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Growing Up in Pictures-from 2014

Infants grow so quickly. I see it happening every day on your pages my friends. Your children and grandchildren are shooting up so quickly through the ever upwards scrolling of my invasion into your voluntary living history.

It’s such a unique experience. A mostly joyful, but occasionally sad and sometimes embarrassing trip.

Some of you have taken that same trip through my eyes since I decided several years ago to share it.

Never before in history have we been able to see children grow, see people’s meals, discuss their politics, their religion, their gout, their cancer, their drinking habits, their decor, their craft projects, their favorite teams, their most hated teams, their current books, their divorces, their marriages, see their vacations, their vocations, their pets, their recipes, pictures of their bare feet, their bald heads, new tattoos or old kazoos, pray for them or curse them.

All from the comfort of our beds, car seats, office chairs, armchairs or rocking chairs.

It’s all very humbling to be privy to the lives of so many people, so many friends. At times in the past few years it’s been stressful, but…I have decided that it’s a good thing when taken as information and not criticism. After all, it’s a totally different paradigm, and for us to maneuver through it will take time to invent the rules and reinvent them…until finally there will be very few.

Besides, in the process of sharing the joy of my feelings for my “real” family I have become attached to many of YOUR real families. This means of communication has allowed me to love more people than I would have otherwise been able to do without it, so therefore by involvement with it, I am the better for it.

If this all sounds confusing to you, imagine how confused I was when writing it.

Keep posting the pictures of your babies and Grand babies please. I look forward to seeing them grow.

I was talking to the two Hispanic men who delivered my mattress today about working. I was their last stop at 4:45 pm and they were headed all the way back to Suwanee. I didn’t understand all they were saying but the tired “whews” of straining to set things up, and carrying in a heavy couch to the living room, caused me to note they were quite tired. I offered them a cold coke to take with them, and my sincere thanks for their professional attitude and care in handling my things. They left me the cloth furniture wraps, noting they make good rugs for the little dogs to use for beds. I thanked them again. And they were off on a three hour drive home.

I didn’t ask them their immigration status, or if they had an anchor baby. I didn’t think about if they were talking a job some regular American would want. They told me they started at 6 am this morning. Fourteen hour days delivering furniture. Do you want to do it? I don’t. Didn’t appear to me they were on welfare. I don’t think many of them actually are. As a supervisor in carpet mills the last ten years I worked, I had many of them working for me. Working, and paying FICA, and income tax. I live in a town full of Hispanic people. I watch them get in their cars at 6 o’ clock in the morning for a hours ride to work. I see them walking to the mill here in town. I see them start many churches in our county. I see them taking their children to school, wanting better education for their kids than they have. I see them playing with, and loving their families.

For several years back in the late seventies into the mid eighties I made mattresses…hourly pay plus a bonus for everything over production. Ten hour days and back breaking work. I surpassed production every day, because we needed the money. I had three kids and bills to pay. Sometimes we didn’t work full weeks. Times were hard for us. I went on to do better, but I haven’t forgotten the weight of a deluxe king size mattress on the shoulder.

It’s a good thing to remember from time to time when you are contemplating disrupting another human beings wellbeing and the care of their family.

Two four letter words constitute the opposition of human nature: Love and Hate.

Which side do you stand on? I fight hatred tooth and nail, and blood and guts everyday in the inside of my mind, but I am always led to the place in my heart….in my heart…not my mind, where love dwells.

You cannot speak hate, preach hate, write hate, demonstrate hate or show hate and be what God means for we humans to be. It’s not possible, it’s just not…no matter what anybody, anywhere tells you to the contrary. The universe was not conceived in hatred.

You can do what you want, but I’m going to always try love first before I have to resort to action in order to preserve those who are most precious to me.

Think it over….

Laying here listening to Alabama sing “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You’ve Gotta’ Have a Fiddle in the Band)” and I remember when they were the “hot” New Country band. Winning all the CMA awards. And Johnny Cash was still alive and well.

We saw a lot of the good Country artists back in the 80’s, at that field over at Calhoun, they called “Concerts in the Country” Hell..Kenny Rogers opened there one Summer..And it was WAY before he had his surgery, and he still looked like hisself. I sang right along with him on “The Gambler” and sounded so much like him that the people in row 8 couldn’t even tell I was singing at the top of my lungs. George Jones came there two or three times, and always closed with “He Stopped Loving Her Today” Diamond Rio was a local favorite at first because Jule Medders wrote one of their hits and he was a teacher from Calhoun, and there was the Judds,…before Wynonna got all kinda’ strange, and Naomi still looked great. Ray Stephens sang “The Streak” and Pam Tillis came and went during that ten years. And yeah…Alabama was there too.

