First Sunday of December

I have not gotten in the spirit of the season. Maybe it is because I have not helped put up any decorations. So, on my todo list I am informally listing: pray, eat, take a nap, go to a party, and move tree out of storage room.

It's the first Sunday of December.

Really?

Already?

Night Out with my Father

It has been a long time since I have taken the time to attend an event like last night. I have been invited to this annual wild game cooking party, but something has always kept me from attending. When my father, 83, visited our family doctor this week he got invited again. The doctor is one of the main hosts of the event. He extended an invitation to me as well.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Cool enough so that the charcoal grilled venison steaks, grilled air-dried country sausage, (real) buffalo chilly, fried catfish, herb broiled quail, Eastern North Carolina chopped pork barbecue, baked yams, and my favorite- original recipe seafood gumbo. It was truly a feast to behold. The food was prepared by local businesses that sell products to farmers and landowners in our area. For example, the seafood gumbo was provided by a famous cabinet and construction company from Whiteville. I have know the owners since high school some 34 or so years. Mike, one of the owners of the cabinet shop, flew out to the mid west and killed the buffalo. He purchased a custom built rifle just for the hunt. If Mike had to put a price on the kettle full of buffalo chilly, he would have had to charge $1,000 per plate to come close to breaking even. Everyone was crazy about the gumbo. I noticed a local independent restaurant owner critiquing the steaming hot bowl of gumbo. I overheard him comment that he knew that a pot that large had to have cost over six hundred dollars to prepare. I immediately got another bowl full. Peanut butter sandwiches inhaled in my ten minutes of lunch time pales in comparison to the wild game cooked to perfection I eat Friday night.

As for those present, I will not try to list those that in attendance. However, I only saw two other teachers there. One was my future son-in-law. The other was a coach that is an avid outdoorsman. I did see a retired high school coach in the crowd. It was a real who's who of movers and shakers from our rural county. Our NC State Senator made a brief appearance, As did our current Sheriff and several NC Highway Patrolmen, some off duty and some on-duty. Those on-duty officers eat and ran. They probably stopped to ask that we move all those four wheel drive pickup trucks off the shoulder of the road. I parked very close to the food so my father did not have to walk far.

The best part of the evening was shaking hands and getting caught up with all my old friends. I chatted with people I had not seen in 15 years. It was like a homecoming. The funny thing is that none of the men there has a blog, none of them have a wiki, none of them could tell you the difference between Facebook or MySpace. I would be willing to bet that less than 5 of them use email. Yet, they all are making a living, have sent kids to college, could buy and sell most any thing they want, and hunted everywhere in the world, have boats, lake front, river front, or beach or mountain vacation homes. Technology is not part of their lives. Sure they have cell phones so their kids and wives and keep up with them. I did not see a single one of them with a cell phone stuck in their ear. The doctors there left their pagers/cell phones at home. The judges walking around with plates of catfish and cups full of their favorite beverage, could care less about answering text messages or if iPhones will have push email in July.

Social networking still is all about face to face personal contact. I am not going to miss another one of those events. It has been too long since I have been to a pig picking/wild game cooking. Blogging compared to wild game cook offs are a waste of my time. No one reads what I blog anyway. Who cares what a small town school teacher has to say.

Tobacco - The Golden Leaf of Days Gone By

When I was going up here in Chadbourn, the sites and smells of the tobacco market was always something we looked forward to. Farmers finally had some money to spend on cloths and necessities. I remember that successful farmers drove new pick-ups around town. Folks around here referred to the local economy as "the farmers plan". The merchants would charge groceries, fertilizer, feed, fuel for their trackers, tires for their vehicles, and just about everything--and when the tobacco market opened and the tobacco farmers sold their crop they would pay off their creditors.

Tobacco leaves 2

Yesterday, I noticed in the local Chinese restaurant in Chadbourn, a sign that reads: "Visa and Maste Card Only No Checks". As I stood there in line and chucked at the spelling lesson I wanted to make out of the poster, it came to me that we are not on "the farmer plan" economy any more.

Blogged with Flock

April Showers Bring May Flowers-- Right?

The wind and rain has howled since yesterday afternoon. At least the official tornado warnings have been dropped in our area. Our family dog has spent most of the day running under the chair. I am not sure exactly how much rain has fallen, but it was over two inches. Water is standing every where around the house.

Now, just a few words about motivating my students tomorrow, after six days out of school.

• Plan in shorter time segments.
  
• Vary activities.
• Bring children's books and novels into your lesson.
• Actively involve students in the lesson.