lonesome feeling

Do you ever get lonesome? Different things make me feel lonesome. Granny’s always said being by herself makes her lonesome; she won’t hardly let Pap leave the house these days.

Even though we don’t see her every day, when we go off on a trip Granny says the holler is so lonesome without us. She says the same thing if any of the others go away over night too.

If the girls are gone during the day it doesn’t bother me so much, but once it gets dark I miss them something fierce and missing them makes me feel lonesome.

When I’m away from home for several days, all I have to do is start thinking about Granny, Pap, and the rest of the bunch and I get lonesome for them. Maybe that’s more like homesickness but it still makes me feel lonesome.

Sometimes it’s something silly that makes me feel lonesome. Like the other day at work.

A gentleman wearing overalls came in, nodded at me, and walked on. On his way out he asked me a question. When I answered he said “Oh you’re one of us, where you live?” Totally crazy I know, but after he left I felt so lonesome I wanted to run out get in the car, and go home as fast as I could. I wanted to go piddle around in my kitchen, kick dirt in the garden, stick my hand in the cold creek water, or sit around Pap and Granny’s kitchen table and listen to what they were talking about.

Pap says talking about old times makes him feel lonesome. He and I made a trip together the other day and we started talking about a family we used to be close too. Pap grew up with the husband, Granny loved the wife, and we used to spend lots of time at their house. But that was 30 years ago. The husband has been dead for close to 20 years the kids are all grown with kids who are grown themselves.

As we talked about the family, Pap and I both got lonesome. Lonesome for a family we no longer see, lonesome for a time and place no amount of wishing could take us back too.

Check out Chatter and Chitter’s latest offering on lonesome-Lonesome Feeling written by Billy Henson.

 

Hope you enjoyed the song and now that I’ve told you a few of the things that make me feel lonesome I hope you’ll leave me a comment and tell me what makes you lonesome.

Tipper

 

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45 Comments

  1. Tipper:
    Your girls add a meaningful touch to our correspondence! Your Pap looks mighty proud of their beautiful talents!
    My sadness, which began when we lost our Joey, seems to never ease. Our wonderful son, who lives near by, brings much happiness to our lives. And my sweetheart is strong! But I am bound to my memories of our sweet Joey!
    LOL, EW

    1. I feel lonesome when I go back around the town or the area I grew up. Thinking about Mom and Dad and the farm and remembering the freedom of just running around that place. Playing in the barn and walking in the pasture with the cows. The spring running from the side of the hill. Knowing that time is gone forever.

  2. The girls song was so beautiful but mostly I enjoyed watching “Pap’s” face and theirs 😉
    Often, reading your beautiful blog makes me lonesome! It takes me back to days as a child when the house (Mom and Daddy’s farm house) was filled with friends and family eating good food and playing music. We had a lot of friends from the hills of Kentucky and North Carolina who had moved to our area for factory work.
    I love reading your blog, and hope you don’t take offense when I say it makes me lonely 😉 I’m glad for the remembering! Hugs from the midwest…

  3. Tipper, your subject today is one that makes me ponder – am I lonesome or nostalgic or both for the past, my loved ones who have gone and the old home place that is not home anymore?
    I have always had that feeling when, driving down a country road just about dusk I see a house with lights on and I know a family is inside. It reminds me of my childhood when all seven of us kids were living and so were my parents. Those times make me lonesome.
    This post especially brings to mind the passing of my dear sister in December 2012. Thinking about her gives me that lonely feeling, knowing I can’t call her and tell her about what’s happening in my life. She was always so interested in all I was doing.

  4. I also get lonesome when I talk of the days when I was young. I get lonesome when I think of Mom and Dad. My lonesomeness comes because I know those times and those people are never going to be here again, at least not on this earth.

  5. aww tipper i sure loved the song.. the girls sing so beautifully.. and pap looked so proud .. it made my heart smile.. 🙂
    as for lonely feelings.. yes.. i get them all the time.. whether its a longing for times past.. or people no longer with us.. i dunno. but i do get it… specially when you are alone and with your thoughts..
    or even with people around.. im ready for spring… and the flowers and warm breezes.. its been awfully cold here… im so glad that you all get a chance to be together and share times singing.. those are surely going to be memories the girls will have always..
    xoxo
    big ladybug hugs
    lynn

  6. The girls do a great job on that song.. I get lonesome to for the old days.. Your memories remind me of mine. Sitting around the table listening to mama and daddy talk about the old people and old ways.. Heck I feel lonesome when it’s rainy and dreary like today and to think it suppose to rain the rest of the week.. Great post Tipper.

