Education

I don't recall the exact age, but I was around 5 or 6, maybe 7 years old.  It was a Sunday afternoon and my mom and I had gone for a drive with my cousin Margie and her family. Margie was near my mom's age and her 4 children were spaced about one or two years apart with the youngest, the only boy, about a month older than me.  We were on highway 29 just out of Royston, GA in the town of Franklin Springs. To the left of the road on a hilltop was a large impressive building. Being an inquisitive kid, I asked about the building. With no reservation or hesitation, my mom clearly said, "That is Emmanuel College, and you will be going to school there when you finish high school.  Her tone of voice gave no room for question. It was as a direct order that I would be attending college one day.  Until that day I did not even know what a college was. I had never heard of such a thing as a school  after finishing school.  Since then I obviously learned that one can never finish school.  One can quit anywhere along the way, but there is always another degree to be earned or another continuing education self-enrichment course to be taken.  

To sum up my educational experience, I graduated high school in the first graduation class of the new Franklin County High School.  It was a new school made up of the three existing schools in Franklin County, Royston High (my school), Carnesville High, and Lavonia High.  I did earn an AA degree from Emmanuel College, a BSEd degree from the University of Georgia, and a MEd degree from Clemson University. I completed other post graduate work at Furman University, though no degree from there.  I taught high school in both public and private schools for sixteen years and was an assistant adjunct instructor for what is now Central Wesleyan University.

Last night Franklin County High School had graduation service for its 50th graduating class, the class of 2014.  To help celebrate fifty years of education in Franklin County, they invited our class, the first graduating class to attend graduation where we would be recognized as the first class to graduate. They held a reception for us as well.  We were given a tour of the new building that will house Franklin County High beginning with the next school year.  This year's class was the 50th and last class to graduate from what had been the new building fifty years ago when we graduated.  Actually 49 years ago, but this is the 50th graduation.  Yeah, I did the math and that is correct. 

The graduation service was superb in every way. I was totally surprised at the tremendous number of people to attend.  The football stadium was filled to capacity with people standing around the fence in the end zone.  It was unbelievable.   Equally impressive is the new academic building. Sure there are larger high schools in Georgia but I can assure you that there are none better or better equipped for quality education than this one. 

Franklin County can be proud of the way they support education.  I know as a former resident and graduate of the school system there, I am most proud and pleased with the pride and support shown in both the graduation ceremony and the new state-of-the-art facility and the obvious support of the citizens.  It is second to none. 

My wife, Anne, has earned three degrees as well including an Associates Degree from North Greenville University, a Bachelors Degree from William Carey University and a Masters Degree from Appalachian University.  She has done post graduate work as a student of Clemson University, Furman University, and the University of South Carolina.  She has worked as a teacher and guidance counselor for 32 years before retirement. 

Our son Allen, has a Bachelors degree from the University of Sourth Carolina and a Masters Degree from Lewis and Clark College.  He has worked in the field of education at Portland Community College and at Universities in South Korea, and Shanghi, China. 

Our son Jon, chose a less formal education pursuit. After graduation fron high school, he entered what many would call the University of  Life. He has never stopped learning and has a quest for knowledge in many areas of life.  He has completed self-enrichment courses at Greenville Technical College. He is an avid reader and accomplished guitarist. The purpose of an education is to give a person a better understanding and knowledge of their life and their environment in order to have a more fulfilling life as well as to provide a means of financial support.  Jon has certainly been successful in the accomplishment of grasp of understanding of life and its experiences to have accomplish these goals. Financally, he has probably been more successful than any of us with a more formal education. 

Our granddaughter Rosemary, Jon's daughter, will be Graduating from the SC Governor's School of the Arts next weekend and has a substantial scholarship from the Kansas Institution of Art which she will enter in the fall.  Allen's son Shane will be graduating from high school in Portland OR and plans to enter Portland Community College this fall.  Our grandson Jonathan has finished first grade and is reading on a third grade level and is an avid reader of books and most anything he can find to read. 

