On the Garden Path at 5~Acre Farm: Happy Birthday Dad!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Happy Birthday Dad!

Do you know what awesome things happened in 1927? Well, among other things...

First trans-Atlantic phone call

The first transatlantic telephone call was made via radio from NYC to London, England on January 7.

FCC created

The US Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) began regulating radio frequencies on February 23.

First Academy Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded on May 11.

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, from NYC to Paris in his single-seat, single-engine monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, May 20-21.

World Population, 2 Billion

At some point in 1927, the World population reached 2,000,000,000. (two billion).

Wish I had a baby picture of Dad!

And most important of all, on May 16, 1927, my dad, Gentry Wright, was born!

It's rare that I find a good gift for my dad. It isn't that he's hard to please. It's just that he doesn't ever want or need anything. It's been this way all my life! He's the only person I've ever had trouble shopping for. I have to watch him really close for months, or remember things he's mentioned in the past. But this year, I think John and I did good for his birthday!

This year we decided to take Dad to Family Billiards & Cafe on Broad Street in Monroe, GA. It's a great, family-oriented billiard parlor, and they serve unbelievably great food! Their menu includes wings, half-pound burgers, hot dogs, and great sides! If you live anywhere near Monroe, you've just got to try this place out!

Miss Dot

Dot Jernigan is the manager of Family Billiards & Cafe. She's a really great lady who knows how to to make you feel right at home. It's an added treat that Miss Dot also knows how to cook a really great burger!

We started the afternoon with a game of pool, and let me tell you, we sucked! Dad used to be a real hustler, and I was known to make some really amazing shots once in a while, but neither of us has played in 40 years! Honestly, we were pathetic, but we kept going, and you know what? We got worse! It took a full hour to finish that first game.

So we took a break and had a bite to eat. Dad had the half-pound hamburger and crinkle fries. He was just saying the other day that nobody serves crinkle fries anymore, and he likes them because they're gentle on his gums. So that was a big plus!

I had the half-pound Chili Cheeseburger, and it had grilled onions on it! OMG! Major yuuuuum! John started with Teriyaki wings and fries, then had two slaw dogs. I'm telling you, even the Diet Cokes tasted better at this place!

Reporter Rachael Ward interviewing Dad

While we were there, Rachael Ward, a reporter from the Walton Tribune popped in. I called the paper earlier and found out they would be very interested in doing a story about my 85 year old father, a veteran of three major wars, who served directly under General William Westmoreland in Vietnam, and has a number of other extraordinary life experiences to share!

Dinner and billiards at Family Billiards & Cafe

We had a great time today! After we ate, I was surprised to hear Dad say he was up to another game of pool. John and I took alternate shots against Dad. After watching the first game, John said he felt like he could play us on an even field! Believe it or not, Dad and I improved significantly during the second game. We still sucked! We just didn't suck as bad!

I really love my dad! I'm so glad he's still here with us. I don't know how much longer he's going to stick around (he's anxious to go on and be with my mom), but I'm going to enjoy every minute we have together, and I'm going to keep looking for experiences he can enjoy ~ because he's really tired of sleeping through his days!

1 comment:

KathleenMay 17, 2012 at 6:30 AM
Happy Happy Birthday PopPop! Love you more than the océan and shrimp!!
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John and Michelle, and 5 Acre Farm

How We Came To Be

John was born and raised in Georgia by parents who lived incredible lives of their own, and passed on to John a rich family history from both sides. He was a die hard Boy Scout, and later, spent 17 years as a Troop Leader. He earned a dual Agriculture/Agricultural Engineering degree at ABAC in Tipton, where he also started the college's radio station. After college, John served on nuclear submarines in the Navy, where he once saved the lives of his shipmates, and, rumor has it, did many incredible things in the service of our country. He married and had a family, and after the Navy, worked briefly with the EPA before opening his own HVAC-Refrigeration company. John was inventive as a child, and that carried over into everything in his life. He is a fixer of severe mechanical problems, and an inventor of all kinds of things that improve on or simplify existing machinery, equipment, and ideas. His inventions are unique, and some of them may some day aide humanity, save lives, and save our planet if we can get the right people to listen.

My dad was career Army. I was born in France, and introduced, at a very young age, to the Virginia countryside, where we raised rabbits and chickens. After dad retired, we moved to North Carolina, his home state, where we spent many years on the coast, near Wilmington. Here, we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and fished commercially. Our freezer was always full of fresh Spot and shrimp, and oyster roasts were a weekly event! As a young adult I lived with my family in the mountains south of Asheville. Here too we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, as well as geese and peacocks. I worked for many years with an arts council, Christian organizations, and other non-profits. I helped train missionaries, researched/wrote grants, produced professional documents, edited newsletters, and wrote a lot of publicity materials. I already had two Associate degrees, but in my late 30s I finally completed an undergraduate degree in English/Art History. For 20 years I was active in community theater, sang solos with a community choir, and danced with a show choir. Treasured memories! I moved to Georgia in late 1998, and married my first husband in 2002. I was 45. Eighteen months later, I was widowed.

John and I first met in 2000. After I was widowed, and John was divorced, we found each other again. Of like minds, spirits, and goals, our hearts came together quickly, and we married in 2005. Each of us has undergone Elijah House training, and we were both ordained into ministry in 2006. I have been a Christian counselor and prayer warrior for probably 30 years. John and I live to put God first in our lives, and in our dreams for this small piece of earth of which we are the caretakers.

We call our place "5 Acre Farm." John's father took this barren, overworked field from a larger parcel of farmland in the mid-70s. He fenced off about three-quarters of an acre for the house, and added plants, flowers, and trees. Elsewhere, he transformed the property through years of hard work, adding an apple orchard, peach trees, pears, two fig orchards, grape vines, and a greenhouse. John and I have been trying to continue his father's work on this land, adding to it with our own hopes and dreams, and our late-in-life efforts. Not a day goes by that I don't feel great respect for John's father, for the man he was, for the work he did here, and gratitude for the bounty we reap because of his hard work.

John and I are in our 50s, just starting life together, but with age and health trying to work against us. We aren't ready to sit down and take it easy. We have a goal to become self-sufficient by growing our own food (meat and vegetables), and getting off the grid. The challenges we face in doing this are age, health, and finances. John's inventiveness is being strongly applied, as is my gift for budget stretching and frugality. Our strength? The love we have for each other, and the trust that we are working inside the will of God.

One of the things we ask ourselves now and then is this: "Is it worth it?" I never had children. John's son has set his own path with family and career. There does not seem to be anyone we can leave this property to who will continue the work and the dream; one of John's grandchildren, perhaps, but they are very young right now, and do not yet notice or care.

So, is it worth it (all the work and expense) if there is every chance this land will end up in the hands of developers after we're gone? Well, our answer to that question so far is always "Yes, it's worth it." It's worth it to us, because of what we are accomplishing here in our lifetime. It's worth it because what we grow here we share with family, with friends, and with our community. And not just what we grow, but our faith and philosophy, our hopes and dreams, and our very desire to leave at least our little part of the world better than it was when we found it. We are living - consciously, and deliberately - a lifestyle that expresses who we are and what we believe. Does anybody care? Why don't read our blog, leave a comment, and let us know.