Beat It

The year was 1988. I needed a new car. We looked everywhere, and finally Charles asked me what do you really want? I told him I had always wanted an RX 7. He checked the prices and he told me that an RX 7 was out of our price range, and he gave me a number that we couldn’t go over. Right now, I don’t remember what that number was. After that weekend, there was a huge ad in the newspaper from Scenic City Mazda. They used to be on Rossville Boulevard, and guess what, there was an RX 7 advertised under Charles’ quote to me. He was still working at TVA downtown then, and I called him and told him that God wanted me to have that car. He told me he would meet me at the dealership at noon. I took the ad with me. You see, they only advertise one car at the sales price in the newspaper but they put the VIN number in. The salesman told us that there wasn’t an RX 7 there for that price. But, I am very persistent, and I found it! The salesman asked if we wanted to take it for a test drive and of course I said yes! That salesman really trusted us because only 2 people could ride in that car. It was gray with kind of a dark red interior and of course had the 5-speed shift in the floor. As I started the car and proceeded to go to the road, Charles asked me what I thought, and I looked at him and I said, “I think I’m in love!” Of all the cars I have had in my lifetime, that RX 7 was my favorite. I kept it about 10 years. I guess you’re wondering why I put the title as “Beat It”. I used to play Michael Jackson’s Beat It and it was great to shift gears to. I listened to “Beat It” in my car the other day, and it brought back my memories of getting my RX 7 and how much I loved to drive it. It’s a wonder I never got a ticket because it was so easy to do 100 mph in that car. Funny how a song can bring back “fun” memories DR 10/30/12.

Susie

I don’t think I have ever met anybody like Susie before. She is one of the funniest people I have ever been around. She is also one of the busiest persons I’ve ever been around. She’s up at the crack of dawn and last night she was still up at midnight when I left her house doing of all things, making pumpkin bread for her company. She called me this morning to tell me that she had already made two more loaves of bread, which was time consuming since she had only one loaf pan and each loaf required an hour to bake. She had already made ready for company coming tonight and she had timed herself to finish her housework to get ready to come to Chattanooga to meet some old friends for lunch. I tell you, just hearing what she does every day wears me out. She has more energy than the energizer bunny. But one of her qualities I love is that no matter what the circumstances may be, she can laugh and when she laughs it is contagious! You can’t help but love her! Everybody in her hometown knows her and they’ve even asked her to run for Mayor. I don’t think she can fit that position into her busy schedule. Susie also helps her daughter with her granddaughter who is a special needs child. She is 10 years old now. It is so heartbreaking and that’s the only time you will see Susie start to shed tears and then she will think of something funny and there we go again. I just have to tell you that I had been feeling depressed. Well you might say I was having a Pity Party and I was definitely the star! Susie had asked me to come down so I did. We went to a high school football game—I have never been to a football game in my life! I didn’t dress warm enough and we took the blanket we were sitting on and decided to cover ourselves up with it. Well, not only was the game interesting, by the way the home team lost, but one of the players for the visiting team was hurt. It was very emotional to see that entire visiting team from a Christian high school get down on their knees and pray for their injured fellow player. The ambulance came and took him to the field where Life Force from Chattanooga came to get him. I still don’t know what happened to him, but I do hope he is ok. Susie was worried about me because I had not eaten supper (that’s what we say in the South) and so at 10 p.m. central time we’re at the Cracker Barrel. We were out by the time they closed. Susie took me back to her house with instructions to call her as soon as I got home. I called her and told her my ride home was uneventful until a policeman followed me with flashing bluelights. I knew I was under the speed limit, for a change, and it scared me. He pulled alongside me and asked if I was ok that I had been weaving a bit. I told him I was ok and he told me to be careful. I was weaving because I was trying to see why he was following me. Thank you Susie for such a fun filled night that was so full of laughing at nothing. I can’t wait to do it again. DR 10/27/12