No matter what our age may be, we should never stop learning whether it be by formal classroom instruction or by learning from our environment and experiences.   When one ceases to be able to learn, one ceases to live  a life with any meaning.

snow and chicken soup.

According to the newspapers we are about to have one of those winter storms that comes every ten to twenty years.  Round one came today in the form of a rather light snow which did not even slow traffic or give enough to build a snowman or go sledding. Beginning in the wee hours of the night tonight and for the next two days they say we are going to be in for a rough time.  We will wait and see.

Anyway, this morning Anne suggested we have chicken soup or potato soup which would be perfect for winter weather.  I took that as my cue to make chicken soup which I did.  I decided to make a big pot of soup.  After all, it is silly to go to the trouble of making soup for only two people.  When it was all said and done, there was soup for six people with plenty left over for another day.  

Today is my birthday, and nothing makes me happier than to cook for the people I love or even for people I just like, or even those I do not even know.  I think I am a good cook, and I love to share the results.   The first, last, and most important thing to know in being a good cook is to do it because you want to do it.  One does not cook for one's self but one cooks for the pleasure and enjoyment of others.  The ability to be a good cook is a gift and that gift is to be used by sharing the food one prepares with others.  I made enough soup for Anne and myself, and to take some to her Aunt Doris, and to our friends Axel and Jeremy.  Our son Jon came by and had his share of it later.

Evidently it was a success because Axel was texting me before I got home telling me it was fantastic. When I got home Anne was on the phone with her aunt who was telling her how good it was and asking how I made it.  Later Jeremy was texting his compliments.  Overall, that soup make my birthday a happy birthday too.  One finds happiness by making others happy. I must confess that i am not usually a big fan of soup and I did not really like this snow day soup. 

I rarely measure anything when I cook.  I am running around the kitchen tossing things around like a madman.  I could be the subject for America's Most Funny Home Videos.  One can not believe the mess I can make in a kitchen in only a few  minutes. 

Now I will attempt to tell how I did the soup for those folks who asked.

I boiled just over half  of a 3 pound bag of chicken tenders in about 2 quarts of water.

When the chicken was about done I added a 2 pound box of chicken stock (not broth)

Then I disolved 6 chicken bullion cubes in 6 cups of boiling water and added that.

A good rounded teaspoon of Kosher salt and about half that amount of fresh ground black pepper

a rounded tablespoon or a little more of Herbes d'e Provence Seasoning which is a blend of salt, 

      parsley, thyme, marjoram, poppy seeds and taragon.

I sprinkled in about 4 or 5 tablespoons of dehydrated onion flakes, a few red pepper flakes, 

      and about a tablespoon more of dehydrated parsley flakes.

I had chopped up a medium onion, 3 or 4 small carrots, and and 2 or 3 celery stalks

Let this cook until everything is completely cooked. 

 Next, I threw in almost a cup of dry egg noodles, about half a cup of veggie squiggley pasta, and about half cup of instant brown rice and a handful of regular elbo macarroni. 

Cooked until those last thingys were tender.. 

that's all there is to it. 

cars, trucks, etc

Folks sometimes tease me about the number of cars I have had over the years. I am starting this list with only those vehicles owned and driven by Anne and/or myself or members of our household.  All were registered in either her name, my name, or jointly.  Vehicles marked for Allen, Jon, or Axel may have been in their name but they were registered at our address.

