moonbridgebooks

So, the college girl turns 21. That’s when the parents worry about legal drinking. We all know our angels have not touched a drop of alcohol before that. We gave our girl all sorts of drinking advice, unfortunately most born of experience, and hope she took it to heart. We lived through our youth, and we pray our kids live through theirs. Do you dare tell about your college memories?

In college days
We loved cheap 25-cent beers,
And parties with kegs
That left us with wobbly legs.

Plenty of times
We crept home to collapse,
Waking to bed spins
And lights we wanted dim.

Then there’s that time
I knew not to drive.
A roommate took over,
We searched the next day
For the car a block away.

When you’re young
You do what you want
And don’t always think
That what you might do
Could really hurt you.

Hopefully we grow up.

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com

Driving a new route to visit our college girl took us through beautiful areas of hills and swales, streams, and dense stands of barren trees. That reminded me of a January drive through Virginia when we were moving north from Alabama to a new home near Washington, D.C. Looking out the car window, I felt the land was haunted by ghosts of Civil War soldiers. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Have you ever felt the ghosts of history?

The wild hills of Virginia
Hold thick stands of forest
and dip into mossy swales
hiding crooked little streams.
The land seems to whisper and cry
The stories of long ago,
When young men hid
Among spindle-thin trees
That also offered shelter to the enemy –
Young men just like them
But with different ideals.
The trees now hide memories of the dead,
But if you listen,
You can hear the voices,
“Don’t forget.”

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com