Author: Lisa -Southern Patches

Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?

Weekends, Her Name Was Dora Lee

Happy Monday friends. How was your weekend?

On Friday I had a day off from work. I went to an estate sale in town. There is a local company that sells estate items in a shop in town, it used to be a flower shop and there are several rooms within the shop. A couple of times a month an estate sale at this shop takes place. An entire life of someone is sold. You can see their likes and hobbies and collections. I think I find this just as interesting as the purchase. Well almost anyway. It starts on Thursday with everything at full price. On Friday everything is 25% off and on Saturday everything is 50% off. On Sunday, if there is anything left, everything is 75% off. They have even gone into Monday if there is a lot of stuff left.

I went to the sale on Friday. There were lots of things left. I didn’t see any signs that showed anything 25% off. Everything was really really expensive. I know it sometimes starts out like that and then more people buy as the cost goes down. I collect crocks, you know like the old butter churn crocks. I have about 20 really large ones. I also have a few smaller ones. I saw a very small crock. I am not sure what it would have been used for. It didn’t have a price. I hate to ask for the price because sometimes it is priced really high if you ask and show interest. Anyway I carried the crock around for a few minutes and I decided to put it back and wait until Saturday and see what it would be at half off.

On Saturday I went back, early, when the sale first started. And yes everything was 50% off. I hurried through the door and went directly to the room where the crock was. You guessed it. It was gone!! When on when will I learn to get something at the time I really want it? I continued to look around. I gathered up a couple of things but I was really sad to have missed out on the crock. I went into the front room and there on an old ironing board was the crock!!!! I ran over and grabbed it up. I asked a woman who was working the sale how much, it still didn’t have a price on it. She took it to the front and came back and said it was $37.00 and that day it would be half off. YES!!! You would think I would have learned a lesson from this but no I almost did it again.

Look at this little crock. It is just precious. The smallest one I have.

Look at the size compared to one of my other crocks.

The lady of the estate, I later learned her name was Dora Lee, loved to sew. There were about six sewing machines for sale. Some were really old and then there were a couple of newer models. Also lots of baskets.

I kept eyeing an oil painting called “Adoration” It was beautiful. It was A painting of a woman in a long yellow dress. I kept going back to the painting. It was fairly small only an 11×14 maybe. It was painted in the year 2000. I kept looking at it and going back to it and circling it etc etc. But when I noticed that the woman in the yellow dress was looking at a kitty cat, and that was the meaning of “Adoration” I grabbed it up. I was sold.

Isn’t it beautiful. I think it looked like Dora Lee as a young girl.

This was Dora Lee at her High School graduation.

I learned from the liquidator of the estate that Dora was an only child from Harlan Kentucky. Her husband, Ralph, was from Yellow Creek North Carolina. They met and married and moved to Maryville Tennessee. Ralph passed away several years ago leaving Dora Lee who also recently passed away. They had no children and no nieces and nephews to claim the contents of the estate. I always find this a little sad. Dora Lee also collected bells and she loved jigsaw puzzles. It is sad that all of the things within the house are being picked over by total strangers. This is spoken by one of the strangers.

I feel like I came to know Dora Lee a little. I even bought her High School autograph book. Several of her classmates signed it. It looks like it was around 1931. I will share that with you at another time.

So how was your weekend? Did you enjoy Father’s Day? I hope you had a chance to check out my Father’s Day post about a favorite memory of my daddy. You can read it here if you missed it.

Have a wonderful week

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Happy Father’s Day!! A Favorite Story About My Daddy

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and father figures out there. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

This story is about a wonderful memory I have of my daddy.

My mama and daddy at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration.

I am not sure how old they were here but I know they were very young.

My daddy was very strict with me and my brothers and sisters. There was seven of us. He worked hard to provide for all of us. It was sometimes hard to please him he had really high standards for all of his kids. I am glad now that he did because it has made me the person I am.

I never had any doubt that he loved me but he sometimes had a hard time putting it into words. It was easier for him to show us.

I was in the first grade. I didn’t go to Kindergarten. The small school that I attended didn’t even offer Kindergarten. So I went directly into first grade. My sisters were seniors in high school when I started first grade and I thought they were quite possibly the coolest people on earth. They would stack their school books up and place them on the table and have their purses nearby. Sometimes I would get their books and sling one of their purses over my shoulder and pretend I was in high school too.

