Despite our misadventures last year with the rear door of our van, we are on our way again this year to visit my son Fenner and his wife Janna in Florida over Christmas! We are very excited, leaving home at temperature below zero and moving toward lows in the fifties and even sixties! As we came into the hills of eastern Tennessee, seeing the rain falling and misty clouds rising among the hibernating trees, a sense of joy came over my wife and me. “Seeing the hills again makes my heart glad,” she said. We met and fell in love in the hills of eastern Tennessee. It makes my heart glad to see them too! Once, long ago, after we got married in the hills of Tennessee, we spent some time apart–I moved to Houston to work at the Johnson Space Center and Mary remained back in Appalachia teaching out her science classes until she could join me in the summer. We communicated during that winter, sending old cassette tape recordings back and forth and building up a massive phone bill! I wrote a song for her in the time just before we had to be apart, a song about the Hills of Tennessee.
One summer in the hills of Tennessee,
I found the one, the only one, for me.
Friend to walk with me the forest trail,
Friend to write with me life’s winding tale.
Now, here we are, some 40 years later, still walking the forest trails on our campervan travels, and still writing life’s winding tale as we brave winter storms and Atlanta traffic to see our son and daughter-in-law!
I found a snippet of that song with notes that I wrote down long ago so I could remember the tune.
Winding tale indeed! It’s all grand adventure!
