Chasing After the Wind...And Then?: Autobiography/Inspirational and Fun Poetry By

By Frank D. Beasley

This book takes on the ordinary, everyday routine of the simple life during the time of the Great Depression. God wants us to experience the small stuff on our journey and the elegant as well. God works in my life through my personal devotionals and everyday Bible reading. God desires that we gain wisdom and friendships that are long-lasting. He wishes that we be kind to others and "laugh it up" on occasion. He wants us to make choices that are proper and worthwhile. God is our judge, and he is the fairest one I shall ever meet. It is God's grace that makes me a well-rounded person who has enjoyed life to the fullest. My heart is truly revealed through each of the poems presented herein. Poetry comes from inspirations that are here now and fleeting unless we savor the moment and begin to write. Enjoy them to the fullest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449762025

Frank D. Beasley

I was born for my time in history. Hitler was on the move in Germany and throughout Europe. The United States was experiencing the Great Depression, and most of the population was poor. It was my privilege to have been born for this time and to live out the life that God had predestined for me.

Book preview

CHASING AFTER THE WIND…AND THEN?

Autobiography/ Inspirational and Fun Poetry by

FRANK D. BEASLEY

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Copyright © 2012 Frank D. Beasley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-6200-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6201-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6202-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012914808

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/21/2012

CONTENTS

Preface:    Moss, Tennessee

Foreword:    The Fifth Child Is Born

Introduction

The Great Depression

Our Friends And Neighbors

Pleasant Grove And Celina

Pie Supper

Springtime:

Garden, Wisteria, Maple Syrup, And Butchering

More About Pleasant Grove, Obey River, And Celina

Down By The Riverside

Sadness Down By The River

Country Roads

Running Boards And Drunks

Prosperity Gained, Prosperity Lost

Wind And Eagles

Give Me The Simple Life, Not Millions

The Winds Of March, Time, And War

Greed

Job, A Man Of Courage, Strength, And Valor

Entire World In Financial Turmoil

The Bible: Meaningful

Life’s Oppressions And Inequalities

The Futility Of Riches

Times Are Changing

More Greed And Spending

New Beginnings

Endless Greed

Introduction To Poetry

A Child’s Hand

Jesus My Guide

Expanses Of Freedom

Fall

Friendship

Jesus Is Mine

Journey

Why Did Jesus Christ Die?

The Will

Lamb Of Calvary

Jesus’ Love

An Open Letter

The Battle Is His

Forgiven

Borne Away To God In Glory

Death

Dios Es Mi Guia

The Dove

Endurance

Forgiveness

Glorify Your Name, Jesus

Go Before

God’s Creation

God Is My Guide

God’s Immeasurable Love

God And Sun

Hand Of The Lord

Heartfelt

Heaven

Hell’s Bells

In The Eye Of The Storm

The Inlet

Jaden

Man Of Galilee

Mary, Mother Of Jesus

The Miracle

Morning Star

My Mother

Peaceful

Personal Thoughts

Poetry Unbridled

Renewed Faith In Christ

The Sun

Torrey Pines

Traveling

What Will You Give?

And Who Is My Neighbor?

To The American Goldfinch

Talk To The Animals

El Raton Paco

Black Walnuts’ New Growth

Autumn Storm

The Breeze

Canada Geese

Canopy Of Trees

Copiapo

Cornfield

The Day After

Demis

Diabetes

Headlights And Bugs

Kentucky And Tennessee

Tigers Of Siam (Thailand)

Time

Winds Of Autumn

Winter 2009–2010

Yosemite Park Waterfalls

Summer Breezes

Springtime

The Servant

A Secret Wish

Singing At Dawn

Sometimes

The Lion, El Leon, Panthera Leo

2009–2010

Army Life

PREFACE

Moss, Tennessee

The year was 1933 and the ides of March had fallen. It was a cold, blustery day, and preparations were under way for the arrival of a newborn. It would be the fifth child born to Haley Evelyn Green Beasley and Willie Herman Beasley.

Moss was and still is a sleepy little burg that boasts a United States Post Office, the national headquarters for Honest Abe Log Homes, Cherry’s Three Way In and a couple of other grocery stores, and a small restaurant. Cherry’s store was built in 1938, and there was a local grade school. The school building has long since disappeared.

P. A. Beasley

FOREWORD

The Fifth Child Is Born

My mama was experiencing labor pains, and it was getting late in the day. My dad had not yet returned home from his work with the Tennessee Division of Highways. She was getting concerned, because there was no alternate plan for the fetching of a local midwife who lived a few miles away. A teenage cousin had come to visit and assist as best as she could during and after the delivery of the newborn. It was now after five in the afternoon and in walked my dad. The first words from my mama’s mouth were, Hurry, Herman. We will need the midwife soon. Well, he cranked up the trusty 1928 Chevrolet coupe and was on his way, probably moving at a breakneck speed of thirty-five miles per hour—faster than that car had ever been driven on those unpaved roads of Clay County.The two soon returned, and the midwife’s work was awaiting her.