  7. Thank you for sharing Tipper..I love your beautiful daughters singing. They are truly girls to be proud of and I know you are. When I have grand kids or grown kids visit, my house seems so empty when they leave. It is then that I make myself and grandpop something good to eat.When I read letters and look at photos of my original family, I feel “lonesome’ for them, so I talk to them. If they were to answer it would absolutely scare me. I did love this post though. You are able to express your thoughts exceedingly well.

  8. Since I retired almost eight years ago, I sometimes feel lonesome for my middle school students. Sometimes I get lonesome now that my children are on their own, living their lives as families. When I am in FL I often feel lonesome for the house in the foothills of NC. But I have to admit, that sometimes just being by myself is good.

    1. i just retired this summer. i used to get lonesome for brasstown always, when i was teaching, but since i’ve retired i seem pretty content to be here in florida, on my own, even though i sometimes go weeks without seeing another human! i often wonder how long before that gets old…?

  9. I am usually content with my own company, but when my grandaughter leaves after spending the weekend with me, the house is so quiet and empty it takes me a couple days to stop feeling sad and lonesome.
    Sometimes too, when reminiscing about my childhood, my grandparents and the way the world was back then I get a feeling that’s akin to lonesome – it aches the same way.
    Those beautiful girls sing like angels! Not only was Pap looking at them with such pride, but I noticed both the girls look to their Pap during their performance. Such a sweet and loving interplay between the generations, heartwarming!

  10. I usually only feel lonesome when one of my animals is sick. It might be nice to have someone besides the vet to share it with. Or perhaps I am just feeling meloncholy. Whatever the feeling is, it goes away when they feel better.

  11. My goodness, your daughters are grown-up young women now–and so pretty and talented, too. I always enjoy hearing them sing.
    I’m like you and your Pap–talking about the past makes me lonesome. And so do long rainy days and even tramping through the woods, knowing my family has lived here and walked these hills and hollers for over a hundred years. Silly, I know, LOL!

  12. Thanks for the song, ladies & to you, Tipper, for the timely post. A very dear friend (& 2nd mother) of mine is very ill & her prognosis is not good. Another one of those special people who changed my life seems to be going & it is truly a very lonesome feeling.

  13. Could contemplative or reminiscent not better describe the mood of the moment? Lonesome suggests melancholy. Pleasant memories recalled are to be savored. Unpleasant ones to be pushed aside.

  14. You have made me lonesome for my Granny. She used to say that she was “lonesome down in the bottom” when we all left her house. I understand what she meant the older I get.

  15. Going “home” and everything has changed so much & so many now gone on. Doesn’t bear thinking about too much.

  16. Seems I remember another Dr. Ruth but I don’t think it was the same thing she doctored for as our own Dr. Ruth is trying to do now.

  17. I feel lonesome when Marolyn is gone away for a week like she will be next week when she goes to Haiti again. Other times I’m just as uncomfortable when I’m in too big a place or around too many people. I like it somewhere in between best. I tell myself life is like a pendulum, so you just have to keep on swinging.

  18. Good job girls! I too get lonesome sometimes. Usually it is when I want to sit in the old porch swing at my my parents home and talk with them and watch the kids play in the yard and smell Sunday lunch cooking. A lot of kids and adults used that old swing, a lot of laughter and some tears were shed there and it was a place of peace and comfort. Dad and Mom are gone the house has changed and the swing swings no more but the memories are still there and I cherish them greatly.

