The Royal Family announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, “Published 8 September 2022”. She was the longest living Monarch ever at 70 years and 214 days.
Royal Photo Press Release
“The following announcement has been issued by Royal Communications: The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to Long tomorrow”.
Somehow, many feel as if we knew Queen Elizabeth II, even those who live in Jacksonville. God Bless her legacy for it will live on into Eternity.
“It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’… Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ’s unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another.” (Queen Elizabeth II, Christmas message, 2015)
We had no dryer. We had the clothesline, the sunshine and our clothes smelled like summer breeze.
Simply put, we had no real money. There was a daily struggle to build the house, live life and put food on the table. Looking back, the financial struggle was real. As a kid, I had no idea though. Our lives were rich and full. We were happy doing what we could do and Mama would say all of the time, “We’ll just make do”. Daddy was creative in all that he did regarding fixing up the someplace. He did all he could to fix and take care of the home goods while saving money. When we cleared the land years after their home-going, we found a lawn mower spark plug used as a plug for the water system. Mama could be seen in the bent-can aisle of Solomon’s trying to get a “deal”. Mama was a stay-at-home Mom and Daddy worked a civil service job with the Navy on Cecil Field. When at home, they both tried to be smart saving money by the do-it-yourself plan.
By the time I was in high school, we had a complete washer and dryer area but up until that time, we used the good ole’ fresh air to dry clothes.
clothesline-wikipedia
While clearing out places on the property recently, one of the two clothes lines that we had was exposed. It brought back many memories. The clothes would be washed in the washer, place in a wooden basket and walked out to the line. There was a bag of clothes pins hanging at the end of the line which had a wire used to whisk it up and down the line for ease. The clothespins were used to attach the clothing at the top or bottom to the line for drying.
Mama said it was best to put like pieces together so as to be able to fold them together but sometimes pants, shirts, or underclothes might be hung all on the same wire side by side.
We had two clotheslines. One was on the right back side of the property behind the house. The other was on the east side of the swimming pool. Both were used over time to hang our wet clothes out to dry. It would take a few hours to dry clothes on a full sun day.
The upside to drying clothes outside was the fresh air smell. The downside to drying clothes outside was the stiffness of the clothes after they dried. If you were to forget them on the line, the would have a very different feel and smell from the fresh one day line dry. If it rained and they got wet by rain there was even a more odd smell and feel which would mean another wash and dry before wearing them.
When I drive onto the property owned by my parents, Alec and Geneva Vaughan, I always look for the chickens. Generally, they will hear my truck and come out from beneath the azaleas. The area has been a rural place in the country for years and years. Being rural, chickens can free-range and roam the land only worrying about the hawks and racoons. Now-a-days it has become more populated with city-folk, neighbourhoods, people and cars zooming up the long road.
My parents, who bought the Westside property in the 1960’s, have been gone for some time now but there are still chickens on the property. I bought a 50 lb bag of corn and when I come, the chickens get a nice meal. For a time there was a group of chickens, then a handful and finally just one lone hen.
When the lone hen began to nest, I went to a neighbour on the south end of Milson, a dirt road and bought 4 fertilized eggs for $5.00. They were exchanged for the unfertilized eggs under her. In twenty-one days, she hatched three of the four eggs. They were tiny yellow birds that turned brown over time. She is white and she was one happy mama.
For a time I would see her and the babies in the front yard but for at least a month I would drive in and there was no sign of them until yesterday. All three of the babies were with her and what a happy sight it was. They look like teenagers now, bigger and darker brown. Of course, they were fed a nice meal.
Hopefully they will free-range nearby in the coming days. The concern now, is more than hawks and racoons getting them but cars, and trucks. ‘Hoping for the best.
Geneva Kathryn Long Vaughan was born October 20th, 1924. She was born on the South Carolina home place and grew up in that tiny Estill town which is considered the Deep South. She was a twin with Geneer Long Thompson and her older brother and sister, Dennis and Dorris were twins as well. Too, their grandfathers on the Long side were twins and their brothers were twins so there were 2 sets of twins in both of those Long families. These twins have been known in the area as the “Famous Long Twins”.
Geneer- Geneva
My Mother was the older of the two twins. The two were completely focussed on being together and spending their lives devoted. Even into their adult years dressed alike and stayed close in their relationship.
Geneva, my Mom died at the young age of 49 of a brain tumor. What a tragedy to our family at any age but 49 was just too early to be taken. As a young person in Estill, she worked in the local drug store owned by her Aunt and Uncle. She graduated from Estill High School and attended Nixville Baptist Church. Her father was a farmer and her mother a housewife.
