10/29/2019
Morning! I know, I was in Navarre, FL, for the weekend bible conference and just couldn’t find the time to write this past Saturday on this blog. That’s two Saturdays in a row, I think. Up till now, Saturdays have been the easiest days to find time to write. Funny what tiny changes bring sometimes, isn’t it? Maybe from now till the end of the year, Saturdays will be more normal. Maybe. Hmm, normalcy, what IS that?
The SIMH today is from my past, clear back to early childhood days and going to Separate Baptist associational meetings. These were special Sunday “all day meetings” for things like each month which had a fifth Sunday brought a 5TH Sunday dinner and meeting. After church service was lunch followed by music and usually a special guest preacher. Then there was the same thing only on other Sundays called Young People’s meeting. Annually, there was a 3 day meeting called the Central Indiana Associational meeting. These special days, as I remember, brought a special song leader, as well. Because multiple churches were always involved, the most popular song leader would be who led singing. One such whom I always hoped would be there was an elderly man named Freeman, I think his first name was Pikey. (There were lots of Freemans around our area then.)
There was something inspiring to me about the way Ol’ Pikey led singing. He loved to start the “song service” with “Come Unto Me”—a song of the calling, sort of. The chorus was from the well-known verse, Matt. 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He sang that with such verve! His voice was very strong and he sang loud, as he should, of course. But, he was especially vigorous in his leadership on that song! I love it. (Found out when I was a little older that my folks didn’t care so much for his style of song-leading: they never told me why. But, that song and his rendition of it is still in my head today!)
The Navarre, FL bible conference was really a great blessing. Some new, little bit younger preachers participated, plus enough of us old dudes. In total, Bro. Byron Wiggins had 11 people speak, some shorter times than others, but not a bad or terribly incorrect message in the bunch. Two men from Louisiana, 4 from Florida, 3 from Alabama, 2 from Texas, all really good bible messages, with total emphasis on living in the Grace of God.
On my way down Friday, I took the time to drive through Wetumpka, then Millbrook, and then Prattville. These 3 cities sit along the North shore of the Alabama River across from Montgomery, (Prattville sitting atop a hill and a little further North.) Combined population of the 3 cities is in the neighborhood of 60,000 people. If a couple wanted to go into the Blue Jug Alkaline Water and Health Markets business there, it would be a great market to build two stores at once —one in Prattville, the other somewhere along the hwy between Wetumpka and Millbrook—what a great market they’d have from which to build two really great stores. Hope I can find such a couple!
As I arrived in Navarre (coming from the Ft. Walton area) I saw terrific potential places for a great Blue Jug store there. But, as you probably know, those who own real estate for rent anywhere close to water, believe their building is made of pure gold. Hard to rent reasonably in the area. But, we’ve endured heavy rents before.
Since I’ve mentioned prospective new stores, I want to tell you about an interesting stop on the way home Sunday afternoon. As I neared Montgomery, I remembered Priester’s Pecans, a favorite stopping place for travelers since the early part of last century. I stopped there once with my good friend Steve Atwood and it seems like once with Barb. Anyway, I had not had any lunch, so a few minutes after 3, I stopped at Priester’s. They advertise a Sunday lunch special. When I got to the food service area, they had taken down the food. The man at the cash register said, “I’m sorry, we stopped serving at 3.” I said that’s ok, and I went to look around at all the Pecan goodies (and they have scads of pecan this and pecan that, as you can imagine.)
While looking, a very nice lady with a kitchen apron on said, “May I help you find something?” I explained that I thought I should go get something to eat before choosing a pecan sweet. She replied, “Well, I’m sure the kitchen can make you a sandwich or something.” I said, naw, that’s alright, they are trying to close. She said, “I will see to it you get a good sandwich, I’m the boss, I tell them when they can close!” with a big smile. I said, wow, what kind of a boss are you, she said, “I am one of the owners, what kind of sandwich would you like?” with a big smile. I introduced myself and chose a sandwich. she checked on my twice after that to see that I got a good sandwich and good service. Very impressive. (I went to my car, got a gallon of the world’s best drinking water and rewarded her with it.) She seemed genuinely happy to get something in return for her good retail attendance. And, I’m still talking about her and her place of business! Retail, that’s how it works best.
When I arrived home Sunday evening about 7:15, Barb enjoyed the Priester’s treat I brought her, too. I was very happy to get home. I rested very well Sunday night and last night. Today, I feel back to normal (if only I could fully define normalcy!)
Thanks for reading, the Elder.
the Elder's Blog 