Lord,
Please be part of my love story today. I mean, the love story between me and you. My life has some question marks but you are an exclamation point and a period. Sometimes it seems I’m in the middle of a comma… a period of pausing. Waiting. But let’s write more of the story today, why don’t we? As I go about my day, I’ll be on the lookout for the lines you’re writing, and I’ll write some myself, too.
The year 1997: putting the O in pOpular
The year was 1997. I was a pale, skinny, timid high schooler walking the halls as a senior at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Florida. This city was different than what I was used to. Students drove big trucks with big Mickey Thompson tires.
In Miami, where I spent most of high school, the smaller the tires, the better.
Both were absurdly extreme. And possibly extremely absurd. But as a teen in Tallahassee, a must-have car accessory whether you rolled on mud tires or more efficient, less noisy stock tires was the O.
It was practically your parking permit at Leon. Having mud tires and this sticker earned you triple bonus points and a spot on the football team.
20 years later I don’t see any Mickey Thompson tires, maybe because Nashville isn’t as “southern” as Tallahassee. I will see the O every once in a while, and it takes me right back to my days at Leon High School and that pair of Oakley’s I lost in Georgia when I left them on a rented van after me and my family went to Callaway Gardens for a holiday weekend full of lights and laughter… and tears.
-Out of the Wilderness
A trailer for my new book!
As some of you might already know, I’m writing a book! It’s so close to being finished and available for purchase, I can hardly wait. There’s more info on my author website here, but for now, check out the book trailer for Big and Small, God Made Them All…
Why I like Mark Richt
There’s been a lot of comments made about the quality of Georgia Bulldogs football coach Mark Richt and I thought it necessary to chime in. I don’t really know him at all but back when he was a coach at Florida State, he and his family attended the same church my family did. While there my sister Shannon made herself known to him, her being such a huge Seminole fan, it only made sense that Mark knew she was praying for him and for the team. So a few years ago our family put together a video celebrating Shannon’s 40th birthday. Now he didn’t have to do this, and Shannon’s birthday being in November which is a busy time for any football team, much less one of Georgia’s caliber, Mark Richt set aside time in his day to wish Shannon a happy birthday.
To me, and I’m guessing to a lot of football fans (and non-football fans, too), gestures like this mean so much more than how many wins a coach has, the number of championships they win, etc.
So I guess this is just my little offering to the compliments pouring in for Mark as he departs from the University of Georgia. Here’s to hoping he ends up in a place he can make a difference like it seemed he did in Athens, and definitely did in Tallahassee!
-Out of the Wilderness
Things my grandparents used to say
Every time the clock in my house chimes, I’m reminded of the many, many days and nights I spent at Mom-Mom and Pop’s house on South Mulberry Street in Monticello, Florida. It’s because the clock that chimed for decades in their family room is the very same exact clock keeping the wrong time, but chiming faithfully on the hour, in my family room. I can still recall the smell and it makes me miss my childhood, miss my grandparents, but I don’t want to go down that road right now. I’ll get all sentimental and…
my dogs might see their dad trying not to cry.
But my grandparents, all four of them, used to say the darnedest things. These phrases are a great example of generational differences and trends in communication, and I’m so happy I still can remember a few of them.
Turn it loose …let go of whatever you’re holding on to.
Stop cutting up at the table …when rambunctious grandkids getting carried away at dinner needed to be reigned back in.
Going steady …means you have a girlfriend or boyfriend.
Miam-uh …as in Miami, Florida.
That’s just a small sampling of the fun little language nuggets they left behind. I’ll keep posting as phrases come to mind. Both my mom’s parents and my dad’s parents were legendary and I think about them every day! I actually intended this post to be funny, but thinking about these classic lines and phrases has made me nostalgic and wish that I could hear their voices again. What’s cool, though? Some days I do hear their voices as if they’re still in the room. I’m thankful they were around so much that each of their voices still sounds familiar, even when it’s only in my head.
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 