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Walking with Dolly: Finding My Way Home

. Christmas Hawk, Dolly Parton, Family, Jesus Christ Follower, Parenting, Pets . , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was four years old when Dolly Parton walked into my life. She owned the television screen selling Breeze laundry detergent.

I certainly didn’t know that more than fifty-five years later I would still be walking with her.

My mother, Georgie Caylor, was already a Dolly Parton fan, and when Mama, said, “Oh, there is Dolly Parton.” I knew exactly who she was. I could not recollect her songs, but somehow my four-year-old mind (okay, just a few months away from being five) decided that Dolly Parton was important, and she, indeed, was. Check her out…

And now, 55 years after this commercial, Dolly is gone from her earthly home. But perhaps that is where the meaning of her song “Home” begins.

Dolly’s earthly home in the hills around Locus Ridge, Tennessee / Pigeon Forge is like me and my childhood in the hills of North Georgia combined with my home in McDonald, Tennessee where God blessed me, Sean, Carter, and Ammon as a family for 20 years.

When I hear Dolly’s “Home” it’s not just another country music song.

From my blessed childhood, I see me and my sister, Karen, at our house in Varnell, Georgia catching June bugs in the summertime afternoons then lightning bugs later that night in our yard.

I hear whippoorwills and katydids at Nanny and Granddaddy’s house which was also in Varnell. Still at Granddaddy and Nanny’s house, I hear a Southern Railway diesel at three o’clock in the morning. The whistle and the chug are far away. It draws nearer and nearer. It’s finally just beyond the front yard shaking the 100-year-old windows, then it rumbles into the distance. Then I drift back to sleep while enjoying the smell of the 4 o’clock flowers that are blooming right beneath the open bedroom window.

Dolly’s fishing pole reminds me of being at Mamaw Wimpy’s house and pond (only about 15 miles away from Varnell) where I would literally use a cane pole to fish for bream. We would catch bream and blue gill right and left. Every once in a while, I would have to put the fishing pole down and search high and low between the pond and the barn for crickets to use as live bait. At the end of the day at Mamaw Wimpy’s we would drink ice-cold Coca-Cola or eat popsicles on her front porch as we listened to thousands of jar flies singing across Houston Valley.

Back at my house, I can feel Mamaw kissing my scrapes and scratches after falling all around the yard during summertime play; oh, my goodness that unconditional love from Mama! … I am picking corn or digging potatoes with Daddy in our summer garden listening to him tell stories of his childhood… loved, loved, loved and miss the way Daddy could tell a story…

…And somewhere at the beginning of those memories, I am four years old again, sitting in front of a television watching Dolly Parton sell Breeze detergent.

Dolly’s song then helps me change to McDonald Road where, thanks to Carter and Ammon, I got to have a second childhood. I am watching Carter and Ammon as two toddlers run through the lush green grass we sometimes had to mow twice a week with the tractor during wet summers. I am swimming under the stars in our pool. Ammon, Carter, and I are running and playing tag under the shade of the Black Walnut Trees or taking a Montessori walk for our daily science lesson. The wonderful traditions of catching lightning bugs and June bugs were passed on to Carter and Ammon from Varnell to McDonald Road. My thoughts flash up to Grindstone Mountain with 5 Black and Tan coonhounds on a moonlit, autumn evening listening to their melodious bawls and chops as they track and tree raccoons. Our dachshunds, Sophie and Buddy, hang close by to me and enjoy every smell around them in the crisp, night air. I can hear the Screech Owl and the Horned Owl make their calls to each other across the mountain. In my winter thoughts I can feel the freezing snowballs hitting me in the face when Carter and Ammon threw them at me and see my giddy children creating snow angels. It was also because of Dolly and her love of the Smoky Mountains that I included in our children’s book, “Christmas Hawk” that Hawk’s region to help Santa search and report for his good children list was between the Mississippi River and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Once again, who needs a pool when you have sprinklers! April 30, 2012
Carter & his Cannoball
Ammon & her Cannonball
Ammon, Katie, Carter, & Caleb
The Caylor-Brown’s House February 26, 2015 #Snomageddon
Ammon & Carter make snow angels on Snowmageddon Day = February 26, 2015

So, as I begin to close this post which has been over three weeks in the making, please watch Dolly’s “Home” video again…

Are you back? Home isn’t a physical house is it?  Since I fell in love with Dolly’s song, “Home” in 2014,  I believe this is what she has given me…

It has reminded me that home is not necessarily the house where we grew up, the house where we raised our children, or even the place where we happen to live today.

Home is Mama and Daddy.

Home is Nanny and Granddaddy.

Home is Mamaw Wimpy’s pond, a fishing pole, a cricket in my pocket, and the sound of jar flies humming through Houston Valley.

Home is a Southern Railway whistle fading into the darkness.

Home is five coonhounds bawling somewhere on Grindstone Mountain.

Home is lightning bugs in Varnell or McDonald Road.

