Copse and Spinney

_{(Mom’s Disclaimer: *The picture above proves that we were actually supervised}

My brother and I had such fun when we were little. That was because we were somewhat unsupervised. (*see disclaimer) In the photo above he’s the blonde one. I’m the bald one.

For a little while, we lived in Nanny’s house on Duval Street in Austin, in a small 1910’s English Tudor style home. We lived there for about three years from the time I was three and he was five. Throughout the while, my parents were making plans to build our home in the country. But that is another story from another blog post.

As we grew, Carl and I were like Dill and Scout, from To kill a Mockingbird. We loved exploring the neighborhood together. We meandered down to Red River, and climbed under the bridge to play near the water. It stunk like pigeon dung but we didn’t care. We made friends with strangers, like Mr. Grice who took a walk every day while smoking his pipe. He even gave us his leftover tobacco cans to keep our small toys in.

We explored the fields of bamboo behind Nanny’s house and pretended we were in a jungle on some exotic foreign land. Carl was my best friend. I remember one day exclaiming that I liked the way our middle names sounded alike because they “both have mushes in them”. Mine is Mush-elle (Michelle) and his is Mush-ow! (Michaux.)

When we were a little older we moved out to our country home. We were often latchkey kids … as we were typical 70’s generation kids. (The ones who climbed trees, built forts, played outside, did music together…those kids. (Although, there were also times we arrived home after school to mom’s freshly baked apple pie or chocolate chip cookies.)

But the best part of being a latchkey kid is that you get to raid the refrigerator, and the pantry. Our favorite after school “meal” was one of Carl’s inventions: Saltines used to come in a set of four with perforated lines, instead of single crackers being stacked in four separated bags. All four were stuck together in one bag inside the Saltine box. This was perfect for making our favorite after school snack meal. We ate so much of it we weren’t all that hungry for dinner.

So you see, you don’t break apart the cracker… you make it into a pizza.

Start by slathering it with butter. (and hot sauce or any other sauce you can find in the fridge.) Carl was fond of mixing all sauces together on some occasions and labeling the container, “Carl’s Secret Sauce”.

Then you top each section of your “pizza” with a thick slice of orange cheddar, and top that with a pickle (one or two slices per square). Stick it in the microwave until the cheese sizzles. It gets hard and burnt sometimes but we loved it. Just wait a few seconds before scarfing it because it will burn the skin between your teeth!

Carl and I always sang in the car together.

“Listen to the word to the good, good word,

got a message from my God gotta tell you all about it,

how ta get to the kingdom … The good life

I Love Jesus. Lala La La la Lala La la La Lala la la la…”

It was a great song we learned while going down the road with some teenage hippies we had just met. We were in my mom’s car. She was the one driving. These two guys were shaking their long curly locks of hair to the beat of the song while drumming on the dashboard of our old white Chevy Impala.

We loved that song so much we sang everywhere, in every place, —even on the school bus. We taught it to our friends and we all sang it together in four and five part harmony. (The school bus was a radical place where either the bus driver would stop the bus for people fighting, or literally spit balling. But not when we were singing about Jesus.)

Carl and I continued to sing and write music together throughout the 70’s 80’s and early 90’s. Today I’m going to close my blog with a song I wrote when I was 17.

“The Road” song happened in this way:

I fell asleep in the afternoon while reading the Bible in Psalm 119.

I awakened to a song that I was dreaming.

The words were simply, “You got me across the road”.

It may have been a repetitive line, but I can see how it would be encouraging if you were a turtle, or a rabbit… or a squirrel. Remember the “mushes” mentioned earlier”?

We crossed busy Duval Street sometime as kids. Throughout life we really don’t know how many near misses (near mushes) there were even if we had no clue.

Maybe the road you’re trying to cross is a difficulty you are having, a physical struggle, or even a mental one. Can you see the loving nature of God guiding you through it all, protecting your family or showing you the way across the hurdles of life?

Here is “The Road” the original recording of the aforementioned song, played live with our band circa 1988. Carl did all the mastering and recording. He is still gifted with this skill.

I hope you will enjoy this fun piece but more importantly think about the lyrics of the verses. God has brought you this far in life and will carry through and be faithful to you forever.

The Road (by Laura Acheson copyright 1986) Performed by Carl and Laura, on Vocals, Brian Herring on guitar, Jacob Coy on drums.

_{Here is the picture that was on our “album cover” I hesitate to say “album” because they were home made tapes that we dubbed with a dubbing machine and sold or given away at concerts.}