The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Son’s visit is wonderful surprise




Christine Bolling, Tabitha Hatton, and Scarlett Coots

Christine Bolling, Tabitha Hatton, and Scarlett Coots

Mom wanted me to let everybody know what a wonderful surprise she got Saturday morning. Her only boy, Albert Tackett, with his wife Tonya Worley Tacket and their granddaughter Harlynn came home to Kentucky for two days. We had a Pennington/Adams reunion Saturday and they got to attend that with her, too.

We knew they were coming home but Mommy didn’t. Tonya sent Harlynn in first and she went up to Mom and just looked at her. Mommy didn’t really know who she was at first and then as Harlynn walked away Mommy said, “Hey, come back here a minute.” She was so happy to see them. They had planned to stay longer, but Tonya had to have a TB test because she is starting a new job. They had to return and let them check the test area for a reaction within a certain amount of time. So, they had to leave Sunday. I’m sure Albert was happy to see a bunch of his cousins on Mommy’s side.

Mom’s sister Margie Pennington Adams’s children that were able to be there were Shirley Adams Sands, Helen Sue Adams Hall, John Adams, Larry Adams, and Pearl Adams Banks. Their sister Margaret Faye Adams Nelson passed away earlier this year and this was the first one she missed. We were so happy we got to see so many of our family.

Pictured are the five Pennington sisters, (back row) Linda Pennington Hall, Pearl Pennington Noble, Dorothy Pennington Tacket, (front row) Maizie Pennington Adams, and Margie Pennington Adams.

Pictured are the five Pennington sisters, (back row) Linda Pennington Hall, Pearl Pennington Noble, Dorothy Pennington Tacket, (front row) Maizie Pennington Adams, and Margie Pennington Adams.

I was thinking about how we used to all get together at Mamaw Penny’s house in Stinking Branch. Papaw passed away from a heart attack in 1959, so I never knew him. Any holiday, or when one of her children that had moved away was home for a visit and most Sundays after church, we were there. Mamaw had a potbelly stove in her kitchen with a cast iron kettle setting on it all the time. As soon as we got there the first thing we did after saying our hellos and getting our hugs was get us a cup, fill it with a teaspoon of Maxwell House instant coffee, a teaspoon of sugar and a spoon or two of Carnation Evaporated Milk (or cream as we called it). I can still taste it when I think about it right now.

Most of the time our Sunday dinner there was fried chicken, biscuits or cornbread, corn and beans. Until dinner was ready we would play all around her house. The creek was the most fun though. You had to go down a little bank to get to the small, slow running creek. Tree roots were stuck out all along the bank and that made the best places ever for our little structures made from twigs and moss and rocks. We each had our own property and in one root structure would be the twig house, in another would be the pigpen, and yet in another we would build our smoke house. Who needed any kind of toy or computerized games? Certainly not us.

When dinner was ready the men went to the table and ate first. When they finished the women and children were allowed to eat. Some of us had to sit on lard buckets and some of us had to crawl under the table to get to the far side of the table. After we ate and got the kitchen cleaned up there was always a big horseshoe game going on. Our Uncle Bobby Pennington’s wife Della Howard Pennington was the best pitcher ever. She was so much fun to watch and had a distinct way of pitching that shoe. It would just sail through the air and land right around the stake, no rolling, or anything, just right down on that stake. Later on Daddy built us a seesaw combination merry-go-round with a big tree stump and a big thick plank. He rigged up some kind of contraption that let the plank go up and down and also all around. We had so many happy times there with all our cousins and their children.

My sister Lucille is recovering very nicely from her open-heart surgery. We love being able to video chat with her. She is walking a slow mile without many problems a few times a week now.

The September birthdays at the Letcher County Senior Citizens are Jeannie Ingram on the 3rd, James Amburgey, Elmer Hammonds and Roger Hatton all three on the 7th, Faye Halberstadt on the 12th, John Reedy and Stanley Sexton both on the 13th, Elsie Jent on the 20th, and last but certainly not least is my mom, Dorothy Tacket Pennington, on the 29th. Mom will be 89 years young. Happy birthday to all of these and to one of our No Limits Fitness girls, Scarlett Coots. She celebrated her birthday on Aug. 29.

I know the Letcher County Extension Office has posted on its Facebook page the soup bean dinner coming up on the 25th, but I wanted to put it in here, too. It will take place on the 25th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The proceeds go to ovarian cancer research and if you have any questions you can call 633-2362. The menu includes soup beans, cornbread, sauerkraut and wieners, dessert and a drink.

I have lots of people that still need our prayers. Sam Oaks’s dad Levi Oaks is still having lots of major problems with the leg he had to have amputated.

Imogene Sexton and all her children still need our prayers and also Alpha Profitt and all her children. These are two women that lived on Colson when I was growing up and their children were some of our best friends and still continue to be today. As always I ask you to remember our friends and families that have lost loved ones, especially my pastor Bill and his wife Sandy Jones. I can’t imagine what they are going through.

As Oma would say, try to be in church Sunday morning and Sunday night and throughout the week.

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