  19. Tipper,
    Chitter and Chatter look so pretty
    and sing with confidence. At the
    end of the song I noticed a smile
    and Chatter knew she had nailed it. As a PawPaw myself, I can just
    imagine how Pap must feel…Ken

  20. The song was great this morning. Those girls are grown.
    Tipper you sure struck a note this morning, not so much about lonesome but (for me) memory and how it can comfort us. Still, we can use these even though it is hard not to become lonesome at times.
    Once I had a friend that was the assistant to the top person in management. Well, this peron was to retire and before he left my name was brought up in conversation. He reportedly said that I amazed him. No, he didn’t find me special in any way but one. “He seems to be moderately intelligent but,I have watched him and no matter how tedious or repetitious the jobs they put on him he seems to be totally unaffected; it never bothers him.
    I never told my friend how I did it. Actually, the reason it never bothered me was because I WAS NEVER THERE!
    I learned I could always lose myself in my own little world or just go wandering into that vague geography of the heart. Sure , I get lonesome for people and times past like everyone but, the good memories can in most cases compensate for the lonesome.
    Thanks Tipper, you always come through!

  21. Tipper,
    I think all of us experience that
    lonesome feeling from time to time. Losing loved ones are the
    hardest thing for me, but that is
    in God’s Plan. Having a caring dog,TV, and especially my friends
    and work is what helps get me through these troubling times…Ken

  22. Morning Tipper,
    I do not think that I ever really get lonesome for more than a second or two. I do get saddened sometimes when I think of those that I dearly love who I am separated from, like my Dad who passed on last March. It doesn’t last very long because I know that I will be reunited with them. Whenever I am saddened by missing them, I soon start remembering all the joy filled and funny memories I shared with them and then I am back into the day’s step. Knowing that the Father is ever present with me is the reason that I am never truly lonesome. I Shema my days with him: I speak to him when I rise and when I walk in the way and when I sit in my house and when I lie down – which leaves little time to be lonesome. 😀 I am totally addicted to his presence and without him I would be more than lonesome, I would be depressed. Only when I forget about him because of the day’s busy chores do I ever feel truly lonesome and that is easily solved by a quick filling up in prayer. 🙂

  23. Hearing certain songs makes me lonesome as does thinking of my Daddy and Mommy, both gone now. When I don’t see my grands, I get lonesome for them. Looking at the sky can make me feel lonely. Another thing is seeing changes to places I once roamed. Goodness. I sound like a sad soul, but I’m not. Time for me to play ‘Keep On the Sunny Side!’

  24. I see most of us notice Pap’s proud beaming out 🙂 That makes me lonesome – I lost my beloved Roy last January and he used to watch our great-grandchildren that way. He said our children were great, our grandchildren wonderful, but the great-grands were pure blessings.

  25. Tipper,
    Now then, I just don’t think a lot of you are lonesome! There I said it, I done it, so don’t read the great B.ruthadocs..diagnosis!
    I think what you are feeling is what old timers called the “after Christmas let-down”! You know when you are so glad all that running is done, all the (visitors) in-laws and out-laws have packed up and gone. The house is quite and all the sparkle of the season is replaced by the original look of the house. The “doldrums” take on a gloom because it is rainy and cloudy, the days are shorter and no matter how much you dust, it just doesn’t sparkle because the Seed catalogs are read and it is still too early to order or plant..The best advice it to turn up the lights to high…Put
    “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” on the old phoneagraph, re-read the catalogs, make a garden map, paste flowers and veggies in the empty spots of your yard…turn up the heat and open the window and listen for the birds to sing…yes, they will sing even if it is just the Wrens, Cardinels, Blue Jays and Mocking birds…That will beat the Winter Blues…Oh, well now about those Winter blues…let Dr. B. ruth tell you how to fix those…
    Thanks Tippe,

  26. I’m very,very blessed beyond measure to still have both my Grannys, who are both near 90. But when I think about my Papaws and all my “adopted grandparents”(people I went to church with and in my community) that have passed on, it makes me lonesome. Even though I’m grown, some of them I feel like I need them more now. Especially when it comes to advice about life and raising children.

  27. Being alone with my thoughts is comforting, never lonesome. Sharing memories and reflections with family and friends is fun from time to time on certain occasions, but everyone needs a private life. For some things the market is limited.

  28. Looking through the family picture album makes me lonesome. When I visit my hometown, the memories come back about how lonesome it was growing up there. The sound of a rooster crowing takes me back to those days and makes me want to cry every time.

