Cousin Alan Bonner has once again written an article for us. I hope you take to heart the words he has written and will leave us a comment regarding the article. Thanks to Alan for his contribution. Pete

A Life of Peace by Alan Bonner

The song says, Way down yonder in the land of cotton, folks like mine are not forgotten, look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land…..How true it is…..Folks like mine are not forgotten, Granddaddy Bonner, Big Momma, Uncles Horace, Lloyd, Shorty, Dee, Buck, Ren, Aunt Noit, Aunt Vera, Uncle Stillman, Mom and Dad, Sam, Gent, several more Uncles and Aunt that did not live right there in Coalfire and a host of cousins, plus the nephews and nieces and close friends…..There was something about living in that close proximity to all those kin folk…A kid could not get away with anything. Aunt Noit figured I would spend a lot of my adult life in prison as mean as she thought  I was. Well, I guess I was a stinker….maybe a little worse…Later on she professed her love for me, I mean really…Aunt Vera is the reason I can harmonize so well, er, I mean, I do pretty good anyway, teaching cousin Cecil and me to harmonize around age nine. and she is also the reason I eat all the food on my plate and the reason I love all the vegetables. Her thoughts were if she cooked it, you ate it, you took some of everything and ate everything you took. That was a valuable lesson. Uncle Dee gave us a love of fishing and of sports and always had a job for us. Uncle Buck taught me a lot, lessons about life, giving, loving and doing the job right. I was pretty young when he put me on his tractor and told me to disk up that field. He left. I plowed. I plowed half then turned and did the other half. I was so pleased when I finish and had Uncle Buck look it over. He said, “how come you plowed that ditch down the middle of the field? You need to fix that.” “How do I fix it Uncle Buck?” “Well, he said, you changed directions, throwing the dirt one way on a pass and the next pass you threw the dirt the other direction. Now you need to plow that ditch out of my field.” And then he left. I fixed it….He didn’t get mad or upset he simply said for me to fix it. Things like that shapes lives. Uncle Stillman loved frog legs and told us boys, *I don’t care what time of the night you come in, bring me all the frog legs you get.” He is the only one who ate them and we brought them to him. I never ate one, since he said they taste like chicken, I just kept eating chicken. I could tell you stories about everyone of my folks and you can read in my downloads, Chapter Six of Cousins, to read about our Big Momma. What a wonderful lady she was. And on and on it goes about them all……No sir, folks like mine are not forgotten….they are alive and well inside my heart and mind and the heart and mind of all my cousins…..Look away, look away, look away….Dixie Land…Pete Hester

This web site received a comment from a spam source, which I did not publish, asking me how I handle plagiarism and what I do about it…..Well, to be truthful I had never thought about it before that comment. I hope any who use any of this material will give me credit for it and if they have financial gain by it they must share that with the writer as well, er, that would really surprise me as it seems to this writer that writing is not about money, its really, er, fame and er, well, seems like there is something else….I’m kidding.. Of course the satisfaction is deep within my soul and I hope all you folks read all my stuff and tell others about it…..do get my name right, ok…that’s E. V. Pete Hester….I’m kidding about some of this stuff…I don’t think I have ever been plagiarized, do you?..Naw, not me……

Here is the first installment of Cousins in Mulberry Branch Hollow, my third book. CC, Doug, Pete and Homer tangle with a ghost music band who lived during the civil war and they had returned as ghost to protect a treasure buried in Mulberry Branch Hollow. The banjo player spoke with a lisp which added to the humor. Let me know if you like it. I will get the balance of the story in a few day.

