The Black Snake

In Morgan, Kentucky, there used to sit a very small, two-room house where my family and I lived. Outside the house, near the Licking River, was the occasional event of meeting up with a snake or two. You might imagine how many visits we had from them, as they would come from the river, up the hill, and close to our house.

On one particular occasion, there was a very large black snake which visited us, not to be a friend, but to steal the banty hens' eggs. Our little hens would go under the house and lay their eggs. The snakes knew right where to go to eat them.

On this occasion, my uncle Carl Raney was at our house, and he and my mother went outside with a small, short-barrelled, single-shot .22 rifle. They were going to shoot that nasty snake and kill it so it could not steal the eggs anymore.

I remember following them to the side of the house where I might watch them kill that snake. Uncle Carl began to load the gun, and he kept getting the bullet caught in the barrel of the gun. At last the bullet was stuck so fast that he could not get it out or in the gun.

We had to wait until my father got home to do anything else about the snake. By this time, the snake had eaten the eggs and was wrapping itself around the large tree in the front yard to crush the eggs (which was their wont).

If I remember correctly, my father took an axe and killed the snake. Then, just for the fun of it, he split open the snake and took out an egg to show us. He may have even asked if we wanted to eat it for supper.

With days like this, no one needs an amusement park or a trip downtown to have a good time. We had enough goings-on at the Wolfe house from day to day.

Chapters From My Life - Memorial Day 2016

Ronnie W.Wolfe

Today is Memorial Day in 2016. I visited my wife's grave yesterday, and today I will probably go again and take some flowers, which I did not do yesterday. In Kentucky we used to call this day Decoration Day, because many people went to cemeteries and put flowers on graves and cleaned up around the grave of a relative or loved one.

 

But the most important part of this day, as most of you know, is to remember those who have kept our country safe all these many years. Heroes fell as wars raged on, while their comrades rescued their dead bodies to bring them back home to families who mourned and remembered their brave lives. Even today many die almost daily in wars around the world who volunteered to train to protect this great country and were ready to die for it.

 

Because of my handicap, I could not join any branch of service. My status is 4F. I tried to be a part of some secretarial pool or to be a clerk or something like that, but my classification would not permit it. Thus, I cannot be a soldier. However, I have known many soldiers, good soldiers. I have always loved and respected soldiers, though I could not be one.

 

Less and less honor is given to them, it seems; but they deserve our support and appreciation. I hope today will be spent, at least in a small way, to the respect and honor of our brave men and women who are ready to stand against the enemies of our country. We have a great country, and God is to be thanked and praised for His hand in allowing us to live in such a great country.

 . . .

Diary

Ronnie W. Wolfe

Monday is always an interesting day. I am always amazed at the grace of God and how it works in our lives. To put to remembrance some items from the last few days, I remember that on Friday or Saturday (I cannot know for sure), a lady approached my table at Frisch's Restaurant and said, "Are you Ronnie Wolfe?" I told her I was. She then began to tell me that she was a friend of Eveda Ison, who was my neighbor for many years before her death. Then I asked her where I had met her, and she told me that the first time we met was a time when she was at the hospital (I don't know which one, and we did not go into that) helping her father out of the car to go into the hospital. She said I approached her and her father, talked briefly to them, and then, she said that I gave her a tract entitled "The Story of Amazing Grace." I was surprised that she remembered me, especially that she remembered my name. She may have seen me at Eveda Ison's funeral (I am not sure of that).

On Saturday I spent most of my day reading. I remember that I went to K Mart and purchased a shirt and tie for myself. The cleaners was closed for vacation all week, so I could not get my clean shirts; so I was stuck with no clean shirt for Sunday. The shirt is light blue with a paisley design on the tie. This is old fashioned but nice.  Everyone seemed to like it, but I just wanted a clean shirt.

Sunday (yesterday) was a good day except for the fact that many were out of church. We had only 85 in attendance for the preaching service. Some are on vacation, etc. We normally have 90 or above and sometimes more.

