The autumn leaves are starting to fall, and the weather outside is simply glorious today. Lou and I have enjoyed honeymooning, but I sure miss Chattanooga and those wonderful places to eat. Where have I been, you ask?
After ol’ Lou and I got hitched and moved out of state, I have been settling. I turned 80 again, and life is good.
The area we live in doesn’t have the plethora of eateries that Chattanooga had, so I decided I needed a new hobby. Oh, I might still talk about food from time to time, but I have other adventures!
One thing I have thought of doing is to play bridge with a few gals here. They meet about three times a week. I met several ladies for lunch, though nobody could ever replace Lois. She and Phil have talked about moving close to us because they like the area. They have visited a couple of times. Lois recently celebrated her 80th birthday again too. I don’t think we will ever get old.
Lou and I have joined a church called Hardin Baptist. The preacher “Brother Ricky” is a young whipper-snapper in his fifties, but his son Kory who also will preach is even snappier! His boy will get so excited when he preaches, and he brings in theatrics comparing something to a movie he has seen as he waves his arms talking about the good guys and the bad guys. I like how he ties anything he does into a message about Jesus. You know someone is living right when they see Jesus in everything they do!
Kory’s daddy is the same way. He gets excited in his own right, but I think he is primarily focused on getting us to wake up because he will start to yell.
Lou does his best to stay awake in church, and I know he is getting a lot out of it, but he can’t help getting the nods!
Just when Brother Ricky is hitting on the very thing I know Lou needs to hear (even though I am minding my own business), I will feel Lou jerk, and when I look at him, his face is red, and his eyelids are so heavy even a toothpick couldn’t hold them open. I always reach over and hand him a mint from my purse. Surely giving his mouth something to do, he can’t fall asleep – and it works! The only thing about that is that Lou is a noisy mint cruncher! I know the people in front of us and back hear him. I sometimes wonder if the preacher can hear him too.
It is funny when I think about Lou falling asleep, though. When I am intent and watching the preacher walk back and forth, I sometimes forget about Lou. So when I am not checking to see if he has fallen asleep to rescue him with a mint, I bet there are many times he has his eyes closed, and Brother Ricky sees him.
It makes me wonder how he can keep from getting tickled at the congregation of nodders while he’s preaching.
It reminds me of when I was in church with my boy Jack. In his younger days, Jack led the youth at our church, and one Sunday, he was sitting on the front row with all the students on Youth Sunday. I was behind him and could tell he was getting the nods.
Jack had just had a lock-in with the youth, and they all seemed to be fine that Sunday, but my boy didn’t have any energy left. He had his bible open and held it in the palm of his hand. I got tickled watching Jack’s head oscillating with a droopy sway as he tried to stay awake when all of a sudden – bam! He slapped himself right in the face with his bible!
I may have laughed out loud on that one. I still do just thinking about it. Yes, I bet preachers have a lot of stories to tell outside of the pulpit.
And what is life without our stories? I’m glad to be jotting these things down again. And you know me, I’ve got an opinion, and I always like to have fun.