Good morning. Returned late yesterday afternoon from a long drive from Pigeon Forge, TN back here to Canton and averaged 32.8 mpg which, for me, affirmed why I love the Chrysler 300C but then, it was a really good week Alicia and I spent in that mountain location. As a college freshman at a small college in Alabama with only a two lane state highway running through it, for enjoyment I would sit on the side of the road looking at license tags learning the counties of Alabama and relishing seeing out of state cars passing be. Yes, it was a boring existence you must admit but you make do, right? Anyway, since that time I have enjoyed looking at auto tags and especially Alabama tags which tests my memories of the counties represented by their tag number; IE. 31 is for Etowah County, my home county in Alabama.
We have lived out of the South for many years now but found ourselves, for the most part, back in the environ from which my wife and I both grew up in and found ourselves in a Back to the Future mentality; a great thing! People in the South regardless if it was Bubba at the filling station in the middle of Northern Virginia, a heavily tattooed young girl registering me for the night in a small West Virginia Motel 6 with that light left on for us, SMILE, the deeply accented ladies that checked me in at Pigeon Forge or the waitresses in a few restaurants I had to really watch their lips as they spoke their introductories about the menu in wanting to understand what was being said; people were all just warm and nice. So many examples in shoe stores, restaurants, hotels, walking the sidewalks, making candy; just nice and I found myself being renewed that some things really have not changed during my lifetime and Southern hospitality is one.
But I must temper my previous paragraph that I also was reminded that people, generally, will reciprocate warmth and friendliness if you offer it. We have lived in the North for many years and have hoards of friends and acquaintances most of which readily fits into the previous paragraph's description of my Tennessee experience this week. What has been renewed, thus, is that people generally are warm and nice and mix that with clear blue skies, cool, crisp air and at no time having a cloud of having to do anything at any time was, well, refreshing and welcomed. I guess you could call it a vacation for I had no laptop, watched very little news, saw some interesting things, was amazed at how Pigeon Forge has explosively changed since the years since I was last there; life does go on!
It always feels good to be home. however. We have a GPS now, yes, it is true, and I was fascinated by it thinking about all the connectors of technology operating so close to my steering wheel and realizing how dependent one becomes oh so quickly to its lines and sounds. WOW!
But we are home and I love that knowledge! We are back close to our family and I a starving to see my grandchildren. I cannot wait to be back at my church tomorrow and hearing the Word preached powerfully, getting to sing with my Quartet to some wonderful friends and supporters and encouragers, getting to share some of our stories of this week, looking forward to life and all that entails. Yes, it is great to be home in my chair, in my bed, going to eat food prepared in my house and relishing God's blessing of safety, enjoyment and astounding beauty of His Creation in mountains, lakes, creeks, laughter, watching people be nice to other people and people they did not know.
Yes, Alicia found this den of sin called Sweet Frog where you drew your own ice cream from this machine and then walked down what I called Pig Alley slathering all sorts of goodies as much as you want onto the mountain of ice cream you have just filled your bowl with; oink, oink, OINK but oh so good. But I was more especially just enjoying watching people of all shapes and sizes, accents, family configurations all gathered in this Frog place and seeing the smiles, the friendliness and warmth of the collective from many locations around the Frog pig sty of good ice cream. I loved getting into conversations that begn with "whur y'all frum" and the conversations that ensued.
There was this older couple sitting near us in Cracker Barrel and I was taken aback by how much he looked like General Eisenhower in his older years. Waiting for our food I walked to their table, saluted the elderly gentleman expressing to he and his wife by thoughts about his parallel to Eisenhower and it thrilled them both. I quickly learned he was a WWII veteran, a retired judge and he thanked me profusely for speaking with him and his wife beamed. That was Southern warmth uncanned and I loved it. Of course, Alicia thought I had lost my mind in doing that but that is the price for being married to me, right. Smile!
As I snuggle in my recliner this morning, covered by my favorite blanket as the house is quickly warming, that amazing reality of being home is my cloud cover. I made some discoveries this week which is to be more friendly, more open, more communicative to and with people I may not know but within each is a story and a conversation that will yield that magical opportunity to speak about Christ and God's Love during that brief respite on this journey of life.
Oh, and did I get to hear some wonderful Southern Gospel music on a local radio station out of Knoxville, TN. Talk about Pig Heaven for me!
It was great being gone but it is immeasurably great being home even though it is still dark and not a creature is stirring, not even anything but me. I have missed Facebook but realized how much time can be sucked into the atmosphere in investing too much time accomplishing nothing on its threads, photos, etc but still, FB for me is a wonderful platform to encourage, to express and to catch up. But some time, there is a time for FB to evaporate as is access to computer news, weather or anything that blocks the enjoyment of people in our world too often ignored or not even noticed. People have a myriad of stories and most yearn to get to tell their stories. I got to meet, shake hands and salute many veterans over these last few days and to a person, they loved taking a few moments to share their stories of Germany, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, etc, with me. I felt the brotherhood and it was warm and cozy and I loved that as I always do.
So it is great being back but have enjoyed the cool, crisp mountain air and the warmth and niceness of a wide variety of people. I wonder if any are in their recliners writing about some of our conversations this week. Oh well; let me check FB right quick to see!
I felt the majesty of God in His mountains. I was amazed at the hundreds of church buses filled with young people throughout the area with their Bibles in hands, laughing and enjoying each other's company in God's name. Wow, my Southern roots were renewed and revived and no doubt my accent has more heavily returned I would imagine but in the same breath, I cannot wait to be with the many friends I have come to love so much here in our hometown of Canton, OH in our church and the other walks of this life.
Just feeling blessed this morning!
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