We used to

own two cottages at Ridgecrest, N.C., which borders the beautiful town

of Black Mountain, nestled in the peaceful Blue Ridge Mountains. As you

know Billy Graham lives in this area and has an evangelistic retreat area

called "The Cove." The trip to this area from Fayetteville was

a four-and-one-half-hour drive each way.

When ever we

would get a couple of days off, we would load up the van and head toward

this time of needed retreat. As we were making the drive, I'll never forget

the "how much further Daddy" cries from Nikki and Robbie, who

were two and four years old when we bought the properties. We owned the

cottages for ten years, so they grew up remembering the beautiful fireplace

and wonderful meals and the singing that would go on in the main cottage.

In the evenings

or early mornings you could sit on the front porch in one of the rockers

with a cup of coffee and all the cares of the world would somehow vanish.

On the wall in the kitchen Dee had bought my mother a beautiful plate

that had inscribed around the outer ring, "I will lift up my eyes

unto the hills from whence cometh my help." As you know, that is

from God's Word and so, so true!

One of the

many things in this area we loved to do was to go "putzing."

I can't really say where the word came from but I know Dee brought it

to us. The only possibility I can think of is from the German word "putzen"

which is to clean. Dee was born at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta and

reared in Philadelphia. This actually makes her the only true Southerner

in the family. I suppose since my sister and I attended the first, second,

and third grades at the elementary school in Social Circle, we might slip

through the knot hole and be called Southerners.