grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Publishing
  • SHOP!
  • Garden
  • Food
  • Reading & Books
  • Sunday Letter

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

November 18, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

Alexander Hall, Baylor University
Alexander Hall, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
 
 
Saturday night. First weekend in
Waco. My room is tiny,
Every bit the size of my closet back home.
Evening spreads over the Brazos River, filtering
Through the Live Oak branches outside my
Dorm room. Above me stars   
Reflect and twinkle, the same Big Dipper over the same 
Earth. Yet everything feels different… The
Allure of laughter draws me into the common room, to a
Mahogany table covered in newspaper.
Situated in the center, a pile of panties? I’m not in
Arkansas anymore… more like the other side of the globe. A
Roomful of girls sit with heads down
Each busy at work.  Days of the week, black satin,
Multi-colored, every style panty imaginable spread
Across the table. They paint names and phone numbers
Down the sides and even on the crotch! My super
Excited roommate, a girl who   
Organizes her Izod shirts by color, squeals it’ll be
Fun! A 100 year old Baylor
Tradition—the first freshman panty raid of the semester.
Hurry! Grabbing my craziest red plaid Christmas bikinis,
I draw a heart and toss my name to the
Sidewalk below. 

Baylor University retro sailor bear
Sic ’em Bears!

 

talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

This was written especially for FEARLESS FRIDAY PRACTICE –Think of a song you listened to over and over at a crossroads point in your life. Note to yourself the emotion you felt connected with this song. Do an acrostic off the title of this song. Write about a specific event in the period in your life the song’s associated with, but DON’T use the emotion or a synonym — rather, let the emotion be expressed by the specific telling of the event.


Somewhere in the acrostic, include the following words: newspaper, branch, mate, globe, plaid, Big Dipper.

P.S. If you are reading this post from your phone, the acrostic phrase may not line up correctly…Oh well.
Musical Pairing:

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Eurythmics

 

Filed Under: Life, Memories Tagged With: acrostic, Baylor, creative writing prompt, poem

Wanna receive posts via email? Sign up here!

Comments

  1. Dorothy Johnson says

    November 18, 2013 at 11:49 am

    Ah, youth, crazy youth!

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      November 18, 2013 at 12:57 pm

      Yep. For sure!

  2. Jane Gatewood says

    November 18, 2013 at 11:57 am

    Those Baylor girls had a style all their own! Oh, the stories we never told.

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      November 18, 2013 at 12:19 pm

      Yes we did (do)!

  3. Jane Gatewood says

    November 18, 2013 at 11:57 am

    Those Baylor girls had a style all their own! Oh, the stories we never told.

  4. Pary Moppins says

    November 18, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    I’m now going to have to ask my Baylor friends all about this. 🙂

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      November 18, 2013 at 3:05 pm

      All true!

  5. Pristine says

    November 18, 2013 at 5:11 pm

    Hahaha! My sister and several of my cousins all went to Baylor, but I found myself at A&M instead 🙂

    -Pristine
    newkidontheloch.com

  6. Taylor Bradford says

    November 18, 2013 at 6:53 pm

    A panty raid?! OMG that’s crazy!


Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Sunday Letter: 11.23.25
  • Maggie and Miss Ladybug: My New Children’s Nature Book
  • Sunday Letter: November 9, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 26, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 5, 2025

Novels:

Coloring Books:

Fiction-Themed Coloring Books

Backyard Phenology:

Children’s Nature Book:

Never miss a blog post! Subscribe via email:

Looking for something?

Categories

All the Things!

A to Z April Blog Challenge Autumn BAT Book Reviews childhood Christmas creative writing prompt Dallas Desserts Fall Fayetteville Food Gracie Lee Halloween Hemingway-Pfeiffer holiday recipes home humor Johnson Family Keiser Lake Norfork Lucy and Annabelle Mississippi County Mississippi Delta Monarch butterflies Munger Place Nana nature Northeast Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Osceola poem Reading Schnauzer simple living simple things spring spring gardening Summer Talya Tate Boerner novel Thanksgiving The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee Thomas Tate Winter Wordless Wednesday

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!

All content and photos Copyright Grace, Grits and Gardening © 2025 · Web Hosting By StrataByte