DON'T ASK WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS...I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!


I don't remember the year...it was sometime around 1986 or 1987 I think.  In fact,  I don't remember for sure what the holiday was,  maybe July 4th.  I just know it was a holiday and we had a long weekend and wanted to do something.   I told the girls that we would just get in the car,  go eat breakfast and decide over pancakes what we would do and where we would go.

  We were living in Mableton at the time and headed for Atlanta to have breakfast.  Why downtown Atlanta for breakfast you ask?  I have no idea.  Only thing I can think of is maybe in my mind I thought we might go to Stone Mountain or maybe Callaway Gardens.  Possible even all the way to Chattanooga Tennessee, and downtown would be a good starting point no matter which direction we headed.  After all,  gas was only about 93 cents a gallon so a day trip was fairly inexpensive.  Now as I think about it,  sometimes we would just ride around for hours at a time and never think of how much gas we were using.  Times sure do change don't they.  Anyway,  back to the story

  As I said,  first thing on our agenda was breakfast and I decided that IHOP would be a good choice.  Back at this time IHOP was a pretty special place for young girls the age of Cindy and Vicki.  I only knew of two IHOPs in metro Atlanta and both were downtown.  As we were eating at the IHOP on Peachtree Street in Buckhead,  I would mention different places we could go and every place I brought up was exciting for the girls.  Like most kids,  they just wanted to go.  For some reason, and I have no idea why,  I said  "If we had brought our swim suits,  we would go to Florida."  Peggy looked at me with that gotcha look on her face and smile on her lips and said......." I packed them because you always are saying,   We shoulda brought our swim suits."

Now what?  When I was younger with no responsibility,  I often did things on the spur of the moment.  But back then the only person I was responsible for was me.  I now was married with a wife and kids.  In my mind I started to think of all the reasons we  couldn't go to Florida.  We didn't bring any clothes with us.  All we had was what we had on our backs and our swim suits.  How about money?  I think I had seventy or eighty dollars on me.  And time...What about the time we had...It was late morning on a Saturday and  I had to go to work Tuesday morning. 

You know the little cartoons when the person is torn between doing a good thing or a bad thing and on one shoulder is an angel and on the other shoulder is a devil.......Well that's kind of what it seemed like to me.  It wasn't an angel and a devil but there were two powers of some kind.  The power with the common sense would say  "But you didn't bring any clothes."  Then the power with the sometimes you must live outside of the box attitude would say,  "But you have swim suits and the motel will have a washing machine and dryer."...And then the common sense power would say..."you only brought  money for the day,,,not enough for gas,  motel for two nights and food for three days."  And then the Good Time Charlie power would counter with  "But you have money in the bank and an ATM card in your wallet.".....And then ol' common sense power said..."Time...think...Time...It's gonna be a fast trip...You are gonna be so tired when you get back home...you need to think responsibly.....Your a husband...your a father...think...use your head."  Then the you only live once power said to me ....." Ol' common sense is only partly right..you are a father,  but sometimes you have to be a daddy first....Get in that car and drive south..play road sign games..sing songs..laugh and run on the beach..watch the sun set together  go and build a memory."

It's been over 25 years since that spur of the moment trip.  We still talk about it sometimes with smiles on our faces and a warmth in our heart.  As I look back over my life and recall some of the many mistakes I have made, I often ask myself why I did this or that, and my only answer is " I have no idea."   But then at other times, as was the case this afternoon, when our family is together,  and everyone is laughing  and Cindy, Vicki, and Josh are talking of things we've done and places we've been. Of things we have experienced together. When our children are sharing with our grand kids good times of years ago,  all I can do is look at Peggy and say..."You know....We did build some memories.   Some good memories.  I'm glad sometimes we got out of the box.

