Valentine Memories ~ Nostalgia from Heartland America

~ A Valentine Love Note from Trudie McAfee

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I always did have a soft spot in my heart for Daddy’s older brother, Uncle Chester — especially when he had a hangover after pining for his delicate Rose.

I figured if he was grumbling, it had to be better than singing sad songs to his own guitar all night out on the farm, with nobody to talk to but his flop-earred hound and the howling coyotes . . .

Valentine’s Day was not easy for him that winter of  ’47. But I remember him ever fondly for his heart of gold, despite the grumbling. And his music is still a miracle to me.

ENJOY:

Valentine for Uncle Chester

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From HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings novel by D.J. Houston

Coming of Age Story – Life Lessons – Miracles – Inspirational Stories – Heartland America

Copyright©2010, 2014 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

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Father’s Day Nostalgia — Inspirations from Havenwood Tales

My father taught me how to fish, and how to make a string box with a handle. And the silent peace of fishing, and the joy of soaring my kite in the summer wind.

Remembering him this Father’s Day, I thank my Daddy for all his helpful influences.

I miss the smile behind his eyes, as if he knew a secret joke about life and knew that I’d learn it some day.  But I can still hear his deep, warm voice chuckling, “You’re welcome, kiddo.”

 

C L I C K   H E R E   for LINKS, QUOTES  and M O R E   

“Father’s Day Inspirations”

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H A P P Y   F A T H E R’ S   D A Y !

from Trudie and her Author, D.J. Houston

Copyright©2011, 2013 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

American Family Life – Inspiring Stories – Life Lessons – Mystery Novel – Author D.J. Houston

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Mother’s Day Musings – Havenwood Tales Nostalgia – Inspirations

A Mother’s Day Tribute from Havenwood Tales

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Who ran to help me when I fell,

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss the place to make it well,

My mother.

— Ann Taylor, poet — (aka Mrs. Gilbert)

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“Mother’s Day Inspirations from Heartland America”

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Coming of Age Story – Life Lessons – Wisdom – American Literature Treasures

~ From HAVENWOOD TALES Novels ~

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Celebrate Spring in the Magical Mystery of Havenwood Tales

HAPPY SPRING from HAVENWOOD TALES !

“Rejoice in all that is glorious!”

— Author, D.J. Houston

Mystery Novels – Inspiring Stories – Historical Fiction – American Literature Treasures

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Irish in America – Inspirations from Havenwood Tales

“I wondered if God might not have gotten sick of watching that blizzard stir up so much trouble down on earth, and decided to just suck up the last of it into the Milky Way . . .”

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 HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings  by D. J. Houston

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My father’s camaraderie with his able-bodied, Irish-minded brothers was always a source of luck and light to the McAfee clan.

Their jovial triumvirate pulled Daddy out of his pensive moods and raised everyone’s spirits around them; together, they made us all feel more playful and safe. . .

When the three Irish brothers teamed up for a challenge, it was “God between us and all harm.”

Anything was possible . . .

CLICK to READ

“Life Lessons – Mysteries of Snow”

Copyright©2007, 2013 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

Mystery Novel — Inspirations — Historical Fiction — Nostalgia Stories — Paranormal

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The World’s Most Beautiful Christmas Tree

From the coming novel HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings by D.J. Houston

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How to trim a Christmas tree on the night before Christmas Eve when you’ve never had one, and the stores are closed and there’s no box of decorations stashed anywhere to draw from, is — or so I learned that night — like refurbishing an empty house without money . . .

You create something out of nothing with whatever is to hand and make up the rest as you go.

As Forest Gump’s own mama would say, “You never know what you’re gonna get.”  And to that I would add, “when you bring out the Artist in people.”

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C L I C K for Inspiring Christmas Story

Copyright©2008, 2012 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

Mystery Novel – Inspiring Stories – American Literature Treasures – Life Journey 

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Christmas Nostalgia – Havenwood School – Vegetables, Dirt and Gingerbread Men

NEW peek at the novel HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings  by D.J. Houston, Author

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Katy Winthrop’s Gingerbread Man

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Miss Greenlee’s class learned to make Art out of gingerbread men. And not just any old brown paper cut-outs of gingerbread men, but real-cookie keepsake ornaments you could dangle from a Christmas tree!

Using her curvy metal cookie cutter, we molded the figures from sheets of rolled-out gingerbread dough we’d made by ourselves with arithmetic and a recipe.  A loop of fuzzy white pipe cleaner wire was attached to the top of each man’s head for a hook, while the dough was soft.  And then we set our little men aside to dry in the window sills.

We watched the dough harden for three whole days under the frosty window panes before Katy Winthrop couldn’t stand it any longer . . .

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Secrets of Havenwood Tales – Autumn Mystery – Mister Walling

Magical Mystery from HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings

by D.J. Houston

As the leaves turned red and gold and brown and covered the ground with Autumn

… it was my whole new world of learning with Miss Greenlee that most absorbed my life that Fall of 1946.

But on long walks home from school alone if Timmy stayed behind to practice baseball, while the fat-cheeked squirrels scurried to store their nuts in hidey-holes for the winter and cattle huddled together in the crisp wind, my thoughts would often turn to Mister Walling.

I still had never spoken of him . . .

