HannahsHope.net

Four days until Christmas...it has been a strange Christmas Season. The girls are so excited about Santa Claus coming to visit. We went to the North Pole on a train ride last week, what a great time. I had two more days in Gattlinburgh again, only this time in the summer and with all of my favorite people in the whole world. This Christmas has been different from those of the resent past...better! The girls are getting to the prime Christmas age. Haley has become a beautiful young lady. Her mind is like a sponge and she has become sooo smart. Karley and Alyssa are just coming of age this year... Christmas morning is sure to be great. Brad will not be with us this year so that will be a change as well, but we have Linda and Smitty coming up after Christmas so that will be fun.

My first fight that is... it happened on the playground of Kincaid Elementary. The back playground to be exact. There was some shoving and pushing until he finally clocked me in the face. The fight ended when I was able to get up off the ground. I can't recall what the fight was about, but I am certain that it was probably something stupid and irrelevant. Eric and I would become friends again shortly thereafter and neither of us would ever speak of the incident again. We ended up class mates all through school and finally took different paths in life sometime during high school.

I learned alot that day, on the back playground of Kincaid Elementary. That back lot, which is now riddled with temporary buildings and broken down classroom trailers, once played host to some of my most memorable childhood experiences. You see, we lived directly across the street from the school, so during the weekends it became our own yard, so to speak. Many of the neighborhood kids often roamed the school grounds during off school hours, playing baseball on the back lot. Football often swapped between the front grass lot or the front parking lot, depending on the weather. Families walked the grounds for exercise or maybe just to spend some time together. Neighborhood kids were free to use the playgrounds, and basketball courts. Today, a chain link fence is erected in front of the school, no longer welcoming visitors to enjoy her gifts.

The school became a sort of centerpiece for my early childhood. Many, many, many lessons learned there. I can remember my first day of school there. My bigger sister Leslie was 2 grades ahead of me, and I was to meet her outside my "POD" after school. Leslie always carried this "Pittsburgh Steelers" pencil with her to school. Funny thing is, she never sharpened it. It became some type of special pencil, sort of a security symbol of some sort. Everyday after school, she would come by and get me so that we could walk home. I would always ask her, "do you still have the pencil?" She would produce it and we would be on our way. Funny how that little detail just came to me. I haven't thought about that in years. Anyway, on this first day of school, I came strolling out the door at the end of the day. I gave the door a kick with the bottom of my shoe, hell it was probably on the kick plate, who knows. In an instant, she was on top of me. Mrs, Orr was her name. My new 1st grade teacher. She was about 60 plus years old at the time and rumor had it that she had been teaching for like 300 years or so. Anyway, Mrs Orr grabbed me by the arm and yanked me back around. "Go back in that room and try it again!", she said. My sister was standing there waiting for me and heard the whole thing. Embarrassed, I put my tail between my legs, went back into the room and came out the "proper" way.

I can remember one time accidentally setting the "woods" on fire, next to the school. The woods, as we call them in the south are defined as any group trees that border your property in some way. My friend, well call him "Mike", and I were playing with matches for some reason. I think that maybe we were acting like we were camping or something and one of got bright idea of gathering up some pine needles and leaves and building us a campfire. We played for a while and finally stamped out the small blaze and decided to take a bike ride around the back of the school. When we returned from our ride, the fire had sparked up again spread into some brush and over a hill. I just remember running. I don't recall calling the fire department but I do recall them showing up on scene to put out the fire. For some reason, I want to say that Mike ended up taking the wrap for that one.

We used the school as our own personal go kart speedway. It started with a Christmas present from Santa. I don't really recall my age at the time. The "Lime Limo" is what is was called. I 5 horse power engine, 2 seater go kart. That go kart was a kids dream. How knew that it would later become my oldest brother's mode of transportation, but that's a different story. The Lime Limo was the first of it's kind on the block, in what was now a young, developing neighborhood with plenty of young families. By the following years, there would be 5-6 go karts in our neighborhood. We would use the school as our own personal raceway. Police would constantly hassle us but really didn't give us too hard a time unless they caught us riding down the street. We never understood what the big deal was, and at that time none of us wore helmets.