Home is watching Ammon and Carter making snow angels.

Home is Carter and Ammon running through the grass.

Home is me swimming beneath the stars.

And perhaps, ultimately, home is the place toward which all of us are traveling.

For over 70 years, Dolly was singing about and honoring her earthly home that she knew so well, and for 55 years, I walked with her, sang with her, and honored both of our homes because they were so much alike. The first thing I did on Tuesday August 25, 2026, the day Dolly Parton died, upon arriving in my kitchen after school was to play “Home”.  As Dolly winked then bowed goodbye at the end of the song, I winked back at her and bawled out loud. Tears were flowing. On that day, I lost my lovely and talented walking partner who was called to her heavenly home. She now knows the eternal home that I have spent my life believing in just as she believed. And one day by the grace of God, I hope to know it too. …Until then, I will keep walking for Dolly and her legacy here on this terrestrial ball. And I will keep returning “home”.

“Raised on Dolly” is correct… this is the serving tray that my mother bought for me. The coffee set goes with it.

Haven Caylor-Brown's avatar

Releasing Your Kids Into Their Giftedness: Guest Blogger = Mark Schultz

. Family, Learning, Parenting . , , , , , , , ,

child_gifted

 

 

Hi, Haven here, or rather I am not here; I am over on Word Refiner Mark is the Hyper-Speller at Word Refiner, and he is filling in for me this time. I suggested he join me and he grabbed the idea and here we are switching places on Earth! He has an excellent dual themed blog about children and spirituality. These are big topics for all of us here at Parenting with Pride. Mark is writing about releasing your children into their giftedness and ministry. Without further ado, the floor is yours Mark. Please bring it back with a full tank.

 

Thank you Haven, I am honored to join you and your followers today. I know you will take good care of my people on Word Refiner. Have fun!

My children are grown adults, and they are all doing well. The oldest two are pursuing careers in their chosen fields of finance. Our youngest has given us three gorgeous grand-daughters, our most valuable treasures on Earth!

We raised our children to love books and Jesus from the earliest age possible. We modeled serving Jesus in different ways by serving in church and out. They have all caught the spirit of service. The oldest did a Short Term Missions trip in Argentina, the middle (our son) went to Israel with Jews For Jesus, and the baby went to Kyrgyzstan with Youth With A Mission.

One of the important things, we learned early on was that each child has a natural bent or giftedness. It was important for us to be aware and guide our children, not break them. The formative years are from birth to about 5. Their giftedness will usually show up by that time. Fortunately, a kindergarten teacher pointed it out to us, otherwise we might have missed the signs.

Esther, our oldest, had an epiphany at an early age of 6, she committed to listen only to Contemporary Christian music. We bought lots of it for her. She made tapes of herself being a radio DJ and introducing the songs. She listened to the local CCM radio station and called in a lot to talk with the disc jockeys. She convinced one man to let her see the inside of the radio station. I took her down there around 8 pm one night when Chris, the particular dj, was on duty. I watched him like a hawk and discovered he was very likeable and loved Jesus as much as we did. I took her to the radio station many times, so Chris could mentor her and she was allowed to volunteer. I was glad when she got her license to drive. Her volunteering eventually became a job working the midnight shift. She started her own program on another station and even found a sponsor to pay the airtime.

We went to a large church, one of the largest in the area, around 10,000 members and multiple services each weekend. There was a well-equipped Audio-Video department and our son, David, only 13 years old, wanted to help. He was very into technology. There was a policy in place at that time forbidding children from operating the expensive equipment, many thousands of dollars had been invested. It was very understandable to everyone, except David.

David was persistent, he hung around the sound booth or the camera stations for weeks, talking to anyone who would talk with him. The weeks turned into months, and David was there every week for at least one service. We lived a little over a mile from the church so he was allowed to get there on his own.

After 6 months, it became obvious to Doug, the department head and the entire department that David was not going away. They decided to train and mentor him, giving him a chance. The department was chronically understaffed, every church suffers from that problem I think. David really applied himself and proved that he was more than capable. He was also unencumbered by job or wife. He was very available. He began to fill in wherever there was a need. Sometimes he did multiple services. Eventually, he was part of a sound team and a video team. He worked very hard and proved to be quite reliable. Doug started to notice other kids were hanging around and discovered a deep well of willing volunteers! After a couple of years over half the slots were filled by very talented and committed teenagers.

Our baby, Amy, loved children and wanted to be a mother when she grew up. While in High School church, she was allowed to help my wife with a class of kindergartners. Amy ran the games very well. After a year of success, there was a class of 2nd grade boys needing a teacher. Amy applied and was accepted. She was one of the very first high schoolers given their own Sunday School class to teach. At the end of the year, she asked to move up with the boys into the third grade. After some discussion, the idea was approved and is now standard procedure. Every teacher is expected to follow their class until they leave kid’s church for Junior High Church.

Our kids surprised us then and continue to surprise us now. They still serve in a variety of volunteer positions as adults.