My Weekend

I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Friday night. It was at least my third viewing of the film. There is much to say about this movie, especially the artistic creativity of Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry. But I've also been thinking about Joel Barish's (Jim Carrey) erasing his memory of Clementine (Kate Winslet). In doing so, he realizes how much he loves Clementine and that there were many wonderful things about their time together.

It is funny how often we may not like something, and we only wish that it would end or things would get better (the above picture is appropriate), but when we search our memories of what actually happened, we realize things aren't as bad as we thought. Sometimes we learn from what happened; others we are simply the better for it. Joel learns this about Clementine.

Sometimes I think about my own difficulties and see that things aren't as bad as I had thought. I'm here because of what I've been through, and that's not a bad thing. Like Joel realizes, sometimes it's good to accept things as they are - it's better than wishing they weren't.

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Gas prices are high. I read they may be $4.00 in a year. How high will they get?

The End of April

The year is flying by. Already we are coming to the end of April.

Yesterday Moyna and I drove to an Amish bakery west of Cullman. We purchased some food items for Decoration Day, which is coming up next Sunday. It was a most pleasant Saturday drive.

On Friday I happened to start talking to a visiting professor at Auburn who was in town to give a talk to the School of Business. He teaches at Georgetown U in DC. His wife went to Auburn. He talked about how green Alabama seems to be.

I'm thinking we don't always appreciate the bright festive green of Spring in the South. It's striking if you've seen other parts of the country which aren't so spring-like.

Take the desert for instance. I've been to Arizona and I've been thru the desert in California and Nevada. I could not live in the desert. It is so depressing compared to the fervent green of the South.

Let us enjoy Spring before the summer heat and humidity overwhelms us. Let us enjoy every day as a gift. Let us enjoy all that we have.

Freddy Thoughts

I got DirecTV when I moved into my apartment. I greatly liked having it because it gave me channels I never had before, plus it's just cool to have a menu of everything that is on or is going to be on. If I ever wanted to know when a show would be on, for example, I could easily go to the menu and scroll forward to future shows and find what I wanted.

However, my apartments got onto us for having satellites attached to our balconies, so I recently took it down. The only way I could get a signal was if it was attached to my balcony, so there was no where else to put it. I was upset when I first thought of not having my DirecTV, but it hasn't bothered me at all.

There aren't really any shows that I really watch. The only things I miss are seeing poker and the NASCAR races, but I've been fine without both of those. Other than that, there's nothing that I really watch or care about. In fact, when I visit my parents, Moyna is always showing me these shows she watches that I never knew about; that's the only way I keep up with what new shows come on television since I don't pay any attention to that stuff.

At nights, when I previously would come home from work and have the television on, while doing others things usually, I now play tunes in my ghetto blaster, read, and fool around on the Internet. I've been reading this really good book recently, which I have just a few more pages before I'm finished. Moyna has gotten me hooked on playing spades and hearts, which I usually play a few games of. Besides that, it is nice to have the peace of the television off. I feel more invigorated because I'm not somewhat fixated on that mind-numbing tube.

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Yesterday when I came home from work I ran out of gas. I was on Highway 92 and was stopped at a red light; I was the first car in line at the light. I didn't know my gas was that low, but I sure did when the car wouldn't go anywhere! Thankfully, as I started walking down the road, a police officer was a few cars down, and he helped get my car off the road. I walked to the nearest gas station to buy a gas can and fill it, then walked back and put the gas in my car. This took 45 minutes. Even with the gas in there, the car still didn't start. So, I walked back and did it all again, taking another 45 minutes, and this time the car started. What a relief!

The White Coat

On June 17, 1955, Gerald Wilton Herring married Wynema Sue Hudson at the First Baptist Church of Winfield, Alabama. There is a wedding picture of the newly married couple at the altar with Brother Hargraves. Sue looks radiant holding a bouquet of flowers. Gerald looks shy and bewildered standing there in a pure white coat.

We found out later that the coat was purchased for the wedding. Some years later the white coat came to Fred Hudson, Gerald’s brother-in-law, who grew up in Winfield. The newlyweds settled in Russellville, Alabama, Gerald’s home town.