CLICK  HERE for Secrets and Miracles

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Copyright©2007, 2012 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

Magical Mystery – Nostalgic Stories – Gifted Children – Coming of Age – American Literature

 

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Hay Rides and a Brother’s Desperation – The New World of Havenwood School

New peeks at HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings

by D.J. Houston, Author

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This excerpt is CONTINUED from “Humorous Stories – Baseball Rules – American Tall Tales”  – Missed Part I ? – CLICK HERE

I don’t know who the heck Timmy thought he was fooling . . .

Anybody with an ounce of sense and eyes in their head could figure it out. Ever since the preacher’s niece from Poseyville, ten-year-old Josie May Redding, had blinked at him on a hayride, he’d been praying she was a cradle robber.

The last thing he needed was flirty Miss Josie May thinking he was some kind of sissy babysitter for his dumb little sister.

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NEWS FLASH – Trudie McAfee of Havenwood Tales – Now On PINTEREST

HI Everybody! SURPRISE!

It’s me, TRUDIE, your HAVENWOOD TALES Narrator character 🙂

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GUESS WHAT ?!! 

B I G  N E W S  — I’M on PINTEREST at http://pinterest.com/trudiehaven/

And it was a BIG DEAL to get there, too!

I confessed to the folks at Pinterest that I live in the 1940s in Heartland America.  I even admitted to being precocious and said I could see the future.  But they said all I needed was a Facebook or Twitter account, and they’d send me an invitation to join.

Simple, right?  So I asked my author — who is (as you probably know) none other than my friend and confidant, D.J. Houston — to sign me up for Facebook BUT…

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Father’s Day Inspirations from Heartland America

“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” – Clarence Budington Kelland

 

 A Note from Author, D.J. Houston  & MORE 🙂

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FATHERS — and our unique experiences and life lessons with them — are as varied as individuals themselves.

My own father’s common sense, persistent work ethic, a calm strength of character and endearing, almost corny sense of humor are traits I treasure and remember him for most.  But when I was a child, he could seem a bit mysterious.

His favorite song was “The Tennessee Waltz,” but I never saw him dancing.  He’d been to college, but never encouraged me to go.  He’d been a soldier, but he wouldn’t talk about the war . . .  

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Mother’s Day Inspirations – American Literature Treasures

“My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.”  ~  Mark Twain

♥

Portrait courtesy of Dave Thomson

For mystery, miracles and memories of MOTHER’S DAY from Havenwood Tales author, D.J. Houston

CLICK HERE

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Irish Blessings from Havenwood Tales – Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Luck O’ The Irish from Havenwood Tales!

‘Tis said that St. Patrick’s Day brings out the Irish in all of us 😉

A holiday originating in Ireland over a thousand years ago, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world each March 17th.

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Inspirations – Auld Lang Syne – A Valentine from Heartland America

New Year’s Eve had come and gone to the tune of Aunt Julia’s piano and a rousing Auld Lang Syne . . .

Our old house was almost done mourning the departure of its Christmas tree. Mama was back to baking for Birdie’s Kitchen and school had just gotten good and started again.

Then, on the 30^th of January, a roaring blizzard slammed its way out of Canada like a bull shot loose from a rodeo pen and pummeled everything south of it from Michigan to Texas and east to the ocean . . .

CLICK to READ

“Valentine for Uncle Chester”

Photography by Anna Laura Livinal Belanger

Excerpts from novel HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings

by Author D.J. Houston

Copyright©2010, 2013 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

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Christmas Decorations and Dirt – Holiday Story Treasures

For THANKSGIVING STORY “PILGRIMS & INDIANS” – Click Here 🙂

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Havenwood School Holiday Inspirations

If I had to choose just one December for the world, this one would certainly do . . .

Except for the scent of a pine wreath hanging over the radiator, our winter classroom smelled pretty much like wet wool and lunch pails, rubber erasers, finger paints and little boys with dirt behind their ears.

CLICK HERE to December 1946 😉

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From the novel HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings by D.J. Houston

Copyright©2008, 2011 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

American Tall Tales – Mystery Novel – Humorous Stories – Nostalgic Stories

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Thanksgiving Humor – Eight Hundred Pounds of Vegetables

PILGRIMS and INDIANS

~ Thanksgiving 1946 ~

Maybe my next big break in life would be on the stage.  Maybe it wouldn’t.  But it promised to be a hallmark moment for Havenwood . . .

To entertain our parents, siblings, other family, friends of family, friends and family of their friends, teachers, older students and their entourages and anyone else we could recruit, my classmates and I scrunched together on a platform stage in the school cafeteria —  under a huge, hanging, paper mache’ cornucopia stuffed with eight hundred pounds of real vegetables — and put on a Thanksgiving play . . .

CLICK HERE to Attend the Play 😉

~ Excerpts from the coming novel HAVENWOOD Tales Beginnings

Funny Holiday Stories – Fantasy Fiction – Historical Fiction Books – American Tall Tales

Copyright©2010, 2012 D.J. Houston. All Rights Reserved.

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Humorous Stories – Baseball Rules – American Tall Tales

From the novel HAVENWOOD TALES Beginnings

by D.J. Houston

Baseball Wisdom . . .

Timmy was pacing the front yard like a penned up billy goat with his teeth clenched, slamming a battered baseball back and forth with a stinging hand against his stitched-up catcher’s mitt while he muttered out loud to himself.

He was suffering his own walloping case of doubts about my having to go to school.

In the first place, it was his school. And the idea of his naïve, snot-nosed little sister attending that same school would never fit in with his master plan, if he had one. But it was the only school around, so he had no choice:

It was time to lay some ground rules.

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