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My
Old Kentucky Home
By
Bill E. Branscum ©2002
In January, 2001, we traveled
to Kentucky to visit our family farm. It's one of the most
beautiful places on Earth, and it's important to us as a
place to escape, relax and keep in touch with who we are.
My family came to this Country circa 1735 when Richard
Branscombe came from Branscombe England, a place that exists
today. By 1805, we had relocated to Kentucky; to put that
in historical perspective, Daniel Boone cut the Wilderness
Road and established Boonesboro in 1775. |
Click Pic to Enlarge |
I don't suppose most people ever give it a thought,
but I think it was a remarkable thing for people to pick up,
leave civilization and set out to make a life - what you couldn't
kill , grow or make, you did without. This is the relatively
modern home where many of our family members were born and
raised. |
| Dad built a new house several years
ago just a few feet from the place where the old house stood.
It's a big place with plenty of room for the family to all
come visit. We always go for two weeks, twice a year. |
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Even in the
winter, the place is beautiful. |
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| As I suppose one might expect, nobody
was keen on going anywhere without Luz, so we loaded up the
Suburban a few days after Christmas, Dook snagged a pocket
translator, and we headed north to celebrate Luz' 20th birthday
- January 1, 2001. |
The folks at home had heard about
Luz, and everyone was anxious to meet her. If I had anticipated
what she was going to be dealing with, I would have warned
her in advance.
You see, my extended family is somewhat matriarchal - we
have a number of devoutly religious, elderly women in my
family and those ladies were very hopeful that Luz was any
part of the person that my kids had been bragging her up
to be. These ladies are "prayer warriors," and
I have no doubt, that there had been some significant praying
going on. |
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The first to meet Luz was my Aunt Ardith - my father's
oldest sister. I'm a reasonably articulate guy, but I've
no words to describe her, or what she's meant to my family.
Dook is named after her late husband. I should have known
that she would be very interested in Luz. |
Aunt Mallie |
Aunt Mary |
Aunt Nevada |
My Great Aunts; Mallie, Mary and Nevada, are very special
people who have meant a lot to all of us. Devoutly religious
in a quiet, serious way, these ladies have lived it their
entire lives. Strong, dependable and loving, they have been
a wonderful example that few of us have met.
Luz took them like Grant took Richmond; they all agreed
that God sent Luz to straighten things out. |
I don't know,
but if he didn't, he should have.
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| We waited thru much of our vacation
hoping for snow, but mother nature did not see fit to oblige
us. Finally one evening, the weather channel advised that
we could expect snow the following day. Fortunately, my little
guys didn't know how to read. |
"Well boys and girls, I'm guessin'
we don't have much choice if we're gonna have snow before
we leave. I fear there's no way unless we can get Megan
to do the snow dance."
My Meggie is pretty much up for anything - that blurry
barefoot figure was dancing and spinning her little heart
out by the light of the moon.
It was priceless. |
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The next morning,
we all awoke to find the ground covered in snow. Megs was
very full of herself and her new found talent. I would never
have believed that anything could be funnier than her snow
dance, but as we watched the snow fall, Ryan looked up from
his breakfast and with genuine concern asked, "Megan,
can you make it stop?"
Unfortunately, that caught me by surprise
and a whole mouthful of hot coffee promptly shot forth out
of my nose.
One of the highlights of our trip was a visit from my cousin
Mike. Never known for conservative maturity, Mike can pretty
much be counted on to make a way to have fun, although some
of his ideas can be questionable. |
Mike, Megan, Morgan, Jeremy
Dook & Ryan |
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Mike (the big kid on the left) is about 50, going on 15,
and it occurred to him that it would be fun to tow the kids
around behind his four wheel drive truck. Ryan and Mike saw
eye-to-eye on that, and Ryan was the first to give it a try.
Ryan did a great job holding on - until he didn't. |
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| Luz and Megs gave it a try and they managed
pretty well. Jeremy was knocked off the dish before he knew
what happened, winning the prize for most spectacular fall,
and Dook proved that he's hard headed by falling off and continuing
to ride on his face. |
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| Morgan, a young lady Mike brought along to meet
the kids, put most of my guys to shame. I suspect that she
had done this deal before. |
| Like most vacations, ours didn't
last long enough and we finally had to head back to Florida.
Two weeks just isn't quite enough, but it was fun and we all
enjoyed it. |
| What, one might reasonably ask,
did my parents think about Luz? |
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Go figure. |
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