When I started writing this post,  the first thing I did was title it.  I usually don't decided on a title until I'm through writing.  On this post I honestly had no Idea where I was starting and where I was going but I knew  for some reason something would come out if I sat down and started typing.  The inspiration for this post came from a comment I received yesterday on my blog.  It was from a lady I have grown to admire.  A lady I've been acquainted with for many years but a lady I feel has become a very good friend only over the last couple of years.  She is a published author and is gifted by God as an encourager.  Her name is Beverly Shealy Rollins.  She has a web site  that you should visit: http://www.beverlyrollins.webs.com/  Oh,  and her comment that inspired me was short and believe it or not I'm sure  she didn't make it to inspire a post but when God gifts you....Well...It just happens....Her comment:

            "It's funny how, as we grow older, the fantasies of life are not nearly as wonderful as the realities of life!"

Thanks Beverly for allowing God to use you to inspire and encourage me and others.  
God Bless

THANKSGIVING---THINKING BACK


Peggy and Chasity are in the kitchen preparing dinner for tomorrow.  Zack will be over soon and join in helping.  Chasity is 13 and Zack 15. They are two of our grandchildren.  They both enjoy cooking but it will be years before they realize the one that is really enjoying  the preparing of this feast is their Granny.

  It's time like these that Peggy lives for.  It's times like these that makes me realize how blessed I am to be married to this lady.  It's times like these that reaffirm in my heart and my mind that God loves and watches over us.

 Tomorrow will bring the whole family together.  Me and Peggy,  three wonderful children and seven fantastic grandchildren.  What a day it will be.  It is probably if not Peggy's favorite Holiday a very close second to Christmas.  I could spend the rest of this post and probably the next two post describing the food she will have for us to eat.  The girls will pack up to go boxes tomorrow evening and they won't have to cook again until the kids tell them "enough of these leftovers,  I want a burger." 

 Since my heart surgery the Doctors put me on a diet.  Before the surgery my favorite food group was salt.  The second favorite food group was anything containing fat and deep fried in grease.  After much discussion and debate,  I was convinced that if I wanted to stick around and enjoy sunrises, family get togethers and good friends,  I must change my eating habits.  I think I have done very well in changing to eating only healthy food.  The Doctor gave me three days of grace each year in which I can eat anything I desire.  The Three days are Thanksgiving,  Christmas and Easter.  Thursday will be my first day of grace.  I have thought about this often and when I say often I mean almost every moment I've been awake for the last few weeks.  When I was younger I had fantasies about things that I refuse to talk about on this blog but since April all my fantasies have been about food.  Peggy told me she was going to make the traditional Thanksgiving dinner because that's what the kids liked but she would make what ever I wanted for me.  You would be surprised at what goes through your mind when after a few months of eating only healthy food,  you are told you can have whatever your heart desires.  I thought to myself,  everyone else will be having turkey and dressing,  gravy and sweet potato souffle and their choice of five or six different casseroles.    There will be deserts that take up a complete table.  I could go on and on about what will be on the table, but as I thought I kept asking myself...."What do I really desire for Thanksgiving?"  

 Believe it or not the first thing that came to my mind was a hot dog.  Yep,,,,that's right...a hot dog smothered in chili and onions with an order of Varsity onion rings.    Make that two order of onion rings.  The next thing that entered my mind was sardines or vienna sausage.  Or how about some potted meat.  These are things I use to never eat but for some reason this all sounded so good.  All  of this thinking of food got me to thinking about things I use to really like to eat.  You know what I'm talking about.  The things your Mom use to make that no one else can make exactly like her.
Now don't get me wrong,  Peggy is a wonderful cook.  You only have to look at a picture of me a year ago to tell I had no problem eating her cooking.  And if you want to have a banana pudding contest,  I'm willing to take bets on hers winning.  I mean no one does it better.  But there are some things from my childhood I yearn to taste again.  I can still remember eating Mom's fried chicken or beef roast.  Every Sunday after church we would have one or the other.  And her fried okra was fantastic.  I have no idea what she did different but it was the best.  And pound cake......My word...oh me...slap my face and call me sally.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  I can remember her asking me once if I wanted some peaches to put on my pound cake.  That would be like putting chocolate syrup on a Yellow Jacket hot dog.  You simply can not fix perfection.  As I thought back to those Sunday dinners my heart pumped faster.  A tear came to my eye.  But at the same time a smile came to my face.  Back then it seemed as if every Sunday was Thanksgiving day.  And as I think of it now I realize it was.  We gave thanks together, as a family every Sunday.  We gave thanks for the food we were about to eat,  for each other,  for our Savior and for that day of rest the Lord had provided to us.