1961 Mercury Monterey (blue)
1968 Ford Torino (blue 2dr sport coupe)
1967 Mustang blue
1969 Ford Galaxie 500  gold
1973 Datsun B210 s-waggon, orange
1968 Chevrolet BelAir  blue
1973 Pontiac Catalina 2 door hardtop dark green and white
1977 Pontiac Catalina station waggon, white
1965 Mustang convertible- dark blue
          Ford Maverick Grabber
1973 Chevy Caprice Classic 2dr coup. 459 high performance motor
         Datsun B210 coup, tan, 5speed
1976 Mercedes 240 D  beige
         Plymouth Fury (inherited from my mom)
1984 Dodge Aries K-car, silver and red
1984 Nissan Sentra wagon
1976 Mercedes 280 4door silver
1978 Mercedes 240 yellow
1987 Honda Accord
1995 Cadillac Seville 2tone blue
1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass
1984 Mazda 626
1984 Oldsmobile Cierra
1987 Ford Taurus
1978 Mercedes 240 cream
1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Braughm
1982 Mazda 323
1980 BMW 325i 2door blue
1990 Dodge Caravan
1995 Ford Taurus red
1996 Ford Mustang Convertibe
1996 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1997 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1998 Toyota Forerunner
1987 Mercedes 300SDL
2003 Ford Crown Victoria
2006 Ford Fusion
2007 Ford Focus
2008 Ford Taurus X
2003 Chrysler Sebring Convertible
2012 Nissan Sentra
2013 Ford Taurus
1984 Ford Ranger
1990 Ford F150 Lariat
1999 Ford Ranger
2001 Ford Sports Trac
2006 Ford Ranger
2007 Ford F-150
2001 Ford Ranger-blue 5 speed
2005 Dodge Ram
1966 Volvo
          Datsun 200sx
          Datsun 240Z
          BMW 5-series
          Toyota Celica- brown
          Jeep Grand Cherokee 4wd-
          Honda
         Toyota Tercell
         Toyota Celica-white
198? Saab (blue 2dr)
1995 Saab
2001 Mazda Tribute
2003 Saab
1999 Volvo S80

20 Fords, 1 Mercury, 3 Datsuns, 2 Chevrolets, 2 Pontiacs, 5 Mercedes, 1 Plymouth, 2 Dodge
2 Nissan, 2 Honda, 4 Cadillacs, 2 Oldsomobiles, 3 Mazda, 2 BMW, 4 Toyota, 1 Chrysler
2 Volvo, 1 Jeep, 3 Saabs


         

One of my biggest challenges.

In my first blog I stated that my wife says I am flexible.  Wow, I am glad someone thinks so because that has been one my most difficult challenges as I have grown older.  I believe most people become more rigid and "set in their ways" as they move into their "golden years" or the "twilight of their life" or become senior citizens or just plain old folks.

Early in my adult life I made a serious commitment to myself that I would not follow that pattern. It was my first year of teaching and I was fortunate to have a classroom near a veteran teacher. She was a great help to me as she offered advise in a constructive and non-critical manner.  She was well grounded and had her act together.  She was one of the most respected members of the faculty and of the community and she deserved every bit of that respect.


Unfortunately she feel just short of being the perfect teacher due to one flaw in her practice.  She simply could not cope with change.  If an assembly program ran over time or some unexpected event changed the class schedule, she would complain that even ten minutes of lost time would disrupt her schedule and her classes for the entire day.  I could only wonder why she could not just accept the changes and make the best of it. In the overall scheme of things, the students were usually better off because of the program or whatever had caused the schedule change for the day.  It was then and there that I made the commitment to do my best to be flexible and realize that the world does not revolve around me and my plans.

Unfortunately, as I got older, I found this more difficult than expected. I have recently found myself in forcing confrontations with people over minor changes in plans.   A sad fact is that I did not realize what I was doing. Looking back to my behavior in certain situations ten years ago, I really have regrets over my attitude and inabilty to accept changes.  I will admit embarasment as I think back on my behavior at times when a regular routine activity would be changed.

I am sure some damage has been done in my friendships with at least a couple of friends due to my inability to realize that I was not keeping my commitment to myself not to be so rigid and to be able to go with the flow and make changes as needed.  If you are reading this, and it applies to you, I ask that you please accept my apology.

 Unfortunately there may be some truth in the idea that we can not learn from the mistakes of others.  I had to make my own mistakes and learn from my own short comings and stupidity. With a better realization, it is my hope to do better in the future.