Miracles in My Life

There have been many miracles in my life, but for now I will only touch on the major ones that have happened. I’ll never forget the Sunday night in church I prayed for a baby. My pastor had just preached a message on faith and I bowed my head and said, oh God I’ve been praying about this all wrong and now I am thanking you in advance, because I know you’re going to give me a baby. I don’t know how, when, or where but I know that you will grant this request. The next day I found out about an evangelist named Lester Roloff and he had the Rebekkah Home for Girls in Corpus Christi, TX. I told my husband that we needed to go to our pastor’s house immediately and try to call this man. He said, oh we need to pray about this and I said I prayed yesterday and this is my answer. Well to shorten this story quite a bit, my husband prayed that we would have a healthy baby and I prayed that I wanted a brown haired, blue eyed little girl. And today my little brown haired blued eyed little girl has two sons of her own. I believe in praying in detail. I’ll never forget the day that I stopped into a little furniture store in East Ridge and started chatting with the owner about my husband who was going in two weeks for tests at Vanderbilt for a heart transplant. Suddenly he said he was supposed to pray for my husband and I was “standing in his place”. He said the virus in his heart was still there and he was going to cast it out. Needless to say, that frankly scared me to death. I was frozen and could not move. After that prayer, he said he needed to pray for me that I would have peace,. He told me that in two weeks the doctor would tell my husband he would not need a heart transplant. He wanted me to come back and see him when we returned. I thanked him, asked him what church he belonged to and I hit the door running. I must say that after the first day of tests they cancelled all the tests for the next day. The next day his doctor told him that they didn’t know what had happened, but he did not need a heart transplant. He lived another 14 years after that, and I’m so thankful that someone had the courage to obey God and pray for that person. Now, here I come to what I would like to be a miracle. Some may think I am silly, but here goes. My husband died 2-1/2 years ago. I’m lonely. I don’t want to replace the man I was married to for 25-1/2 years, nobody could ever be like him. He was a unique person. He was good to me, taught me to be independent, made sure I had no debts except for utilities, taxes, and just the major things that have to be paid. So back in September, I asked God for a man to come into my life. Not just any man, like I said I do pray in detail. I asked God that he be tall, salt and pepper hair, good looks, professional, a caring and loving person. You need to pray in detail because I really don’t want someone that can stand under my arm, bald, dumb—well, you see what I mean. Will God answer my prayer? I don’t know. I hope He does. I’ve also thanked God for this man and I don’t know how, when, or where this will happen. But I do know that God does not make any mistakes. He may have already answered my prayer. I’ll let you know.

Reunion - 2012

Jeanie invited me to her all grades reunion for Kirkman High School. I didn’t graduate from there but a lot of my friends did. I really didn’t think that it would be very much fun, but as soon as we arrived the live band was already playing oldies. My weakness are songs from the 50’s and 60’s. This was a band who actually played at Kirkman. There was another band to play at 6. Needless to say, I had more fun than I’ve had in a long, long time. The food was great—I actually was able to eat and stay on my diet. A friend, Debbie, got me to go out on the dance floor. There were a lot of women just kind of dancing with each other like we did years ago. When I was growing up, Nancy, d Reida and I were constantly dancing and doing the twist. We loved our rock n roll. I saw Freddie again—he grabbed me as he was leaving. Now Freddie is married, but we go a long way back. He was never a boyfriend, but we did take a lot of midnight rides together. That’s another story that maybe someday I will tell. I did chase him and said you have to have your picture taken with me. I had my picture taken with him last week and again this week. Hope his wife doesn’t care, well, he said she doesn’t. Oh, that was last week he said that. All I can say is that I had a fabulous time, good food, working up a sweat on the dance floor and laughing more than I have in years. Life is good! Thank you Jeanie! DR 10/14/12

Stepping Stones to the New Me

There have been several things that just kept knawing at me to change—my hair and my weight. I’ve always known that if you can fix something, then just do it. I really got tired of people saying that I looked like Paula Deen, but the main reason I hated my hair was everytime I looked in the mirror I just felt old. When I first got up in the morning and went to the bathroom mirror I would be in shock, oh no! I look just like my mother! Now don’t get me wrong, I thought my mother was a very attractive person, but I was not ready to be that person. The other thing that I couldn’t stand about myself was my weight. Yes, I gained weight when everyone around me was dying. What do you do when you’re in the house 24/7? I’ll tell you, you eat. I really couldn’t exercise. And then after my husband died, I sat on the deck in the swing and just sat there. I don’t regret the grieving that I did, I just didn’t think I would ever be that way. But, I could sit for days. I felt like I was in some kind of time warp. Then, what happened? I really don’t know. It was sort of like I woke up out of a deep sleep and realized that I’m still alive and I want to do everything I can to live my life to the fullest. So, I began the “stepping stones to the new me.” No, I don’t want to regress, I want to look to the future and see what is new out there for me. Well, I’ve started the changes on me and I like my hair and it has made me feel so much younger. It’s amazing what little things can do for your outlook on life. I’m working on the weight. Oh it’s not easy, but I’m determined. I walk with friends now and it’s so much fun to laugh and at the same time know that you’re doing something to improve yourself. I don’t know what lies ahead for me, but for now, I’m taking stepping stones to the new me. DR 10/11/12