So after much consideration and thought.  After laying awake for hours at night and day dreaming all day, I have decided what I will have for Thanksgiving day.  I will eat turkey and dressing with my family and I will FEAST ON THE TIME I SPEND WITH MY THEM, I WILL GIVE THANKS FOR MY SAVIOR AND THE DAY OF REST HE IS PROVIDING.  ONE OTHER THING I WILL BE GIVING THANKS FOR IS ALL OF YOU.  IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, LARGE OR SMALL,  YOU HAVE EACH BLESSED MY LIFE AND I'M THANKFUL FOR YOU.

We as a family will be building memories this Thursday.  I pray you will also. 


    HAPPY THANKSGIVING   

THANKSGIVING TUESDAY


In two short days we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day.  Have you ever wondered why Thursday was chosen for this day?  Why not a Sunday?  Or maybe a Wednesday?  I know,  let's pick Friday as it seems we are all happy for Fridays.  Or.....how about Tuesday?  Seems like Tuesday is just a kind of a ho hum day.  The dreaded Monday is past and hump day is coming up tomorrow.  On Thursday we start to get excited because Friday is so close.  And of course we all know how we love Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  As I was thinking of this, a song by Melissa Etheridge came to mind.  The song is titled Tuesday Morning.

You are probably familiar with the song but if not look up the lyrics.  It is a song about a young man named Mark Bingham.  Mark was  a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93.  He died when the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville PA.  That's right...he died on September 11,  2001.  It was a Tuesday Morning.     He was probably one of the passengers  that attempted to storm the cockpit of of the hijacked plane.  It is thought the plane was probably headed for the White House or the Capital in Washington.  For the efforts of Mark Bingham and the others on flight 93,  on this Tuesday morning, I AM THANKFUL.  

As my mind was racing around about Mark and of Thanksgiving and of the days of the week, I asked myself...  Why aren't we more thankful everyday?  Oh sure,  I know I'm thankful for family and friends everyday  And I'm thankful for my health and a warm house and food to eat everyday but do I REALLY.....I mean REALLY sit and think about and reflect on the blessings of God.  I see and hear and smell and taste things everyday,  in fact probably every minute that I just take for granted. 

I'm an early riser.  I usually get up around 5:00 am every morning.  Do I have to get up?
Not at all,  I just do.  I usually get up and the first thing i do is read something.  Sometimes it's the newspaper,  sometimes it's an article of inspiration,  and sometimes it may be scripture.  I do this from habit. But this morning I stopped and contemplated how blessed I was to be able to read.  I started to say how lucky I am but luck has nothing to do with it.  It's not luck....IT'S A BLESSING.  God has blessed me with eyesight to see the pages, and a mind to understand what I read, and he blessed me with teachers that were willing to give of themselves to insure that I would have this blessing..... . For this I am truly thankful.

And as the sun was coming up this morning,  oh what a sight.  The sky was ablaze in oranges and yellows and purples.  It was something no artist can capture on his canvas,  no photographer can duplicate with a camera.  It was something given to me by My God......And for this I am truly thankful.

And as I watched this sunrise my mind went to the death of Larry Munson.  He had given me so many memories of UGA football,  good memories and I was thankful for the times he has given me,  but it made me go back in time to late march/early April.  To a time when I passed out and the Doctors said I should have never woke up.  To a time when so many prayers went up to God for my healing,  to a time when God guided the surgeons hands to repair my heart and to a time when God not only heard these prayers but answered these prayers ..............
And for this I am truly thankful.

