Our Millie Leaves Home and Other Stories

By Judy Allen

Our Millie used to say that she lived in the hairy armpit of life, but I didn’t know what she meant until I met her Ma, Big Mil. Big Mil stood almost six feet tall with muscles built from hard work and harder play. She could scare the bull out of the pit bull, the rattle off the snake and make any skin-head want to grow hair and go to church.

So begins the story of Our Millie, her friends Idy Clare and Pearlie Gates, her Ma and Pa and brother, Billy Bug and various other characters who populate the series of vignettes which make up this book about life with a quirky Appalachian girl growing up in a more simple time and place.

You never know what will happen next so please come into Our Millie’s world and prepare to be entertained and, perhaps, enlightened.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judy Allen
• Release date: Feb 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9781937698591

Judy Allen

Judy Allen is the author of "Our Millie and other random musings. She lives in Central Ohio with her semi-retired husband, deaf Dalmatian and one-eyed cat. She has two grown daughters who live nearby. She liberally uses her extremely patient family's willingness to listen, read and critique the ideas that jump from her head and appear on paper. The Dalmatian can't hear the stories but is a comfort as he lies at her feet, and the Cat doesn't care as long as she gets petted and fed on schedule. Judy grew up an only child, on a farm in Southern Ohio. She learned to appreciate the love of the land and the beauty of nature. Chores had to be done and animals and crops attended in order to grow and thrive. The land could be hard and times could be lean but there was always the joy of life and the resiliency of her family, friends and neighbors. She is eternally thankful to Ohio University, Athen, Ohio for affording her opportunities in education and carrer that otherwise would not have been hers. They truly opened doors. She graduated with her BS ed, cum laude and taught special education classes on the elementary level before marrying her wonderful husband and raising her two lovely daughters. Judy has many interest including family, sports - Go Buckeyes and Bobcats - photography, animals, travel and observing life around her. She enjoys being the voice of Our Millie and bringing her to life for the amusement and entertainment of her readers. She would be happy to hear from you and can be reached through her links and by email at [e-mail].

Book preview

Special Smashwords Edition

Our Millie Leaves Home

and Other Stories

by

Judy Allen

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Our Millie Leaves Home and Other Stories

Special Smashwords Edition

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Copyright © 2012 Judy Allen. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Cover Designed by Telemachus Press, LLC

Cover Art:

Copyright © istockphoto/92546849/Walking the Rails/Thinkstock

Published by Telemachus Press, LLC at Smashwords

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Visit the author at

.http://www.our-millie.com

ISBN# 978-1-937698-59-1 (eBook)

ISBN# 978-1-938135-08-8 (paperback)

Version 2012.02.05

What readers are saying about Our Little Millie Leaves Home and Other Stories.

Our Millie is whimsical, delightful and a mini-escape from our complicated lives. My favorite is The Permanent Record. Her concern about what will be written in it can be translated into our concerns about work and life. Is it really that permanent and does it matter?

Leslie Sutandar

Writer Judy Allen has such a unique way of becoming her character, Our Millie, in her humorous stories about everyday life in Appalachia in days gone by, that the readers feel like the story is unfolding before their eyes. Everyone can relate to the dilemmas in which Our Millie finds herself. There is always a lesson to be learned and many laughs make the short stories entertaining and a pure delight to read.

Joan Hatcher

I love how she shares her wisdom on dreaming and then goes ahead and has an adventure all her own. Kudos to Our Millie.

(On Blue Suede Shoes and Thunderbirds)

Sam444

Add Our Millie to my list of favorite characters! She is a blend of the naïve, the young, the old, and a little bit of all of us. She and the characters surrounding her are both humorous and pathetic, as aren’t we all, striving to do right and straying along the way. Our Millie lives in all of us. Her voice comes through loud and clear.

Helen Nally

Our Millie kept me laughing…It has me wondering about the people we know. I enjoy the personal feeling that takes me