Aunt Oriole as I Remember Her
By Tillie Merl Whittle, 1980

In the beginning, I remember the old rambling log house. There were trees shading the house and one beautiful gnarled tree right in front of the porch, spreading it's branches over the house, offering shade and beauty. There was an orange-pink rose bush that sent its perfume up into the heavens, to mingle with the lilacs when they bloomed in the spring.

There was an old cellar on the east side of the house and further down in the lot was the toilet with the Sears and Ward catalogs offering the only toilet paper. The chicken coop was down south of the toilet and there were several apricot trees: when ripe the "white" ones made excellent jam.

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