10/26/2018
Well it’s a different kind of morning here on the mountain. Windy, raining, and we’re up even earlier than normal. I have to leave in a couple of hours and head South. Getting everything together to leave is a little different for this trip. I will be visiting several people besides going to the weekend Bible Conference in Navarre, FL. and I have stuff to take to some of them. This is adventuresome, even for an old roadie like me.
I’ve always loved going places. Nothing like coming around a bend in the road just to see what’s there. Some days ago in this blog, I think I mentioned how much I enjoy small towns. Never has anyone been riding along with me who enjoys them the way I do. I could just stop and sit and watch the people in small towns go about their lives. Once I drove into a town of maybe 3,000 people, stopped at the first little “meat & 3” and went in. The owner/waitress was a tired 60-something lady who walked over and asked if she could “hep me.” I think those days were diet coke days so I asked for one. When she brought it she asked if that was all. I said, “does this town have a golf course?” She said, “why hell yes, what you think we are, back woods?”—my kind of place.
Two old men at a table by the window laughed out loud at her reply, and probably at my facial expression. One of them got up and come over to me and told me all about the golf course, 9 holes which had two separate tee boxes for each so you could play 18 holes with some differences to each. He said he had been the manager there for years. “So,” I said, “you were the pro?” The other man laughed again. He said, “no, I never played, just ran the place.” We introduced ourselves and I thanked him for the info and directions, drank my coke and left.
Further into town, I saw another restaurant, a bit more modern looking and busier. When I went in it was much nicer. I sat at the counter and a nice looking waitress came over and said, “Hi, where you from?” I said how do you know I’m not from here? She said, “Cause I know everyone from here.” (I believed her.) She wanted to know if I was just driving through or was I going to play golf. So, I said tell me about the golf course. She said it was purty and clean looking, now. The old guy who ran it for years had finally quit and the new guy was much better… Local politics is everywhere.
I told her I had just met the one who was the retired one. She said, “did he tell you he never played the game?” I said he had. She said, “he tells everybody that. It’s a lie, he was a really good golfer for many years, won tournaments all around here.” Sigh.
The Oak Ridge Boys were on my mind this morning. They had an excellent musical run in the late 70s, on through the 80s. Today’s SIMH was “I’ll Be True To You”—written by Alan Rhody. Mr. Rhody has been at the songwriting business for a long time. Many Country music artists have recorded his songs for going on 50 years, now. That’s a pretty good run from a man most of us never heard of, right?
Before leaving this morning, I had to get in touch with a local business about something I failed to inform them of. When I looked for their business email—they don’t have one! Today? No email address? No website? No FB page? Yep, only a phone and an office mailing address, aargh! the snails! His business is used by more than 50% of the land owners in this county at one time or another, yet being run like a business was run prior to personal computers—1987?? Some would say, “good for him!” Oh, well. I bet I could pay him in cash, too!
If you’re a mind to, pray for this bible conference, we who will preach there will greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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