Love

-- By Roger Darlington

A few years after I left my secondary school in Manchester, I was invited to help out with the school's Christmas Fair and I decided to have a go at being Father Christmas. I had recently grown my first full beard and thought that I would enter into the role by rubbing flour into my growth. Though I say it myself, I looked rather splendid and certainly I attracted lots of custom.

We have heard Redneck jokes for years. It's time to take a reflective look at the core beliefs of a culture that values home, family, country and God.

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,ÔÇ¿
"Oh excuse me please" was my reply.ÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿

He said, "Please excuse me too;ÔÇ¿
I wasn't watching for you."ÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿

We were very polite, this stranger and I.ÔÇ¿
We went on our way and we said goodbye.ÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿

But at home a different story is told,ÔÇ¿
How we treat our loved ones, young and oldÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,ÔÇ¿
My son stood beside me very still.ÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿

I've never made a fortune,
and it's probably too late now.
But I don't worry about that much,
I'm happy anyhow.
And as I go along life's way,
I'm reaping better than I sowed.
I'm drinking from my saucer,
'Cause my cup has overflowed.

Haven't got a lot of riches,
and sometimes the going's tough.
But I've got loving ones all around me,
and that makes me rich enough.
I thank God for his blessings,
and the mercies He's bestowed.
I'm drinking from my saucer,

Ever wonder about the acronym, A.S.A.P.?

-- Author unknown

A drunk man in an Oldsmobile
They said had run the light
That caused the six-car pileup
On 109 that night.

When broken bodies lay about
And blood was everywhere,
The sirens screamed out eulogies,
For death was in the air.

A mother, trapped inside her car,
Was heard above the noise;
Her plaintive plea near split the air:
"Oh, God, please spare my boys!"

She fought to loose her pinned hands;
She struggled to get free,

By Roger Darlington

The knock at the front door announced a visitor. The erraticness of the knock and the absence of a shape through the glass panes which made up the top third of the door suggested that it was a little visitor.

Phil Radcliffe and his wife Molly had lived in this crescent for almost three decades. When they had first moved here, their son and daughter were children and there were many other kids around, all of them happy to play in a street which had no through traffic and all of them knowing that they could call on any house for a friend or advice.

-- by David L. Kuzminski

-- by  Bill Walls
My friend John always has something to tell me. He knows so much that young men have to have older and more worldly wise men to tell them. For instance who to trust, how to care for others, and how to live life to the fullest. ÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿

Recently, John lost his wife Janet. For eight years she fought against cancer, but in the end her sickness had the last word. ÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿

-- by Tony (The Marine) Santiago