They're Not All Baptists

The title of this has nothing to do with the faith or the practitioners of the faith, well... at least not a lot.

When I was growing up, and even through high school, we always went to a baptist church. First Baptist, Riverview Baptist, and Calvary Baptist were the ones we were members of at various times.; but at other times we would visit Corinth, Blairland, Mt. Zion, Prospect, Jackson Chapel, or any number of others. Then if you throw the Missionary Baptist churches in with all those... well, that's a heck of a lot of churches for such a small town.

Obviously there were other denominations; Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, Church of God... did I miss anybody? And when I think back, the few people I knew who said they were Methodist were always at the Baptist church I went to. I don't think even now I could tell you the exact differences between the different faiths, but back then there seemed to be a lot of gray areas and blending together between them.

That establishes my attitude, either right or wrong, about religion when I graduated high school. Then along comes the Air Force. Military basic training has one job -- to get you ready to become a useful part of whatever branch of service you're in. The quickest way to get this done is to more or less scare the everliving daylights out of you by coming down on you as hard as they can and see if you will break. If you break, they get rid of you, and if you don't, you're at the perfect mindset for them to start funneling everything into your beleaguered mind.

And so it was for me. After a few days there I was just as scared as everybody else and I prayed to God that if He got me through it, I would go to church so much everybody would think I lived there. Anyway, for the first couple of weekends at basic you are pretty busy and there's limited time for anything extra... like church. But on the third week we were able to go, so I went looking for the nearest church. We still couldn't leave the base so I found a military chapel a few streets from the barracks. I was ready to live up to my part of the bargain. This is where my slightly bent attitude about religion came into play.

It never, EVER occurred to me that there could be any reason I couldn't just walk right into the church and sit right down. It was a church, right? There was one of those glass covered signs out front, but I didn't bother to read it. Why should I have to, a church is a church is a church, right? So I walked right in as pretty as you please and sat down. I didn't think anything was different until everybody stood up and the procession started and then I realized I was right in the middle of a Catholic mass!! I had no idea what I was going to do. I couldn't get up and walk out, I had picked a seat up near the front on the aisle. If I got up everyone would see me! So I sat there. Well, actually I sat there, stood there, knelt there, then I did it all over again a couple of more times. There was no preaching, no hell fire and damnation, and in the end, not really that bad of an experience. But it was definitely an eye opener for a small town boy being exposed to the world for the first time.

I think even God got a chuckle out of that one.

Crusin'

Did you cruise? Where? I remember going from Philadelphia to Lenoir City with a focal point of the A&W in Loudon. Rarely was it any place else. But then, cruising was a fairly limited thing for me anyway since I had to depend on a ride. We could get 6 guys in Larry Lankford's VW, or later Wayne and Allen's Duster.

I remember once we cruised by Delphia's house almost all day when there must have been 6 or 8 girls there. It was a Saturday afternoon I believe, but it could have been during the summer too. I'm not sure anymore who all was there besides Delphia, but I want to say Gail Cunningham, Cherry Shelton and it might have been Brenda, Darlene, Lynette, Doris and Becky. But honestly, I don't remember. Help me out ladies if you do remember, which you probably don't. It's funny how some of the stuff you remember is some little obscure something or other that everybody else has long forgotten.

But I remember they were in the back yard almost every time we passed and we went around the curve next to Delphia's house at about 5 mph. Not that we wanted to be conspicuous or anything. :)

But it must have been a really fun day..... it made a memory. :)

The Real Home Depot

Well, as you can see I've been surfing the internet again, and look what I found. Some guy went through East Tennessee taking pictures of all the depots and he even took one of ours. Is this still standing? The site didn't say how old the pictures were so I don't know if this was taken last week or last year or ten years ago.

When I was a kid some trains actually stopped here. We lived just below the Commerce Street crossing and I can remember waving at people on the old sleeper cars. I can also remember a couple of times we jumped one of the trains and rode it down to Philadelphia or somewhere near there. The trains slowed down for another station or something and we jumped off and walked back to Loudon. Cheap thrills, huh? Funny, but I don't remember anybody jumping a train going north. The railroad bridge must have made them squeamish. I know it did me, although I did walk across it a couple of times.

Sandra's Grandkids

These are Sandra's grandkids. Clockwise from the left, this is Alysha, Jon Paul, Carla and Hayvin. They're a good looking bunch, huh?