Cousins in Mulberry Hollow by E. V. Hester

Cousins in Mulberry Hollow by E. V. Hester.pdf Start Chapter 13

This web site has been down for almost a week due to having to wait on a new modem. I could not connect to the Internet and I sorely missed it. So nothing has been written for several days now. I was so full of Thanksgiving turkey and dressing, etc, that it is probably better that I did not write. I guess you could say that both the computer and me were out of service. Also,  I had another birthday during that period and now I am — years old. I wonder if the clerks at stores would check my id if I tried to buy alcohol or tobacco. I’ll bet they would because I don’t think I really look to be — years old. However, I am guilty of looking in the mirror and wondering who that old fart is looking back at me. I really don’t feel — years old either. Geez, and next year I will be –. Well, the old fingers still respond on the keyboard to the thoughts arising in the old head, so thats something, huh? Yeah, I thought so too….Pete

Coalfire Creek is just a small stream in Western Alabama and close to where U. S. Highway 82 crosses over Coalfire Creek and is where I was raised…Coalfire, Al….Now most folks will not know about this old creek, yet it has endeared itself to many folks….Folks who have swam in it, waded it, washed cars in it, driven over it, fished in it, been baptised in it and a host of other things in and around it will tell you it is special. It warms my heart to look at the pictures taken by my no. 2 grand daughter during our 2011 reunion. I introduced her to Coalfire Creek at that time. I would like to hear from those of you who find this old stream as heart warming as I do and lets tell folks around the world  what a special little creek it is. Thank you for sharing your thoughts…..Pete Hester  update  12/23/2012  Ps….I just remembered something. Just north of where this picure was taken on Coalfire Creek is that round hole with the cyprus stump out in the middle of it and that particular hole is where the biggest ole aligator gar hung out….Wonder if he’s still there. If one of you fishermen see that sucker or some  of its offspring, would you let me know.  Surely he is dead and gone by now..Reckon?

We are having about 12 people over today, almost all of them family and the one who are not family seems like family…..It is a good day, a pretty day, in the sixties with no rain or bad weather in sight. So we do have a lot to be thankful for….The eating will be especially good with turkey, ham, brisket, dressing (home made cornbread, not stove top), mashed potatoes, corn, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad, broccoli casserole,cranberry sauce, all the condiments, hot dinner rolls, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, cake, sweet tea and unsweet tea and hot spiced tea. Wow, and I wonder why I’m thirty pounds overweight…. Thank you Lord for my family, my friends and all the wonderful blessing you have granted us. Bless those who also read this posting…..We love you Lord Jesus……The Hester Family

The old Cooper hawk it at it again…It brought a lot of excitement to our house about lunch time. Matter of fact, Sweetie had just announced that the soup was ready when number 2 daughter saw the Cooper hawk just outside the window on a nearby limb, er, having lunch. No. 2 and I discussed that the hawk was just doing what it was suppose to do, that is having lunch in a tree munching on a fresh bird…Sweetie took a different view of it thinking that the dang old hawk was eating one of the little birds that we feed and water and she went out and threw a rock at it. Her pitch was a drop however, as it went about twenty feet (maybe) and then dropped quickly. But the hawk took the hint and flew over to the neighbors tree. I think it will be back though, don’t you? We don’t keep all those little birds fat for nothing, huh?….Er, that’s a joke, ok………

No, no, I don’t mean, rocks as in having a big time, etc…I mean rocks that I have painted with Christmas scenes on them….Wanna see? ok, I’ll show you…One side is the front the other is the reverse. click on the pictures and it will enlarge them.

Well, yes says six of our states nowadays. I went back to my Holy Bible and it still reads the same….I don’t know how you can override God’s laws or maybe you can now just ignore them? Seems to me like most all of our nations laws are based on the scriptures, you know “Thou shall not kill, etc” and about 9 other laws and then a host of chapters of thou shall and thou shall nots. Which ones shall we ignore tomorrow? I am pretty old so my thoughts don’t really matter to most of you, but when I break one of God’s laws, I try to ask for His forgiveness right away…Some of you guys scare me when you just go ahead and do those things He ask us not to do and are never concerned what God may think about it. There is life after death and really life is just beginning when you die. Once you really figure that out it turns your thinking around. You tell me, how did it all of a sudden become alright for boys to marry boys and girls to marry girls after 5000 years or so, well, whatever since Adam and Eve. Nothing has changed folks….It still ain’t right for same sex marriage…Just wanted to let you know, ok?