My grandson, Brandon Wolfe, stayed home on Sunday. He said he was sick, although his dad told me that he had been "playing possum" the day before, being sick when convenient and well when convenient; so I do not know whether he was really sick or not.  My other two grandsons, his brothers, Eric and Colin, came to church with me. After church Colin went home with Sheila (Wolf) Turner and her family to stay the afternoon. That left only Eric and myself to eat lunch (I call it dinner) together. We went to Cracker Barrel but decided there were too many people there, so we went to Frisch's to eat. After we ate, we went to my house and spent the afternoon doing nothing but watching westerns and Eric's working on his computer building something or other for a game he is building--I really don't get into that much, since I do not like video games.

Today has been more or less a normal day. I ate my usual egg biscuit at McDonald's with a cup of black coffee and then came to the office. John Racz, my secretary, was already at the office. He comes in earlier than I do. I have spent the morning perusing email, Facebook, etc., reading some Scripture, getting a slide show ready for the Wednesday evening service, and writing on my blog for John 1:14 and also this little diary that I post once in a great while.

The weather is to be partly sunny with a chance of pop-up showers or storms all day with a high of around 90 degrees. It certainly is Summer, but I would rather it be like this than to be winter--just my opinion.

Diary

A beautiful day of partly cloudy and a temperature of around 57 made this a wonderful day. Worked in the office this morning. Went to Wendy's for lunch. Came home around 3:00 PM and pruned the roses in the front yard. Just hope I do not have a lot of pain tomorrow.

Diary

Worked in office this morning. Left early; so did John Racz, my secretary. He was going to Columbus for a concert of his granddaughter. Ate fish sandwich at Arby's.

Went to visit Faye Havens, who is declining in health. She had Sarcoidosis and is very bad with her lungs, breathing problems. She fell today, and Charlie was helping her up when I came to the door. It took him several minutes to get her in a chair. Faye later had some pain in her right side.

David and Missy got back from vacation in South Carolina today.

Diary

Visited Chris's home yesterday. Eric is not getting much better with his mononucleosis. He has a lot of pain in his throat. He has severe infection from the mono. He is taking Oxycodone, and it helps the pain, but he cannot sleep very well, and eating is hard. I have not called him today yet.

Staying home today due to the heavy rain. I have been studying and trying to clean a little around the house. I got my studying done for sunday. My arthritis does not allow me to do much cleaning. I fell twice today on a slick floor. I could hardly get back up. My arms are so week, and I feel like I weigh 200 pounds.

David, Missy, and the girls are supposed to be home from vacation by midnight. They went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a week. The dogs are running me crazy. They keep begging for something. I think they just want me to be in the room with them. Missy and the girls have simply spoiled them rotten.

I ate a sausage sandwich for lunch, which I purchased from McDonald's this morning before I came back home.

Diary

Learned today that my grandson, Eric Wolfe, has the dreaded illness, mononucleosis. He tells me that he will be in the house for three weeks or more. We are hoping that his school will give him homework to do so he will not miss out on completing his eleventh year in school.

I intended to to visit Faye Havens today, but I called before going, and there was no answer. I assumed that she may have had a doctor appointment, so I did not go. Later Charlie called me and said that he had gone out to pick up a few things from the grocery story, and Faye did not answer the phone when I called.  I will try to go tomorrow (Tuesday).

Purchased a lamp at K Mart, because the lamp in my bedroom will not stay on. The switch is broken. Yesterday I was at Wal-Mart, and I purchased a new switch. I took off the old switch and wired up the new switch and was ready to install it on the lamp, but then I found that the switch was the wrong size.  I just waited until today and bought a new lamp. I can still use the old lamp shade.

David, Missy, and the girls are in South Carolina on vacation, and I am babysitting with the dogs. I do not like dogs in the house, so this is not a good job for me. I don't trust them when they are outside the house. I am afraid they will go off the property. I don't let them out more than about three times a day and then just for a few minutes.

Read the first part of the story of Joseph in Genesis this morning. I will be teaching on the life of Joseph in our Wednesday evening Bible study.

The weather has been very cool today, but the sun was shining more than half the day. Rain came in late this afternoon. Rain is expected for the next two days.