BILL PORTER, JR.

I will start off with our son Bill, Jr. of whom we called Billy back then who is now approaching the age of 47 this year.  Back in the early 1970s, my bride would take him for a walk up town and would pass a store that had a small music box in the window of which he fell in love with it.  He would say this to my bride, "I love the little musekic box."  He would repeat himself every time they went by the store front window and my bride purchased it for him without Billy knowing it for his upcoming birthday.  One day they went by the store front window and Billy noticed that the little musekic box was gone and was very sad that it was no longer there.  She later gave it to him and he certainly did love the little musekic box.  The little musekic box later got destroyed by some visiting kids and he was probably too young to remember the events but my bride and I still do. 

Every time I prepare a pot of grits, I invariably will say, "Want more ritzs, where's my ritzs" which Billy stated to my bride when she returned home from the hospital after giving birth to Laura.  Billy was really missing his Mama and she was preparing him breakfast that morning and he hadn't been eating that well and with his Mama now home, he was getting his appetite back.....grin if you must.  I believe Billy was a little sick at the time while she was in the hospital.  I think that Bill's bride to be, Nichol Shine will tell him that when they prepare grits out in Southern California.

LAURA PORTER

Our oldest Daughter Laura was discovering that she could do different things with her fingers and would place the tip of a finger to her thumb and would say, "I bet you can't do dis" and continue to do the same with other fingers and say, "I can do dis one and dis one", etc. and we would get a good grin going.

Above pix must have been on an early Christmas morning.....Laura, Lisa and Billy

Above pix taken of Laura and Lisa in 1979.

LAURA PORTER CONTINUED

One day when Laura was in Kindergarten, she came home from school looking a little pale and afraid and her Mom asked her what was wrong and she replied, "Mr. Ritletts (Mr. Riddle - The Principal) will jump on your bones."  She assured Laura this would never happen because Mr. Riddle was a very nice man, Laura said, "No, Miss Almond said if we don't behave Mr. Ritletts (she just could not pronounce his name right) will jump on you and that means he will jump on your bones!" 

It was late fall of the year and Laura was in the 1st grade.  After coming home from school she would go to the door every 10 to 15 minutes asking if someone was out there?  This continued all through homework, supper and bedtime.  She just kept asking, "do you hear a car, is somebody at the door?  Finally, she fell asleep.  Next morning, with her hand on the door knob as she was leaving for school, she looked at me and said, "Dumb ole Miss Foster!"  I asked her why she was talking about her teacher like that.  Laura replied, "She said Jack Frost was coming to see us last night and we ain't had no come-knee!"  My bride related the incident to Ms. Foster and she said she would have to be more careful the way she explained herself to her kids in class....they both got a real good grin out of that one!

UPDATE:  We saw Mrs. Foster and a group of her retired teacher friends in Monroe, NC having lunch at Show Mars Restaurant and we asked Mrs. Foster, did she remember the incident of which she did.  We all got a good grin going on that one.  Updated 12-12-16.

Also, every time my bride would tell Laura she loved her, Laura would state, "You just saying that cause its the truth", every time for sure.  I still remind Laura of that to this date.

Quote the following from my bride, "After my Mama died, Mother's Day was always hard for me.  The wearing of white flowers in honor of her just always irritated me.  One year as we were on our way to Church, I remarked, "Why couldn't they be pink for, gone but not forgotten, or yellow for warm memories."   Laura was about 5 years old at the time and she said, "But Mama, Grandma is in Heaven now, she's an angel and Angel's wear white."  Never did I complain again!

In 1973 when the animated film Charlotte's Web came out, I remember both our young daughters, Laura and Lisa were watching the movie and when it came to the part where Charlotte (the spider) had laid her eggs and was stating that she was then going to die, Laura and Lisa went to crying profusely and stated, "But I don't want here to die."

LISA PORTER

Lisa, our youngest Daughter back in the 1970s was learning new words and I would have her saying words that ended in a "TOR" sound.  Back before the enforcement of seat belt laws and child restraining devices were mandatory in vehicles, Lisa would be standing in the front seat of our 1971 station wagon between my bride and I and would say, "Listen Dad, calculator, modulator, refrigerator, escalator, alligator etc." and would be lightly patting my shoulder while she would recite the "TOR" words.

