As I've said before us girl cousins often visited each other. My cousin Linda had spent the week, she went on vacation with us to Florida. After we got back she was sleeping late that week-end and there has never been a McDaniel born that at some time did not sleep with their mouth wide open. So I thought it would be really funny to squeeze lemon juice into her mouth. I got a big slice went to her room and sure enough her mouth was open and in went the juice. Up she came like a bullet and my life almost ended that day. She said, “I am going to kill you.” I think she meant it, I ran down the hall to the bathroom and locked the door. I was climbing out the window as I heard her picking the lock. She tumbled out the window right behind me, hot on my heels. I ran up the front steps, slammed the screen door, employed the latch and headed for the safety of the bathroom again. Of course mama thought it was funny and opened the door and let her in and she picked the lock we repeated the scenario. We ran round and round the house until neither of us could breath and she finally forgave me. Ah youth, to be able to climb and run like that again. I'll never do that lemon trick to anyone again, I never even though of the danger of her chocking, nor the danger of my death at her hands, if it had been the other way round, I'd have felt the same way. We were hard to anger but we had our Irish tempers.
When we got old enough to drive, my cousin Linda who lived in Gulf Port Mississippi would frequently drive to Louisiana to spend the week-end. Linda was an exceptionally beautiful girl with a figure Hollywood starlets would envy. She always had her hair done before she came. Back in the 60's when the up-do was in, curls & ringlets were the rage. Daddy had big plum trees on either side of the front gate, it was spring and they were in full bloom. Linda was a vision of loveliness coming through the gate until a most unkind bird did his business right on top of her newly styled hair. Oh the horror, oh the wasted money, so right to the bathroom for a shower and a redo. Well that was not about to ruin our day, we worked and got her hair styled as best we could and we were pretty good at styling hair. Then she sprayed it good with what she thought was hair spray to hold it in place, but it turned out mama had just bought a can of the new foaming bathroom cleaning spray. Linda came out screaming, “Oh my God what is wrong with my hair.” Then she looked at the can and we all died laughing. What a day!
Then there was that time she called, she'd just bought a new car, she said, “Hey, Do you want to go with me to visit Uncle Phillip?” This was her mother's brother, so he wasn't really my uncle. Her father Johnnie and my daddy D.C. were brothers. I was married by now and had a two year old son but we would be back by the afternoon. Well that was the plan and it would have worked if we had not driven over an hour in the opposite direction of where we were headed.
These are some of the sights we saw going in the wrong direction.
We were having so much fun talking and laughing by the time we caught our mistake, we had burned a lot of daylight. We stopped at a little cafe and ordered a delicious lunch and in came a camera crew shooting a background shot for a movie. We signed a release form giving our approval for it to be used, then drove on our merry way so happy that we might show up in a movie some day. We never saw ourselves and the fearful thought hit us that we had no idea what kind of movie it might have been for.
This trip was long before the invention of cell phones, so we stopped at a pay phone to call Uncle Phillip, he was worried sick as he had expected us much earlier. When we got to his house he informed us that we would be spending the night because it was far too dangerous for us to travel that road in the dark. I called my husband and told him what had happened and spent my first night away from him and my son. Uncle Phillip was high ranking in the military and his home was beautiful. They treated us to an unforgettable meal. He and his wife were so sweet to us. He had the first color TV I'd seen and I remember watching a Bobby Gentry special that night. She was a great singer and her costumes were so beautiful. They say she married a rich man and quit the business. I bought one album, on it she sang a song called Sunday Best and I did love that song. She's the one that made “Ode to Billie Joe" so famous.
Come morning Uncle Phillip escorted us to the main highway, pointed us in the right direction and said, “Now you keep going in that direction.” Really such a big to-do about one wrong turn. We never lived it down. It might have been Linda's last wrong turn but I have no sense of direction and I have stayed lost most of my life. Praise God for the invention of Tom-Tom.
THE ONE PURE LOVE
By: Lillian Carol Russell
Life is but a vapor and all too soon it is gone,
But love shared is left behind in hearts to linger on.
I love you may be something you feel you need not say,
But it is and you should say it every day,
And if you can not speak it, then show it in a deed,
A hug, a kiss, a favor, or just fulfill a need.
Some hearts are cold as stone, no joy shows on the face,
No joy that comes from knowing about God's saving grace.
If only they knew Jesus, joy would bubble up inside,
His love is something that a joyful heart can't hide.
God is everywhere, you can smell Him in the rose,
Feel Him touch your face with the breeze that gently blows.
Noah felt it when he sent out the dove,
The mighty God in heaven is the one pure love.
