Just gettin' started...that is all, just gettin' started...yep, another year, another year beginning...kinda' like a really new beginning!  You know, this brings back a flood of memories from my childhood because, you see, we moved around a bit once I came onto the scene.  I understand that our family was fairly stable until that time...or at least that is the understanding that I had. 

  

       You see, my Grandfather on my Mom's side was the proud owner of the first franchised bottling plant for NEHI Cola's family of softdrinks.  More than that, family legend has it that my great grandfather was a primary operative in the founding days of NEHI, or Cheero-Cola as it was known in those days. I am going tooo far back in this I know, but I like to share that bit of info because, for some reason, it gives me a good deal of pleasure knowing this and having the ablility to share this knowledge.

  

       Well, my Dad worked for my Grandfather at the NEHI plant in Covington, GA and all seemed to be well, or at least to a four almost five year old.  The only time I really did not like being at the plant was the day I fell and sliced my arm open on a broken bottle...around eight sitches and a permanent " railroad track scar" remind me to this day of that happening.  Seems I keep getting side tracked...think I will bring you back to this track in another newsletter!

  

       I came along and almost immediately my Mom and Dad chased a dream and bought a restuarant on Lake Jackson ( or as it was called then, Jackson Lake).  We kids were at the very edge of the Monticello, GA school district, right at the edge of the county, and began most of our days heading for school on a big yellow school bus...since we were at the end of the route, it was very early when we got on the bus, and almost always dark...matter of fact it was very late, and almost always dark when we got home as well.  Still remember that, during the year, they closed "Waters Bridge" for repairs and we kids had to cross that big bridge, in the dark, by walking on planks that the workmen put down for us.  Now, this was some experience (remember, I was a six year old kid at the time).  It was the same bridge that folks back then, liked to jump off of when they were tired of living their lives here on earth. 

  

       The bad and good thing was that we moved from that place during the summer after that first school year...bad, in that my Mom and Dad had severe financial problems, but good, in that we did not have to deal with bridge repairs from that time forward.

  

       This move was to a house with its own private cemetary...you know the kind...kinda like those old movie sets where ghosts abound, and spooks run about freely.  But this was no set, and it was definitely home to our family.  Mom learned to cook on a wood stove...it even had an oven!  We drew water from our well with a crank, and we had lights...or at least a light hanging from a single strand of wire from the ceiling...that is when we had electricity.  Yep, we also had the good fortune of having the use of an outhouse...complete with Sears Catalog!  Now this was not so bad...except maybe in the winter months! 

  

       But again we moved, this time to Williamson, GA, and lived just about three country blocks from our elementary school.  It was a school with six grades and three teachers.  We used to play at recess on and about the school grounds...and in the woods and creeks, etc.  Hey, we even learned to swing from tree top to tree top, kinda like Tarzan! :o)  We kids also had to take turns gathering coal for the heat, and dusting out the erasers for the teachers. We stayed in that house maybe eight months and them we moved between Griffin and Williamson... But hey, again we were not there long 'til we moved to Griffin, GA.  I was just starting fifth grade at that time and became a BMOC by playing football for my school...believe it?  Well, I made it to the half way point in my sixth grade year when we moved yet again...this time to the far side of Spalding County and another school...went back to learning in a three classroom setting with six grades...you had to have very good teachers in that setting to simply learn at grade level.

  

       Now, unless I am mistaken, that is six or seven moves during my first six years of learning within a classroom setting.  And at each new school I had to establish myself (translation being Scot-Irish, I had to fight my way into a circle of Scot-Irish friends...literally fight my way into acceptablility...with the person I fought usually becoming my best friend at the school...go figure.)  Horrible, huh? 

  

       Well, it really was not horrible...it was, in fact, liberating to some degree.  Each time we moved I got to try out a new me for the world to see.  I got to re-invent myself just as if I did not have any negatives...usually, I regained those at the new school but, usually for differing reasons from the previous time.  It is amazing what you can learn about yourself and about others by having these opportunities.

  

       Wow, took me a while to get to this point and to THE point...you see, each new year gives us a chance to reinvent ourselves.  Yep, you get to take stock of the pros and cons of the previous year(s) and begin anew.  We get to dream again, to plan for our future years and take on differing adventures.  Only when we forget how to dream, do we forget how to live...boy, am I glad I had all that practice in my childhood!!!! 

  

       Yep, that just may be the root of all our problems, we do not have enough folks that still know how to dream, and to dream big.  We do not know how to blend the dreamers with the folks that know how to put those dreams into a form of reality by setting parameters and deadlines...we just may have grown out of our abilities to appreciate those that dream and those that put those dreams into motion...we may have forgotten that we need dreams to build upon...but maybe not...maybe 2013 will see us regain our dreamers and our doers...it is another new beginning don't you know?

  

       So, let's take up our mugs of The Alpaca Bean Coffee, give them a tap, and begin dreaming...begin doing, begin something new and exciting together.  Together...doesn't that sound nice...2013, another opportunity to see our plans "come together".