Soooo when the time came to buy my school supplies my mama steered me to these ugly red and black plaid book satchels. I shook my head and said no way will I carry one of those. I am carrying my books in my arms with my purse on my shoulder just like Sandy and Pat do. After all I was in first grade I was no longer a baby. I didn’t need something to put my books in!!!

Somewhat grudgingly my mama finally gave in. We got my paper and pencils and erasers and a notebook. I was so excited. That night I gathered everything together and got my favorite purse. I did notice that it was a little hard to get all of those things put together and keep them from slipping out of my arms, and my purse kept slipping off of my shoulder, but that didn’t stop me. I was determined.

The next morning I was up bright and early ready to get on the school bus. My mama waved bye to me. I marched out the door with my purse slung over my shoulder and my notebook and pencils clasped proudly in my arms. Man I felt so grown up, I was just like my sisters.

I climbed the steps onto the bus and noticed my pencil bag had slipped out of my notebook. A kid behind me stepped on it!!! My beautiful new pencil bag!!! I bent down and grabbed it up and put it back with my notebook.

When I took my seat on the bus I noticed a girl about my age sitting across the isle from me. Beside her on the seat was one of those book satchels like my mama and I had seen at the store. When the bus got to school she very neatly grabbed the handle and marched off of the bus. I gathered my notebook and made sure my pencil bag was securely inside. I slung the purse over my shoulder and walked off the bus.

I couldn’t help but notice that many of the boys and girls going into my class had a book satchel. Heck almost all of them did. Most of them even had those red and black checked ones that my mama had wanted me to get.

When I got to my classroom all of the kids had book satchels. The teacher told them to get their notebooks out. Everyone had a place in the back for their satchel. I felt tears in my eyes. I suddenly, more than anything in the world, wished I had a book satchel too. I wanted one so bad.

That night after dinner I kept whining to my mama about a book satchel. She said well you will just have to wait until we go to the store again, I tried to get you one and you didn’t want it.

My daddy worked at a plant that manufactured stoves. He worked so hard every day. I don’t remember him ever taking a vacation and if he called in sick the world would stop because that never happened. Every night he went to bed really really early. My mama always shushed us so we wouldn’t wake him up.

I was desperate to find me something that resembled a book satchel. I thought I might use one of my sisters’ big purses. I was in the closet pulling out purses and trying to find something when my daddy woke up and said “what is wrong? what is she doing?” My mama told him I was looking for a book satchel or something that would suffice. He yelled in there and said ‘Lisa go to bed you can’t worry about it tonight.” So I did.

The next day I returned to first grade lugging my notebook and pencils. I left the big purse at home. When I got off of the school bus that afternoon I noticed that daddy’s car was in the driveway. That was odd because he never got home early. He was standing on the porch and there was a big brown bag beside him. He had the biggest smile on his face. He said “here open this”. I looked into the bag and there was the most beautiful red and black checked book satchel that you have ever seen. I grabbed it and immediately started putting my notebook and pencils inside. I was so happy that night I think I slept with it.

I didn’t realize at the time just what it meant for my daddy to do that. Times were different then. It was almost 50 years ago. There were no Walmarts to go to at the last minute. He rarely went into a store without my mama. For him to leave work and immediately drive to the store and pick me out this book satchel was something very special. My mama knew it because I don’t think he had ever done anything like that before. He usually didn’t believe in such nonsense. I was the sixth of his seven children and I think maybe by the time I came along he had mellowed a lot.

He has always been the person I hold my highest standards to. He never met a stranger, he would stop on the side of the road to help if someone had car trouble. After he retired he grew a garden probably an acre wide and gave most of the vegetables away to people who lived in town and didn’t have a garden. He was tough but he was such a wonderful man. It took me some years to appreciate just how wonderful and smart he was.

I hope you enjoyed this story about my daddy. It is one I will never forget.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

What Is Wrong With Being Idle?

