I wrote this for the Honor Guard benefit at VFW Post 4641, in Dickson, TN.  If you have a VFW in your town please forward this on to them.  Honor Guards rarely get the thanks they deserve.
Thanks,
Abe

For Their Honor 

You’ll see them standing proudly
In the summer’s heat or cold
Their heads bowed in silent prayer
For the young Soldier, and the old. 

They will take the time away
Precious hours of their lives
To fold our Flag carefully
To present to loved one, kids and wives. 

Some people think they are paid
But no, it’s at their expense, too
So, when you see an Honor Guard
Just tell them, “Thanks, for all you do.” 

Del “Abe” Jones
06.06.2008

        I came from a very disfunctional family, after my Dad died  when I was 3,and my brothers were 2 and 6 My mother`s mental illness went totally out of controll. She felt like her world had collapsed, She loved him so very much she could`nt imagine life without him. She blamed us and would hit us and tell me to get out of her sight, that I`d ruined her life and because my Dad spent so much time with me,[his little princess] she said I stole time from her that she could have spent with him. She said She wished I`d never been born. It was pretty much down hill from there.

        She started drinking,leaving us home alone and bringing men home "uncle" somebody ! There was never any food ,If we ask for food the "uncles" punished us,  One time holding me over an open well by the back of my dress while I begged and clutched at his hands, He and mom laughed and  called me a scardy-cat.  after that i never cried nor ask for anything .I just fed my brother and tried to be invisable.

        Milk was powered, we ate cerial when we had it, my grandmother came once in a while and brought bread, jam and  peanut butter.

and then there was all ways lard and sugar sandwiches!   Yummy!!!

         After she had spent the insurance money and "uncle George left her and her brats, she found a shy ,quiet man who never dated, she met him thru his sister.

Two weeks later they ran off and got married, came home ,told us we were going to stay a couple weeks with the Aunt`s and Uncle that raised her. We did`nt know them. I was scared to death that it would be an awful place,

As if things could be worse than we  already had lived thru.

We were put in the car with the few clothes we had ,and off we went. My little brother was hugging me and crying, I had always protected him and saw that he ate weather I did or not. I was 41/2 then ,he trusted me to always be with him. I don`t know what we would have done without each other. Our brother pat was mentally unbalanced and always trying to hurt us.

I hugged him,wiped his tears and told him this was going to be a great adventure !

Altho I was so scared and shaking inside,I smiled at him and told him as long as the two

of us are together, we`ll always be brave.  He took my hand as we rode along and he  looked up at me and smiled his crooked little smile. Oh how I loved that little guy !

We finally arrived, and I could`nt believe my eyes ! There was a big farm house, flowers all over, fruit tree`s ,big

red barn and every animal you can imagine !  I thought maybe this is a dream and i`ll wake up and be bake in the tar paper house with the rats chewing in the walls at night !  I closed my eyes, opened them and it was real !  mom yelled,  "for god sakes, you act like you don`t have good sence " !Hurry up !  !we have to go.!

My Aunt`s, we were to call them Aunt`y, Aunt Kate and Unkie.was our uncle,  They each took ahold of our hands and lead us into this unbelievable big,house that smelled like cinnamon and fresh bread and it was so clean!   The first thing Aunty said was,Ed get the buckets and the wash tub and pump a bunch of water !  These babies need a good scrubbing!!!

And scrub she did, she put the tub by the wood cook stove filled it up and got the home made soap,I could`nt  remember when the last bath we had was.And boy did they scrub us!

I felt like I probably could glow in the dark ! Bobby was all pink and blonde in a big nite gown,

Then we ate supper, real food ! .Chicken, gravey, veg ,.biscuits all we could eat and MILK !! Right  out of a real cow !   All we could drink, that was a first.

After dinner my Mom left, without saying good-bye. The two weeks turned into over a year of good food, love hugs ,scoldings and never once being hit. We ran and laughed and rolled in the grass down the hill into the

cherry orchard. WE sat in the trees and ate as many cherrys as we could, then we`d run to the barn to see what Unkie

was doing. we feed chicken, gathered eggs, feed he pigs, and watched while the milk magically came out of the cows. On occasion Unkie would turn a teat at us and squirt milk at us, we`d run screaming and giggling and  Aunty would yell 

out "Ed, stop that ,you`ll get it in their eye`s ! and she`d wink at us.

We even got to go to the State Fair ! We`d never seen anything like that. All those people, animals and all knds of wonderful things and best of all ,Bobby and I got to sleep in the hay beside Unkies prize pig !  I thought maybe this is what Heaven is like,,as I closed my eyes and went  to sleep.

There`s more to this story, I`ll write it later. This is a memorie for "boo",so he`ll have something happy to hold on to.

It`s really hard to express what this experience did for me. But it ended too soon. they came back and got us and the

joy was gone. Funny how kindness and warm  arms can help even in memories. When   things got real bad, I,d hide and think of my days in the sun. I still love old farms and barns and animals. my Mom refused to let us see our Aunts

again, because they told her she was`nt doing right by us.  When I was 10 I found them again, we stayed in touch until they died.  God bless them and people like them, they never could have kids of their own, so raised and

spoiled my Mom and then took on us wild ones.          lonnie

  Well with great enthusiasum in my last journal, I wrote about spring finally getting here. It was 80 degrees one day, 75 the next, and then.......we woke up to snow for three days !!  It`s rained ever since.

Was that spring? Ya think?? No wonder every bone in my body is screaming,"GO SOUTH" !

I`m mad, my cat is mad, and when she`s mad she`s mad all over !  She blames me for the rain, she wants to go out side and when I open the door she gives me "that look" ! She just ran up stairs and went to bed after some very loud remarks that I`m sure would be bleeped out !!

So here I sit  freezeing, It`s still raining, its getting dark the cats still mad ......                        but I will cling to the hope that altho it`s a month past the first day of Spring  I will hang on to the hope that it has to arrive, guess I`ll keep my long johns and sweat  shirts handy until some one lets me know I can go out and play !

Til next time....Lonnie