Dodgeball

My youngest started high school a week after she finished the 8th grade. Well, not really, but they did let her take PE during the summer so she could squeeze in another elective during the school year. The other day I asked her what they had done that day during class and she said "We played dodgeball." That was a bit of a surprise because all I've heard for the last 10 years or so was how schools were moving away from games like that because it was harmful to both their bodies and self esteem... or some such thing.

Anyway. I loved dodgeball in school, or battleball as some people called it. It was THE gym game during PE. You could tell a lot about a kid by the way he played the game. The more aggressive, athletic ones were out in front, catching the balls thrown at them and then chasing the other guy back to the wall. The more shy and timid ones stood back against the wall, moving side to side to dodge the balls thrown at them. Some even got hit as soon as they could so they could sit down. A couple of times when I didn't feel like playing I did the same thing.

My worst experience in dodgeball was having Arnold Hawkins pen my head between the ball and the wall at the gym in the old high school. I turned just in time to catch sight of the ball out of the corner of my eye just before I got it in the side of the head. I had a headache for hours after that.

I can remember once in freshman year (I think) when the girls joined us for a game. The major irritation then was that I was knocked out of the game before more than half the girls were. :)

Another How-To

Since the blog has gotten bigger the search function at the top of the screen might come in handy. Just put a name or a word in the search field (upper left near the red B) and click on "Search Blog."

Who Would It Be?

If there was one person from our graduating class that you could see, who would it be?

That might be easier for you folks who stayed around Loudon to answer, but for those of us living away it's a hard question. Obviously if you count those who have passed on the question would be easier. It would be good to see Allen or Doyle or Mike or Wayne or any of the others again, but obviously we can't. By the way, this is a rhetorical question, I'm not really expecting anyone to answer (unless you want to).

For me, Doug Christian would probably top the list. I haven't seen him in probably 15 years and he was one of my running buddies, not just in high school but back through grade school as well. We've just not been lucky enough to cross paths when I'm home, I guess. In the list of those I've seen once, but would like to see again would be Jabo Lynn, Edward Watson, Eugene Henley and Tony Woody, but I don't think I've ran into Gary Poe or Donnie Miller or Carl Schrimpsher or Donna Kyker or Sandra Ward or Jimmy Littlefield or John Williams or Debbie Nathenson or Peggy Dunkin since graduation. I guess Donnie and Donna are together wherever they are since they were always together in high school. Not seeing Peggy bothers me because in my annual she wrote "You'd better keep in touch with me!" I've been trying.

Anyway, if there was a magic wand you could wave, or genie's lamp you could rub, who would you conjure up?

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

One of the things I get to do by having two teens still in high school is compare what they do with what we did. It helps keep my high school years fresh in my mind.

Anyway, the other day my son told me about a friend of his who had broken up with his girlfriend and how hard it was for his friend. Usually at times like this I try to bite my tongue and not pooh pooh their experiences like they're no big deal, or give them advice like "You haven't seen anything yet" . It is traumatic for them, just as it was for us. They know the grown up world is ahead of them and holds all kinds of problems, but they have enough trouble getting through the world they're in now to spend too much time worrying about what lays ahead.

Obviously breaking up is not as hard as the divorce that statistics say is waiting for some of them and I'm not trying to compare them. Divorces have a lot more at stake, but think back for a second. Breaking up wasn't exactly a walk in the park. I've gone through both and I can tell you about the scars I got from each one. Breaking up may not cut as deep, but at the time it sure felt like it.

Just think about it. Remember how you tried to arranged things so you could be near that special person as much as possible, maybe even to the point of where you sat in a particular class. So what could rub more salt into a wound than having to plop down in the seat right next to them everyday in Civics or whatever after you've broken up? Or finding yourself dialing their number out of habit when you picked up the phone. Or how about your friends, the ones who knew you both and at least for a time felt uncomfortable around both of you because they don't want to choose sides?

Yep, the hazards of grown up life are very dangerous, but high school had pit falls all it's own. And if you went together a long time I dare you to try and tell me that it doesn't still bother you just a little bit when you think of it now. Of course it does.

Janis' Grandaughter

This is Janis' granddaughter Chesney, and I believe she is 5. Is that right Janis?