Sunday, Sept. 22

Today is the first day of  fall, and what a perfect one...high 70s and low humidity. In fact the whole weekend has been glorious. One of the TV weathermen gave the weekend a "10" and I certainly agree. In our part of the state, some of the trees are already tinged with autumn colors.

We were up around 8 a.m., but I skipped my exercises after breakfast. Got dressed and gathered laundry, ironed some clothes, and did this and that round the house.

My plan for lunch was fried pork chops, green beans from he garden, and sweet potatoes from last fall that I'd put in the freezer. However the package of sweet potatoes was not enough for the three of us, so I sent Hubbie to the store to buy a can of them.

He was gone two forevers, since he decided to shop for other groceries, and pick up prescriptions. I really wanted him to just get that one item, so I could get lunch ready by noon. But it was closer to 12:30 before I got it on the table.

The reason I wanted to get lunch on table by noon was because there was a 2 p.m. program at the museum, and we all needed to change clothes and be ready to go by 1:30.

The pork chops and veggie dinner was tasty. Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house to change clothes, and when we were all ready, we headed out.

Lots of folks were already there when we arrived, so we couldn't park in a handicapped space. But we brought along the wheelchair, so it was comfortable for Mother getting into the museum.

This was the annual meeting for museum staff and members, but the public was invited, because there was a speaker following the meeting, who presented an interesting program.

The program, called“Down in the Holler,” was a humorous look at folk speech that included words originating in the British Isles.

“Some travel writers and folklorists once claimed that if you dropped William Shakespeare in a remote Ozark holler (hollow), he and the old timers he met there would be able to converse and understand each other perfectly,” the speaker said.

She showed us a slide show of colorful words like “larrupin” “airish” “chimley” “passel” "sallet (as in poke sallet) "brake" (as in cane brake) "branch" (as in creek)  and others, and asked who among us recognized them. Well, of course we all did.

Refreshments were offered after the program....punch, and a combination chocolate/vanilla cake, decorated in honor of the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the museum. We passed on the punch, but brought home three slices of cake, which we had with cups of coffee.

While we enjoyed the snack, we watched a Lifetime Movie Network film, "Amish Grace," based on the true story of the gunman who killed five Amish children and injured five others in a schoolroom shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania in 2006. The shooter was familiar to the community, since he was their milkman. The community forgave him, and embraced his family...except for one grieving woman, who was at first unbending in her hatred of the shooter, but who finally finds her way to forgiveness.

After that, we watched episodes of "One Tree Hill."