Fred remembers wearing the white coat Easter Sunday, 1964, at the same FBC of Winfield. Those of you old enough might remember young men wearing white coats to church in those days. Even white coats with white shoes and a white belt to boot. In those wonderful days, the young men looked quite sharp in their white.

The church was packed in those days on Easter Sunday when you would see people you would see only once a year in church. Everybody showed up on Easter Sunday.

The pastor’s sermon title was “The Miracle You Must Believe.” Nothing has changed since 1964.

The last time Fred remembers wearing the white coat was when his Uncle Bryan Hankins passed away a couple of years later. There he was wearing a white coat to a funeral. He was a pallbearer and the thought crossed Fred’s mind that it might not be appropriate to wear a white coat at a funeral, but if the truth be known, it was the only coat he had to wear. His first real suit came later when his Mother bought his first suit in Winfield for $27.00. It was a black suit that picked every piece of lint within a 5-mile radius. Fred was glad when the day came that he didn’t have to wear it anymore.

Fred gets the white coat out of his closet every Easter and looks at it, remembering its heritage. It doesn’t fit anymore (he couldn’t button the buttons with his current gut) else he would be tempted to drive to Winfield and wear it at his old church even though he knows people would be looking at him, laughing, wondering who this clown was. Once his family was in Winfield Easter Sunday 1996 and he wanted his son Freddy to wear the white coat to the FBC of Winfield, but wife Moyna said NO. He would look dorky she said, and she was probably right.

The time has passed for young men to wear white coats to church. But some of us remember. As an aside, some of us remember when the ladies wore elaborate hats. You don’t see that anymore either. When Fred was growing up, women wore hats to church, all the more elaborate for Easter. No more, and that’s too bad because you should wear your best to church.

White coats. White shoes. Ladies in elaborate hats. Such memories of Easter.

This Morning

This morning I am thinking about Thomas Lux's poem "Refrigerator, 1957."** Like the maraschino cherries, sometimes we find things that make us happy and also give us insight into ourselves.

My own refrigerator. A few days ago, I came home from work excited because I remembered I had a KFC Lemon Bucket Parfait waiting for dessert. Besides thinking about how yummy it was going to be, I also realized I hadn't had one in months upon months, and how the last time must have been when I lived in Auburn, and how I think it was Dad who first got me somewhat addicted to them. Something as trivial as a KFC Lemon Bucket Parfait, in other words, made me feel happy - because it was scrumptous and because it delineated part of my past.

The rest of my refrigerator. There are things I've eaten for years and still buy. Things like carrots and cauliflower and apple sauce and pierogies and tuna and the ingredients for homemade burritos. Usually these foods are just that - food - food that I cook because I'm hungry and because I need to eat them before they can't be eaten anymore. But other times I steam vegetables and delight in how tasty they are, and sit in front of the television watching a movie with the lights dim after a day of work of complaints and grief, and it's an escape to be eating my carrots and cauliflower. Then I think that I started eating steamed vegetables because I lived for over a month in Canada, and if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be enjoying this moment of satisfaction. OR, I eat tuna mixed with mayonnaise and am reminded of Dad making these sandwiches for me as a lad and that I still make tuna sandwiches as he did; OR, I eat a burrito and remember my grandparents in California teaching me how to make them and all the times I've visited them, awakening at 6 a.m. and watching Mark S. Allen on Good Day Sacramento and raking leaves and visiting Josie at Raley's.

There are all sorts of things like these in our lives which bring us happiness and tell us something about ourselves, which we usually overlook.

But enough. I need to take a shower. Back to banality.

**http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1807/

Family News (4)

We enjoyed visiting with the Herrings yesterday at their house in Muscle Shoals. Dawn did Moyna's hair and we had a marvelous lunch.

They are doing well. Tiffany is finishing up 11th grade. We saw pictures of her first prom.

We look forward to seeing them the first Sunday in May.

Freddy is home this week for spring break. We are thrilled, of course, for him to be home.