I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: photography

  • I hope you dance – and they did!

    I hope you dance – and they did!


    In April, 2022, I published this piece which has always been one of my favorites. Fast forward to May, 2025, and well, you’ll see…

    For my actual birthday week, Pretty took me and our granddaughters to the zoo. She carried two-month-old Molly in her car seat, diaper bag on her back, often carrying two-year-old Ella in her left arm while I tagged along with my two bionic knees. We had a small parade of our own. Please know that I offered to rent a stroller when we entered, but Pretty said the line to rent one was too long to wait. There were two people ahead of me. Pretty has never been known for her patience.

    I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
    You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
    May you never take one single breath for granted,
    God forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
    I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
    Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
    Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance,
    And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

    I hope you dance… I hope you dance…

    Ella danced with a spoon to the music in her mind

    I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
    Never settle for the path of least resistance,
    Livin’ might mean takin’ chances, but they’re worth takin’,
    Lovin’ might be a mistake, but it’s worth makin’,
    Don’t let some Hell bent heart leave you bitter,
    When you come close to sellin’ out reconsider,
    Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
    And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

    I hope you dance… I hope you dance

    (lyrics to I Hope You Dance by Tia Sillers and Mark Sanders)

    The day was a memory maker, and Pretty deserves an award for creating a magical time for the four of us. I love all my girls.

    I hope they both dance…

    *****************************

    And they did!

    Molly and her dance partner in the school recital this past week

    Ella with magical moves – no spoon necessary

    Hey, wait a second. Who’s this little boy?

    Three months after our zoo trip in 2022, Caleb was born to Caroline’s twin sister, Chloe, and her husband, Seth. Caleb loves to dance, too, and we love him. God bless the children.

    (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
    Tell me who wants to look back on their years
    And wonder where those years have gone.)

    ***************************

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.

  • Nana, did you marry Naynay?

    Nana, did you marry Naynay?


    five-year-old Ella, three-year-old Molly, and Naynay at Krispy Kreme Store

    Nana and Ella love Krispy Kreme donuts

    Molly doesn’t like donuts (according to her)

    Hmm. Maybe Molly needs to reconsider her position on donuts.

    I’m trying to figure out how to eat the icing first

    is there anything more delicious than a donut?

    Yes! It’s a donut with M&M candy in the icing!

    Such an adventure with our two granddaughters who have grown up with Krispy Kreme donuts but always in a drive-thru setting – never actually going inside a store where the donuts are made. Heavenly aromas as we opened the door to the store and feasts for the eyes that opened wide to see the dozens of varieties in spotless display cases as hundreds of donuts moved through an assembly line in full view behind the cases. The girls were mesmerized and a bit overwhelmed by the choices when we limited them to two each but thrilled to sit at a little table with their milk to experiment with unusual tastes and colors. Finally, a race to the restroom to wash hands and faces when we had to take them to their parents.

    As Nana leaned into the middle row of the grannymobile to buckle Ella in her car seat when we were leaving the Krispy Kreme store, Ella asked out of the blue: Nana, did you marry Naynay? Nana said yes, I did. I was sitting next to Ella who then turned to me and asked the question Naynay, did you marry Nana? I answered yes, I married Nana.

    But you’re both girls, Ella continued, and I nodded yes to her. But that’s okay, I said. Without skipping a beat as the wheels turned in her five-year-old brain she said, Owen had two moms. Owen was a little boy in her first daycare for two years. He did, indeed, have two moms we met when we picked Ella up in the afternoons.

    Yes, I said. We are two of your grandmothers like Owen’s two mothers.

    And that was that. No more questions. No long discussions – they would come later, but for now everything was fine in her mind.

    When could we come back to Krispy Kreme??

    **********************

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.

  • last hurrah for now

    last hurrah for now


    school at last! excitement mixed with fear (1952)

    so many children to play with, and Daddy was superintendent

    The little girl’s first grade class with teacher Mrs. Lucille Lee who gave us the gift of reading. She taught first and second grade in one room.

    The little girl’s daddy was the superintendent of two schools: the one in the little two-story red brick schoolhouse where she went to school and the one across main street in Richards in the quarters where the Black children attended. One independent school district. Separate but not very equal. Integration came slowly to mostly overlooked rural southeast Texas.

    Annual Easter Egg Hunt for grades 1 – 4

    We walked up the dirt road to our house past my grandfather’s barn across the road from our garage while other teachers hid eggs around the school grounds. Then we turned around and ran back to hunt for the eggs. Ray Wood, a blonde-headed kid in my class, always found the maximum – most of the eggs were gone by the time I made it back. I was never known for speed.

    my Uncle Charlie (mother’s brother) graduated from Richards school circa 1941

    not sure why, but my Uncle Charlie had the number 12 written on him?

    Mama’s oldest brother Marion (glasses and tie)

    graduated from Richards school circa 1939

    Aunt Lucille, Uncle Ray and Glenn a/k/a Daddy

    My grandparents had limited education when they were growing up in large families working on farms. They could read, write, and do arithmetic – but I’m not sure where they learned. My mother and her three older brothers; my dad, his older sister, and brother all attended school in Richards, Texas at the same red brick schoolhouse I attended through the seventh grade. Our time at the school spanned from the 1920s – 1950s. All seven of them graduated before WWII ended. If legacies were given, I had one.

    the entire Richards School Grades 1 – 8 plus 4 years of high school

    the bell signaled the start of school in the morning

    I counted four uncles, one aunt, and several cousins in this picture. I also knew many teachers and recognized kids whose names I can’t remember, but this was a typical rural Texas school in the 1930s and 1940s before World War II.

    Thank you to my cyberspace followers for taking this nostalgic journey once upon a time in a faraway place that will always be deep in my heart. I’ll close with these two last photos that speak volumes about the little girl in the photos and stories.

    this little girl became…

    …this grandmother to Molly and Ella James

    Happiness galore! And that’s a wrap.

  • mid century rural Texas not modern

    mid century rural Texas not modern


    guns part of culture in rural Grimes County, Texas in early 1950s

    in her little mind she was always the Good Guy

    cowboys needed just the right hat

    new baby cousin Gaylen lived in Houston – cowboy hats came later for him

    daddy bought the little girl a swing set for her yard

    cowboy hats later replaced by baseball caps

    shirts optional in the hot Texas summers

    meanwhile, mama insisted on teaching the little girl piano lessons

    the little girl hated the piano lessons

    The guns and cowboy hats are long gone, but mama’s music lingered from one century to the next.

  • and they called it puppy love

    and they called it puppy love


    rural Grimes County, Texas circa 1948

    first of a lifetime of puppies: Scooter

    sniff, sniff – do I belong with you?

    Scooter and the little girl grew up together as best friends, as family

    the little girl had other four-legged friends that came to visit

    she loved horses, too – but they were very big

    the little girl frequently walked the dirt road from her house

    to her grandpa’s barbershop in town where she would sit in the window

    Scooter waited patiently for her – he was getting bigger, too

    And they called it puppy love, oh I guess they’ll never know how a young heart, how it really feels and why I’ve loved them so. (Paul Anka)