  29. I get lonesome sometimes when I remember all those of my family that have gone on. Both grandparents, my parents and one brother, most of my aunts and uncles. Great song girls : )

  30. Similar to Belva, I lost my brother too. Jan 8, 2012. I was very lonesome for him yesterday, and wrote about that in my blog.
    I also miss my daughters and grandson…when we moved to our log cabin, we were moving almost 800 miles away. Sometimes, I get a lonesome aching for them, knowing I can’t just jump in the car ans see them.
    Thanks for sharing what makes you lonesome, and inviting us to do the same!

  31. Great job Chitter and Chatter! You girls just keep getting better.
    Tipper, I’ve lived alone for a long time and I sure do get lonesome sometimes. Most often in the winter when It’s cold and overcast. I look out the window at the mountains so bare and quiet and I feel so alone, everything so still. I don’t really experience it as lonely, more just a feeling of solitude and aloneness with myself. Course it never lasts too long with four cats in the house!

  32. I lost my only brother December 23, 2011. Yesterday January 8th was his birthday. He would have been 65 years old. It was one of the most lonesome days that I have ever spent. I miss him everyday and there are so many things that happen in the news or at work that I can’t wait to tell him about. Then I remember that I can’t pick up my phone and talk to him. So I understand what you mean about being lonesome for somebody or another time that has gone by. I get so lonesome sometimes for so many that have gone on to be with the Lord. Sometimes just seeing a picture of an old home place or people from another time and place, and maybe even a certain smell can trigger that feeling of lonesomeness. The girls did a beautiful job on the song. Thank you for sharing!

  33. What chords you strike in us, Tipper, and how undergirded they are by Chitter and Chatter’s playing and singing! I noted Pap’s approval of them, too, and know how proud he must be of them keeping on with the Wilson tradition of mountain music.
    What brings on that lonesome feeling? Sometimes it can be triggered by a sight, a sound, a memory, a gravestone, a picture on the wall, a favorite place now vacated of a favorite person. And fog-clad mornings like this one do not lessen the lonesome feeling. Here’s another of my “spur-of-the-moment” poems. I know it needs work, but the emotion and sincerity behind the lines are genuine, even if the form and presentation may still lack polish.
    That Lonesome Feeling
    “Look down, look down that lonesome road”…-Gene Austin
    Here I sit, like a friendless wayfarer,
    A desolate person, lost and alone;
    Forsaken, forlorn, no friend to cheer me,
    An outcast, destitute, and far from home.
    Why sit I here with clouds around me–
    Secluded, outcast, far from my home?
    If I but arise and travel homeward,
    I’ll find welcome there–no more sad and lone.
    Those first steps taken, the rest come easily
    As I head to the haven of rest and home;
    No need to keep this lonesome feeling,
    When awaiting me are love and home.
    -Ethelene Dyer Jones, Jan. 9, 2013, after reading Tipper Pressley’s blog, “Blind Pig & the Acorn”–‘Lonesome Feeling’

  34. The house I grew up in and my grandparents’ house have been torn down and replaced with commercial buildings. The pasture and lovely creek with small waterfalls with signs of Indian life from long ago cannot be seen because of mini warehouses. We left when I was seventeen because all the businesses going up. I never told anyone, but sometimes ever so often I sit in the parking lot and feel lonesome.

  35. I so enjoyed the song even though if one listens to the words someone of the past shall appear in your own thoughts and then you too become lonesome—-pap sure had a big and proud smile across his face–made me smile for those of us that our grandparents will understand his thoughts and feel the joy within his heart.

  36. Sometimes thinking about sitting in my Grandpa and Grandma’s house in the evening when I was a little girl…them in their chairs, reading or crocheting, listening to a radio preacher…makes me lonesome. I would love to be able to talk to them again!!

  37. Them girls just keep getting better don’t they. How could you have a lonesome feeling with a couple of lively girl twin teenagers around? You need to tell Chitter to put her gum under her chin rest while she’s singing.
    I was watching Pap’s face while the girls were singing. Do you think he’s proud of his granddaughters?

  38. Very,, Very good on the song girls really enjoyed it. “Lonesome”,, Wow, all the things you describe is certainly a feeling that visits me often. I don’t know if it’s knowing I’m getting older, and my parents are getting older, knowing our daughter’s health condition is not going to get better or what… But I don’t like it..

  39. Thinking about those precious souls that I’ve known and that have now passed on to wait for “That Glad Reunion Day” in Heaven. That makes me more lonesome than anything else.

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