Writers

Education

From the Trenches…She was Mad

August 4, 2017 Guest Writer 0

From the Trenches…Cynthia…She was Mad. Cynthia is a sharp and somewhat feisty junior in high school or that’s what grade level her age says she should be. She came to our school as a junior, but had the education of a fifth grader. But, she was a quick learner and wanted to learn, which gave her an advantage over her peers, who largely lack that kind of desire. Her greatest challenge though was not that she was farther behind in education than a junior should be, but that her mom was adamantly against her daughter getting an education. Her mother’s attempts to sabotage Cynthia increased each week. Some days, Cynthia missed school due to her […]

Family

I Hate Snakes

July 30, 2017 Joy Dixon Payne 2

I hate snakes. What started out as fear of snakes, because of an early childhood experience, turned into outright hate. And thus the story is told… We grew up on a working farm and we loved to play outside from right after first daylight until the crickets signaled nightfall was on the way as the sun slipped behind the tree line. It was a hot July day and my brother had just turned six years old.  I was the big sister at seven. Outside there was always some cool place to explore and play.  Forty acres of the home place was filled with all kinds of wonderous adventure.  Ponds, woods, a dairy barn, tool sheds, […]

Education

From the Trenches…My Class

June 16, 2017 Guest Writer 0

Let me tell you about my school What education looks like “from the trenches” and with my homeroom class: I teach at a dropout recovery school that serves mostly inner-city kids. These kids cannot be in any other school, either because they are sex offenders, are on parole, have been homeless and away from school too long, are felons banned from other schools, or they have emotional, psychological, behavioral and/or learning disabilities that propel them out of mainstream schools to be at my school. Many of these kids have been pushed along in the public schools and are then bounced out of the public school to avoid having their low test scores affect the overall […]

Family

The Tea Set and A Lesson

June 16, 2017 Joy Dixon Payne 2

The Tea Set I thought that china tea set was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  Four little cups with saucers, four little plates and four plastic silver colored spoons and  a sugar bowl and creamer, painted with delicate pink and green flowers and edged in gold. Every time we went to Jitney Jungle on Saturday to buy groceries, I would head straight for the toy rack, holding my breath all the way out of fear the tea set would be gone.  It was always there.  I would pick up the box and stare into the cellophane window at the delicate little miniature dishes. I wanted that tea set badly but Mama always […]

Family

Who Would Believe? (A Holiday Story)

June 4, 2017 Joy Dixon Payne 2

A nine-year-old and holiday boredom and a remedy… Who would believe a nine year old girl would be moping around because she had nothing to do on a holiday? Mama and my oldest sister were in the kitchen preparing Christmas Eve dinner and just chatting away about the new baby due in mid January. My sister was barricaded in her room with her friend, Sue Nutt, listening to records play on the record player. My brother had ridden off on his scooter to who knows where with his buddy Clark Carter. And there I sat. I knocked on my sister’s bedroom door. She cracked the door open and I asked to come in and visit. […]

Be the One

Tell YOUR Story ~ TFP’s Be The One Contest

May 11, 2017 TFP Staff 0

Everyone knows that ONE person… The solitary figure refusing to salute a tyrant… The exhausted priest carrying yet another person to safety from the terrorist’s rubble, before he too loses his life to the attack… The nurse rescuing soldiers from enemy fire… The mom working three jobs, but still finding the energy to take her young sons and their friends to the library every Saturday and teaching them to read… The grandfather organizing the effort to create a park with a ball diamond for his grandchildren and neighborhood kids… The power of ONE. One person who touches lives and makes a difference. Mark tired of hearing our Military publicly demeaned, so he wrote and recorded […]

Home & Garden

Painting for Peace

June 6, 2016 Guest Writer 0

Painting for Peace Our society was not always such a disposable one and our ancestors typically did not rid of anything that could be repaired, reclaimed or reinvented. In that spirit, interior designers and home rehab firms encourage home dwellers to always look for ways to improve or reinvent their living spaces to best suit their needs, while also respecting the care and work that went into building their home. That is, look to conserve and take care of our dwellings. In the Founding Spirit to Reclaim One of the easiest and most cost effective ways to improve our dwelling spaces is with paint. We can even affect the enjoyability and mood of our homes […]

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