Hello friends, how are you and how has your weekend been? I have had a really good one. It has been both relaxing and busy. You know what I mean? I had to work yesterday and that is a bit different. I usually am off on the weekends but I may have mentioned before that one of my mangers has been having some health issues and has been in the hospital and that leaves us a bit short handed.

Anyway, I worked yesterday, Saturday, I was off for a half day on Friday so I did my grocery shopping and errand running then in anticipation of having my Sunday free to do whatever I wanted.

I talked to my sister a couple nights ago and she said the same thing. ” On Sunday I am not going to do anything work related, I am going to do some things for me, YAY!!!!! I haven’t talked to her so I am not sure how that went for her.

For some reason I always feel a little guilty when I don’t do anything. Are you like that? I feel like I have to be doing “something” productive all the time. WHAT??? who can do that???

I wonder why we feel like we are only productive when we are busy? Taking time for us is just as important and productive. Working on things that may have no end or is just something we love to do is good!!! Right??

So today I didn’t get up until 7:00 AM which is really unusual for me. I watched some TV and snuggled with my Scruffy. (See the photo below) I knitted, I did laundry and I mopped the kitchen. I also made sure I had some more extra time for me. That is what a day of rest should be. Doing something that you like to do. Sometimes being idle is my best way of recharging and getting ready for the week ahead.

Poor Scruffy needs a haircut and he is getting one tomorrow. Can’t wait!!! He loves being snuggled in mommy’s arms. He looks at me so adoringly!!! I just love him.

My Kitty Kitty. Just watching her brings me peace and calm.

I made homemade biscuits and put some fresh strawberries on them. What a wonderful treat.

I think I had a wonderfully productive, restful day and I enjoyed it thoroughly!!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Fireflies In The Great Smoky Mountains

Every state has fireflies. We always called them lightening bugs when I was growing up. I don’t think I heard them called fireflies until I was probably an adult. You know those little insects from the beetle family that come out when summer comes and they have a little light that flickers on and off. For me and my brother Joe it wasn’t officially summer until we saw the first flicker of a lightening bug. Of course we had to collect them and see who could get the most. But we always let them go. Our hands always smelled yucky after catching them!!!

Fireflies are found in all the U.S. States, but not all of the species glow. Fireflies that glow are found in the eastern United States, if you live in the West, in states like Washington, Oregon and California you probably won’t see fireflies or you won’t notice them because they don’t light up.

Firefly tourism? who would have ever thought? But it has become a huge business. Starting around the end of may to the first week of June of every year, the fireflies start a courtship. It begins with a few electric lights in the woods and as the night wears on the lights from the fireflies blink in unison. I have never seen it but I have heard it is really something to see. This is a mating or courtship ritual for the fireflies. Eventually during the night hundreds of thousands of fireflies will be blinking their “love lights” off and on.

Each year people from all over the world travel to the Smoky Mountains National Park to see this. Visitors actually have to win a lottery just for the privilege of watching this show. During this time The National Park Service in the Smoky Mountains estimate about 1200 people a night are brought to the trails at the Elkmont Campground. They take a trolly up to the trail to witness this amazing sight.

This year out of Coronavirus related caution, the National Park Service canceled the event. They closed the campground area and barricaded the road that leads to it.

It’s not only in Tennessee. This has become quite a business that now brings in about 200,000 visitors annually. Pennsylvania has the Pennsylvania Firefly Festival. It was canceled this year as well. There is a Firefly Festival in Dover Delaware. It has also been canceled. Is this good or bad? Bad for tourism I know but what about the fireflies?

Photo courtesy of Cleveland.com.

Photo courtesy of Farmersalmanac.com

Photo courtesy of YouTube.com

I know that many people will be disappointed, and it is devastation to tourism. I am a tourism person. I know what this means, but listen: Before one of these beetles goes into the mating ritual it spends a year or two as a larva burrowing through the dirt, this is why they smell so bad when you catch them in your hands. People tramping through the woods to see the firefly show are often oblivious to this. They are squishing these beetles who may never have a chance to glow and mate, etc. Also lights from flashlights and car beams can interfere with the mating ritual of these little light glowing beetles. AHHHH privacy to glow as they want, mate as they want. There may be a baby boom next year, no people or lights to interfere. Who or what could ask for more?

Just my thoughts.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!