Tech

It was the Christmas of 1960.  I was in the 8th grade. The one Christmas gift that I recall from that year was that we had a phone installed in our apartment. The place was wired for only one phone and it was in the living room. The only phones anyone had were the rotary dial phones. Ours was black.  Actually everyone's phone was black. There was no other choice.  Luckily we were not on a party line so nobody else could listen in on our conversations.  The phone bill was around six dollars per month, but we would have to pay extra for long distance outside our area of Elberton and Royston.  That put us on the cutting edge of communication technology.  It could not get better than that.

Going back a couple of Christmas seasons the one gift I remember was a toy car.  It was big, maybe 10 to 12 inches long.  I have always been a car nut so this was the right gift for me.  The one thing that set this car apart from any other toy cars was that it had a phone receiver attached to a string that recoiled into the dash of the car.  The idea of a phone in a car was just not possible.  Phone lines could not be attached to a moving car so the idea was impossible, except in one's imagination.

For all my life, the first thing I look for in the newspaper is the comic section. As a child one of my favorites was Dick Tracy.  He was a city detective of a metropolitan city.  In the early 1950's he had an edge of fighting crime by the use of a two way radio strapped to his wrist. I worked much as a walkie/talkie or cell phone would today.  By the mid 60s with the implementation of the cb radio and actual walkie/talkies, Tracy was forced to upgrade to the two way television where he could see and likewise show people and events in another part of town. I could not help but wonder if and when we would ever be able to see such devices as the two way television.  By now I was beginning to realize that the cutting edge of technology would need forever to be made sharper.  There would be no limit.  If it could be imagined, it could be.

The day before Christmas Eve Anne and I were in our car.  I pushed one single little button on the steering wheel and simply said, "Call Allen Hall".  After a brief  moment of silence we heard his phone ring twice and he answered.  We had a nice conversation while we were in route to finish some last minute Christmas shopping. Oh, I failed to mention that he was in Shanghai, China; and we were here in South Carolina, totally on the opposite side of the planet.  A few days later I walked into our study to see Anne at her computer talking with Allen.  I joined in the conversation.  With the use of Skype we could see and hear him perfectly and he could hear and see us as well.

In my teens and for years after we were limited to 3 or 4 tv stations for our entertainment.  Today we have well over a hundred.  We also have Netflix which allows us to watch our choice of hundreds or even thousands of movies and thousands of old television shows from our television, our computer, our tablet, or iPad, or even our cell phones. With the use of a good head set we can watch a movie with sound quality as good or even better than available at the theater.

The old board game of scrabble is now available for play on the internet with computer, tablet or cell phone. One can play as many as twenty games at the same time with up to twenty other players.  I play regularly with a lady with whom I was in school almost fifty years ago. I have not seen her since our school days, yet we play the word game regularly and from time to time comment about things important to us today through texting.

We used to get in trouble at school for passing notes to our classmates. Today kids simply use their cell phone to text messages around the classroom, to other classes, to home, or wherever anyone wants to be. I will confess that a few years ago I had several long texting conversations with a friend who was in his college class during our conversations.   Oh, yeah, I was working at my desk as well, or was supposed to be working.

Yes, things have changed drastically from the mid 1950s until the mid 2010's.  A few years ago, I had someone who was supposed to have special gifts and powers tell me that I would live well into my 80s.  The  age he predicted will give me at least another twenty years.  I hope he was right.  I cant wait to see what things will be like then.

look in the mirror

A few nights I was involved in what could be called a misunderstanding with one of my favorite people in the entire world.  I knew all along that I was being selfish and just wanting my own way.  I hate myself when I act like that.  I feel so out of control. Needless to say, I did not get my way.

The next morning I met with my friend.  He was ready for me.  He blasted my ass with every thing I had ever done that he did not like. That I was told that I over plan and then get upset when I dont get my way was probably the nicest thing he said to me. Problem was that he was right, and I had no truthful defense.  Other things were said to me that were outright hurtful and to a great extent things which I had brought on myself.  After all the talk and tension, we found ourselves in an awkward situation of silence, but it did not last long.  Before we knew it, we were at least going through the motions of things being back to normal.

