Jessica Ferguson

Author, Writing Coach, Speaker

T is for Time

By Leave a Comment

Time passes so quickly. Sometimes all we’re left with are our memories. I’ve enjoyed this A to Z Challenge because I’ve gone back in time to take another look. While looking back, I’ve wanted to ask my parents, my grandparents specific questions. Too late now. Sure makes me wish I’d kept a journal all my life. I always tried but had no follow-through when it came to journaling. Tape recorders were another matter.

When I was younger, early teens, I think, my most prized possession was a reel to reel tape recorder. I took phrases from records and created advertisements, skits and interviews. I spent hours in my bedroom, creating.  That huge, heavy green tape recorder was the most wonderful Christmas present I’d ever received. And it cost a hundred dollars. At least that’s what my parents told me. I was amazed they would spend that much money on me. I wish I could remember if I asked for it or if they saw it and knew I’d love it. At any rate, eventually, I wore it out and we gave it to ‘the twins’ because they “worked” on things and said they could fix it. Remember the twins from I is for Iva? I never saw that tape recorder again. Today, I have several: three small digital and a couple of cassette ones so yeah, I still have a thing for tape recorders.

Once I recorded my Arkansas grandfather telling his “life” story. He loved to talk and didn’t mind speaking into the microphone. Oddly, I have no pictures of me with my grandparents. That makes me sad—to have pictures of them but not with them.

When I was small, we didn’t travel to grandparent’s homes to celebrate Christmas. My dad’s family lived right across the pasture from us; my mother’s parent’s lived in Arkansas. We visited them once a year—twice at the very most. When my husband and I moved to Louisiana, we made certain our kids saw their grandparents no less than once a month and all holidays. We wanted them to know their grandparents well, have relationships with them, and have their own memories.  

Do you have fond memories of grandparents or did time and distance keep you away from them? If they’re still alive, take the time to talk with them, record their stories, and take pictures.

S is for Scripture

By Leave a Comment


I come from a long line of preachers. I didn’t realize how long until I joined ancestry.com.

My mother’s dad was a Baptist preacher. That’s probably why she’s such a scrapper. They say there’s no one more rebellious than a preacher’s kid. Here’s a picture of my grandfather when he was ordained. See how he’s looking upward? He was very dramatic–guess that’s where I get my drama. I wonder what my grandma was thinking.

My parents were very moral, hard-working people. I don’t know that I’d call them godly people–to me, godly, means Christ-like, and I’ve never known anyone who was Christ-like. As I said in a previous post, my dad was ridiculed for being quiet and shy. My mother was bullied because she had bright red hair and a lot of freckles. She told me because her eyebrows and lashes were very light, kids called her pig-eyes. My mother was tough–she could take it, but the words did their damage. She never forgot them. She was in her late 60s when she went to an esthetician for permanent make-up, her eyes lined and her lips more defined.

Sad how we can never let go of those things that wound us.
Wouldn’t life be simple if we could all live by the Golden Rule and treat others the way we want to be treated.

Matthew 7:12

12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (NIV)

Do you know The Ten Commandments? Can you list each commandment? Living them would certainly simplify life on this earth.

 
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)
1
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6
“You shall not murder.
7
“You shall not commit adultery.
8
“You shall not steal.
9
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”


Do you have a favorite scripture? Can you quote your mom or dad’s favorite scripture? Or do you have one you quote when you’re happy, sad, afraid or before you sit down to write? Share.

G is for Goofy

By Leave a Comment

Do you ever feel goofy?

After church on Sunday, we went with friends to Johnny Carinos. I’m not a big fan of Italian food, but I do love their raspberry tea and bread. The bread comes in long paper bags. After we ate—there were 8 of us—I saw an empty bread bag on the table and I had the strongest urge to blow into it and pop it! I didn’t, of course, but I really had to restrain myself.

I loved popping bags when I was a kid, scaring my mother and anyone else who was in the house. There’s something about making that loud pop that’s … fun!  Would you think I’m nuts if I told you I pop bags sometimes—when I’m lucky enough to come home from a store with one? Can you imagine an overweight, sixty-four year old white-haired woman blowing up a paper bag and popping it? Well, when I put it that way, I can’t either!

The instructions are right here if you want to give it a try.    

I’ve done a lot of goofy things in my life. Some good, some bad, some not so safe. I think I’ve told you before I’d chip off a little piece of the cow’s salt block and … yeah, you guessed it. Turns my stomach to think of it now.  

Pickle juice? Once my grandmother (paternal) caught me running back and forth to her fridge way too often, to sip her pickle juice.

Funny how that one out-of-the-blue urge to pop a little paper bag brought forth so many memories.

My grandmother (maternal) had a real goofy side to her. There were ten kids in my mother’s family. Eight girls and two boys. My two uncles were a year younger and a year older than me, and a favorite aunt was four years older. My mother was the oldest girl and always said her father would send her and her sisters out to the cotton field then he’d jump in bed with Grandma. From the number of kids they had in the old days, seems like all men did that. To the left, you see my grandparents and my young uncle, David.

I loved going to Arkansas to spend time with my mother’s family. Once, when I was there, my aunt and I slept so late that my grandma grabbed the water hose, stuck it through the bedroom window and sprayed us. She saturated the bedding and water was all over the floor. I’d never seen anything so outlandish in all my life! My mother was a by-the-book kind of person. No way would she have flooded a bedroom to get two kids out of bed. She’d have grabbed a belt or switch … or maybe the broom.

To the left is a pic of Uncle David and me. Of course, I never called him Uncle. He was more like a little brother. To the right, you see how my grandmother aged. Prettier with the white hair, I think.

Special memories are so valuable. My grandparents are gone now, and so is David, but I cherish the times I spent with them, the goofy memories I have.

Do you have a memory that makes you smile? One you cherish? Share it with us.