Rain on a Tin Roof

I'm sitting outside just at dusk on my back porch listening to the gentle rain fall on the roof of the house and on the leaves in the trees and patter down onto the ground. In the twilight a beautiful Cardinal flew down from somewhere and sat on a limb right in front of me.  His colors seemed to have a neon glow in the fading light.
It made me think of my Granpa, born in 1905, and how he used to tell me stories of his childhood.  He said there was nothing better than listening to a gentle rain on a tin roof of the old farmhouse they lived in and falling asleep, sometimes even out on the screened in "sleeping porch" where people often slept in the summer because it was cooler than in the house. 
Light at night was from the fireplace and a coal-oil  or kerosene lantern, the bathroom was the outhouse across the way which may have treacherous things in the path at night like spiders and snakes and skunks etc. 
They lived central Texas and as kids he and his older brother would sometimes be sent into the little town for supplies from the general store which of course had the candy jar on the candy from which a prize piece or two of candy might be bought for a few pennies.
The horse named "Mack" would pull the wagon and their dog "Ring" would ride or run along.  I remember him telling me how one time they stopped and killed a huge snake, probably a rattle snake or copperhead by throwing rocks at it.  By the time they came back from town that afternoon- it took most of the day to go to town and back- the snake had been picked clean by the buzzards.

So, sitting on my back porck looking out at the twilight and gentle rain, all of the memories came back to me.
He told of such a simpler slower time. 

I can't imagine sending my 9 year old child alone for more than a few blocks away at most nowdays, but they were gone all day to town with the horse and buggy and no one had a thought that they might not come back because of something/someone bad coming their way.

So, take time to enjoy the gentle rain, and see if you can go to a kinder gentler place for a moment in memory ...
Thanks Granpa for sharing that simpler gentler time with me.

Michael Jackson- remembering 1 year later

Watch the 2 videos embedded below and remember with me.

I was 10 years old when Elvis died.  I did not know his music at the time, but what I remember is all the radio stations playing Elvis all day long.
My son was 8 when Michael Jackson died.  He did not really know of MJ at the time, but like me as a child, I think that he too will remember the day that TV played MJ videos back-to-back all day long.

So, here we are one year after MJ's death.  Maybe, like myself, you too have some mixed feelings about him.  But, who can forget the first time you saw the Moonwalk? Or the Thriller video?

And btw, if you have not see his movie "This Is It"... it's a must-see.  You will see that the stories of him being sick, weak, out of touch are just not true.

Link to my previous blog about "what if" MJ had been on American Idol.  http://pixelrichblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/if-michael-jackson-in-american-idol-as.html

Watch and Remember with me. click vid box below to play. double-click for full view in youtube.
First Vid is from last years filming of MJ for "This is It"