Sarah Walker Gorrell, Author

Happy 4th of July, y'all!! You know, we (in the South) might as well have all been born Geminis. Why? You ask. Because Geminis may forgive but they just never forget. I know this personally - my youngest daughter is a Gemini. She remembers things that I actually question if they ever happened! We, in the south, remember that it was July 4th, 1863 when Pemberton surrendered to Grant. He did it, on a Holiday, thinking Grant would give the South better "terms."  They did. The people of Vicksburg were starving and the Union troops shared their food. Neither did they take the Souths troops as prisoners. Okay, so they were good guys about it! For years, the South continued to "fight the war".....the 4th of July wasn't celebrated. Nothing was closed, in Vicksburg, on the 4th. I'm not sure about the rest of the south. We might as well have been Geminis -----we just never forgot!! Finally, after the allies won WWII we began minor celebrations. However...

What an absolutely wonderful day and afternoon!  Between the time my flight from DFW to DSM arrived, breakfast at Perkins, and Mike's doctor's appointment to remove the stitches from his nose surgery, we had time to kill. We decided to take a trip down "Memory Lane," back to the small town where both our families had lived almost 50 years before. We took off down Interstate 35, from Des Moines, and exited at 'Bevington/Indianola" exit. First, we went toward where Mike's family had lived. Our first detour was to the home of old friends, Jack and Marguerite Gray. We had disagreed on where they had lived. They no longer owned the home, in fact, Jack had passed away many years earlier and Marguerite lived in Indianola. Even though I had never been to their house, I thought I knew which one it was. Mike was right - I was wrong. As we drove into the driveway of the old house - I spotted a statue of the Virgin Mary and knew Mike was right, this had been th...

I had seen the beautiful church steeple, on our way to Rochester, but we were running behind schedule (and Mike was taking a nap while I drove), so there was no stopping for pictures. On our way back home, once we crossed into Iowa, I started watching the skyline. Once I spied the steeple, Mike began to look for the road to get to the church. He turned on Lourdes Road, in Lourdes, Iowa, to get down to 'Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.' It was late Saturday afternoon and the cars in the parking spaces indicated that Mass was in progress. Our Lady of Lourdes is in the Holy Rosary Cluster, with churches from four other towns, and they are all under the direction of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The Gothic Brick church was built in 1901, and at one time there was a Convent and School. Sisters of Saint Francis from Clinton, Iowa served the Parish until the school closed in 1969. Originally, the church was named "The Immaculate Conception," and that is ...

We left Readlyn, Iowa headed to Rochester, MN behind schedule, but I figured that Mike's "pedal to the metal" would get us there "almost" on time. We were on our third day of "road trips" and this one would take us to see one of his twin granddaughters, Morgan, who is in the Finance Department at IBM.                                             As we stopp ed, at a light, on the south edge of Rochester we noticed that their Water Tower was shaped like an Ear of Corn! Mike did some research (Iowa is the Corn State, why does Rochester have an Ear of Corn for their Water Tower?), and we learned that the town is either going to "paint it or take it down" because, at night, kids are enticed to try and climb it. It has become a dangerous situation. Ever thought about putting a locked fence, with barbed wire, around it? We never learned why it's an Ear of Corn! We f...

Ever since my sidetrip in November, 2014, I had wanted to return to the  town of Louisiana, Missouri. It was deemed Historic by one of the brown, Historical markers on Hwy 61, which is also called the "Avenue of the Saints."  I suppose I was intrigued by the name. Why is a town, in one state, named for another state? We left our Cozy C campground on Hwy 54 with the address of Bowling Green, and headed east to Louisiana. I assured Mike that he just "had" to see this quaint little town, on the banks of the Mississippi. We stopped at a Convenience Store and upon asking the young 18-19 year old clerk (why did I think he would know?) "How did Louisiana get it's name?" His reply was, "I don't know, but many years ago we had lots of people coming here because "Bigfoot" was sighted."  Bigfoot? Really? So, to Google I went. And yes, in 1971-1972 there was a sighting of a "Bigfoot-like-creature."  It apparently was one of ...

My youngest great-grandson turned one year of age, this past week, on April 17th a couple of days after "Tax Day." His mommy, my youngest granddaughter, (we've got a trend going, here) has been planning his big First Birthday Party for months.  She took after her own mommy, my oldest daughter, who is very creative and talented in the creativity department. Now, that daughter DID NOT take after her mommy (me). I've decided she inherited her creative talents from her dad. Anyway, having said that, there's going to be a party centered around the farm and farm implements and farm animals. Why? They don't live, on a farm, so I don't know. This First Birthday isn't going to be just a birthday, it's going to be an event.....with food.  And, I said, "what can I do, to help?" You know, that's what grandmothers or, in my case this time, great-grandmothers do. She (the granddaughter) gave me the menu, which included stuffed eggs, ...

Yesterday, on our trip 'cross the MS River Bridge to check out Helena, AR we had a wonderful unplanned experience. We were looking for food - fast food, any food. We never saw a McDonald's, Burger King, Popeyes, nothing but I did manage to encourage Mike to continue in a direction that he really didn't want to go. (The River Bridge, back to MS, was the "other" way.) Suddenly, around a curve, sat a small local restaurant. I convinced Mike that we should stop. It said, "Rosie's Diner" and "Soul Food." (I had to 'splain to MIke what Soul Food was - and after my explanation, he had a strange look on his "I don't know if I want to stop or not," face. We did.) We ordered what Mike said was the best Pulled Pork Sandwich he had ever had. They were cooking it, right there, in the little wooden shed out to the side.....where black smoke was just rolling from the roof and windows. OMGosh, I'm hungry for another one....