Bless Your Heart's

   Uncle Jay Sang Tenor   by Madelyn Shields       My Uncle Jay is an extremely talented person and when you meet him you don't forget him. He has that kind of effect on you. He is handsome, intelligent, loving, kind and just an all around good guy. He is musically talented too, playing the flat top guitar, steel guitar, bass, saxophone, among other instruments and he could yodel! He is an amazing person.       So this is where my story begins....The year was around 1948.  Karen, my sister and I were very small; Karen six and me...I would have been four and Uncle Jay was in his teens.  Jay is my Mother's only sibling and is ten years younger than Mother so that made him about eleven years older than me; like an older brother. Karen and I thought he was the Stuff! ( still do).        Our church was called The Upper Room, because it ...

Christmas at Mr. and Mrs. Clark's By Madelyn Shields              It was Christmas time! Karen and I were anticipating everything the season had to give us. The radio sang out  "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," and "Silver Bells." I was seven and Karen was nine. We felt the joy of Christmas all around us as people greeted each other with a cheerful "Merry Christmas!" Excitement was in the air. 1950 was winding down and we were facing a brand new year.        On this particular day we were especially excited because Mother gave us the happy news  that we were invited to Mr. and Mrs. Clark's home for a Christmas supper. They were very special people to us. Mr. and Mrs. Clark were my Aunt Jane Ann's parents. They lived in a big white house that set upon a hill and you had to walk up lots of steps to reach their front door. They lived on Waterloo close to Pearl ...

The Birthday Cake by Madelyn Shields       We live on Waterloo Street in a two story house that fit in between two other homes. The England's lived on one side of us and on the other side of us, the Ganson Avenue side, was Mrs. Holiday, an older lady, who kept track of the neighborhood. We had grass and flowers in our yard and so did Mrs. Holiday but the England's had a bunch of kids and no lawn what-so-ever. Their yard was bone bare!   The three of us had a dog named Cap, a brown and white long haired Brittney Spaniel and we all love him. He would go between the three house to be fed and would sleep on which ever porch offered the most comfort at the time.   In Michigan, February was a cold month that brought very little comfort, weather wise, In fact, there always seemed to be lots of snow. Anyway, it was the month that my Mother was born in. Yep! the 15th day of February. the day right after Valentine's Day. ...