Lisa was having trouble pronouncing her R words and was going to a speech therapy class and doing real well.  All of us were going to Church one Sunday morning and Lisa was very excited that she had gotten a good report from her speech therapists and was real excited about doing so well in the speech therapy class and stated with such joy and exhilaration, "I can even say "Wabbit" and Billy and Laura said "Wabbit" real loud at the same time and Lisa began to cry.  It was all my bride and I could do to keep a straight face.  Of course we had to lightly verbally chastise them for making fun of her!

BISSETS

While our kids were young, we did much camping on Blewett Falls Lake, Pee Dee River, Anson County, NC and Lisa and Laura could barely if that, zip up the door to our large family sized tent.  We had many, many wonderful memories during those years of camping and I will related an incident that happened that was very humorous, to us anyway.  We usually camped the week before July the 4th and the week after.  It must have been in the late 1970s or early 1980s when a group of young people from SC showed up on July 4th to camp of which all the camp sites were taken and we squeezed them in at our camp site.  Those people had apparently never been camping before and had a brand new tent that was still in the box and they didn't know how to set it up.  My bride saw their inaptness and saved the day since there was an approaching thunderstorm and helped them get their tent up in the nick of time.  I could write a short story just on that group but will get to the point.  They had a young lady with them that appeared to be of Mexican decent by her accent and looks; Ok, I know I am profiling, etc. and one morning while my bride was preparing breakfast and getting the biscuits out of the small Coleman camp oven, the young Lady stated out real loud, "They even made bissets" of which the two girls immediately stated, "Bissets, she said bissets."  My bride told the girls to be quiet and they said again, "But Mama, she said Bissets."

TRAVIS AND TREVOR HUNEYCUTT

Our oldest Grandson, Travis Lee Huneycutt and his brother Trevor Lane were looked after (home day care) by my bride starting when Travis was six months old and until both he and his younger brother were enrolled in school and then my bride would pick them up after school for several years until she entered the job market again. Travis was a very outgoing boy and never met a stranger and had a sharp mind and memory.  Both Travis and his brother Trevor had a tremendous amount of trouble pronouncing the letter L and it would come out sounding like a Y instead.  One of my friends from Ellerbe, NC,  Mark Wayne Grant was over for a visit and upon leaving, we left the basement stairwell light on and Travis observed that and stated, "How bout the Yites" and we both had a big grin going.  Mark would state that to me at work every once in a while and we both would crack a grin.  The all time classic Hall of Fame from Travis was when my bride was getting ready to prepare him some Kool Aid drink and had several different flavors on the kitchen work station/bar island with little Travis sitting on the island with his legs hanging over the edge.  She asked Travis to pick out a flavor/color and he picked out Green and my bride stated, "You want Lemon Lime" of which Travis stated, "Yemon Yime, I Yove Yemon Yime" and it was all my bride could do to keep from bursting a gut....she grinned and hugged him and told him how much she loved him.  Below pix of Travis with his first pond caught fish:

Travis and his younger Brother Trevor below:

My bride had Travis in our front yard and she observed the light reflection off a jet plane up around 30K feet and told Travis that her and Papa were going to California on a plane like that one.  Travis replied emphatically uh uh and she asked him why not.  Travis said, "It is too yittle" and she had another grin going.

Travis was amazed at ceiling fans and turbines on the roof tops and during one of the trick or treat outings going to doors, she told Travis to say trick or treat when they answered the door.  The first thing Travis would say when they opened the door and he spotted a ceiling fan, There's a fan instead of saying trick or treat.  I don't think my bride got him to say trick or treat if he spotted a ceiling fan first!

Below is my bride's favorite pix of Travis after a morning hunt of collecting wild mushrooms (not to eat):

Travis was around four (4) years old and had gotten angry with my bride for some unknown reason and she was teaching him about how the Bible teaches one to forgive and she told him the Bible said we had to forgive someone seventy times seven explaining the number and Travis stated while slapping his fist into his hand and stated, "Now wait a minute, God has just gone too far this time, he wasn't forgiving no one that many times" and it created another big grin for my bride.

