Max and Wanda

Max sized Wanda up and decided he wanted nothing to do with her and walked away in a huff. Little did Max know just how deeply he would fall for Wanda.

She was a beauty alright. Her redish coat and sweet expressive face seemed to know exactly what you were saying. Her big brown eyes relayed the message, "Yes ma'am. I understand."

Max, a prideful half breed with a long shaggy coat and bushy tail, lived next door to Wanda, our little red dachshund.

Max seemed to change before our very eyes. It didn't take long before we knew he was devoted to Wanda. She was such a playful pup, and soon a well worn trail was formed from his house to ours.

Each morning Max waited outside our door for Wanda to come out and play. He became very protective of Wanda and was her constant companion outside.

At dusk, I would stand at the back patio door and call Wanda in. Max would follow her to the door and block her way. He used his paw to pull her back toward him. Max wanted Wanda only with him.

I had never considered dogs could love one another, but it was obvious Max and Wanda were devoted.

They spent wonderful days exploring the back yard, always side by side. You never saw one without the other.

Then one warm summer day, I saw Max and Wanda near the driveway. I planned to put Wanda inside the fenced back-yard as I normally do before leaving. She ran to Max and looked up at me with expressive eyes that seemed to beg, "Let me stay and play with Max." I recall telling her, "Stay in the yard Wanda. I'll be right back."

Max's owner glanced out the window just as Max and Wanda scampered toward the road. Wanda never saw the car coming.

Max ran back to Wanda. Very gently he pushed the lifeless body of Wanda from the road. He sat by her side until help arrived.

Each day Max laid in front of my door, heart broken. He grieved and refused to eat. He was mourning the loss of his beloved Wanda.

A few months later, Max and his family moved away, but the memory of Max and our sweet Wanda will always remain with me.

Livin' Fast 'n Loose in '09

My new years resolution this year is to live fast and loose. After all, I am sixty something and I can't allow grass to grow under my feet, right?

I have stories to write and children to please, so I'm not about to live by the rule Hast makes waste 'cause who knows when I may wake up one morning and look at my husband of forty six years, and ask "Who are you?" or worse yet, "Who am I?"

It could happen you know, just like it did to old Bessie Brown. Bessie loved to bake cakes, she was well known for miles around as Sweet Bessie Brown.

Early one morning Sweet Bessie sent her husband Rudy to the market for cake flour. The hours came and went, Sweet Bessie paced the floor watching the clock, at half past six Sweet Bessie called the law to report Rudy missing.

It turns out Rudy got confused and lost on the way to the market. He was picked up by the widow, May Bell Boles. "May Bell was taken with Rudy and wanted him for her own, she led him on and teased him with her pies." the Sheriff told Sweet Bessie the next morning. "All the while poor confused Rudy was thinking he was home."

The sheriff found Rudy sacked out in the widow Boles bed, white as her sheets. "He was moaning and groaning the sheriff said, poor Old Rudy OD on to many pies."

Well, Sweet Bessie was happy to have Rudy home, but soon after a strange thing happened to Sweet Bessie; she stopped baking cakes... she now bakes pies.
by June Davidson

My EX Best friend Sue

The back door opened and squeals of laughter drifted toward my small home office, I knew my daughters were home from the last day of our local Art in the Park festival with my best friend Sue.

Before they even entered my office, I could hear screams of "Momma! Momma! You won! you won! It was on the radio and you won Momma!"

"Won, I thought……"I haven’t entered any contest. What are they talking about I won, I won what?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked as they danced around my small office with my best friend Sue, excitedly chanting "Momma won! Momma won!"

"I won what" I asked.

"The pig calling contest Momma! It was broadcast live on the radio. Miss Sue entered in YOUR NAME, Momma and you won!!" They screamed gleefully.

.I sat in total disbelief, stunned but still able to shake my head as I managed to moan "No, No," each time they screamed "Yes, Momma you won!"

The pig calling contest? …..No I moaned as it slowly sank in. I thought how can I ever live this down? Did my friends, did our business acquaintances hear it

The radio? Live broadcast? my name? ….I was mortified!

How could she I thought!

I could just see her stepping up on that stage and walking up close to the microphone giving my name. Her long flaming red hair flung back as far as she could manage and with a long, loud high pitch "Soooweeee" coming from deep within her throat "Soooweeee" as her head came forward, "Soooweeeeee!"

At last words escaped my throat. "No, I screamed you didn’t!" As they collapsed in laughter on the floor.

