Country

"At her happiest Kate violated grammar just for the joy of it.  'Ain't life splendid', and 'ain't we got this'."

That's a quote I got from the book I'm reading at present, Virgil Wander.  I read it over and over, because it fits into my own description very well.  I learned not to say "ain't" in first grade, at my one-room schoolhouse.  English was one of my favorite subjects throughout my school years.  I had almost perfect grammar.  I corrected my parents' language when they slipped up.  I diagrammed sentences.  When English became senior literature, I dived in even deeper.

I suppose I would have spoken the king's English for life, were it not for my re-discovering country music back around 1964.  My kind of rock-and-roll was receding into the past, and the Beetles were changing what sort of songs I was hearing on my life-long favorite radio station, WHB, out of Kansas City.  A co-worker of mine at National Bellas Hess was constantly talking about George Jones and Patsy Cline.   Patsy had not long before died in a plane crash after appearing in Kansas City.  Since I no longer enjoyed WHB, I asked her what station she listened to so I could hear her favorites and get my own opinion; it was KCKN.  I turned the dial on my stereo and never looked back.  Oh, the simplicity of the words and music!  Oh, how I loved the stories I heard in the lyrics!  The melodies sounded so simple, I figured maybe I could even learn to chord on a guitar and learn to sing the songs with my own accompaniment.  

Loretta Lynn was in her heyday, writing and singing her own songs; Dolly Parton was just starting up, singing songs she wrote:  I liked the homey, down-south way they turned the phrases in their songs, and almost subconsciously began talking in the same way they phrased their songs.  

There have been a few times I made an effort to return to proper English, but folks, that southern way of talking fit me like a glove.  When Cliff and I are in a northern state to attend a tractor show, someone will always ask what part of the south I'm from.  I suppose in a way, Missouri is at least half southern:  When I was growing up, most of our Church of Christ preachers had southern accents, even the ones originally from the southern part of Missouri.

Country music has changed a lot.  Cliff and I seldom listen to the newer country stations because it sounds like rock to us.  We are blessed to live in an age when a person can make his own custom radio station that plays the songs from whatever era she loves.  But I will always be "country" in some fashion or other.

On another note, I had to take a Facebook break.  There are things going on that I can only watch from the sidelines, stuff that I really have no say in and yet am deeply concerned about (not politics), and it was tearing me apart inside.  I got off Facebook for my own mental health (and physical health, for that matter).  Maybe when everything is settled that was bothering me I will talk about it if I can find a way to do it without being too specific.  Or not.  Either way, I needed a break.  When I go back in a few days, I may just fix my Facebook so all the parties in the conflict I've been watching can't be seen by me unless I go directly to their Facebook status.  That will help immensely.  Because I WON'T go to their status.  I can't unfriend them all; someone would assume I was taking sides.  

I appreciate all of my readers here.  Thank you for following my blog.  If any of my Facebook followers are reading this, I still have Facebook Messenger if you need to contact me.

Faithfully yours, 
Donna