She and the cousin rushed about, preparing all the necessities for delivering a baby out in the countryside. Our home was ninety miles from the nearest hospital. It was not long until the cries of the newborn boy sounded. He was a handsome fellow.

The months that followed were pure joy for my mama. She was happy with all her children and especially the new little one. At age one, she entered him and his sister, who was now two plus years old, in a pretty baby contest at the Moss Grade School. Well, howdy! The one-year-old son beat out his sister and all the other babies who were presented that night. The ring, which the little boy won that evening in April 1934, was always a showpiece. My mama delighted in demonstrating the ring when someone would say to her, What a cute little boy.

Some years later, the ring was given to a little neighbor girl who had been given part of my mama’s name, Evelyn. The little neighbor girl was Reba Evelyn Smith.

INTRODUCTION

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else, but what you are will be yours forever.

Henry Van Dyke,1852-1933, A Clergyman, An Educator and Prolific Writer

What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. (Ecclesiastes 1:3–6)

The year was 1943 when Dale Hollow Dam was completed. The spring and fall rains came, and the Obey River flowed freely. Dale Hollow Lake became a reality. My three older brothers had worked on the construction of the project for Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc., general contractors in Celina, Tennessee. They had no thoughts of getting rich, just making a little spending money and perhaps purchasing an old, used Ford. No chasing after the wind.

I have an old check stub for my brother, Edgar L. Beasley, for the period ending January 9, 1943. He had worked thirty-two hours and the gross pay was eighteen dollars. Deductions came to .48 cents with a net pay of $17.52.

Let’s go fishing, Andy said, and fish we did. There was an abundance of catfish,bluegill, perch, and some large- and smallmouth bass. There’s no experience to equal a boy gone fishin’. It was really fun. Most of the fish were crazy over the local red worm. They were plentiful on a spring branch near our home on Gray John Hill, Pleasant Grove.

Fishermen began to come regularly from as far away as Nashville, Memphis, and Louisville, Kentucky. They needed baits. How convenient, since my brothers had been seining minnows for years in the small, local streams and the Obey River as well, when the river ran at low levels. Minnows went for one dollar a dozen, while red worms had a going price of one cent each. That was big money for a tattered country boy. Oh, I had no great ambitions about getting rich, but it was good candy and chewing gum money. It also helped buy some school supplies and clothing for Pleasant Grove Grade School and later Celina High School—no intention of chasing after the wind.

The days, months, and years growing up in and around the Obey River and Dale Hollow Lake formed the path to my rather simple life ahead. As you read this book, open your eyes and heart; relate it to your childhood, and let the sunshine in.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

We were in the midst of the Great Depression of the thirties, and times were very difficult for everyone. Fortunately my dad was employed, but he was earning a mere fifteen dollars for a six-day workweek. That wasn’t much for a family of seven. We survived because my mama, as a homemaker, took great care, and my dad was a penny pincher. The family maintained a beautiful, summer, vegetable garden.

Mama canned and pressure-cooked everything that she could glean from our garden, including green beans, corn, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and blackberries, which the boys would pick from the surrounding countryside. She made the best of jellies and jams and of course canned much of the berries whole, for the making of berry pies and cobblers. She also canned Georgia peaches after the salesman passed by each year.

Additionally, there were the beautiful, homegrown sweet and Irish potatoes. The sweet potatoes were kept inside a warm room within our home, while the Irish potatoes were kept in the storm cellar to maintain their food value and not freeze during the winter months.

Mama had learned the art of sewing as a young girl, and she did a great job of patching hand-me-downs. My older brother was the exception. He was the tallest, and of course the second brother always inherited the hand-me-downs of the older brother. My sister was the lucky one. She was born after a succession of three boys, and my mama bought all the materials and made print dresses for both my sister and herself. They were always the prettiest, best-dressed ladies in any crowd. In those days, when my sister would just about wear out a dress, we would pass it on to a smaller, younger girl in the neighborhood, or perhaps my mama would patch more. My dad’s favorite was bibbed overalls.

I remember so distinctly the day my dad came home with a pair of knee pants made of corduroy for me. The pants had a heavy band of elastic just below the knee. They reminded me of an English import. The pants were used, but ask a seven-year-old if that made any difference. No! A kind and generous lady on one of my dad’s highway