memories

friends / memories / photo / Thursday — Comments Off on A 3-year-old’s life
10
Mar 16

A 3-year-old’s life

We got to see Liam today. In a word, he’s healthy.

We were going to dinner with friends one night when The Yankee saw on Facebook that he’d just been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. His parents had found bruises that they couldn’t explain and so they went to the pediatrician and that doctor wisely sent them to Birmingham and they caught it in a hurry. I walked from the table at the restaurant that night to the restroom and looked up this form of leukemia, marveling at Google’s knowing what I meant, but also at the prognosis. If it was caught quickly, and with the proper care, it was a scary, hard thing, but easily survivable. And Liam’s parents are marvelous, and they’re fortunate to have good health care and he has had some scare times, and some hard years, and he’s spent too much of his early childhood in a car driving to hospitals, getting poked and prodded, wearing masks and helmets and having his social life limited. But the kid is doing great. He’s amazing. He walked in, sat on our sofa and pronounced it “Quite comfortable.” And then he just plays at that high speed that kids continually run in. Liam is healthy.

So this is a good reminder about how easy it is to register for blood marrow donations. You can do the entire effortless, painless registration in less time than it is taking you to read this. Send off for the forms. When they arrive, swab your cheeks, put them in the envelope and drop them in the mail. You’ve joined the national registry; maybe you’ll get the chance to help somebody one day. Find out more here.

In another word, he’s adorable. That kid has style. Completely holds a room with his charm. Though you wish he’d come out of his shell and be a bit more precocious.

friends / memories / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off on This is National FFA Week
24
Feb 16

This is National FFA Week

This is part of how that big, terrific, organization played a huge role in my small story.

The FFA started, for me, in the sixth grade. Some teachers came down from the high school and talked about what they did in the big blue building.

“We don’t build UFOs,” they said, and they explained the wood shop, the greenhouse, the FFA and more. Maybe they talked about the name change. The National FFA Organization had just moved on from the traditional Future Farmers of America name. Changing with the times. As an exurban kid I was as representative of that as anyone. But, on this day, they were on a recruiting trip. Rising seventh graders need electives and I didn’t have any other plans. That’s how it started.

The antics and the class made me sign up again for another class in the eighth grade. (After six years of shop and classroom pranks it is amazing we all made it out with 10 fingers.) I wasn’t very good as a wood worker. I never got much better. I never could draw a very good bead with the arc welder. I can still smell all of those shop smells, even now, but now I know I was gaining something more valuable, for me, than shop skills.

As a rising freshman I went to the state FFA convention in Montgomery. One of our upperclassmen was a state officer and I was in a state championship contest for agricultural mechanics. (Think small engines, plumbing, electricity, all of the things I know better than to mess with today.) After the convention Mr. Caddell said he could see me as a state officer one day. That was a big goal and I liked it.

To get there I’d have to take part in public speaking contests. I was bad, but after three years I started getting better.

My junior year I finally won the county, placed second in the district and made it to the state finals. The experiences along the way — going to conventions for state finals for ag mechanics, forestry and public speaking, chapter and district responsibilities, attending national conventions in Kansas City — all led to an opportunity to run for state office at the end of my junior year.

I was fortunate to get elected and so my senior year was filled with great experiences. I traveled all over the state and much of the southeast. I helped run leadership workshops and delivered speeches to schools and meetings all over Alabama. It allowed me to create a strong extracurricular resume and taught me a great deal. I met amazing people, my college roommate, lifelong friends and others too numerous to detail.

At the end of our year as state officers Jason, Heath, Carla, J.D., Jeremy and I – six kids from all over the state – had a conversation about the end of one chapter being necessary to open the next exciting chapter of life. We were very wise at 18. Today they are business owners and bankers and insurance executives and so on.

The FFA gave us a lot. And we look so young and fresh and cool in our corduroy.

Every couple of years I try it on and this week I was pleased to see that my state officer jacket from mumble-mumble years ago still fits. (Sorta.) (I mean, I can put it on and zip it all the way up.) (That’s what “fits” means, right?) (Who needs to breathe, anyway?)

I had many valuable experiences, and this could go on and on, but the most important thing the FFA gave to me was the leadership of two good men. Mr. Swaffield and Mr. Caddell were battle-tested teachers. They are two solid, stand up, good, decent, morally upright father figures I benefitted from as a teenager, when a boy needs them most.

adventures / history / Instagram / memories / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on Hanging out at Forsyth Park
4
Jan 16

Hanging out at Forsyth Park

Forsyth Park is full of history. It was created in the 1840s, and was, in a way, an original part of the future plans of Savannah. French and American soldiers camped on the site during the Revolutionary War around bloody fighting in the town. The French started building siege trenches there and, then just two generations later, the Georgia home guard drilled on the park during the Civil War. The town’s Confederate monument is there.

