I Love My Parents

I thought that writing about my parents would be nice. I wondered whether I should write about them or too them. I suppose both are in order but it seems that this forum and my intention, which is to share what they have done for me and why I Love them so much, is better served by writing ABOUT them.

I have so many fond memories of my parents and making sure that I write about them with heartfelt words that present them in an epic light is a daunting task. Where do I start? I guess that it is appropriate to tell a little about who they are and how they came to be my parents. My Mother was born in Nashville, TN in 1943. She was the 2d child of what was to be a family of 3 sisters and 2 brothers. Her Father died just a few months before I was born. He fought in WW II and I am told that he was a God fearing man who worked hard and was honest as they came. It is a shame that I never got to meet him. Her Mother, my Momma, had to raise her kids on her husbands Social Security and her meager wages as a nurse but she managed and did well by the family. Mother went to school in TN and decided it was in her best interest to quit at the ripe old age of 16. She would probably agree now that it was not one of her wisest decicions. She has never talked much about school but I do remember her saying that she was a pretty fair basketball player. When she quit I think that she was working at the Gizmo. The Gizmo was a small diner just off of West Commerce about one block off of the square. For those of you from the south you know what "The Square" is don't you. The Gizmo was a typical 50's style diner with the stools in front of the bar and served the kind of short order food that you would expect from a place called the Gizmo. Hamburgers, fries, soup and the like. It is no longer there but I have faded memories of going there as a child and eating soft serve ice cream cones and spinning around on a stool in front of the big bay window overlooking the big world that I would soon enough travel quite extensivly. It serves mentioning that the Gizmo was located only a stones throw from Gordons Hospital where my Mother gave birth to me just a few years later. It sure is a small world but just like my Daddy says "I'd sure hate to paint it". Anyway, the Gizmo is where Mother met Daddy before they were a Mother and Daddy. I will have to get them to tell me the first meeting story in detail. I have always said that I hope God has a big DVD collection that one can view the public parts of peoples lives. The DVD of Mother and Daddy meeting for the first time in the Gizmo would probably prove to be great entertainment. God if you do have this library please don't let Ted Turner colorize it, but then again he probably won't be in your neighborhood. Movies in black and white should remain in black and white. The world seemed a simpler place before movies were colorized don't you think. The area between good and evil was muche wider abd did not seem so blurred.

Mother was and still is a very religious person...Daddy, on the other hand, is a Christian but does not attend Church with Mother very much. I like to think it's because Daddy just doesn't like parties and a Church congregation is close to being a party with a lot of hallelujahs and folks congregating and hugging and so forth.

Daddy was born in Yell, TN and is the oldest of three brothers and two sisters. His parents were known to me as Paw Paw and Granny. Paw Paw shoed horses and more inportantly seen to it that I always had a pony to ride. Granny was a school teacher and always saw to it that I had books to read. Daddy was born in 1941 before Pearl Harbor was attacked causing the US to finally enter into the fray of WW II. On the good side too I might add. If you were newlyweds and just starting a family wouldn't that make you question whether it was the right time to have kids and start a family. Obviously they were not scared and they were right. Daddy was working at Forrest Whitsell Tractor & Implement Co. as a parts man when he met Mother. I wonder what led him into the Gizmo on that fateful day? Reckin' it could have been something as simple as being hungry. Or reckin' that he had heard from friends about that pretty waitress working there. Or maybe he passed by there in his car and noticed her through that big old front window. No matter I guess but the arrows of fate were flying straight and about to cause those two to start a family.

