Three Old Souls

Last week I took five days and visited my grandparents in Florida.

I started out the week in Crestview FL. It's in the panhandle west of Panama City Beach. Zeich and Cleo Chavis have lived there for five decades now. We spent our time sitting in the living room and talking about the past, the future and the latest neighborhood gossip. Granny always knows what's going on. Grandpa is soon to be 92 and he has a tendency to fall asleep while talking to folks. Granny always gets on to him for it (even though she does it herself) but I told her that after being around as long as he has and doing everything that he has done, he deserves to take a nap when ever he feels like it. As Grandpa worked his way around the kitchen preparing dinner, Granny was inquiring if I had run across any of the vast number of relatives I have here in North Carolina. Occasionally she would shout up to Grandpa to illicit a reaffirmation of what she had just told me. He usually responded with a quick "yup". I'm not sure if he really knew what she had said, but after 62 years of marriage, Grandpa has learned just to agree sometimes. I think that they had a hard time grasping just exactly where I was going and why I was going there. But they liked it either way.

The second part of the week was spent in Orlando visiting my mom's mother, Dot Revels. She is in a nursing home over there. I'll just put it how she likes to state it and say that she is having trouble remembering things. With 6 children, 10 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren, Mama Dot has spent many years as the nucleus of a large and close family. It is sad that she can't remember everything but she seems to be in good spirits and is enjoying life day to day. One persistent thought in her head seemed to be of Grandpa Carl, her husband that died back in the late 70's. She talks of missing him and how he would enjoy hearing about all of his family’s exploits. It's amazing that her love for him is still so strong after almost 30 years of living without him. I guess he really never left her.

I don't know that I have ever just sat there for a few hours and talked with my grandparents. It was great to sit there and listen to them talk about family, when they were young and the joys of growing old together. You can't help but try and soak in everything they say. I'm not sure how at this point in my life, but I can't help but think that these three people played some part, be it major or minor, in me deciding to do what I am setting out to do.

Well folks, I have about 23 more days here in the states. I am in semi-retirement right now and it is great. I can't imagine trying to get all of the stuff I am doing done if I were still working. I am headed down to Florida next week to see a lot of the extended family, and after that it is back to North Carolina to hang out for about two weeks. All of the pieces are falling into place and every time I check something off my list of things to do before I leave it hits me even more, the gravity of what is about to happen in my life. My excitement has driven me to sleepless nights and daydreaming.

Part of my list of things to do includes indulging in the finer things in life before I go. Watching some classics like "Ferris' Bueller's Day Off" and "Snatch". Eating lots of ice cream and rediscovering why I liked Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pies so much as a little kid. Drinking a tall, cold pint of PBR and knowing that it is cheap beer. I am sure I will miss all of these things while I am gone, but I can rest easy knowing that they will be waiting for me when I come back.

I have added my address during training in the site and I would love to hear from folks while I am over there. Believe it or not, but you can go ahead and start sending letters and such over in the next week or so and It will arrive at about the time I get there.

Day Without A Mexican

For anyone that did not know, today was the day that Mexican immigrants either walked out of or did not come to work in protest of the recent actions taken by the US government. My day was effected by this as I am an employee in the service industry which relies heavily on immigrant workers. About half of our kitchen staff did not work today. Everything worked out ok except we were without a dishwasher and busser’s the entire day. Fonte stepped in and helped do the dishes at night, however. During lunch things went smoothly. The servers would take turns doing dished when their tables didn't need much and we got the job done. The night shift was a different story. By 7pm Fonte was far behind on doing the dishes. Usually the dishwasher has the help of a few busser’s to get the job done. By 8pm a few of us servers no longer had tables and went back in the dish-pit to help Fonte get caught up. I ended up spending about two hours back there and it was some of the hardest and hottest work I have ever done. I am not quite sure where I stand on the whole immigration issue yet, but it is clear to me now that this country quite possibly could not function without the immigrant work force that we have. We were able to make things work out for the day, but I could not imagine having to do this for an extended period of time. Besides, this country should not take for granted the fact that just about our entire population has some form of immigration in its history. There are certain sacrifices that have to be made if American's want to keep the kind of lifestyles they lead and we should not be so quick to dismiss a part of our population that has become a major part in the way our society functions.