This is where The Yankee I visit every time we come to Savannah. We have a tree. We got engaged there and took some of our wedding portraits there. It is a beautiful place and has a lot of history, and contemporary vitality, too.

At a nearby novelty shop:

Funny t-shirts:

Late, late editions … watch the lights in these Boomerang videos:

adventures / history / memories / photo / weekend — Comments Off on Seeing Savannah’s sights
2
Jan 16

Seeing Savannah’s sights

The people of Savannah used to call themselves “The Hostess City of the South,” which is one of those surely government-based promotional nicknames that is not in anyway worthy of a lovely town. Savannah is a lovely town. The Yankee and I took our first trip here. We got married here. We sometimes come back, as we have this week.

You do it for scenes like this:

The former was in the historic district. The latter was at Bonaventure Cemetery, where we spent some time today, taking in the sun and breeze and quiet while walking among the history and solemn scenery.

Amidst it all, there are a few dozen military graves in their own formal section.

Edward Myers had service in three wars, and earned a bronze star:

John Carter and the 401st were in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. He died in Belgium:

Charles Higgs Jr. was a marine platoon sergeant. He was killed on the first day of the invasion of Iwo Jima:

Gentry Hoitt was in a different division of marines, but I bet Higgs knew the gunnery sergeant from back home. Hoitt was killed on the second day at Iwo Jima. He had six brothers and sisters, but they are all gone now. The last of them died in 2014. The 5th Division, meanwhile, scratched, cussed and fought on Iwo for more than a month with 2,482 killed in action, 19 missing in action, and 6,218 wounded in action, the highest casualty rate among the three Marine divisions involved in the invasion.

The 6th Marine Division fought in the Solomons, Guam, Guadalcanal and Okinawa. I can’t find anything about him online or what he did in the few years of his short life that he was left with after the war. If he was there for all of those events, though, he probably saw more than he should have had to:

John Chudob served in two wars, and there’s a brief mention of him in a Kansas newspaper, in between. There are a few Chudobas still in Georgia. I wonder if this is one of their ancestors:

It isn’t readily apparent what the 18th did in the Big Red One during World War I, but if William Breen was there throughout he might have seen one or some of these battles, Montdidier-Noyon, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Lorraine or Picardy. There are reasons the First Division became so famous during and after that war. They were the first to go to Europe, the last to come home and they paraded in New York City in 1919. Who knows, he could be one of the men in the photos on this site covering their return and parade. I wonder if he ever talked about it when he came back home:

One of the steps on this memorial arch is engraved “Heirs together of the grace of life,” which becomes an even more beautiful sentiment the more you think about it.

There are beautiful oaks at Bonaventure:

And back downtown, at night:

But that was before dinner at the Crab Shack:

family / food / memories / photo / Thursday — Comments Off on Happy Thanksgiving
26
Nov 15

Happy Thanksgiving

I am torn about Thanksgiving. The holidays are usually pretty challenging to start with. So many people to see. So many places you have to get to. I have it in my mind that I need to treat everyone equally in terms of time. And the logistics are such that you simply just can’t see everyone you need to, full stop. And never far off in your mind are those you can’t see anymore. I am torn about Thanksgiving.

We had lunch at a north Alabama state park with one side of my family. The food is good. The company is pleasant and there are enough other people around doing the same thing that it keeps the room lively. Plus you can get seconds and no one notices. Also, you don’t have to do the dishes. We’ve done this the last few years now. I understand why we do it. I can’t raise an objection to it. It is not my favorite thing.

But there are nice views at Joe Wheeler State Park.

Anytime you can be near the water something fun could happen. Even when the water level is down and you can walk out into what should be the shallow parts. There could be boats or fish or people could push you in. But not this time of year.

There are piers to nowhere when the water is low. This makes sense, but it makes more sense during boating season.

And, of course, there are the rays of the sun dancing in the movement of the water. That’s always a captivating experience.

About three hours later, because that’s what you want to do after a big Thanksgiving lunch is have a ridiculously early Thanksgiving dinner, there was another meal with more of my family.

I have been promoted to the chief ham slicer there. This is a big responsibility and I must now mentally prepare myself for it every year now. Mostly I think no one else wants to do it and they figure I will take it seriously. I do take it seriously. Even if this meal comes too soon after the last. Even if you can’t see everyone, or even all of the people you’d hope too, even when your thoughts are full of those people you can’t see. Even when you have nice views, and a tasty ham, this is Thanksgiving. I am torn about Thanksgiving.

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