The The Burning of Our Yard, (well, a small section anyway)

My peaceful afternoon was interrupted by Abbie running into the house yelling "The yard is on fire!!!!!" I took out running and sure enough it was. A certain child had completely misunderstood what I said and I misunderstood what the child said and therefore a fire in our burning barrel was started. And said child filled it to the brim with newspaper, which then flew off and caught the very very dry grass on fire. Before the child knew it things were out of their control. Hence the yelling and screaming.

The kids ran to fill up buckets with water and I tried my best to put it out. When one of the little trees close to the hen house caught fire I began to get worried. I was seriously debating whether to call the fire department when things began to calm down. We got it put out and no one was hurt, but lets just say that if I catch said child even rubbing two sticks together it ain't gonna be pretty.

After I had calmed down all this made me think of my great-grandmother Sallie. She looked like a Granny. She had long gray hair down to her waist and everyday she put it up in a thick bun. She loved to work and thought everyone should be working all the time. To sit on the porch and relax was lazy. She could always think of something else to do.

Another thing she also loved to do was burn limbs in her yard. She would collect any limbs she found throughout the day, put them in a neat pile, and set them on fire. She loved to stand with a stick and poke at the fire.

Well, Granny lived to be 100 and after about 80 she began to slow down a little bit. But she did not realize that. And she would continue to set the fires in her yard which began to "get a little away from her." Sometimes my grandaddy (her son) would see the fire and run down the road and put it out. Sometime the small community volunteer fire department would have to be called. And then called again. And again.

Finally, some of the fireman asked "Ms. Sallie" (everyone called her that, except for us, we got to call her Granny, and that made me feel special), if she would please call them BEFORE she set the fire. They knew they could not make her STOP starting the fires so they were trying to be preventive in their measures. She agreed, and she would call them. They would come down to her house and watch the fire with her.

At least the new guys got plenty of putting-out-fires practice.