The Gamble

Let’s say you’re on the east end of the building, Miss Mize’s Journalism class for example, and the bell has just rung and your next class is English so you have to go to the end of the opposite hallway. Your locker is just outside Home Ec in the south hallway, so you think you have time for a couple of drags on a cigarette before rushing to the other class, or, if you don’t smoke maybe you think you can get away with a minute or two of "he-ing and she-ing" with your main squeeze. At any rate, now you have a dilemma. How are you going to cover that much ground in two or three minutes? Welcome to the gamble.

You can’t run. Running attracts the attention of every teacher there, plus that of a certain long legged office dweller that could probably walk faster than you could run.

You can’t cut through the library. This was about the only time Mrs. Goode came out of her office and if she doesn’t catch you running in the hallway she would definitely grab you for cutting through the library.

You might get away with cutting through Study Hall, but that depends on the teacher who had Study Hall duty that period, so that’s a double gamble.

That leaves you with that little garden courtyard thingy (or whatever it was called) between typing and Home Ec. That was the biggest gamble of all because then you had to depend on other students to open the door for you. Some of them didn’t want to get involved, some thought they might get in trouble for opening the door, and then some of them were actually your friends and all they did was laugh and keep going. Plus, there was no turning back, because you faced the same problem at the other door.

So, what did you do? You took your chances and hoped you came out a winner. Sometimes I didn’t.

For Brenda

I've never been to Lake Winnepesaukah, but Brenda said she's been and maybe some more of you have as well. I doubt it looked like this 40+ years ago, but it still might be worth a memory or two.

Last Night I Forgot to Say Something That Needs Repeating

I'm sorry, but I have always wanted to use that line. It was uttered once by a TV baseball announcer and it totally reflects the haphazard way my mind works at times. Anyway, enough of that. The point here is that in an earlier post I mentioned some things that I saw in other places that reminded me of Loudon and the other night another one popped into my head.

At my first Air Force assignment, at one of the major intersections outside the base, there was a hardware store and a drug store that were side by side. They also shared the same sign post, so their signs were side by side as well. On one side of the pole it said GAYLE Hardware, and on the other side it said CUNNINGHAM Drug Store. Okay, so the first name spelling is a little different, but you get the point.

Differences Between Here and There

There are several things I probably would not have seen or done and people I would never had met if I had stayed in Loudon.

1. Obviously at the top of the list would be Sue and the kids. Sue has a fault or two but she puts up with a lot more from me than I do from her. I honestly can not picture my life without her being in it. As for the kids, my pat answer when someone asks me how they are is "Perfect!" They're not of course, but to me they are so much better at this stage of their lives than I was at their age. I couldn't ask for better if I had walked into the kid's store and picked them off the shelf myself.
2. An earthquake, in fact several.
3. A hurricane, again several.
4. The green flash of light just as the last edge of the sun dips below the horizon.
5. The central coast of California from San Francisco to Morro Bay. I could not help but fall in love with it.
6. The northern lights.
7. A meteor shower made up of hundreds of meteors. So many that I cast a shadow.
8. Fighting a forest fire.
9. Niagara Falls.
10. The stretches of Route 66 before I-40 was complete.

With that being said though, there are other things I have missed by leaving, and where some of these may be trivial and small to some people, they aren't to me.

1. Having my kids go to the same schools I did and really know their cousins.
2. Having the kids grow up in a place out of the rat race and far from the maddening crowds.
3. Being there when friends and family needed something.
4. Not always having to choose between "going home" or "going to see the kids/grandkids". Heck, who knows, I may have actually had an honest to goodness vacation for once in my life.
5. Having family and friends from Loudon stop by my house. That's happened exactly three times in almost 38 years.
6. Watching the old bridge fall into the river.
7. Going to Redskin football games.
8. Ordering a hot dog and getting chili and slaw on it without asking.
9. Being someplace where folks wave when you drive by.
10. Being around people who talk like I do. :)

So Which Are We?

It is hard to write something after writing a memorial post about a passing classmate. You want to keep it light and fun on here, because common sense tells you that's what people want to read about most, but to be honest I'm not in a light and fun mood. I'm not exactly depressed either, so I guess I would call it more of a serious mood.

Each time someone I know passes, be they family or friend, I catch myself wondering to a degree whether they "died young". The funny part of it is the older I get, the more my definition of what "young" and "old" is changes too. Is 56 old? Personally I don't think so. I know I'm not going to match the lifespan of Methuselah, but I'm also not ready to start packing it in yet either, not by a long shot.

So when do we call ourselves old, or senior citizens? An email I got today thought we might be getting close, and I will agree that we are getting closer all the time, but when exactly does being old start? Heck, restaurants can't even decide. Some will give you the "senior citizen's discount" at 55, while other say 50 and still others say 60. AARP started baiting my mailbox with propaganda when I got within 6 months of turning 50.

So when then, do you become old? I cannot answer for everyone since obviously we are all at different stages of health, but for me I'm not going to be old until my head and my heart tell me I am. My body will whimper and moan sometimes when I overdo it in the yard, or lift something the wrong way, but my head tells it to stop complaining and I make an adjustment, and to me that is the key. My head knows I'm not old, but it also knows I'm not young anymore either and certain adjustments to my routine are necessary from time to time. So as long as I can make those adjustments, I'm not old.

Now, if I could just believe that well enough to get my waistline down to where I can make some adjustments to my belt, I'd be doing something. ;)

In Memory -- Bobby Jo Chumley

She always seemed happy with the same smile she has in this picture. Cute, bubbly and a little pixyish, she never failed to say hi or spend some time chatting, and she actually listened to what you had to say.

Go Rest High on That Mountain.