When Travis had just started Kindergarten, the teacher would impress upon them to stay within the lines when they were coloring.  One beautiful fall afternoon, my bride picked him up after school and on the way home she told Travis to look how pretty everything was.  She pointed out the beautiful blue sky and all the different colored trees, etc.  She remarked that it was as if God had colored us a beautiful picture. Travis replied, "Yeah and God done real good, he stayed in the lines."

Trevor made a lasting memory for me on his 2nd birthday when we drove down to Cherry Grove, SC to celebrate his birthday and somehow I got stuck with Travis, Trevor and their Dad at the motel room, while our Daughter Laura and my bride were still on the beach.  Travis and his Dad went to sleep and Trevor was still up eating some frozen pop sickles and when I thought he had enough, I stopped giving them to him.  However, Trevor said, "But Papa, I want Red" since the pop sickles were different colors and red was his favorite color.  I told Trevor he had enough and he continued to say, "But Papa, I want Red" and was relentless and must have said that a hundred times or more and finally went to sleep but that made a lasting memory for sure.  I still remind Trevor about the incident today and we will grin too! 

Trevor was between 1.5 and 2 years old and his "Nanny" was holding him outback when I dragged an archery killed buck out of the woods.  My bride said she tried to shield him from seeing the buck that was field dressed when Trevor said, "Him need a band aid" and my bride said, "A big band aid."

About the same age time frame, we were at a Mexican restaurant in Rockingham, NC and had something like Triple Fajitas and Trevor would walk around the table and look up at each one of us and state, "Are you going to eat your swimp, if you don't want your swimp, I will eat your swimp" and he would go around the table and each person would give him their shrimp (swimp).  Below is Trevor on his 2nd birthday having fun  at the Beach:

TREVOR TALKING AUGUST 7, 2001

Here is a hyperlink of Trevor talking here.

Pix below of Trevor taken on 12-24-03:

Travis is three years older than Trevor and with Travis in Kindergarten,  my bride, Trevor and myself were having buffet at the Pizza Inn in Rockingham, NC and a young teenage girl was sitting in the booth behind Trevor and he turned around looking at the young damsel while tapping his index finger on his chin and stated, "What do we have here?", whereas the young girl immediately blushed.  Trevor was a Lady's Man from the get go and would hold the doors open for the "Gulls" as they exited the school building keeping the circle drive through traffic backed up and my bride would have to hurry him up.  Trevor told my bride that Travis was not too good with the "Gulls."

While doing a Beer Can Chicken recipe on the grill, Trevor observed what I was doing and went inside and told his Grandma, "Nanny, you want believe what Papa is doing, he has a can up a chicken's butt"  and we both did a real big grin too!

Below pix of the Huneycutt boys and I feeding the deer in April 2000 at one of my favorite hunting locations:

The following was written by my bride:  One day Papa aka yours truly comes in and tells me that I have to take him to the hospital.  He was in great pain and had to bring along 3 1/2 year old Trevor with us.  Trevor watched everything they were doing to his PaPa in one of the rooms adjacent the emergency room.  There lay PaPa in his hospital gown, the ones that open in the back.  All at once another sharp pain hit and PaPa got out of the bed.  All of a sudden, Trevor looks up and he is standing right under PaPa's gown.  He says, "Nanny, PaPa's got a butt!  Grin if you must.

I was always making homemade biscuits for Travis and Trevor.  They loved them for sure.  Each year, their other Grandma (Grandma Mary Lou) would invite us to her Christmas family get together where we all shared a wonderful meal and fellowship.  When Trevor was still in his twos, I overhead Mary Lou and his Mama telling him to leave the biscuits alone.  They told him this about four or five times but once Trevor sets his mind to do something, he is relentless.  After a few more minutes, Trevor came up to me with something cupped in his closed little hands.  He held his hands up to me as far as he could reach and slowly opened them saying, "I got you a biscur Nanny."  Sure enough there was one of Mary Lou's biscuits presented to me with a huge smile.  He did and still does love his Nanny!