Not one to forget easily, A couple of weeks later I called the teenage daughter of my EX-best friend Sue, who I assigned the task of casually mentioning to her mother my encounter with a famous actor at our local country store.

Once off the phone, I made a quick trip down to the store, a quaint historic building with a single gas pump from decades gone by stood silently in remembrance of eighteen cent a gallon gasoline.

I climbed the three steep steps, walked toward the over-fed sleeping hound that separated me from the door. The moment I opened the door a small silver bell hung from a faded red ribbon, jingled.

Standing behind the old wood counter was my husband’s childhood friend Leslie, the store proprietor. Glancing up from the antique cash register with glasses perched midway on his nose he flashed a warm smile and greeted me as I entered the door. He motioned me over to the old pot bellied stove as he came around the counter.

He sat in the old barber chair and listened to my plan with amusement. Laughing he agreed to help knowing he would be the first one Sue would call and ask if it were true.

Now, all was set, all I had to do was wait…

The next day I received a frantic call from a blabbering incoherent lady, between the bawling and sobbing of incoherent words all I could make out was …"Tom.

"The door bell never rang; she burst into the house with a maniac look, squalling her eyes out, she flung that head of long flaming red hair down on my breakfast bar and bawled her eyes out. "Why, why!" she said between sobs as she pounded my breakfast bar with her fist.

"Why didn’t you call me, she said. You know that Tom Selleck is my favorite actor in the whole world. Why didn’t Leslie call me? What did Tom say, did you talk to him?" She continued to sob uncontrollably. "How could you do this to me?" Over and over like a shrieking badly scratched 45 record on a cheap Hi Fi…

By this time, I am feeling about knee-high to a grasshopper, this "joke" seems to be back firing rapidly, and I was beginning to feel remorse for doing this to her. Heck, I didn’t know she was going to carry on so.

I began to regret the plot for payback on the pig calling Joke. I was beginning to think …..I better neverrrr tell her the truth!

Fifteen years later, she still believes that Tom Selleck was at our local country store and that I met him.

Wink wink!

By June Davidson

I beleive in CHRISTmas

What Christmas means to me.

It means this is the time of year we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. He is the true reason for the season.

It means God loved me so much, he sent his only son to offer salvation and eternal life.

It means I beleive in Merry CHRISTmas

...It means I BELEIVE!

I wish you peace and joy this Christmas.

Tagged as Junie B

"Mom, why did you name me June?"

The answer was not one I expected, to say the least.

No, my name didn't come from a family name passed down through generations, but from the movie Trail of the Lonesome Pines, a black and white movie made in the nineteen forties. My Dad loved the name of the actress, June. You guessed it, I was tagged June!

Forty five years passed by...then late one night, with remote in hand I scanned a list of tv chanels and spotted a movie title "Trail of the Lonesome Pines." I selected the movie, I wanted to see why my Dad was so taken with this actress he named me June.

I settled back in my chair expecting to see a great movie, after all, why would my daddy name me for her other wise. Not so, take my word for it 'cause ten minutes later the channel was changed!

The imagery of the author conjured up in my mind as he wrote Trail of the Lonesome Pines, he sat hunched over his black manual typewriter in a shady part of town in a smoke filled room.

I watched as he pecked away at the keys over and over...J u n e... J u n e ...J u n e.

"Gee whiz, I thought, why didn't you name her something like Lou Ann or Georgia Anne, Emma Ruth, even Sadie Bell would have worked! But oh-no, that author named her June!"

Back to Junie B...
Growing up, Bug was added...June Bug was not a name I was fond of, but over the years it was changed to Junie Bug then Junie B.
I can live with Junie Bug or Junie B!

Oh, I still get phone calls from my oldest nephew who is eleven years my junior with "What's the Junie Bug up to today?"
I chuckle and say. "Same ole thing!"

Our bond is special, we both know its a love tag from childhood. Our ties are akin to older sister and younger brother rather than aunt and nephew.

Below is the lyrics to the music Trail of the Lonesome Pine

Recorded by Hal "Lone" Pine and his Mountaineers with Betty CodyWriters: MacDonald and Carroll.

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia On the trail of the lonesome Pine In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine Where you carved your name and I carved mine.
Oh, you - like the mountains are blue Like the pine - I am lonesome for you In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia On the trail of the lonesome Pine.
On a mountain in Virginia stands a lonesome Pine Just below is the little cabin home of a little girl of mine Her name is June and very, very soon she'll belong to me For I know she's waiting there for me 'neath that lone Pine tree.