you know.

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Got one other store I recall. It too was family operation. Lang's fine food store. You needed a special something for dinner, go to Lang's.?  Don't even think about Safeway, they never heard of it. Chef?  O.J. Walker would go there to get a can of some special something for Mrs.D.W. Cook's dinner party. If it was a almost unheard of food, you could bet your last dollar, Mr.Lang? had it in stock.?  Those too are long gone.. Gone With The Wind

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Hearts With Soul New BookTinker & Poo, The Boys Write

Bill Walker tinkerpoo2000@yahoo.com
Purchase, "The Boys Write"

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? About Me:

Well I??™m a story teller, not a writer. Never learned the art of fancy English. I

happen to live in Nebraska, but I??™m still Missouri. Never married, all the Dollies I

ever took a second look at was too smart. Now at 74, just turned that other day, I

figure they all home safe. I love Doggies and Dollies in that order. Lost my two

true friends this year, that be Tinker and Poo. So I found me a new one. This

time a little girlie Peke. She is a normal female. Got a mouth, talks all the time.

She will never be a great writers of stories like Tinker and Poo. They have

about 50 stories on HWS. And now writing back from Rainbow Bridge.

I just try to write about people, places and things best I remember. Have something

over 250 stories on HWS. under three names.? ? ? 

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Poetry Section

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For the Victims

of

Hurricane Katrina

Sandra Lewis Pringle

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O, precious afflicted city,

lashed by the wrathful storm;

caught up in its fury,

leaving you to grieve and mourn.

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We reach out to embrace you,

to hold you in our arms;

We pray that you'll be sheltered,

and kept safe from further harm.

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Our hearts were troubled, as we sat helpless,

yearning to reassure and rescue,

when? we saw your faces in despair,

thinking no one cared for you.

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As you now sit among the ruins,

with nothing left to hold,

We pray that God will strengthen you,

and HIs divine power,

for you,

unfold.

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The heart is soft and tender,

and, sometimes, can break in two,

by circumstances which suddenly strike,

affecting the person, the being, that is you.

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But, every cloud has a silver lining,

and this, too, shall one day pass.

You'll become even stronger,

as these events slip into the past.

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The pathway of your journey

has brought you into the Valley of Achor;

But, soon, another chapter will begin to open,

even brighter than the one before.

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So, take heart and receive comfort

in just knowing that we care,

and we are praying for ministering angels,

to encamp around you there.

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Look upon the hands which touch you,

which have brought you to where you are;

Cast your eyes upward to the heavens,

to the One Who'll help you reach your stars.

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The past can never be forgotten;

because it's become? a part of you.

But, determine to peer into the eyes of Tomorrow,

and God, Our Father,? will see you through.

~Sandra Lewis Pringle~

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"The Lord is my Rock,

my Fortress,

and my Deliverer;

my God is my Rock,

in Whom I take refuge. . .

Psalm 18:3

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Prayer Requests:

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Pray for the victims of Katrina, that they soon will be all reunited

with family, on the path of recovery; comfort, for those who are

grieving.

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The folks in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana wish to thank the couple from

Perry, Kentucky who brought in the semi truck, loaded with supplies.

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Mission:? ? ?  To make loving, sincere, genuine efforts
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  through the love of Jesus Christ, to those who
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  are less fortunate, believing that they will change
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  hearts, minds, attitudes, and lives.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  "If any of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  warm and well fed; but does nothing about his
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  physical needs, what good is it?"
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  James 2:16

?© 2005? ? ?  Morning Glorythoughts
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  by Sandra Lewis Pringle

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Author of Singing Loudly as Lions Roar,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Photographs from a Poetic Heart.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  All Rights Reserved, on ALL original work.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  If you think that anyone may be blessed by this message,? ? ? please share.? 
If anyone is on my email list, and wishes not to remain, please contact me.?  Thanks.

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SLPEnt1@aol.com

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Writers Feedback

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? Hi to all from Vance Agee!

Re: Ron Gold's story straight out of O. Henry!
My daughter works in corporate in NYC, and I love it down there!
I live in Western NY but have visited NYC many, many times.

Yes, that mom was "God's helpmate", sent by Him to do His work for that boy.
Great story, Ron!!!
We seem to think alike.
Vance Agee

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? SENIOR WRITERS

Chief Writer: Sharon Bryant

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? Agee, Vance;? Apted, Violet;? Baker, Kathy; Batt, Al;?  Berry, Nell;

Boda, Ginger;? ? Buhagiar, Victor; Cassady, B.J.;?  Cavalera, Robyn; Crider, Mark;? 

Deming, Barb; Doherty, Maria; Goodier, Steve; Halley, Ellie Braun;

Harris, Kathy Anne;? Hunt, Sharlette;? 

Jacobson, Gary;? Kiser, Roger Dean; Kerens, Claudia; Jenkins, Pamela;

Liles, Norma; Lock, Joyce; Mazzella, Joe;? Ojeigbe, Georgewaters;

?  Petry, Dianna Doles; Roberts, Susan;?  Shiveley, Debra; Shaw, Bob; Sims, Richard; Swarner, Ken; Vaknin, Sam; Verhoeff, Jan

Walker, Bill; Walker, Joe;? Warner, Gorden K;

Whirity, Kathy;? White, Robert;

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STORYTIME TAPESTRY STAFF

Publisher: Carol Roach-founder

Moderator: Thelma Hartselle-co founder

Moderator: Clara Westerfer

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