Though we acted normal, I felt far from normal. I resented much of what had been said to me and I could sense some tension from him as well.  I was just hoping that the old saying that time heals all wounds would apply here..and apply soon.

As fate would have it, I found myself back in a conversation similar to that of a few days prior. I was not acting in a way of which I could feel much pride.  I was being a jerk.  He was beginning to act the same way, and suddenly with no warning he turned the course of the direction to one of warmth and friendship which totally but pleasantly surprised me.

Within a matter of minutes we were together talking.  Not much was said.  Of what was said was the point that earlier he had used me as a whipping boy to take out his frustrations on me because of unresolved issues he was facing.  I was quick to add that I too had been using him as a whipping boy for some issues I am dealing with now which do not have an easy solution.

Looking into the mirror of my behavior, I could see that I was as guilty of what I was accusing him of as he was.  We were both using the other to vent our frustrations in a "non-acceptable" way. In all fairness to the other party here, he had apologized days ago for the things he had said, so now it was my turn to not only make an apology to him but to accept his earlier apology. By the end of the day we were not only acting as if everything was ok with us, but we were enjoying the fact that everything is ok with us.


Lesson learned:  When we become upset with someone for not holding up their end of a relationship or freindship or partnership or whatever other short coming, we should look at our own actions fairly and objectively to see if we are doing as we should be doing on our side of the fence. To maintain a friendship is not always easy.  All good things often require more work than we are comfortably willing to give. This work can begin by mending our own fences before we attack and tear down our neighbors fences.  Once ours are in good shape, we should see that the same if true of theirs.

It has been said that a true friend sees you as you really are but accepts and loves you anyway. Another way of saying that is to say that a true friend puts up with your crap and loves you anyway. Love and friendship is a two way street.  One person can not make it work.  All involved parties need to put forth the effort to make things work out.  With some effort and work the most beautiful of man's crations can be accomplished, that of being and having a real friend.

Love and Best Wishes to all readers and especially that person I have spoken of here.

Marc.

a good day

It is just after one pm on January 22.  It is a Wednesday.  It is a sunny but very cold day. The outside temp is just above the freezing mark which is exceptionally cold for this time of day.

The ringing of the phone woke me.  I had previously been awake and moving around but decided to just lay back down for a few minutes.  I could hear Anne talking on the kitchen phone and I could tell it was good, though I did not know why.  Then I looked at my cell phone and had a message from Jon. Rosemary has been awarded a scholarship to cover her first year of college by the Kansas City Art Institute. She is presently completing her senior year at the Governor's School of the Arts in Greenville.

While eating my cereal and having my coffee I did some research on the Kansas City School of Art.  From all indications found on Google it is a very good school located between two highly recognized art museums in Kansas City.  It is fully accredited.  I read enough to feel proud of her for choosing to apply there and even moreso for being accepted and being awarded a scholarship.

Before I could get dressed the phone was ringing again.  This time is was Anne's aunt Doris calling to tell me that a letter I had written to the Greenville News had been published in today's edition.  Rather than talk of the letter, I will attempt a copy and paste here.

