Welcome to "Straight From the Heart!"

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A Walk Down Memory Lane

By: Ruth Nimmo


I have the fondest memories of the little town where I grew up. It was the perfect place for children to live. All of the homes for the most part, were well kept and the yards were large. Our yard was used every day for a baseball diamond. It was also the perfect place for hide and go seek.

This was an old college town, but the college was no longer in existence. Many of the buildings were still standing, but in very poor condition. They were locked, but some of the windows were loose, so as children will do, we climbed in the windows and investigated, pretending we were looking for gold, or on other occasions, we were looking for gangsters.

Because our town was safe and everyone knew everyone else, our parents didn't worry about where we were most of the time. Had they known we were in these old deteriorating buildings...........well, you can guess what would have happened.

There was an enormous size concrete swimming pool that hadn't seen water for years. It was perfect for skating in the summer and sledding in the winter.

There was a special street in my town where the trees lined both sides of the street and grew together over the top, making it look like a long tunnel. I loved that street. That was also the street where my school was.

My home was next door to the church I attended. It was the perfect picture of what a church should be. It had rounded stain glass windows and a beautiful steeple. I think every church should have a steeple. Very few do today, but I suppose it would be a waste as most city ordinances forbid the ringing of a church bell.......what a shame. Our church bell rang before every service. I loved attending church, and had to be pretty sick to ever miss. I loved my Sunday school teacher. She was my mothers closest friend, and I was named for her. I always called her Aunt Ruth, although we weren't really related.

We had a barn, chicken house, shop, grain shed, and tool shed on our property. The barn was another favorite place to play. My fondest and worst memories of that town were of that barn. I only received two spankings from my father in my life. They were both because I scared him out of his wits. He had a wagon piled high with hay below the hay mow. What a challenge! Me and my friends decided to jump from the barn loft onto the wagon. Well, I was the first to jump, and lo and behold.....a pitch fork came up out of the hay right beside me just as my father came around the corner of the barn. He pulled me off that wagon and whipped his belt off all in one move. I wished for a few minutes the pitch fork had gotten me. The only other spanking I got from him was partially for disobedience, and partly for the scare. He had just filled the grain shed with wheat. The shed had a door that was in two sections. The bottom half was locked to keep the wheat from coming out. The top half could be opened. My father called me over to the shed and showed me the wheat.

He said, "Don't any of you kids ever, ever, ever get in that wheat. It would be very dangerous. You tell all your friends what I said. I'm going to town. Tell your mother I'll be back in about an hour."

Well......the temptation was too great. As soon as he was out of sight, I climbed up on the door and jumped in. How could this possibly be dangerous, and it was so much fun. I pretended to be swimming, but the more I moved, the deeper I went into the wheat. I couldn't maneuver toward the door, and with every move, down I went. I knew no one could hear me if I screamed because my friends weren't there and the house was too far away, and thank goodness, my father was in town...I thought. Just about that time, I heard the shed door slam open, and guess who.......you got it. It was my father! I almost wished he would just let me sink. I got a double portion that time. Well, I never did that again. Really, most of the time I was a pretty good kid. Well, no one is perfect.

My best friend and I loved to go to the church yard and lay on the grass behind the church looking at the clouds,trying to see Jesus. We knew He was going to come in the clouds, and we were certain we would be able to see Him. At night we would go there sometimes to watch the falling stars.

I knew and loved every inch of that little town. When we moved from there, part of my heart was torn out and left behind. I longed to go back just to see it again. Well, two years ago, my sweet husband took me back. I could hardly wait to see my old home again and to walk down memory lane and show him all my treasured places that were so dear to me.

When we first arrived, I immediately got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Nothing looked the same. They had divided my yard and built small homes around it. And my church........people lived in my church. It was trashy looking, with junk in the yard and all around it. How could they let this happen to my church? The beautiful trees that had once formed a tunnel on my special street were gone, not just trimmed, but gone. Nothing was the same. We were told that, in recent months, they condemned the church and tore it down. None of my friends live there anymore. They had filled in the swimming pool and it was all grown up in weeds. When I was finally alone, I cried for an hour. I have no desire to ever return there again. But I still have wonderful, beautiful memories. Yes, I still go down memory lane, but it can only be the memories of the way it use to be. Will you walk down memory lane with me?

Ruth Nimmo
stone_gate1@juno.com

Send Ruth an email and let her know what you thought about her writing!
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A little bit about Ruth!

This coming Christmas Eve, I will have been married 45 years to my wonderful husband. We have 4 children and 11 3/4 perfect grandchildren (Their parents may not share that description, but they have been wrong on several occasions.) They all have great spouses that have fit perfectly into our family except our youngest daughter. She has a fiance that we all love. I live in Oklahoma and love it despite the tornados.

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REQUEST:

From: NLUCRUZ@powr.com (CRUZ NEKO LYREE U.)
To: Thunder27@aol.com (Michael T. Powers (E-mail))

Dear Michael,

I'm writing you to please pray for my nephew, Hans Raphael. He is no ordinary child. Hans was prematurely born 3 months earlier than his due date. All of 6 ½ months, he has difficulty breathing. A life support
system is attached to his body to monitor his heart and a respiratory tube was inserted in his little mouth for him to breathe. The doctors discovered that one of his nasal passage is under-developed and blocked.
He will soon be operated for him to breathe normally only if his condition is stable enough for him to survive the operation. My heart sank when I saw this little angel fighting for his dear life in an incubator. Hans had a cardiac arrest, his little body was turning blue but luckily and with God's willful blessing, the doctors were able to revive him. My nephew is a fighter. He is fighting for his dear life but needs a lot of prayers to pass this ordeal. I know a little prayer will go a long way for Hans Raphael. Thank you and God Bless.

Neko Cruz
nlucruz@powr.com
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Thought For The Day:

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great people make you feel that you too, can become great."
(Mark Twain)


Verse for the Day:

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
Psalm 1:1


Kid's Thought For The Day:

"Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets kicked."


Parent's Thought For The Day

"Even when freshly washed and relieved of all obvious confections, children tend to be sticky."
(Fran Lebowitz)


Coach's Thought For The Day

"Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation and in cold wither becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind."
(Leonardo da Vinci)


Deep Thought For The Day:

"Why do restaurants call it the check when it's really the bill?"


Video Imagery (Michael's Video Production Business.)

"I thought of you first after my family sat down to watch the video we gave them. They loved it, to say the least! Within thirty seconds my mom was crying and my dad did too. They said it was the best Christmas gift we could have given them!! You did such a beautiful job! They were so surprised and so touched---they really, really, really loved it. Thanks for helping to make it so special to us all. My mom mentioned how the songs were perfect for the video too! Thanks again!"

Kelli (RKaGe@aol.com) College Station, TX

Let me make you a video from your pictures or home movies!
Check out the web page for Michael's video production business!
Video Imagery
http://members.aol.com/Videoimg/index.html


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