Daddy tells me that he was driving a 1953 Canadian made 4 door White Ford Meteor that had a Ford body with a meteor dash. That surely must have impressed Mother...not! I ain't never even heard of a car like that. Daddy said that at the time Mother did not even have a license. So here we have two people that did not come from rich families, both were working because they had to work so had very little money but had love a plenty. Money don't grow on trees you know. When I asked were they used to go on their dates I was told to the Dairy King and to the stock car races at the Nashville Fairgrounds. I am sure that they went to the Highway 50 Drive-In to catch a few movies from time to time as well. When I get up enough guts I might even ask where they were when Daddy stoled his first kiss...I bet that Mother knows the answer but Daddy probably don't. Men are like that you know. After seven months of dating they decided to tie the knot in Shelbyville, TN in 1961 and they have been married ever since. They have been married for 45 years. That almost makes me want to cry when I think about it because I am so proud of them. They have had their ups and downs just like every other married couple but they never gave up on themselves or our family.

I was born on a cold snowy day in February at Gordons Hospital. Thanks Mother for taking the time to bring me into the world. So far I have enjoyed it immensely. My sister was born four years later in the same hospital. We lived in several homes throughout the years. The first one that I remember was in grandmothers old house in Wheel. It had running water in the kitchen sink but no indoor bathroom. It did however have a nice yard that I had free reign over and in it were many trees and a fence to keep out my grandmothers cows. It worked most of the time unless someone left the walk-in gate open. Homes in those days always had front porches and back porches and this one was no different. The swing on the front porch was always a source of amusement and relaxation, never mind the squeak. The back porch was in a state of disrepair and there was one board that was loose and could be used like a diving board. I remember jumping up and down on that thing for hours. We lived in several more homes throughout the years. Two in Lewisburg, two more back in Wheel plus a stint in a house trailer and then finally they built a home in Wheel where we lived until I left for the Air Force in 1981. None of them were real big but they were comfortable, nice, clean and warm. Their Love provided the nourishment that made them all a healthy home for our hearts and minds to grow and learn. Their discipline generally kept us out of trouble through the years. My sister and I were mischevious as teenagers I guess but we were never mean and we turned out okay I think.

After they married Daddy soon got a job at Heil-Quaker where he worked until he retired at the age of __. He worked there for __ years as a millwright. He worked his way up and eventually became a supervisor. He also worked part-time jobs and one being at the Lewisburg Auto Parts. He used to take me there while he worked and I remember it all. The great big catalogs that they would have to look the parts up in and then figure out which row in which it was located. A customer conversation would go like this; Customer: I need a fuel pump for a 68 Ford Falcon. Daddy: What size engine does it have? Customer: A 289 V8. Daddy: That thing must run pretty good. Customer: Yea, it'll hold it's own that's for sure. Daddy: You want a new one or a rebuilt one? Customer: Better get the rebuilt one, my daughter has to go to the dentist next week. He left me free reign to explore the whole store and I did. I would go all through the machine shop and look at all the stuff out front. I remember one time when one of the guys that worked there had some type of seizure and he was laying on the ground and his mouth was foaming. This guy was real big to and they were having a hard time controlling him. The ambulance came and took him away. That was scary for me.

Heil-Quaker built air-conditioners and I guess management could not always match demand with production so Daddy would get layed off every summer until he built up his seniority. He and some of his friends would do odd-jobs like shingling houses, painting tin rooofs on barns and other stuff. So while school was out I would go with him and would work and get paid doing odd-jobs. I have so many memories of these times but this story ain't about me. Suffice it to say that he was teaching me the value of working and that even through hard times a man that wanted to work could find work to do no matter what. That is a good example to set for a child don't you think.

Mother always worked hard as well. Throughout the years she worked at menial low-paying jobs but she did what she could and put her sweat and time into it as good as anyboby. After leaving the Gizmo she worked at Genesco, Rob-Roy, Sanders Nursing Home and then finally Cosmolab from which she retired last year. She has made everything from shoes to shirts to womens make-up. Let me tell you something else...working in a nursing home ain't no cake walk either. At Rob-Roy I remember getting to go inside the factory to visit on one of those kids days. They made shirts. I remember the big tables loaded with material and these big cutters that they used to cut out the pieces from patterns and the people at rows and rows of sewing machines sewing all the peices together. My Mother used to do what they now do in China and Mexico and she did it to raise us kids. I am proud of of my Mother...more proud than you can know. I am proud of them both.

