By Rosie Preston
My grandmother, better known in our family as Maw Maw, loved to sit on her front porch swing. I didn’t always get to sit in it, because my younger sister and I would rush to sit with our Maw Maw! She was always kind and gentle to us, and we didn’t seem to get in as much trouble when we were together at her house. Of course, it was a different story when we were at home.
My sister and I are almost three years apart and we would often tangle and argue. I now look back and think that maybe the swing helped us settle down and enjoy the beauty around us. Maw Maw loved flowers, and her yard looked like a show place. It was her blessing to have a green thumb. Everything that she could find to plant, it would soon be blooming in her yard.
During this time of my younger years, my daddy would take us on Sunday evening road trips around town. Many people were sitting on their porches, and would always wave at us, and it was delightful for me to wave back at them! I now realize that I am of the age to sit on the porch and wave as cars drive by.
The excitement of relaxing in my swing is overwhelming. I only wish I could stop the younger people as they drive by and share with them what my dad told me one day while we were sitting in our swing at home. In a very serious tone that I didn’t hear him use very often, he said that he wanted to guide me to enjoy life and make wise choices, because he never realized how quickly he got to be an old man.
I’m a strong-willed person, of course, and in my mind, I immediately disagreed with him because I didn’t believe that it would happen like he said. And yet, not for the first time, my daddy was right. As I look back and remember the different decades of my life and what I was involved in during those years, it seems like only yesterday. There are many things I would do differently, of course, but we can’t go back. However, I do look forward to the wonderful memories that will come back to me as I sit in my new swing!
Keep smiling, Rosie
Contact Rosie Preston at rosie.preston@yahoo.com.