A Change Will Do You Good

Before continuing with details of my high school years, let me mention two things that came into my life that had a profound and lasting effect on my life. Both of these events came about in a sort of transition period from the elementary school years into the teenage chapter of my life and it is probably quite accurate to say that these two influences very much control, to a large degree, how I live my life and what fills my thoughts daily to this very day.

The first of these things was my acceptance of the Creator's plan for all mankind; my baptism into Christ. So many people in this world are searching for answers, wondering why we are here and what we are supposed to do while here on this earth. The answer is revealed for all who will accept it, "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all." That's it – respect for God and living in the way He wants us to live is the reason we were placed on this earth! Someone has said, "Jesus left His home to come to our home so that we could go to His home". His home must be a wonderful place for Him to go through all He had to endure just so mankind could have the opportunity to live with Him!

The second thing that has influenced my life so thoroughly is when my Dad introduced me to hunting. First it was quail hunting and then deer hunting. In my adult years, I've come to love deer hunting so fervently that there is no time to spend hunting anything else. It is a deeply spiritual experience to sit in a tree stand high above the ground and watch the sun rise above the tree line and the woods come alive with activity. Hunting during the early bow season affords the opportunity to see deer in their true element before they become spooked by the noise of rifles and muzzleloaders. Time spent in the woods is the most peaceful and pleasant moments in my life and truly is what keeps me sane.

The truth is that these two life changing influences in my life are really intertwined with each other. My love for the Creator and the Creation truly go hand in hand. I believe it is because of the spiritual connection to nature that the Creator has always sanctioned hunting as evidenced by the reference to Esau as "a skillful hunter" and to Nimrod as "a mighty hunter before the Lord". So, as the blessing to go on a deer hunting trip to Illinois approaches, I look forward with high anticipation to enjoying the wonders of nature and remembering why we are on the earth.

Just Trying Real Hard To Adjust

Adjustment to life as a thirteen year old boy in a new environment doesn't come easy. It was a new school, new teachers, new rules and new classmates. One of those classmates was Tammy who was the girl of any young boy's dreams with movie star looks – she had it all! Did I talk to her or ask her to be my girlfriend or "go steady"? Are you kidding? Did you not catch the part about me being a thirteen year old boy at a new school and in a new environment and all? Besides, my elementary school girlfriend, Wanda, had shattered my heart a couple of years before and I don't think the effects of that experience ever really faded. As far as the teachers were concerned, we had one young woman who taught science who was one of those people you just want to ask, "Who are you mad at"?

One of the great things about my new school was the chance to play basketball which was very near the first love of my life at that time. It was really disappointing to learn that state rules would not allow me to play that year because my transfer had taken place between the seventh and eighth grades. In spite of that disappointment, I practiced hard all season long with the rest of the team. One of the drawbacks for my aspirations to play basketball was the fact that I was only five feet and two inches tall upon entering the eighth grade. That changed dramatically as my young body had grown a total of six inches by the time our ninth grade year rolled around and it didn't stop there. My life pretty much revolved around basketball for the next four years.

And Then There Were Seven

The next couple of years brought changes to my little world that rearranged life as I knew it. At twelve years old, through means of adoption, I gained two new sisters; Diane, who was nine and Lynn, who was six. Suddenly, our family had grown to seven and our little house seemed much smaller than it had previously. There is a lot to tell about these two girls that came into my life back then, but that will come later.

During the summer of my transference into the teenage years, Mom and Dad gave me some unwelcome news that had a dramatic effect on the next several years of my life. I was to leave behind the school and the friends I'd grown comfortable with and transfer to a private, religiously affiliated school. This turned out to be a traumatic adjustment for a thirteen year old boy. That's not to say it didn't work out in the final analysis, because during the next five years I made some really good new friends and there were some great experiences by the time graduation day arrived. Some of these experiences will be shared in future posts.

A New Phase

In 1965, I was seven years old when our Dad remarried and so began a new phase in my life. I was the ring bearer in the marriage ceremony for my Dad and his new wife and our new mother, Elaine. Being a participant in your parents wedding was not a common thing back then, but 44 years later I lead my grandson down the aisle as ring bearer in his parents wedding - a chapter to deal with much further in the history of life in my world.

The next five years in my life would see our little family beginning to make adjustments to the new addition to the family. It was a challenge for us all as Elaine was suddenly a mother to three small children and the three of us had a mother again and sometimes didn't know how to react. Dad was dealing with working and then coming home to our newly formed family which was not always an easy task for him. During this time in our lives, Dad was transferred, by the company he worked for, to North Carolina in late 1966. We all hated living there at the time and in mid-summer of 1967 we moved back to Alabama.

This five year chapter of my life was finished out with elementary school, baseball, a lot of time riding bicycles, fishing in the nearby creek and a year of junior high school at the neighborhood school. Little did I know there were changes coming in life that were not what my young mind had anticipated.

The Genesis

My life began on August 18, 1958 in Athens-Limestone Hospital in Athens, Alabama. I was born the son of a man from Giles County, Tennessee and a woman from Salem, Arkansas. That's right; I'm half Tennessee redneck and half Arkansas hillbilly, which explains so much of who and what I am today. My parents, Gordon and Lee, also were blessed with two daughters - Lee, who is four years older than me and Yvonne, who is three years younger. Our parents met in the Benton Harbor, Michigan area as a result of both of their families having moved to that area from their respective homes to find work during the late 1940's or early 1950's. Both of my sisters were born in Benton Harbor, but I was born during a year or so stay in Limestone County, Alabama.

Our family lived near Benton Harbor from the time that I was one year old until I was a little more than four. At that point in my young life, our mother passed from this life as the result of cancer and we soon moved to Limestone County again and lived with our Dad's parents for the next three years and a few months. My Dad remarried and thus began a new and challenging period of my life.It was a life that was challenging not only for me, but for the rest of the family as well.

Welcome to life in my world. More to come...