We spent most of our time on the Cordell Hull Highway between Tompkinsville and Glasgow. We started out the morning thinking we would yard sale on the way to get groceries at Walmart, but we ended up spending the entire day at this yard sale. We have been to the 127 yard sale a few times, but never to this one! We didn't stop until we were at the bottom of Shankey Branch hill almost to Celina. The yard sales between Livingston and Allons seemed to be mostly clothes and we have plenty of extra clothes ourselves, so we passed them by! At our first stop we thought everything was over priced! Our next stop was just before we entered the community of Moss. We were attracted to a load of pumpkins and stopped to see how much they were--$5 we thought we could do better. On our way back to the car, Peanut reached down and picked something up. I thought he had dropped something, but he showed me that he had found a twenty dollar bill. It was all folded up like it had been in a pocket. We looked around to see if anyone looked like they were looking for it but everyone was going about their business. It was one of those finders' keepers things, since there was no way to locate the owner or know how long it had been lying the parking lot! We left Moss twenty dollars richer and make our way up the road to Tompkinsville, KY. We stopped right on the main street where most of the houses had sales in their yard, here we made our first purchase:
3 pastel bowls
A divided tray--think fruit/dip here
And this bowl that I have already filled with fruit. We also bought a bulb planter--to help when we plant the 75 daffodil and tulip bulbs I have. Total here $12.00 On our next stop we bought pumpkins and gourds to decorate the Ponderosa. That took our eight dollars left from the found twenty. The birdhouses were purchased on down the road. Peanut made a deal and got both outhouse bird houses for seven dollars.
We couldn't leave out Parker and this train and fire truck-which still makes noise were 50 cents.
Four terrific barn plates and two matching bowls were found on a side road yard sale just $3.00.
We traveled up and down the hills stopping and looking at all sorts of junk we didn't need! Here's a place called Temple Hill where we made the best buy of the day from the "Plain" people in the blue tent. These homemade doughnuts just 50 cents each. I cannot begin to describe their goodness! They were making ice cream in the tent behind the doughnuts, but we didn't indulge, because you really can have too much of a good thing!
There is a little boy over in the hay field right now, who is just beside himself with joy! Look Nana! Look! He is even directing Johnny as he loads the hay!
He did leave just long enough to bring me home and get a juice box and his cap, but he is so excited about the hay baling and the tractors, that I don't expect him to come back until they are finished.
This Sunday, September 13th is National Grandparents Day. We have an entire hallway filled with writings, pictures and drawings about grandparents. Because we wanted the students to know that teachers have grandparents too, many teachers have created a display outside their classroom door. I just wanted to share mine with you! Here's what it says:
Ova and Arthur Pierce were my maternal grandparents. As I grew up they lived very near my family on the main street of Byrdstown. He was a trader. She was a homemaker. They had two daughters and four grandchildren.
Because he was a trader, my grandpa always went to bed early so that he could get up before daylight and travel to a nearby town’s stock sale. You never knew what he would have when he returned in his stock truck that afternoon. All four grandchildren always had a pony he had traded for. I loved to ride in his truck and today I still have the tin cup he carried in his glove compartment in case I wanted to stop at a spring and get a drink!
My grandmother was our main baby sitter. There were lots of things to get into at her house. We all loved to play upstairs, where she stored things in big trunks. We would go through her things and play dress up with the old hats and clothes. Granny Ova was an excellent cook and seamstress. She made most of my clothes when I was a little girl. Reading was one of her favorite hobbies. Her favorite TV show was Murder She Wrote and if you tried to visit with her while it was on, she turned the volume up!
My pa died suddenly from a heart attack when he was not much older than I am now. I was only fourteen years old and it was very devastating to lose such an important person in my life. My Granny Ova lived longer than any of my grandparents and she was part of my own children’s lives. I was very blessed to have these wonderful loving grandparents as I was growing up.
Grandpa Pierce in his stock truck
Granny Ova and Stephanie in their Easter outfits
Don’t laugh! This is a Christmas picture made with my grandparents probably around 1967. That’s me on the right, next to my Granny Ova. I think I was in the sixth grade. My glasses and my velveteen dress were very fashionable at the time! The other people in the pictures are my brother and my cousins.