The fruits of their labor was not for their means...no sir re-bob. The fruits of their labor was passed down to thier kids and if you have not been paying attention I am one of them. Aside from the neccesities I also had great toys. When I was six they bought me a mini-bike which I rode and rode and rode. I pretended that I was Bronson from that TV show "Then Came Bronson" starring Michael Parks. My cousin rode with me a lot too. Bubba even broke the front axle off one time but Daddy fixed it. Daddy could and still can fix just about anything mechanical. When I was nine they bought me a Honda Mini-Trail 50. Boy was I big time when I got that because it had a speedometer and most importantly, a kick starter. I was not selfish either. I let all my friends ride it including Goober who ran it into a ditch and bent the front axle. It still worked though and ride it I did until the engine was past repair. Then came my next and last motorcycle that my parents bought me and I will never forget the circumstances as long as I live. We were at the Little League park in Lewisburg and I had just finished a game. Daddy said that he had to do something so he was not there for the game. When we finsihed me and my friends would play our own baseball game next to the bleachers using a stick and whatever else we could fashion into a ball, usually it was two or three paper coke cups all balled up. Anyway, Daddy comes to get me, Mother and and my sister saying that we have to go home and of course I put up a fight. "I don't want to go, let's stay for the next game" I say. "Nope, come on" he says. "We have to go", and so we started walking towards the parking lot. Soon enough I get a glimpse of our red 1965 Ford F-150 pick-up with twin-I-beam suspension and tied down in the back was a brand new Honda XL-125. It was red too. I could not beleive it. They had not even mentioned that I may be getting a new motorcycle but there it was a real as all get out. The feeling that I had that day was so strong that I am getting emotional writing about it now some 32 years later. I had to go get all my friends to show it off. This thing was huge. 125cc's of raw two-wheeled power. I was so short that I could not straddle it and put both feet on the ground at the same time. Don't take a genious to figure that I was ready to go home know. Over the next four years I rode that motorcycle hard and fast. It was were I spent most of my time except for when I was working hauling hay or feeding chickens and it got me back and forth to do that.

Throughout the years I played baseball and football up until I started 9th grade and then I started working most of the time. By then we had moved back out to Wheel and town was a twenty minute ride one way. Living in the country at that time was not what I wanted because my friends were in town. The only two friends that I had that lived close were Richard and Tim. Tim stayed with his grandmother that lived just down the road but only in the summer and Richard was several years younger than me. I worked hauling hay mostly in the summer anyway. I still rode that motorcycle along every inch of those country roads and can still tell you every curve on each one of them.

When I graduated high-school I became disillusioned with the small town and life there that I miss so now. I joined the US Air Force and then promptly left for Denver and then places beyond. Except for a short stay back in TN during 1986 and 2001 I have usually been overseas or in a state other than TN during my entire adult life. It has taken a tole, I am sure, on my parents. They deserved better I suppose but I felt that the world was a place to see and not just read about. I envy the fact that my parents have been able to stay at home in TN all their lives but I also have to think that if I had stayed there things could have turned out worse for me. They both took care of their Mothers in their waning days and I admire them for that and a host of other things that we just don't get around to talking about. They never missed a birthday card or failed to help me when I needed it most. Never failed to whack me across the butt when I needed it either. It's hard to mention all the ways that I could have done better by them. Supposing that they understand is something that I take for granted but I don't do so without some guilt. Right now there is nothing that I would like more than to be there for them all the time to help them in their golden years but reality dictates a different tale.

There are so many other things that you have done for me that hopfully I will get around to writing or telling you about also so just let me say that my heart is always with you and my Love for you runs deep into the core of my soul. I guess at some point I quit writing about you but more to you and that is okay. Just know that everything that is good in me stems from the scarifices that you bore on my behalf and from the way that you raised me. There are not two more people on God's green earth that I would rather have as parents.