WILL AND JAKE PORTER

I don't have many things to relate about our West Coast Grand boys but I do remember one visit when they stayed with us for a week and their youngest son Jacob aka Jake was outback with his Dad and found a gray opossum that was killed during the night by some neighborhood dogs and the "possum" had deposited dung at the place where he died and Jake must have said a dozen times or more that day, "The white pooping possum" and continued to relate that incident while they were back home in California for quite some time.  Below collage pixs of the Young West Coast Porter Grand Boys:

Below, Will cleaning his first caught Trout and enjoyed a wonderful Trout meal at home:

I think Bill "staged" the above pix.....grin if you must!  I recognize the ole Buck Vanguard knife Will is using that I gave to Bill of which that knife has cleaned it share of Whitetail Deer here in NC.

XANDER McKNIGHT GONZALES

Our youngest Grand son, Xander McKnight Gonzales doesn't stay around us long enough to pick up on his own truisms but will pick his Mom's brain and see what I can come up with.  Below pix taken of Xander in Stamford, Texas celebrating his first birthday:

Below pix of Xander taken in 2012 practicing Yoga or something.  I appear to be "brain dead".

Pix of Xander taken on Easter Sunday 04-05-15:

Xander was just learning to talk and was over one morning when my bride was having either breakfast or lunch and he walked by and said, "It was tasty?!  

LILY DANIELLE GONZALES

Xander's sister Lily was two (2) years old last month and we were at the Pizza Inn in Rockingham, NC with Xander, Lily, Lisa and my bride.  My bride was watching Lily eat some shredded cheese and cucumbers and my bride said to her, Is is delicious?  Lily had a puzzled look on her face and picked up one single stand of shredded cheese and stuck up very close to my brides eyes and said, "It's chez", of which we all got a good grin out of that one. 

Lisa was correcting Lily about something and said Lily, whereas Lilly said, "Don't oou Lily me" which shocked Lisa for sure.

Lily was trying to say the words Oh my goodness and it comes out, Oh my  gooriss.  I don't know how many times I have said gooriss.....grin if you must!

Lily turned 3 in March and yesterday (06-09-2020) we were watching Lily and Xander while their Mom went grocery shopping.  Lily told Xander, "Xander, I have a fresh idea" which shocked both my bride and myself.  Lily and Xander were making Minecraft armor out of an empty Puffs box and had already made a helmet, breastplate and an arm guard.

Lily and Xander both have an excellent vocabulary for sure.....go ahead and grin if you must Lisa!  

Kids have a way of bringing out the innocent truth in things and can be very humorous with the cliché, "Out of the mouth of babes, comes the truth" and that certainly is a fact!

I hope you find a little humor in this short story and it sure does have meaning for my bride and myself after so many decades have gone by far too quickly.  My bride has said many times, that she would like to shrink them back up for a day to bring back those wonderful memories from the past and can imagine our God grinning a little himself.  Our oldest Grand son Travis, will soon be 22 years old in May, Will is 18, Trevor is 18, Jake is 15 and Xander is the youngest being 6. 

Time waits on no one and my bride and myself try and enjoy each and every day that the Lord allows and give him the Praise, Honor and Glory in all things.

TROUBLE MAKER

Our only Grand Daughter, Lily was talking with her Mom recently and said Paw Paw was a trouble maker.  Lisa her mom, asked Lily why she said that "Paw Paw was a trouble maker?"  Lily said, "Paw Paw plays with me and when he stops, it makes me upset and that is why he is a trouble maker."  I definitely got a good grin out of that one for sure!  Miss Lily will be three (3) years old tomorrow 03-06-2020

Lily also told her Mom, she taught Paw Paw how to wash dishes...another grin is in order.

Above pix of Miss Lily at her 3rd birthday party on 03-07-2020, whereas her birthday was on the 6th.

LILY AND THE JUNGLE

I recently took Lily and Xander down to the little branch on our property which flows into Culpepper Creek which empties into Gould's Fork which flows into Brown Creek and eventually ends up in the Pee Dee River above the 109 North bridge.

