(The
more things change, the more my favorite things stay the same. The majority of this list was compiled in
2012.)
Under a protective
cap of silver-frosted hair sits a jukebox.
Sometimes it plays songs. Other
times there’s just background music and a voice, scrolling down a list of
things that make me smile. Monday morning,
I was smiling—watching martins do aerobatics around the tower of gourds.
I
guess those antics punched A-7 in my mental jukebox. The
Sound of Music’s Julie Andrews sang,
“These are a few of my favorite things.”
And that’s what prompted this list, as I waited for the sun to say “good
morning” over the farm pond.
Julie, I like these things:
The
annual arrival of martins, mockingbirds chasing crows, puppies, rain on a tin
roof, glowing embers in a fire, Ray Charles singing “Georgia on My Mind,” homemade peach ice cream, harmonicas,
random acts of kindness, punctuality, the Altamaha River, sunrise, sunset and a full moon.
Add these:
Seven
grandsons and a granddaughter cackling as they play with their cousins, Elvis
singing old gospel favorites, tree canopies over dirt roads, sunflowers, all-cotton
clothes, dueling banjos, Tom’s peanuts in a small bottle of Coke, fireworks,
satellite radio, lively debates, porch swings, honesty, family photo albums, mules,
pithy quotes, PB&J sandwiches, a morning newspaper, thornless blackberries,
pitching horseshoes, old barns, and loyal, non-judgmental friends.
And then there are:
Worth-the-money
movies, the Wall Street Journal,
anything Rick Bragg writes, Garden and
Gun magazine, The Week, Sports Illustrated, 60 Minutes, the Andy Griffith Show, you-can’t-put-down
books, pleasant surprises, forgetting annoying things, nostalgia, when-it-works
technology, forgiveness, cooking on a
Big Green Egg, Tinactin, engines that crank with one yank of the cord, unconditional
love, walking barefoot on the beach, projects, tax refunds, the season’s first
homegrown-tomato sandwich, oak furniture, and moments when you want to sing
with James Brown: “I feel good!”
But I can’t stop there:
Digging
in the dirt, mowing with the tractor, gifted storytellers, boiled peanuts,
mountain streams with waterfalls, laughter around a campfire, natural beauty,
heart pine, cypress trees in the swamp, hot chocolate, the tug of a bream on a
cane pole, fresh fruit, reader feedback, tractor with front-end loader, tossing
a cast net in a tidal creek, wearing Crocs, freedom of speech, marking things
off a to-do list, days without a to-do list and a just-from-the-oven banana
pudding. That’s a ditto for blackberry
cobblers and made-from-scratch cathead biscuits.
Julie was still singing, so I jotted these:
Pulling
on warm jeans from the dryer, watching a birddog’s tail quiver in a locked point,
quail covey rise, fresh-cut flowers, hummingbirds, Costa Rica, Floyd Cramer on the piano, beach
music—Tams, Drifters, Four Tops, Temptations, Embers, Showmen, Jerry Butler, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Otis
Redding, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs—bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace,”
short make-you-think sermons, rope hammocks, woodworking, done-right pork
barbecue, Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA,” taillights after a good
visit, fried okra, and thin-sliced fried squash.
Julie was winding down, so I had to hurry:
Taking
off my tie and shoes, screen porches, rocking chairs, cool summertime breezes, teamwork,
jokes that you can tell your mother, jaw-dropping photography, good manners,
handwritten thank-you notes, the University of Georgia, small towns, yogurt, being
born in rural America, fall foliage of ginkgo and sugar maple trees and
remembering the elementary school days when you said something silly and milk
spurted out of your buddy’s nose.
These
are a “few” of my favorite things, but I can’t quit without this:
I
love telling people that my hometown
is Jesup.
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
