Fourth of July

Thank you, Susan, for thinking of this thread. Maybe others will write of their favorite memories of this very special day.

From the ages of 9 through 12, my July 4th afternoon was spent playing baseball for India, of the Henry County Little League. All four teams would play, and we thought we were really hot stuff because we got to play on the Paris Landing State Park ball diamond. This was before the big swimming pool was built, mostly before automobile air conditioners, and a whole lot of homes had no air. I would have turned nine in 1964, and did not have a care in the world. I handled first base. Very few balls got past me, including the ones thrown at me from all over the infield. I had every little kid's vision of being a major leaguer when I grew up, even if I couldn't hit that little ball. That was one day I got to showcase my baseball prowess, in front of strangers, no less.

Win or lose, we always had a family picnic when the games were over. Included in the day's fare were grilled hot dogs, grilled hamburgers, baked beans, watermelon, and homemade ice cream. My Ma was quite the cook, and her picnics were wonderful. Now, try to put me outside on the Fourth of July, and we are going to have problems.....I cannot remember one cross word, one blown temper, not one ugly word being said. People always say things were simpler back then. We will never see those days again, but we really should learn from them.

Thirty years ago, I was into camping and water skiing. If my friends and I did anything....and there were years where we never ventured out where the amateurs and the tourists were, we would hike back into Land Between the Lakes, camp, and never see a soul. What a good time we would have!

Around 1989, I met my wife, and a new tradition was born! While everyone else is at the lake, or doing some partying elsewhere, Jean and I head for the blueberry patch. We try to pick 5 gallons. That is a lot of berries, but with a bowl of cereal in the mornings, or in blueberry muffins, or in blueberry cobbler, or in blueberry crunch, we find we use a lot of blueberries every year. Also, our tradition helps us to stay out of trouble.

233 years ago the British were fought and beaten on America's soil. The Colonists were able to defeat a much more modern military, because they were willing to stick together, plan together, and fight together. I believe we need that mindset, today! I believe that mindset can be found in Paris, Tennessee.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Riding

The word riding means a lot to me. In the context of ridin' around, it means even more. There was a time, 37 years ago now, when my buddies and I spent a lot of time ridin' the streets of Paris. There have been Saturday nights, that I have burned a tank and a half of gas, and never went anywhere except from the Dairy Queen, to the high school, to Ogburn Park, and back to the Dairy Queen.

I guess every generation has the thought that there is nothing to do in this town. We made our own fun. We would cruise, drink cold beer, and generally have a good time doing it. Sometimes some of my friends would have dates, and couldn't ride around, but it usually wasn't hard to find some one that liked riding in a cool car and drinking ice cold beverages. Looking back, it was a simple time. Nice car, Ma's credit card, a little jingle in the pocket, good friends, I had it made and sure didn't appreciate it!

The kids of today probably would have no fun ridin' around like we used to do. Paris has grown, and has so many people,and so many vehicles, that a youngster couldn't pull some of the foolishness we used to pull. Gas was almost 10 times cheaper. Cold beer might have been a little easier to come by. The police looked the other way, when they could. Young people today get too serious, too quickly. As the world gets smaller, life gets faster. That is a natural progression that, I guess, we must accept.

I am very glad that I came of age in the late sixties and early seventies. I am glad I got to do a little ridin' on the streets of Paris, Tennessee. My buddies and I solved a whole lot of the world's problems on those Saturday nights, and had a lot of fun doin' it.

Dads

With Father's Day right around the corner, I decided my word of the week had to be Dad.

These few paragraphs are dedicated to my Dad, Robert Owens, and his Dad, Raymond Owens. Granddaddy passed away when I was seventeen, so I didn't get to be around him very much. While I was a kid, growing up, I thought he was an “old man”, and wasn't around him near as much as I should have been. From all I can gather, he was a countrified genius. He dabbled in real estate, moved houses, built houses, and made the concrete blocks to build the houses. I guess Granddaddy, and all his sons, and Aunt Rena could have had a construction dynasty, here in Paris, but everyone went their own direction, and maybe we are better off, today, because of it.

My personal recollections of my Granddad include shooting firecrackers at Christmas time and the Fourth of July, playing on his sand mound, fishing in his creek, being at his house when he would return from a fishing trip, with his car just full of Crappie, and following a whole line of cars from Marshall's grocery, out through Death Valley,on down the hill to the Tower Sport's Center, doing all of 10 miles miles per hour.

I sure wish I had “chewed the fat” with him a little more. The lessons I could have learned would have been priceless.

Robert Owens was the smartest man I have ever known in my life. He could do anything, from owning his own electrical business, which electrified many, many, homes and buildings in Paris and Henry County, as well as the surrounding area, to having an acre of garden every year, including every vegetable that anyone in his family could ever want, a grape arbor for homemade jelly and juice, and an apple orchard, to having a regulation Little League baseball field in his backyard. I have yet to figure out how he had the time to raise five kids, be the chairman of the building committee at church, getting all 5 of us ready for church on Sunday morning, helping with all the projects that we, as little kids, took on. He had never ridden a motorcycle in his life, but could fix mine all the time. He used to say he could go to sleep thinking about a problem, and wake up with the solution. He even had a three acre front yard that he mowed every week, and it was smoother than many golf courses.

I feel very fortunate to have not only known Robert Owens, but to have been his son. I was lucky enough, in later life, to visit with him as an equal, although I could have never been his equal. Not as father to son, nor employer to employee, but man to man, each respecting the other. I wish he were alive today, but only if he could be healthy and whole. I watched him go from 210 pounds to 138 pounds when he died. He had heart disease that was taking all his nourishment, just to keep his heart beating. It is very sad to watch a man who has always been so strong, have to give in to something he has no control over.

Every bit of common sense I have, I can thank my Dad for. His way of figuring out how things work, rubbed off. Everyday I do something, sometimes something very insignificant, sometimes something very major, that I can give my Dad credit for. Even some of the book smarts I have today is because he would take the time to explain, in “our” language, what the book was trying to say.

He was a great man. I am glad I told him, before it was too late!
Happy Father's Day, Granddaddy. Wish I had gotten to know you better.
Happy Father's Day, Dad. I Love You and I Miss You!

Nouns and Verbs...PETS

Nouns and Verbs is myparismagazine.com's weekly challenge where we write about what specific words mean to us. Join in the fun via the comment section, telling us how or why these ordinary nouns and verbs are meaningful to you. This week we’re pondering the word PETS.

Lucy isn't just a family pet, she's a family member. I picked her out of a large litter of labrador pups almost eleven years ago. She was much like the lab in the movie "Marley and Me" for the first year, always getting into something she shouldn't and chewing everything in her path. I couldn't wait for the puppy phase to pass!

"Go" is her favorite word, sometimes I think it's what she lives for. She's ridden lots of miles in the back of a pick up with me at the wheel. It's not easy for her to get in and out of the bed of the truck anymore, so she's riding in the cab with me. I just roll down the windows and she hangs her head out the window and grins. It's a beautiful sight!

I love my Lucy girl. My daughter calls her "the best dog in the world"...I couldn't agree more!