(NOTE TO READER: Jocie Brooke is the young teen character in my Heart of Hollyhill books, Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope and Summer of Joy. She loves writing articles for her father’s smalltown newspaper. Well, she just loves writing anything. So sometimes she takes up pen and paper to write down some reports for her Hollyhill Book of the Strange she’s been …
Good Mothers Don’t Grow on Trees
May 10, 1965 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky on the day after Mother’s Day. Everybody always makes such a big deal out of Mother’s Day. I guess that’s good. Most mothers need a day when they are a big deal. But I don’t much like Mother’s Day. You see, not everybody has a good mother. I didn’t. …
Some Hard Spots
March 16, 1966 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. It’s four days until the calendar says spring. Then it will be a while longer before I’ll see any new dogwood blooms, but I can think about them coming. And all the other flowers too. Back when Mama Mae was still living, she would be out in the yard as …
Macaroni Collages and Soup Can Pencil Holders at VBS
June 3, 1965 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Holly County. School was out last Friday and then the folks at church say we have to have Vacation Bible School right away. No time off. They must think all us kids will forget how to sit still or maybe be able to use our brains for learning if we have a …
The Peonies are Blooming
May 19, 1965 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. The peonies are blooming here in Holly County. Most every yard has at least one bush. Nobody knows who planted the first bush in Holly County. Some early settler must have carried a bulb in from Virginia, because, to hear people tell it, every bush since has been started …
Jocie’s Grandmother Story – Mama Mae
Jocie Brooke here – reporting from Hollyhill. I’m not exactly on Main Street tonight. I’m at our house where I live with Dad and Aunt Love. I haven’t told you all about Aunt Love yet, but I will. I did tell you about her cat, Jezebel. Right, I know Aunt Love says the cat’s name is Sugar, but I think …