Somewhere around 1943, she met my Father, Alec P. Vaughan, Jr. at the Sandy Run Baptist Church. They had a Baptist Association meeting and my Father was serving as a seater. He seated my Mother and her sister to a bench on the front row. This caused a great deal of fuss and from there, they began to get to know one another.
Alec-Geneva
World War II was raging and my Father was drafted into the Army where he went abroad. Times were hard and through a turn of events, my mother’s dad needed work and found it in Jacksonville, Florida at the shipyards. The family moved to Duval County while my Father was over seas in the war.
When the war ended, he came home by way of Florida’s Camp Blanding where my mother met him. They were married in December of that same year and have lived in Jacksonville, Florida until their deaths. In 1974 and 2015 respectively.
My Mother was, in my eyes a beauty. She had big and full brown hair, sky blue eyes and a wide and happy smile. Her voice and actions were sweet. She was a nurse, not certified but sweetified to be one and spent her working days helping others feel better. Mama was kind-hearted and tender.
She went to be with the Lord on this day. She is still miss her.
‘Crazy, but I do not remember the man’s name. He lived at the South end of Milson Road, off of Crystal Springs on the Westside. Milson was and still is a dirt road and very much in the country. Now a days it is still a single lane dirt road but the city has definitely come to the area including large subdivisions nearby. His home was just behind our 10 acres. He provided fish boxes for the fisheries in the Duval County area.
When I was about nine or ten a bunch of us kids would go to this house and nail together fish boxes. The side strips and ends were already cut and all we would do is line up the sides and two ends and nail it together, stack it and begin a new.
The old man needed the help and we loved the change. It would be used to go to Anderson’s Dairy on the Northeast side of Crystal Springs Road to buy a honey bun and a coke. So, I guess my first job was a fish box nailer.
The old place is pretty much gone now but as I rode past there recently, all of those memories of learning how to nail together fish boxes came rushing back. The remembrance of the heat, hitting my finger with a hammer and then the happiness of getting paid for such, rushed back.
Jacksonville, being on the St. Johns River and having the beaches has always been a huge industry for fishing. The United States Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service put out a circular in 1963 called “The Annual Report of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological laboratory”. It highlighted programs such as “The Blue Crab” program, “Sampling the Catch” program, “Florida Studies, St. Johns River” and more. This business helped meet the needs for those in this important business.
How do you think God will reward His people for the things done in His name and also one day, see the devil and his bunch cast into hell for their horrible works, if things are not being recorded?
Why can’t people see that? When talking to even Christians sometimes, I hear them diss the fact that deeds are being recorded including those in the negative realm for “them”. They somehow believe that their deeds won’t be exposed? The fact is, we are all sinners. ALL. Even the Christian is a sinner. It is ONLY by the grace of Jesus that the Christian can and will stand in the day of judgement. That does not though, take away from the fact that even the Christian’s sins must be known to show God’s fair and just rewards.(I don’t know how it will play out, but that is true).
Every single one of us, Christian or not, sin. The Bible is clear, “We have all come short of the glory of God”.
That… my friend is precisely why we ALL need a Savior. What I hear so many times with the Christian though is, that because he or she has the Savior, his or her deeds are forgiven thus somehow not recorded and kept. NO. ALL things are recorded whether you have trusted Christ or not. The difference is that God will show His love and reward to those who took His Savior as the payment for that sin.
Yes, when we trust Jesus Christ as Savior, our sins are forgiven but NO, that does not mean we will not see a “play back” of our sins one day. YES, they have been forgiven as far as the “east is to the west” but… here is the kicker…. Lk 8:17: For nothing is secret, that shall not be revealed; neither anything hidden, that shall not be known and come light.
It is the just God who will be able to sort out the whole display of events one day. He will be judge and jury. He will be right and fair. He will expose all so that everyone is aware of why people find themselves in heaven or hell.
Here are other scriptures about exposing ALL and that means, my sins and yours one day. ALL-
Numbers 32:23 says, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (KJV).
Heb 4:13: And there is no creature hidden from His sight: but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to give account.
Psalms 33:13: The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.
Lk 8:17: For nothing is secret, that shall not be revealed; neither anything hidden, that shall not be known and come light.
Rom 2:6: Who will render to every man according to his works.
Rev 22:12: And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
1 Cor 4:5: Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
Our only hope to be in heaven is to trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and King but by that, do not think that your sins will be hidden. ALL will one day be exposed so God’s righteousness can shine through. It will be through Christ that ALL are saved from those sins. Praise God.
