OH' HAPPY DAY......IT MUST BE KARMA:

It must be karma.  You see,  today is March 30th and as I opened my facebook page  this morning, one of the first things I saw was the daily posting of  "Georgia Fans That Support Mark Richt."  No,  the Karma was not that the Georgia fans page was there but what was on the page and the date it appeared.  It was a picture of and an article written by Lewis Grizzard.  You may ask why is this Karma?  Easy answer I would tell you.  You see,  Lewis and I had the same operation on our hearts.  Four bypasses and a pig valve installed.  Of course I think Lewis had many more problems than I did as his surgery didn't turn out as good as mine. I've always wanted to  write a post about my heart surgery but Lewis has already taken all the good lines.  You know,  like the one about "tearing up every time he passed by a Bar-B-Que restaurant."

 I think I've read every book Lewis ever wrote.  Some I've read two or three times.  His books and articles always made me smile and took me back to the days of my youth.  A time when life was much simpler.  I think my favorite line in one of Lewis' books was "I don't take tub baths, since I don't wash my face in the same water that I put my butt in".  The man had a way with words.  Well, getting back to the Karma thing.  It's not Karma that the Georgia Fan page was there or even that one of Lewis' articles was there.  The karma is that it was there "today",  March 30, 2013.  You probably don't remember where you were on March 30, 2011 but I do remember where I was  on that morning exactly two years ago.  I remember that morning but none of the rest of the day.  You see,  that was the day I had my heart surgery.  "Two years ago today."

As I read Lewis article this morning,  I once again took a trip back to my youth.  Back to when I was eight years old.  I went back to the corner of College Avenue and Howard Street.   That's where I would pick up my Atlanta Newspapers to deliver to my customers.  That's right,  I had a paper route at the age of eight.  It was said that I was the youngest boy to ever have a paper route for the Atlanta Journal.  At the age of eight I had become a "Business Man."  It amazes me at how clear all of this is in my mind today, 57 years later.  I remember that a daily paper was a nickel and a Sunday Paper was twenty cents.  If you paid by the week it was fifty-two cents and by the month it was $2.24 including tax.  Even at eight years old,  taxes were a thing I could fuss about.  It meant that I had to carry pennies with me to make change.  When I first got my route, I had 73 customers and when I gave my route up two years later I had 89 customers.  I remember thinking that I really made good money back then as I could buy almost any thing I wanted.  I must have made seven or eight dollars a week  Makes you wonder where all that money got away to.  Just across the street from where I picked up my newspapers was a little store that we called the "The Fruit Stand."   I'm sure it had another name but to all of us paperboys it was just, "The Fruit Stand."  We would all gather there each afternoon while waiting for the big truck to bring us our papers.  A soft drink was a nickel and a Chunky Candy Bar was 3 cents.  For a quarter you could make yourself sick.   I would ride my Radar bike that I had received for Christmas  the year before with a basket on the front that would hold two stacks of newspapers side by side.  I mean it was a big basket.  After picking up my newspaper I would head back down College Avenue, take a right on Kirkwood Road and go until it would deadend into Boulevard Drive.  They've changed the name of Boulevard Drive to Hosea Williams Drive.  Now don't get me wrong.  I liked Hosea and I know he helped feed the hungry and all,  but to me it will always be Boulevard Drive. 

The first Customer I had was the Bike Shop right where Kirkwood Road would deadend.  I later bought a Mo-Ped Scooter from this shop but that's a story to be told later.  Not long ago I rode down Boulevard Drive and could still tell you every house I threw a paper at.  I could remember where a girl named Becky lived.  She was, in my mind a woman of the world, probably in the range of 12 or 13 years old.  Much to old and sophisticated for a lowly paperboy such as I, but she was pretty.  I also delivered a paper to my friend Billy Watson's house.  And then there was the house where Duffy lived.  Duffy was older than me,  probably 10 or 12 years old, and Duffy was deaf.  Even today I can still see Duffy running in the park playing baseball with us or up at the rec center playing ping pong.  Duffy was what today, we would call handicapped.  If you ever knew Duffy,  you knew better.  Duffy wasn't handicapped,  he was just one of the guys.  I heard from another friend from Kirkwood, Bobby Hale, a couple of years ago that Duffy had died.  Duffy taught us other boys a thing or two about life growing up.   Rest in peace my friend.  Now back to my paper route.  When I would reach the house of Wendy and Mary Hill,  I would stop and take a break.  I always thought it was a great place to stop being that the scenery was nice to look at and  the conversation was good.  A few houses up, in the next block, was a house where a lady lived that had a parrot.  The parrot was usually in a cage on the front porch when I delivered her paper and  I  swear the parrot would always have something to say.

I love to travel back in time.  It always seems our youth was a great time to have been alive.  But it also seems our youth was just to short,  it just didn't last long enough.  I guess that's why I enjoy writing so much.  It takes me back to that time.  It extends the time of my youth.  It fills my heart with happiness, joy and good memories.  I think that is why Lewis enjoyed writing also.  It carried him to a happy place and he was blessed with the ability to take us on his journey with him in a magical way.

  Yep,  It's been two years ago today and soon after I got home from the hospital I started writing.  I had never written before but since my surgery  I've written over 80 post on my blog plus numerous  miscellaneous post on facebook.  Although I know I'm not a Lewis Grizzard and never will be, writing has been good for me.  It has carried me to many places, if only in my mind.  I hope that maybe,  because of something I've put down on paper,  you too have been able to go on a wonderful journey to your past.  To a time when things weren't so complicated and life moved at a slower pace.

Thinking back to "The Fruit Stand",  I remember spending many a quarter in that fine establishment on junk food that couldn't have been good for me.  I just wonder if that may have been the beginning of my heart problems?   OH well,  I guess we can just be thankful for modern medicine and God's Amazing Grace. and the oportunities to go back a few years in time.

  Until next time....HAPPY EASTER...and May God Bless you.