Mayhem in the Countryside (1893, North Carolina - A Short Sketch)

The First house, the very first house, that really didn't look like a house, ever to sit on the Abernathy plantation property, was a shack with two rooms, and one room had a stove you fed with wood, that was back in 1853, when Elmer Abernathy was born, built by Aston Cole Abernathy (born 1771, died 1855), he built that shack in 1803, he would be Langdon's Great, Great Grandfather. Thereafter, Elmer, married a woman twice his age, and had a child by her, she named the child Alex, born in 1879, then she ran off, a drunk with a drunk, and he, Elmer, the Great Grandfather to Langdon Abernathy, got his divorce, and he married a good woman named Elsie, gave her, her new name, Abernathy, and in 1882, she gave him a son they named Justin C. Abernathy, the 'C' for Cole, Langdon's Grandfather the one who fought in WWI, the Corporal, he died in 1947.

Josh's Christmas Fable (1962)

"Lawd save us," Old Josh shouted, "here comes a bad wish, and everyone fell onto their backs and stomachs and everyone fell onto their knees, I swear they did, even onto one another, as the storm went through and picked them up, tossed them about, like cotton candy, they done rolled down hills, rolled up hills, tumbled like frogs off a lily pad into the water, picked them up like tornados do and done threw them every which place, that there wind did that, I swear it did... and all cus someone had a bad wish," Old Josh told Langdon and Cassandra on Christmas Day, in 1962. "Come on now Josh, tell us more, I hope its as good as the story you told us last year, around Christmas time, when I came up to visit cousin Langdon, with my ma and pa," said eight year old Cassandra.

Obama turns focus to McCain, starts VP search

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama turned his focus to the five-month general-election fight for the White House against Republican John McCain on Wednesday and announced a three-member team to head his search for a running mate.