The Eighties it was…Country music was fine back then…old Garth Brooks came there in ’89 I think it was, and the early 90’s saw that venue go back to being a cow pasture. Couldn’t pay them enough to come sing in the middle of a field they said, in a big old tent. Wasn’t fancy enough. I loved it though, even if did take a solid hour to get out..And I got stuck in the mud every time it rained hard…I think that was the beginning of the end for “real” Country music.

I had waited too late to get in on it, cause the winds of change was blowing’

I love sunrises and sunsets. Trees and rivers…beaches and snow capped mountains. Birds and bees, foxes and beaver. I have seen all of these things with my own eyes and I know them.

Almost anything which exists in nature has it’s own beauty and symmetry.

But I also love churches and cemeteries. I love bridges and lighthouses…rusty old wagon wheels and sewer covers. Remains of ancient buildings or a lovely finely crafted arrowhead. These things created by man also have beauty.

I have appreciated the chance to live, and to witness these things, and so much more.

I love the family of which I am a part. I continue to be here because of them. I want to protect them, though I know they are well able to protect themselves. My children long ago grew to adulthood. All things change.

The personal relationships. The human achievements. The natural world. They all change. We humans are foolish to even believe we will always be the dominant force on this planet. That will also eventually change. Whether by our own hand or by nature’s whim. We are transient. We are today’s dinosaurs.

We ought to be smart enough to pull together as mankind, and reach out to the stars, and try and extend our race to some of those other Earth like planets which are just waiting for us. But instead we are petty. We are too busy hating each other for our miniscule variations in skin pigment, sexual attraction, and perceived different philosophical values, to see that we are all …simply… human.

I think daily of things we might do to make ourselves of service to each other. Simple things…nothing complex. Compassion, love, kindness, recognition, respect, civility, friendship, giving. One word sermons. I think daily of my age, and of the chances I have had to be better, but was not. I hope I can live long enough to practice some of what I should have been doing all along.

I would not wish to be young again…not in this day and age. It has taken me all these years already to realize how deep are my shortcomings. I wouldn’t relish reliving those learning experiences.

Look at yourself in the mirror, where you are now in your journey, and ask yourself if you are happy with what you see. Listen to yourself and decide if what you are saying or writing is helping or hurting other people. Sometimes you may have to change in order to make a difference for the positive in this life. It’s not as hard as we make it out to be…

I have run around this little old town pretty much all of my life. I was born two blocks from where I am sitting typing this. I went to grammar and high school four blocks away, right next to the river that I take photos of all the time. I used to look out of the study hall windows and I could see that same railroad trestle that you’re always seeing pop up on my page.

I lived in three different houses while I was growing up here. One of them is one block behind me. The other two were up in “hot town” about a ½ mile away from here. I was married 45 years and a couple of months ago in the Church right behind my house…about 200 steps from where I am sitting. My wife and I raised our three children here…living in two different houses along these narrow streets. There has been a sense of continuity to it all.

I’m sad sometimes that things have changed so much….but change is inevitable. It’s like breathing in and out….like life and death. What does not change does not survive, and therefore change is necessary. I am happy that I have been here, and been here in this time and place. I’m grateful that I have survived the situations in which I have been, and the storms which have blown in and out of my life.

So, here I will be and perhaps will be from now on. You will see more photos of the landscape…probably more than you want to see. Of course there will be some more traveling, some more vacations and there will be time away from here. A cruise or two for sure. Disney World again…Paula likes that place and I kind of do too.

There are just too many ties here to completely break away at this point in life…family, kids, and grandchildren, and the memories…oh yes, there is that. Once upon a time back in the “old days” I dreamed for the day I could get out of this “one horse town” I wanted New York City or Nashville. A lot of my classmates and “city mates” have made it out of here. For some reason I didn’t. I guess maybe it was because I just wanted to stick around and see how things turned out.

It’s going to be another hot day today, then they say it’s going to cool down a little. Perhaps there will be some nice days in September, but I can wait.

I know a lot of times we say “I just can’t wait for_____”.

Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, My Birthday, until I graduate….

I just can’t wait! But, I’ve decided I can wait. I can wait for all these things.