Many of the boys in the neighborhood were constantly playing sports. Football was usually the after school game to play. Summers were reserved for baseball. Our "sandlot" was the back field at Kincaid Elementary. Early in the spring, we would use our go karts to pull around an old section of chain link fence around the rocky infield. We had a backstop and a left field fence. Because we often had no where near the number of needed players, you had to put the ball in left field or you were out, the pictures mound was out, and ghost runners were a must. Year after years the neighborhood boys would play day in and day out. As the older kids got into high school, it tended to die out. I never had the chance to hit a home run on that sandlot, that is a bummer. I learned alot on that rocky old field. I learned that I loved the game of baseball, I would play year after year and become better and better. I never seems to cross that plateau when i needed to, when it came to baseball. I look back on it now with a little regret. Regret that I didn't apply myself more. I probably had the talent to play at the college level but I lost my competitiveness, or drive for the game, somewhere along the way. But that's a story for next time.

I was born in Parma, OH.. "funny how that stands out in my head, considering that I have no recollection the city what so ever"... Nonetheless, Parma it was. My family's roots come out of the coal mines of the West Virginia mountains. My parents worked hard to raise 4 kids, I realize that now... My father was a Navy man and met my mother on a bus bound for home. Depending on who is telling the story, one them kept asking the other for "the time", and the fairy tail began.

Oh this was supposed to be about "my" first memories. My childhood memories really began in Marietta, GA. This was home to me. My father took a transfer with his company in hopes of building a better life for his young family. It was a big white house with a brick porch. A porch that I would later come to terms with. After attempting to show off my new toothbrush to my older brothers and their friends playing ball in the yard, I fell what seemed to be, at the time, a good 100 feet or so. Later in life i realize it to be about a 5 feet drop at most. I plunged into a very sticky bush and ended up scratched up from head to toe.

Anyway, Ridgeway Court became my first address. Our neighborhood was new, we were among the first kids on the block. I only vaguely remember moving into the Ridgeway Court home. I remember by room had airplanes on the walls. I wonder if my mom put those there?? I would assume so because I believe that this house was brand new. We had a large backyard...with a row of houses being built directly behind but facing the other way, giving them a Kincaid Rd address. For what ever reason, my parents made a decision to sell our home on Ridgeway Court and move into one of the homes being built behind us on Kincaid Rd. I remember this moving day much more vividly. I can recall my father's work buddies coming to help us and the company truck that my father had "borrowed" from his work. I remember my parents being much more enthusiastic about this move than the last. They were in their prime..., not much older than I am now. They had four promising young children to raise. I was probably 3 or 4 when we moved to Kincaid Rd. My parents were probably in their early to mid 30s. My brothers Jeff and David, and my sister Leslie were to attend Kincaid Elementary School directly across the street. My mom and I had a date with Sear Robuck and Long John Silvers.

I can remember being home with my mother while the other kids went to school. I would love spendng the day with her, and I think that I was pretty good company for her too. We would often go out to "run errands". I can remember riding in the front seat of either a black cougar or a brown grand torino. Barely sitting down, much less wearing a seat belt. If mom had to make a hard stop, you were getting her forearm across your chest. Funny how the times have changed. Nonetheless, my mom and i were constantly on the run. Wherever our travels took us though, you could rest assured it was next to a Long John Silvers. I see that same special relationship in my wife and our children. They are very lucky, as I was.

The years with my mother ended all too soon and I began kindergarten. I want to say that I started early for whatever reason. I think that I was four. I remember feeling special because my mom was starting me in school at Marietta Christian Academy, because I don't believe that I met the age requirement for Kincaid Elementary. My mom told me that it was because I was "so smart", that sounds a little fishy to me now. I would go to school for a year at Marietta Christian and then transfer to Kincaid Elementary the following year. I am not sure how that all worked out, whether I went directly into first grade or if I had to do kindergarten over again... I really should find that out for whatever reason. My years at Kincaid are very memorable. I would meet my first true childhood friends, Andy Woods and Michael Ask. Have my first crush, on a girl named Heather Boyer. And learn some serious lessons. It has always been said, man, if I knew then, what i know now... Hind site is definitely always 20/20. It is an enormous task to raise children. Trying to pass down your learn experiences, without sounding too much like your father. It's funny how you can love being around your parents when you are very young, try to get away from them when your a teenager and just enjoy their company later in life. Anyway, maybe next time I will tell you about my first fight.

1. Always love your daddy

2. Never argue with your mom!

3. Stay focused on learning, and enjoy your school years.

4. Talk to mom about birth control

5. Talk to dad if someone is picking on you

6. Do it right the first time!

7. Be independent

8 . Live is a journey, plan your journey wisely...

9. Read at least one book a week

10. Stand up for yourself, and be heard