Yes,  as I sit here I am excited about Thanksgiving day Thursday.  I am exited about spending the day with my wife, children, and grand children.  I am thankful for the turkey and dressing we will eat.  I am excited about watching the kids throw a football out in the yard, and about watching some football with Josh and Randy on the television.  And it may sound silly to some of you but I am excited about going to the store to buy a newspaper and watching Peggy and Cindy and Vicki lying on the floor, looking at all the ads, and planning their black Friday excursion.  Yes,,,I am excited about all of this and I will give thanks on Thursday......but.......I see no reason to wait until then.....  I will start today.......I will give thanks on Thanksgiving Tuesday because I can.........And for this I am truly thankful.

I pray you all have a wonderful and joyous Thanksgiving Week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EASY TO BE HARD !!!!!

Have you ever noticed how when something happens, it often spurs your memory to think of something in your past.  Sometimes it's bad memories, but most times it's of good memories.  We have an ability to usually put bad memories so deep in our brain that they never appear again.  I believe this is one of God's gifts to us. 

What brought this to mind was something that happened a few months ago at a festival called the "Grant Park Summer Shade."  The Summer Shade is an arts and crafts festival held every year in of course "Grant Park."  It has always been one of my favorites because it's close to Kirkwood and I once, as a young teenager, had a paper route around the park.  I really love festivals, as you meets some of the nicest people, some of which become very good friends.  Another thing is most of the people are in a festive mood (thus the word festival) so it is usually a very good time.  If you noticed I used the words most and usually in the preceding sentence.  That brings us to the story.

A young couple walks into my booth to look at the birdhouses.  The young lady,  probably early twenties seems so excited to be there.  She has the biggest smile on her face and her eyes just sparkle as she admires the birdhouses.  You can tell she really wants a birdhouse, as she explains to the young man with her, where they could hang it.
As big as the girl's smile is,  the man's frown is bigger.  I have no idea if he had a bad night, just lost his job, if his dog died or if a bird just pooped on his head but it's easy to see he has no desire to be there.  Did I mention he was also rude.  He was ready to go home or at least go somewhere that he didn't have to be happy.  I'm not high pressure when it comes to selling my birdhouses so I usually just kind of sit back and watch.  I watched, but did I mention that as I've gotten older,  I sometimes find it harder to keep my mouth shut which isn't always a good thing.  As the girl kept wanting a birdhouse and smiling and almost begging the young man became more rude and obnoxious.  I decided it was time to stand up.  So I said to the young man,  "Why don't you buy your sister a birdhouse?  She really wants one and it's easy to see you have plenty of money."
His response:  "She's not my sister,  she's my wife, and what makes you think I have plenty of money?"
OT OH.....He had made his biggest mistake....He responded to me. Now it was my turn....The ball was in my court.

I said, " I have found a woman is most often attracted to a man for one of three reasons,  The first being looks.  Well looking at your beautiful wife and then looking at you, it's very easy to see she wasn't attracted to you because of looks.  The second reason a woman is attracted to a man is personality.  Since you entered my booth, it has been obvious you have no personality.  So that just leaves us with reason number three,  that being money,  and you are so lacking in looks and personality,  It must be that you are really rich......So why not buy your beautiful wife a birdhouse?"

Needless to say,  he didn't buy a birdhouse.  The good news was he left because even though he was ugly and rude,  he was a big man.

What this story brought to mind was a song from the musical "HAIR".  When I was in the Navy I was able to see this musical twice, once in New York and once in Los Angeles and then after I got married Peggy and I saw it in Atlanta.  The song is named "EASY TO BE HARD".  The lyrics are:


How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

And especially people
Who care about strangers
Who care about evil
And social injustice
Do you only
Care about the bleeding crowd?
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend

How can people be so heartless
You know I'm hung up on you
Easy to give in
Easy to help out

And especially people
Who care about strangers
Who say they care about social injustice
Do you only
Care about the bleeding crowd
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

 You see,  most of the time it's easy to be nice to strangers, and really care about the down trodden, but the ones we are rude to are the people that are closest to us,  our friends and family.  I'm sure I didn't change that young man.  In fact I can look at my family and friends and see changes I would like to make.....  But guess what????????   "I CAN'T CHANGE THEM".  The only one I can change is ME!!!!!!  Sometimes I know I'm rude.  Sometimes I know it seems that the only one that matters is me.  I'm sorry for my short coming and today I pray to God:

    HELP ME TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN....AMEN AND AMEN.