                                           Treat Immigrants with the Dignity they Deserve

     In a recent article written by David Blanton, director of missions for the Union County Baptist Association, he spoke on what the Bible has to say regarding immigration.  It is simply a matter of following the Golden Rule of treating immigrants as we would like for other to treat us. Blanton references the 25th chapter of Matthew which very clearly instructs on  the treatment of all people, especially strangers and those less fortunate than ourselves.
     With the millions of immigrants living among us we not only have the opportunity but also the obligation to treat them with dignity and respect.  Currently our laws and our society are not living up to this obligation.
      With the exception of the Native Americans we are all immigrants. We are a nation of immigrants. We should provide for the new immigrants the same opportunities that were given to our ancestors. This includes equal protection under the law as well as being allowed to work and pay their fair share of taxes.  The argument that illegal immigrants work and take jobs away form our citizens does not hold up because these people are not allowed to have social security numbers so they can not hold regular jobs.
      Many of our illegal immigrants are not here by their own doing.  They were brought in as infants and children by parents who failed to do their duty by making things legal for their children.  These immigrants only want a chance to fit into our society, to be able to support themselves, contribute to our communities, and pay their own way. Generally they do not qualify for welfare, and if by some chance they should qualify it is most often because our present system does not allow them the opportunity to pay their own way. Without proper identification their opportunities are limited and they are forced to face challenges that most of us could never understand.
      My wife and I have befriended immigrants from four continents. All of them are here seeking a better life for themselves and their families just as were our earlier immigrants, by being allowed to work to support themselves and to give back to our community by paying their fair share as well.
      We should examine our own conscience to be sure we treating everyone with the dignity and respect that we would like for ourselves.

They had changed form my origional title of Treating Immigrants with Dignity and Respect; otherwise the letter was exactly as submitted.  I was pleased with the change. 

The last paragraph was written midday.  It is now almost midnight.  I will only say the remainder of the day was rather uneventful, but the morning was totally awesome.. enough said...

Rooms

Anyone who has read my other blogs should have picked up on the fact that I am a somewhat non-traditional person.  It would be an easy assumption to think that I would live in a non-traditional house. No, I do not live in a tree house nor do I live in on a houseboat.  Our home is  surprisingly traditional in style. It is not exactly a ranch nor is it the typical bungalow. It is a 3 bedroom brick home built in the mid 1950's.  There is no separate den so but the living room is the living room. The dining room is the dinning room, and it is often used, though not on a daily basis.  The bathrooms are bathrooms. Our bedroom is our bedroom. Of course, the kitchen does its duty as the kitchen.

From that point forward nothing is as is should be.  One bedroom serves as our study. Anne and I spend countless hours there browsing the Internet.  It is not really an office, nor is it a den.  It houses several hundred books, but is not a library either.  For sure it is not a bedroom as was intended. 

For most folks, especially old folks like us, the guest room is almost formal, often closed off, and only entered for the purpose of vacuuming or dusting whether it is needed or not.  No, that is not our guest room. It does occasionally house a guests, but it is definitely not a guest room in the pure sense nor does it have the spirit associated with a guest room.  When Axel is home, it becomes Axel's room. His stuff is there whether or not he is here or not on any given day.  After school and during the summer, it becomes Jonathan's room where he hangs out and does what most seven year old boys do.  He watches television, plays his Nintendo, and sometimes reads.   The guest room often serves as a den. Axel sometimes entertains his friends there watching movies, or I may be chilling out there watching television when I don't want to watch what Anne is watching in the living room. On days Rosemary is out of school and visiting here, she sometimes takes it over as her personal space as well. So the back bedroom is guest room, Axel's room, Jonathan's room, a den or family room.  O yeah, we have extra linens stored in my grandmother's old blanket chest.  Anne and I use it for the overflow of some of our clothes as well.  Our guest room is uses daily in some way or another and is one of the busy spots of our home.

Some time ago we enclosed the screen porch off the kitchen. It was a typical side porch found on many houses of the period.  Our intent was to make it a simple sun room.  The washer and dryer were inconveniently located in the basement so the sunroom became the laundry room. Since the kitchen is just a wee bit short of storage space we decided to assign pantry duty to what was then the sunroom, laundry room, pantry.  There was space to add an easy chair and antique loveseat to make it a sitting room or more formally a keeping room.  Anne and her Aunt Doris are often there as well as many guests who just drop in for a visit. Rosemary often reads or does some of her art work there. We are never sure what to call the room but since the basic color is red, we just call it the red room or the laundry room or the pantry or the sitting room or the keeping room, and sometimes we even refer to it as the porch.  No matter what we call it, anyone who has seen that room knows of which room we are speaking.

While our traditional house is a non-traditional home, one thing is sure.  It is alive and has it's own unique soul and is among the most blessed homes to be found anywhere.