November 23, 1966
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky on the day before Thanksgiving. Don’t you just love Thanksgiving? I do. And it’s going to be especially good this year because everybody’s coming to Miss Sally’s for dinner. Miss Sally is the best cook ever. People nearly come to blows over the last pieces of her cherry pies at church dinners. And she makes the best mashed potatoes ever. The very best.
She told us a month ago that she wanted us to come to Thanksgiving dinner. She invited Wes too and the Hearndons. It’s going to be a full house, but Miss Sally says a full house is a good thing. Most of the time it’s just her in the new little house she built out on her farm after her other house burned down. She misses her big old farm house but she says wall to wall people will be a good thing. She’s borrowed some card tables and had Dad bring her some of the Sunday school chairs from church. Folks are bringing food too. We made sweet potatoes and green beans. The Hearndons are bringing baked apples and an applesauce cake. Wes is bringing potato chips. I’m all for that!!
I’m out here at Miss Sally’s tonight spending the night so I’ll be able to help her with fixing everything else in the morning. But I think she’s got a lot of it fixed already. You should see her refrigerator. I don’t think you could squeeze so much as another pickle in it.
Anyway, after we cleaned up the kitchen, Miss Sally fixed us some hot apple cider and we sat down at the table to sample her oatmeal cookies and talk about Thanksgiving. You remember my last post I was reporting on what people in Hollyhill are thankful for. School sort of got in the way of me finishing up on that project. Teachers will give tests and I do want to get good grades. So I have to study.
But now school’s out until Monday. So I asked Miss Sally what she’s thankful for. She looked straight at me and asked how long I had to listen because she had a lot of reasons for thanksgiving. I told her I had plenty of time, that I never liked to go to bed early anyway. So she took a sip of her apple cider and began.
“Oh child, it’s hard to count all of my blessings, but they started out with parents who loved me. I’m thankful for living on a farm where I could be close to nature. I do love my flowers and trees and the birds and animals. I never married, you know, so while that was a sorrow for me when I was younger, the Lord took care of me and my desire for children in a different way. He gave me so many sweet children at church. I can’t even begin to count all the children I’ve loved over the years. I’ve been able to share the Bible stories with so many fresh young faces. So of course, I have to number my church right there in the very top of my blessings. The Lord gives us so many different kinds of families. Our brothers and sisters by blood and our brothers and sisters through Christ. Then there’s the blessing of belief and faith that’s like a warm cloak on a winter day. Something I can wrap up in and feel the Lord’s love all around me.”
Miss Sally smiled and reached over to touch the Bible on her table. “And the Lord’s Word is always a blessing and a source of company and comfort any time I open up my Bible. Then I can’t forget the everyday blessings of good food. A warm house. My cat, Josephine. Stars in the sky. The first roses in the spring. The crisp promise of winter in an early morning frost. A blanket of snow. The sunshine that melts that snow. Electricity. I remember well when we had nothing but kerosene lamps for light at night. I am thankful for good preachers like your father. And sweet preacher’s daughters like you.”
She reached over and patted my hand. Sometimes you just know when somebody loves you the way you are. They don’t want you to change or be different. They just love you however you are. That’s how Miss Sally loves. Easy with no conditions. I guess that’s why we all love Miss Sally right back.
“I could go on and on,” Miss Sally said. “But it’s getting late and we need to get an early start in the morning to get everything done. So we better go to bed and finish counting our blessings there. That’s always the best way to go to sleep.”
And so I’m going to do that just as soon as I finish writing this. Good night and I hope you have the best Thanksgiving ever.
(This is a repeat of a Jocie post from a few years ago, but it’s never wrong to count blessings more than once.)
Comments 15
Thank you for sharing about Josie and Miss Sally!
Made me homesick because Josie is my favorite character of your books. It’s time for a reread of her books (your books) though I keep hoping for more books about Josie…but I will be thankful for the ones already written and that they came across my path.😊
God bless you & yours this wonderful season!
Author
Jocie here. Oh, I do wish we could have another book about Hollyhill. While I have always complained, usually to Wes, that nothing ever happens around here, if you read those books, I guess you find out that not exactly true. And it would be fun to have somebody write about what happens next. I’ll be hoping they are all good things. I might get a baby sister or brother. I mean Leigh isn’t all that old, and could be I might change my mind about boys and find one I can like. Or maybe I should be more worried about finding one that might like me back. Did you have trouble with that when you were 15?
This reminded me of my Aunt that never married until she was in her 50’s. She was so loving and kind and I was her only niece so I got special treatment. I loved the story as you wrote it. Happy day after Thanksgiving.
Author
Jocie here. I’m glad you liked me telling about Miss Sally, Donna Jean. She’s the best. How neat to have an aunt who loved you. I’m never all that sure Aunt Love loves me, but Dad says she does. Just in her own peculiar way. I guess I do have a way of getting on her nerves. She’s better than she used to be now that she’s got Tabitha’s baby to love. Dad says babies are a lot easier to love than smart alecky girls. I think he was talking about me, don’t you? And I guess he’s right but sometimes it’s hard to be the perfect preacher’s daughter Aunt Love always wanted me to be. Maybe if I had a sweet aunt like you did or then, maybe if I’d been a sweeter girl like you probably were, Aunt Love wouldn’t have always been fussing.
I loved this! Especially the part about Miss Sally loving you however you are. That was my Mom! Exactly! She loved better than anyone else I have ever known. I’m so thankful that God gave me my Mom and Daddy. As Miss Sally said, so many blessings!! I’m thankful for every one of them.
Author
Jocie here. Miss Sally is the best. You’re pretty lucky – well, Dad would say blessed – to have a mom like that who loved people however they were. If you’ve read my stories, you know I didn’t have that blessing of a good mom who loved me but I did have the blessing of the best dad in the world. I’m sure thankful for him and for Miss Sally too. And Wes. And Tabitha. And Aunt Love too. But not her cat, Jezebel.
Lovely Miss Jocie. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!
Author
Jocie here. That’s wonderful, Karen. Wish you were here to share a piece of Miss Sally’s pie. She made pecan pies too.
I count you as one of my blessings, Ann. Thank you for sharing your gift of story with the rest of us! Happy Thanksgiving!
Author
Jocie here. That Ann did do a great job telling all about all the things happening in Hollyhill. She thinks you’re a blessing too and she’s glad you’ve liked reading her stories. Did you especially like the ones about me? I hope you smiled when Wes started sharing Jupiter stories.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Ann.
Author
Jocie here. We had a great thanksgiving, Lee, at Miss Sally’s and I’m sure Ann did too. Thank you.
I count my blessings when I have a hard time falling asleep too. A-Z I think of a blessing for each letter. On other nights I think of different categories, Flowers, Fruits & Vegetables, Restaurants, breeds of dogs or whatever, A-Z I think of something for each letter, until I fall asleep.
Author
Jocie here. How cool is that, Jolynn. I’ll remember that and give it a try sometime. Reminds me of that memory game about going to grandma’s house and taking something with you. Wes and I used to play that sometimes when we were working in the press room, but of course, Wes said we were going to Jupiter instead of to grandma’s house. He could come up with some crazy things to take with him like giraffes because he said he was pretty sure nobody on Jupiter had ever seen an anything that looked like a giraffe. Have you ever played that game?
Yes. Mostly when I was younger with my Mom & siblings. Also, when my kids were younger on our way camping or vacation. Great car game.