Granny Liza on her front porch
Grandpa at the kitchen table. He liked to smoke Winstons and drink coffee.
My paternal grandparents were B.W. and Liza Donaldson. B.W. stands for BurahWickless. I have never known anyone else who had that name. They are both from Clay County, TN. Their family owed a farm in Fox Springs, which was a community near the town of Willow Grove. In the 1940’s when Dale Hollow Dam was constructed they were forced to leave the home they loved because it was to become part of Dale Hollow Lake.
They moved to Celina where my grandpa continued to farm and my grandma was a homemaker. They had five children and ten grandchildren. Every Sunday afternoon my family and I made the long winding drive to Celina.
Their farm was an adventure for us. It had chickens, turkeys, cows to milk, beehives, a smokehouse, pigs, huge fields of corn, a big barn full of hay and lots of hills and hollers to explore. My favorite place was the spring and the creek that ran beneath it.
My grandparents never had much money or were able to buy us expensive presents, but they gave us something much better. They taught us to treat people fairly, help our neighbors and to love your family with a fierce devotion!
Now that I’ve become a grandparent, I understand how my grandparents felt about me. If I could go back I would listen closer to their stories. I have lots of questions I would ask and I would have recorded in diaries and scrapbooks the things they told me. Most of all I would have made more pictures!
I have this Spongebob collage on my fridge. It was made by friend, Carson. She is in the fifth grade and lives in the same sub division as my daughters. I was lucky enough to be at her house when she was having a craft sale. I thought it was great that she was such a young entrepreneur. She had made all sorts of crafts and was selling them for 50 cents to one dollar. Her twin, Kenzie was helping her with the sale. They had set up tables in their drive and put up signs to advertise. Business was good while we were there. I also scored a popsicle picture frame. Tracie purchased some great earrings and Stephanie got some painted rocks and a shell car made from a tape dispenser. I am hoping they make this an annual event and I can go back! Good job Carson!!!!
Like drive fire trucks. . .
And play hide and seek. . .
Ready or not here I come!
And play with our shadows. . .
And jump off old stumps. . .
And drive tractors!
3 pastel bowls
On our next stop we bought pumpkins and gourds to decorate the Ponderosa. That took our eight dollars left from the found twenty. The birdhouses were purchased on down the road. Peanut made a deal and got both outhouse bird houses for seven dollars.
We couldn't leave out Parker and this train and fire truck-which still makes noise were 50 cents.
Four terrific barn plates and two matching bowls were found on a side road yard sale just $3.00.
We traveled up and down the hills stopping and looking at all sorts of junk we didn't need!
Here's a place called Temple Hill where we made the best buy of the day from the "Plain" people in the blue tent.
These homemade doughnuts just 50 cents each. I cannot begin to describe their goodness!
who is just beside himself with joy!
Look Nana! Look!
He is even directing Johnny as he loads the hay!
He did leave just long enough to bring me home and get a juice box and his cap, but he is so excited about the hay baling and the tractors, that I don't expect him to come back until they are finished.
Chrysanthemums, this one is in red, but we have purple and yellow too.
The bluest eyes in Tennessee, before he could walk (he never really walked he just started running) and talk.
Here's what it says: 
Grandpa Pierce in his stock truck 
Granny Ova and Stephanie in their Easter outfits 
Don’t laugh! This is a Christmas picture made with my grandparents probably around 1967. That’s me on the right, next to my Granny Ova. I think I was in the sixth grade. My glasses and my velveteen dress were very fashionable at the time! The other people in the pictures are my brother and my cousins. 
Granny Liza on her front porch 
Now that I’ve become a grandparent, I understand how my grandparents felt about me. If I could go back I would listen closer to their stories. I have lots of questions I would ask and I would have recorded in diaries and scrapbooks the things they told me. Most of all I would have made more pictures! 
You must always watch where you are going on the Ponderosa, because it is full of all types of critters!