I want to take Life one day at a time. I want to see the family, the clouds the sky and the sun. The moon and the stars. The birds in the trees and at the feeder. I want to think about the things that are happening right now. I want to quit wishing time away, because time is so very precious.

So, those things which are coming…for which I hope to be here to witness, I will wait and I will be happy for this day and the joys which it brings.

I now have the cleanest squirrel in the State of Georgia living in the tree in my front yard. The bold little feller is a permanent resident of the Ivy encased Elm tree that stands on the West side of the house providing much needed evening shade. I water my plants regularly and refresh the water in the birdbaths every day or so, and I use a hose pipe with a “sweeper” nozzle so I can get out to the farthest reaches of my postage stamp size yard.

I was over next to the fence, just fixing to quit when the “dirty” little squirrel climbed down off his limb onto the top of one of my birdhouses. Seeing that he needed a bath, I screwed the nozzle to “high” which produces the strongest stream of water possible. Pointed the hose in his direction and let go of the crimp in the hose pipe I had been holding.

Now..I’ve seen squirrels make some amazing moves…they are quite acrobatic creatures, but when that stream of water hit that little bushy tailed rodent he did a double back flip with three and a half turns straight UP onto the limb above his head. It took him two more seconds to get back up to his home base…where he sat chattering and shaking like a wet dog. Well..now he’s clean and I ain’t seen him trying to rob the poor finches today…..

The song I have always loved above all others is “Somewhere over the Rainbow”.

I remember the first time I ever heard it. That was in 1956 on CBS. Judy Garland sang that song, and I knew I would never forget it. It’s one of the few thrilling things I remember from that year.

I do remember pulling one of those extra large ’56 Mantle cards from a bubble gum pack. Wish I still had it.

My favorite line from over the Rainbow: “Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue….and the dreams that we dare to dream really do come true”.

….dare to dream

…dreams come true.

I’m a weird old man. A lot of friends and relatives don’t mind letting me know that fact.

But…I love that song, and its message off hope in a seemingly hope starved world.

Went to Trade Day again today. Been going there pretty regularly since they first started it, back down at the “Triangle Shopping Center” in Trion. It was a REAL Trade Day back then…with people actually “trading” for things…mostly knives, and even guns back in those days, guess it was the late 70’s. The owner there didn’t much care for it, so it moved to it’s current location down between Trion and Summerville.

All these years since, I have been looking for the “Holy Grail” of Trade Day…otherwise know as “the great find” “the treasure” i.e. the one thing that will worth SO much money that I will be able to sell it at Christie’s or Sotheby’s for a cool million and live in the life of luxury from there on out. Only problem is, I have never found it… Oh, I have found some pretty good “STUFF” over the years. I’ve brought a lot of that “stuff” or “high class junk” home. My wife is pretty good about it. She let’s me bring it in the house and hardly says a word about it. Kinda’ Saintly really, considering some of the weird things I have thought were “treasures” over the years. I won’t go into detail about that right now…only to say that I owe her a lot of thanks for her patience. Being the wife of a “junker” is not an easy thing. I have found everything from oil paintings to deer antlers, I have found Japanese pottery, and Chinese statues. Pocket knives and Buddha’s. Baseball cards aplenty!! Old marbles, toys, books, clothes, cameras, military items, rings, and earrings, stamps, postcards, old letters, arrowheads, rocks …you name it, and I have bought it. I’ve found things that I thought were worth thousands…and it turned out they were worthless. I have got somethings for a quarter or fifty cents and sold them for more. But that elusive treasure, that Holy Grail, it’s still out there.

One thing I have found though is a lot of friends. I have met people who would give you the shirt off of their back if you needed it. I have met people at Trade day who I count as some of my closest friends. People you can trust. I know some of these people, who would go five miles out of their way to pay you the dollar they owed your from last week. People who let you sit on the back of their truck and look through hundreds of dollars worth of stuff while they go about their business, or go to the bathroom or get a snack,..because they trust YOU. People like me…who are chasing that “Holy Grail” Some days, like today…it gets tiring to hunt it. I have plowed through more boxes of junk than most people will ever see, hunched over..prodding through the bottom, looking for that 22 karat gold necklace that weights a pound, or that undiscovered Picasso, or Van Gogh. Back hurting…sweat dripping..or freezing to death….I am there looking for it. One day it’s going to be there, and I won’t EVER have to go back to Trade Day again. One day…

Anway, on Saturday if it’s not raining it’s back to the chase…