SEJC business meeting this morning. I’ve been to this conference twice. This is my first business meeting. I managed to get myself on an awards committee.
Not sure how that happens.
We had a sandwich luncheon today, including keynote addresses by WAKA-TV’s Stefanie Hicks and Jeff Sanders, both Troy graduates, and their colleague Glen Halbrooks. They all gave the students wonderful advice, the most important parts being “This is a hard business requiring long hours and not the best pay. Work hard. Say “Yes.” Be patient.”
An award was given to the journalism educator of the year, who has been doing this for an incredible 42 years. I do believe they caught her by surprise with the honor.
The journalist of the year award was given to Alex McDaniel of Ole Miss, for whom this was a well-deserved honor given the last year of journalism on her campus.
Mississippi won the overall competition. They always seem to do well, bringing lots of talented students (151 participated and I think at least 95 of them were from Ole Miss) who place well in the competitions.
Samford had another nice day, too. One student placed third in the editorial competition. Another won the radio anchoring competition. Exciting stuff.
And then the drive home. Less exciting.
But I stopped at Crowe’s Chicken. My students were kind enough to indulge me the detour. I haven’t been to Crowe’s in more than a decade, but this is the place for chicken fingers. Yes, yes, I know all the others. Zaxby’s is fine. Whatever. I went to school and live in the town where Gutherie’s started. Tenda-Chick is wonderful.
But Crowe’s. Oh, Crowe’s. Sam Cooke was playing on the radio when we walked in. And that’s all you really need to know.
The place looks like a dank old Hardee’s. (At least the one where we stopped. There are apparently two of them?) It smelled of chicken like your Southern grandmother would make. And if you don’t have a Southern grandmother, I well and truly apologize for how life has short-changed you in this simile.
So I ate Crowe’s as we drove by Sikes and Kohn signs and nut huts. The Wiregrass experience doesn’t get more profoundly accurate than that.
We made it back to Samford much faster than the trip down. The students slept or studied. I dropped them all off, returned the rental van, wrapped up my trip with the paperwork and Emails that bragged of the students accomplishments and started to do a little more comps work myself.
And then I decided to head home.
There was a steak waiting.
So The Yankee and I had a delicious steak. And that was pretty much the night. She had a bike race this morning (and is claiming third place) and I’ve been traveling for a few days. We’re exhausted, party people.
