I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: red’s rants and raves

  • before the brand came The Red Man

    before the brand came The Red Man


    Teresa and I had purchased the house in Montgomery, Texas, in 2010 so I could be closer to my aging mother who was struggling with dementia in a memory care unit in Houston. Her condition had deteriorated significantly during the past four years of her stay there while the long-term care policy critical to our financial stability neared the end of its benefit period in that blazing hot Texas summer of 2011. My mom needed to move to a less expensive place… I had equal parts of fear and dread at the thought of moving her, but I was in a search and rescue mode for a place closer to our Worsham Street home in Montgomery while my wife Teresa kept a busy schedule in her job managing the mercantile department of the Mast General Store a thousand miles away from me in Columbia, South Carolina.

    I was in the middle of writing my third nonfiction book, desperately seeking a publisher and/or a literary agent who could locate a publisher for me. You have to build a brand, I was told with every rejection. Red’s Rants and Raves (my first blog on WordPress) wasn’t setting the right tone for my “serious” writing. Seriously? Nobody was more critical of human frailty than The Red Man, our rescued Welsh terrier, but I got the hint.

    The premier for my second blog, I‘ll Call It Like I See It, was on August 02, 2011. Nine hundred ninety-nine posts thirteen years later was a number I couldn’t have imagined when I started this amazing ride that began as a solo journey with zero followers. In November of 2011 Shirley Baranowski Cook from my hometown of Richards, Texas became the first email subscriber joined by my cousin Melissa Bech, Worsham Street neighbor Lisa Martin and college roommate Robyn Whyte – all in December of that year. I was no longer alone on the journey.

    The cyberspace universe has been magical for me – my readers who are now loyal subscribers and social media followers have become friends whose comments make me laugh when I need a laugh, inspire me to keep going when I wonder if anyone finds me that horrible word for old women with white hair: irrelevant. I developed an Honor Roll of Friends, but I had so many names I was overwhelmed by the numbers and didn’t dare risk overlooking anyone.

    Just know that I treasure each of you who has made part or all of this journey with me – I hope you know you made the Honor Roll. If you are in doubt, just ask.

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

    P.S. In 2012 I’ll Call It Like I See It: A Lesbian Speaks Out was published. The Red Man was delighted and quick to claim credit for giving me my start.

  • remembering The Red Man (December, 2000 – February 22, 2016)


    The good news is the Angel Band played, Big Dawg Bernard came to The Middle to announce promotions and this time when the roll was called up yonder The Red Man’s name was on it. He made it to the Top and joined his running buddies Tennis Ball Obsessed Chelsea, Paw Licker Annie, Smokey Lonesome Ollie and even ran into Sassy the Old One. It was a joyous reunion – everyone was happy to see him…well, maybe not happy…more like glad he made it, if you catch my drift.

    In September, 2010 Red began the rants and raves with his post I’m a Talker which produced the first two “Likes” he ever had: Wayside Artist and Terry1954. They have stayed with us for the whole ride with Red and Pretty and the Old Woman Slow and the rest of the cyberspace folks who gave us 69,666 hits in the past six years while posting 666 posts – a nice number to end with, don’t you think?

    It’s very hard for me to let go of Red’s Rants and Raves but I find it difficult to “edit” for Red when he no longer dictates to me while lying next to my feet as I sit at my desk. I feel I have to let him rest in peace with his brother and sisters.

    I hope all of Red’s 1,649 followers will follow me to my I’ll Call It posts (www.iwillcallit.com.)  – I think many of you already have – and so the writings and photos from Casa de Canterbury will continue on my other site, hopefully with Red’s keen insights and observations serving as my muse when the days lack inspiration otherwise.

    I thank all of you so very much for the “likes” and “comments” and hits through the past six years. Truly Red’s Rants and Raves changed my life.

    Get me outta here, Percy – and he did.

    Red’s favorite spot…in Pretty’s lap getting Pretty pets

     

    in the beginning was The Red Man…

    and the Old Woman Slow loved him

    (Posted on Red’s Rants and Raves September 02, 2016)

  • Short Side of Time


    The merry month of May has come and almost gone and alas, I find my strolls through the park have been far and few between as my cousin Martin is fond of saying.   Which is about as frequent as my posts have been on this blog lately.    Far and few between.

    If you follow Red’s Rants and Raves, you know our family is all together under one roof in South Carolina after a marathon twenty-hour drive from Texas earlier this month.   We had planned to spend a night on the road, but unfortunately the Road was battered by a pouring rain as we made our way through Alabama and Georgia where we normally stay the night.  Teresa thought it would be easier to drive it on in than stop and unload three dogs, ourselves and a few belongings into a La Quinta in the deluge.  I confess I voted against that idea and would have gladly shared my fluffy king-sized motel bed in Birmingham or some place sooner with wet dogs, but I was overruled since she was driving the night shift.

    One of the comforts of Worsham Street that I miss most in Casa de Canterbury is my kitchen radio that plays  Country Legends on a station from Houston.  I know, I know.  That is truly sad and pathetic on so many levels.   For some of you, the idea that I rely on classic country music for any reason is frightening and the thought that stories of 18-wheeler trucks rolling on down the line to Baton Rouge or knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em on a train called the City of New Orleans or the Orange Blossom Special or the Wabash Cannonball  brings me comfort is not only strange but slightly off-center.  So be it.  I acknowledge my co-dependence on Garth Brooks and his cowboy crooning colleagues.

    Last year on one of my stays in Columbia I purchased a small transistor radio from Radio Shack.  I had a transistor radio for many years when I was a child and clearly remembered listening to Christmas Carols from another radio station in Houston on warm winter nights.  Surely with the technology of the 21st century and the number of radio broadcasts available I should be able to locate a classic country music station in South Carolina.  I searched my omniscient computer and easily found the station.  I tried, believe me I tried, to like the songs it played.  Let’s just say listening to Darius Rucker –  who I know to be the original Hootie of Hootie and the Blowfish since they got started in Columbia – singing “country” music wasn’t what I had in mind.  I like Darius Rucker and I like his new solo music, but he is not a Country Legend yet.

    In desperation this time I branched out and turned to a secondary source: the TV.  Since our son’s girlfriend sold AT&T U-Verse for the past seven months, we ditched Time Warner and signed on with her U-Verse plan.  I find the new remote to be incredibly complex and regularly confuse the buttons.  I have discovered, however, a Classic Country Music Choice channel and can locate it most of the time by myself.   Not only does this channel play the Country Legends, it goes a step further which is what TV has always done to radio.   One-upmanship or how seeing plus hearing trumps hearing only.

    While I listen to my favorites, facts about the song and/or the artist appear on the screen next to the name of the tune and the singer.   When I’m curious, I can stop what I’m doing and glance at the television and see the music I’m hearing.  Now I can be comforted and informed simultaneously.  For example, I’ve always known that Barbara Mandrell was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool, but I never knew she has a pilot’s license to fly airplanes.  I’ve sung along with Tanya Tucker forever to Delta Dawn because it’s one of the very few songs I know all the words to, but I didn’t know Tanya drives a hot pink Harley Davidson.  Not surprised – just didn’t know.

    Yesterday I heard John Conlee sing his Backside of Thirty, Short Side of Time classic and as I read the title on the TV screen, I wondered what John would think about the Backside of Sixty-five.  I can tell him the Short Side of Time makes the days pass far and few between quicker which is why I can’t seem to find myself when I need me.