There's nothing like that feeling you get when the band starts playing, the people start yelling, and the pom poms start shaking. And it all started week before last for me, when my best college buddy came down to Nashville, to watch our alma mater, the Carolina Gamecocks take on Vanderbilt. Now, because I'm southern and a lady, I shall not tell you what we Gamecock fans shout in our cheers for our team. It's slightly uncivil and I still don't yell it around my mama...
But yell it we did! Didn't do a lick of good because Vandy beat us the second year in a row, but my, my, did we laugh, eat, holler and smile...I donned matching shirts with a friend for the first time since Junior High when we sported "dickies" of every color and oxford shirts. My friend Beth had bought me my shirt for my birthday and her husband had bought her hers as a gift. I'm still not sure why I let my sister-in-law and brother come, seeing as they hate Carolina and pulled for Vandy. Guess I was that certain of a win...But oh well, when you've got Coca-Cola, a Snickers bar, your best college buddy and you have your brother surrounded by a bunch of drunk men wearing garnet and black, you can laugh at most anything!
But now that summer is fading and the hills of Tennessee are getting their first early morning briskness, I'm reminded of all the pleasures summer has held that has made me smile. The beginning brought the birth of my niece, Georgia. (Yes, she is a southern girl...) I got to take her to her first "tea" for her mother's birthday outing. It brought Friday night concerts on the lawn in my neighborhood that ended just this past Friday with 80's night! How green is my valley?! We sang to Footloose and all those other great tunes.
Summer took me to Poland and Germany where I touched the Berlin wall and had the privilege of sharing all of it with my parents. It brought evening walks with my girls, Maggie and Sophie while they sniffed hydrants, did their business in neighbors yards and shed their winter girth. It brought long evenings of good conversations with friends, and new visions in my heart. And it brought a lot of smiles. Smiles over coca-colas, smiles over good books, smiles over sweet conversation, smiles over good food, and smiles over special friends.
I never like to see summer go. I'm a summer girl. But last night, around nine o'clock walking back home from the club house in my neighborhood in the cool September air I was smiling...So, I'm thinking maybe I'll find some things to smile about in the fall too. Granted it probably won't be my Gamecock's record, but Tennessee is 2-0! Yeah, I'm certain fall will give me smiles too...
May you spend a moment recounting yours. Even if there have been a few tears this summer, I bet you'll find you smiled much more than you might even remember...(Denise and her niece Georgia at Georgia's first tea. Denise is smiling, Georgia not so much...Denise makes her home in Franklin, Tennessee with her two shih-tzu's Maggie and Sophie where she enjoys good books, long walks and anything USC- Yes "The" USC)
www.denisehildreth.com
www.denisehildreth.blogspot.com
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