I WANT TO READ IT ALL!!!!

I just read the eulogy of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computers,  written by his sister.  If you haven't read it make sure you do but have a tissue close by,  you'll need it.   I'm not a real technical person.  I'm not an Apple person.  In fact I've hardly read anything about Steve Jobs in my life although I did know who he was.  I have a cell phone and I can dial a phone number with the best of people but I have no idea how to send a text message.  In fact I hate to see people sending text,  their thumbs going 90 mph, and their minds in the clouds it seems.  If you have something to say to someone why not just call them.  I have learned how to E-mail but I do it as a last resort.  I still had rather make a phone call.  Maybe it's just what you're use to.  I've been around telephones all my life.  I grew up in the city of Atlanta and still remember my childhood phone number, DR-8214.  As the population grew, the phone company installed a 7 in the number making it DR-7-8214.  The DR stood for DRAKE but I have no idea what DRAKE  meant and I assume no one at the telephone company did either so they just decided to use numbers instead so our new number was 377-8214.  Most of our family lived in the Mableton area and their phone numbers consisted of only 4 numbers, like 6132.  I still wonder today how you would call one of my aunts when we had 7 numbers and they had only 4.  We also had what were called party lines back then which meant we shared a phone line with someone else. I don't know who these people were but I still remember they would stay on the phone for what seemed like hours at a time.  If I needed to call one of my friends I would just keep picking up the phone and listening to their conversation until they would finally hang up.  Back then advances in technology didn't bother me as much.  In fact I even liked some of it.  Like when we got a private phone line. Or when we upgraded to a push button phone from a rotary phone.  I remember on our honeymoon Peggy and me  sitting in a large phone booth in Disneyland and talking to my mother-in-law on a speaker phone.  It was of course hands free and we could both talk at the same time.  We thought that was so cool.  And how about the TV.  We had 3 channels.  Yep three,  that's it. And it was in all black and white and the screen must have been 11 or 12 inches but the cabinet  was the size of a refrigerator.  And I could write about  the advancements in cars for weeks on end and not only cars but also on the roads.  I remember when they opened the downtown connector (I 75 and I 85).  I was to young to drive but I thought that was the coolest thing ever.  In fact in some places there were 3 lanes on each side of the road.  And the advances in the kitchen....WOW...the microwave and digital refrigerators with outside water and Ice and dishwashers and trash compactors and on and on.

Oh yes...we've made advancements, and we love to think about how it was in the
"good ol days".  Or were they the good ol days or are these the good ol days?  That's a good question for another post in days to come but for now let me get back to the eulogy of Steve Jobs.  There was one line in it that really stuck in my mind.  There were many others that touched me in a special way.  Many others that made me tear up.  Many about his relationships with his family and about his character and such but for some reason this line stood out...Maybe it was because it wasn't only about him but about us all..His sister wrote......
"We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories."
That is why some of us fear death.  We want to read the whole story.  We want to know how it turns out.  How our children grow and how our grand children advance in life and what they become and we think maybe we could make them happier and more successful.  I use to tell Peggy, and I still believe it's true today,  that within the first five years of our children's lives, we have more  influence on  them than we ever will.  If they don't know by the age of 4 or 5, what is right and wrong, how to respect others, that they are loved and how to love, then in most cases they never will.

This story on earth began a long time before you and I and it will continue after we've  gone on.  We will die and go to be with our God and life as we know it now will continue without us.  These will be the good ol days for our children and grand children, and all we can do is hope and pray,  that we helped make them the good ol days .

In this,  the month of Thanksgiving.  I give thanks to my God for giving me the opportunity to help write this part of the story....Amen and amen.