Fifty years ago, in 1967, things were hopping at my house. We had been approved to adopt a child and were just waiting to hear we were parents.

My thoughts were all centered around my family and little thought was given to what was happening around me in the news.

But, things were happening.

The Southern Belles, “darlings of the basketball world,” and rated one of the nation’s top sports attractions were to perform at Escambia County High School.

I guess they must have been the female version of “The Harlem Globetrotters.”

Escambia County, Fla., Ranger Mallory C. Smith, reported that there were 19 fires that were deliberately set in the northern part of the county destroying 292 acres of forest land. There were five fires that caused 11 acres of timber to go up in flames. It seems to me that it must have been terribly dry or someone was very careless.

The Atmore Rotary Club’s annual hunt took place at the Carney Hunting Club. Evidently this is something that has been going on for many years. Eighteen deer were killed in the hunt that year.

A woman from Range died in a car accident and a man was injured near Flomaton. It seems this was the only fatal accident that had taken place during the holiday season. This is a time when everyone needs to be more careful, wear your seat belts and pay attention to what you are doing. There was no mention in this report about the new things we have to watch, such as texting and talking on the phone. Times have changed, but things are still dangerous on the highways. In fact my granddaughter called me this weekend and said someone swiped her and then kept on going. No one was hurt, although she will be driving a rental for a few days.

Gordon’s had washing machines on sale for $199; and Piggly Wiggly offered six bottle cartons of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola for three cartons for $1. That sounds like a pretty good price to me.

A&P had one of my favorites, fruit cake. A five-pound box was $3.99.

Currently, one can’t even get a pound for that price.

That makes me remember when I was a child and my mother made teacakes for us. Now in my world, teacakes were just sugar cookies without the sugar on top. My brother liked them soft and chewy while I liked them thin and crispy. My husband also liked them soft and chewy. When my husband was serving in the military, Mama sent us a bag of teacakes tied up in a bread bag, half thin and half chewy.

One time I asked my mother to give me the recipe and she started with “some flour.” When I asked her how much, she said “as much as it takes.” I knew then and there that I would never get a recipe from her because she did not measure things.

Years later my brother called me one day and said that he had figured out the recipe and it was a good thing I was not at his house because I would have eat them all. He was probably right about that.

The recipe tasted just like the cookies Mama had cooked all those years ago.

My Aunt Irma, was the last of my mother’s siblings and my brother carried her some teacakes one day. A week later she called him and wanted to know what happened to her teacakes. After that, my brother carried her a box of teacakes every week as long as she lived. My brother is one of the best.