There is a good amount of foliage and overhanging bushes and Lily told her Mom, "She was in the Jungle" and we all got a good grin out of that one.

LILY STRIKES AGAIN

Lisa told us recently that she had poured herself a cup of coffee and had to leave the room for a minute and when she came back Lily was looking at her so sweet and innocent looking and she knew something was up.  Lisa noticed that the small stool was pushed next to the kitchen table and the pepper shaker was out of place.  Lisa told Lily to go wake Xander up and Lisa took the coffee into the kitchen and poured it out and replaced it with another cup.

When Lily came back out from Xander's room, she asked her Mom how was the coffee, of which Lisa took a couple big swigs and said, it was the best coffee ever.  Lily slowly dropped her head and walked off and said softly, "That didn't work."

Lily is a handful for sure!  See this link:  http://portercalls.com/mother's_day_2020.htm toward the end of the short story.

Web updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 05-14-2020.

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 04-07-15 and updated on 08-20-15, 04-15-19, 03-05-2020, 03-07-2020 and 06-10-2020.

LILY AND LISA IN FOOD LION

On 10-04-2021, Lisa and Lily were in Food Lion grocery shopping when a lady was in front of them wearing some very, very short shorts and Lily turned to Lisa in a real serious tone and asks, "Momma, is she wearing her panties?"  Lisa said quietly, "No baby, those are shorts."  Lily looks again at the Lady and says, "Didn't her Mama teach her to cover her bootie cheeks and girlie parts?"  The lady turned bright RED and left the store.  A male employee burst out laughing and said, "Well we know you are raising your daughter right."  An older lady laughing came over to us and said, "I'm guessing her girlie parts are in the front,"  Yes Ma'am, she said that is such a cute name for it considering she is a little girl.  Several people had laughed after the Lady's departure.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 10-04-2021.

LILY AND PAW PAW'S STRAWBERRY SAUCE

Yesterday, 05-12-2022, Lily got a chance to have some of my home made strawberry sauce that was on Maw Maw's chocolate ice cream and she really dug into it.  She had the spoon going into the strawberry sauce like the rotor blades on a helicopter.

I asked Lily's Mother Lisa, if Lily mentioned the strawberry sauce and she said no.  Lisa asked Lily did she like the strawberry sauce and she said, "Deeeeelicious."

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 05-13-2022.

LILY AND VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL

Lily and Xander attended the Wadesboro Church of God Vacation Bible School from 08-17-2022 thru 08-19-2022 and the awards ceremony on 08-21-2022, whereas during first or second day, Jo Anne Abee was giving her presentation about Noah's Ark and held up a hammer and asked what it was.  Miss Lily piped up quickly and said "A Hammer."  Later, she told Wink Myers who was sitting beside her, "That lady don't even know what a hammer is."

Miss Lily with a good grin going.  Lily turned five (5) back in March 2022.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 08-21-2022.

LILY AT McDONALDS

On July 15, 2023, Lily and myself were at McDonalds here in Wadesboro, NC around 12:30 PM and the place was totally packed out.  I waited for about 5 minutes or more at a couple registers and no one was manning them, apparently the orders were being placed from cell aka Obamaphones and the self order machine.

I told Lily, we are going across the street to Burger King and while walked to the car, Lily stated, "Paw Paw, you got to have patience" and I replied, "You are right Miss Lily."

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 07-18-2023.

ANOTHER LILYISM

Miss Lily was mad at her Mom and said, "She was messing with her creativity."  Lisa asked Lily, "How?"  Lily said, "You don't let me lie when I get in trouble."

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 08-29-2023.

LILY ON THE ANSWERING MACHINE 08-30-2023

Miss Lily left me a message on the answering machine to call her and here it is:

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 09-06-2023.

LILY AND PAW PAW DOING A PUZZLE

On July 4, 2024 Miss Lily and her Paw Paw were attempting to put a puzzle together and neither of us was having much luck.  Lily said, "My brain is not braining" and I got a good chuckle out of that one.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 07-06-2024.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE