WELCOME to Hickory Haven, my little spot in this huge world known as cyberspace!! Learning html came slow to me, but I persevered, and hopefully have been able to make this site "a nice place to visit". Now I'll tell you a little about myself: My name is Susan and I've been married for 53 years (to the same man!). I have four grown children, six grandchildren, and a WONDERFUL great-grandson named Toby!! I live a rather quiet rural lifestyle, and I LOVE COMPUTERS!! I also love animals, and have a large white German Shepherd named Bella and two cats; Cricket and Snuffy. I enjoy traveling, sewing, gardening, working on creative photo albums, and more recently, selling vintage collectibles on my Etsy shop, SimplySuzula. I recently retired from Wal-Mart, and am loving it!

I had never touched a computer until Dec. of 1998 when I saw my first one beckoning to me from a shelf in the electronics department. I lugged it home, hooked it up (with a considerable amount of help), and began to wonder just what I was going to do with it. About that time, my son Rich, aka. SpiKe^^, aka. badassdog, aka. George Thorogood, stopped by and saw it sitting in the den. He, too, was computer illiterate, but decided to see what it was all about. Well, so began life AC (after computer). He taught himself and me "everything you need to know about computers 101". Needless to say, we are still learning and will be for a long time to come. He recently built me a new computer with a faster modem and a MUCH larger harddrive. VERY COOL!! He has progressed much farther than me. He custom builds and repairs computers of all kinds, and just recently taught himself to write scripts (whatever that means). He married Mary in 2011 and she, too, is a computer whiz.

My husband and I moved from New Jersey to Tennessee in 1982, mainly to escape the rat race. Our once pleasant home on the shore had become over-populated and no longer a nice place to live. We bought an old farmhouse and 25 acres in a small farming community called Hickory Valley and settled into a much slower, simpler life. We have NEVER been sorry! He owns a gun shop called Shootin' Shack and has never been happier. It took a long time, but I think we have both learned that enjoying what you do and who you are is what's important.

Song: "Imagine"