Archives for May 2020

KEEP IT SHORT

May 31, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

KEEP IT SHORT

A young preacher showed up one Sunday to give his first sermon. Came time for services to start and only one person had shown up sitting in the pew on the second row. “What do you think I should do?” asked the Rev.

13 Things a Pastor Should Never Say to a Congregation | Facts & Trends

“Don’t rightly know” was the old farmers response. “I’m just an old farmer but if I went out in the field and found only one cow, I would feed it.” So, the young preacher climbed in the pulpit and went at it. He delivered a fiery sermon and it went on and on and on. And on.

Male Preacher Standing At Pulpit Gesturing Portrait High-Res Stock ...

When he finished stepping out of the pulpit he asked the old farmer, “What did you think?” Old farmer’s response, “Don’t right know, but if I went out in my field and found only one cow: I sure wouldn’t feed him the whole load.”

Influence Magazine | Are You a Man-Friendly Church?

(Favorite story President Reagan often told in his speech giving days.)

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June 1, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

SOMETIMES–

May 29, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

Sometimes

Sometimes and then there’s…. otherwise.

(Marcellas Brown and Larry Adamson)

Sometimes people come into our lives and if we are honest, not a lot of thought is given to that entrance. Life is there and we just live it. Then something happens and we realize otherwise.

One night this past week I took a call telling me that my friend Marcellas Brown had been in an auto accident just a few hours earlier and he was now in surgery at Vanderbilt Hospital. I was also told that two of his daughters were with him and they also were seriously injured. Less than thirty minutes later I received a second call telling me that Marcellas had passed during surgery.

I first met Marcellas some years back through the good efforts of a lady named Betty. Betty was a school teacher and was familiar with the family. Out of that initial contact Marcellas and I struck up a relationship. I met him and his family at his home and from there he and I started meeting for lunch with some regularity, and we talked often by phone. Sometimes, especially during the summer, he would arrive at the restaurant with some of his children. Marcellas was the parent to some and he was the custodial parent to several others also in a foster-type care situation. At times when the children joined us for lunch. Some of those lunch encounters were like herding cats.

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Over the years Marcellas and I came to know one another pretty well. He came to attend the church where my wife and I attend and also Dan Harrell’s weekly Bible class. He and I shared things that neither of us would share with just a casual acquaintance. He was from Alabama and had some growing up difficulties in his youth. Often when we left our lunches together I would think to myself how different the circumstance the two of us had come from, but a bond was being established between us.

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Marcellas and I shared our love of music. On occasion I’d bring him a CD of songs that I thought he might like. I remember the time I gave him an Otis Redding CD. “You like Otis” he asked. He was further surprised when the next time I brought him a Ray Charles and a Five Tops CD. I remember him saying to me, “Larry, nobody gives me stuff like this.” He was sincerely grateful.

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After our second or third lunch meeting, I remember him saying to me, “Larry, if you knew more about me and my past you might not want to have lunch with me.” He had previously shared some personal things with me and I assured him that there was nothing he could share that would have any effect on our lunch meetings so over the years we did talk about a lot of life things, wives, children, church, personal matters, etc.

I remember one time he called me a couple hours before we were to meet for lunch and asked if he could bring his boss with him for lunch. I told him yes, of course, and I am glad he did. On that day when Marcellas went to wash his hands his boss spoke well of him, “He’s a good worker, he goes to your church?”

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I have so many stories I could share about Marcellas. One thing I will always remember is something I said in front of him and what he said in return. I had said, “You know, I sure have been lucky.” He looked at me, shook his head and said, “No Larry, you have not been lucky, you’ve been blessed.”

Best Poems About Friendship Too often we don't realize that we've ...

You know, sometimes you go along living life and often not paying attention to all the twists and turns, life is just kinda coming to you. Often you fail to realize significant things that are happening. I’m sorry to say for a while that was me regarding my meetings with Marcellas. Then one day you wake up and begin to realize some things aren’t as insignificant as one might think. Marcellas you were right on the money, I have not been lucky, I’ve been blessed. And you know one of those blessings was your crossing my path.

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Another memory that I will always remember from those lunch gatherings was about one of Marcellas’s children, I called her Peanut. She was about four or five and he would bring her as she was not school age at the time. One time when we had finished eating Peanut took my face in her small hands, looked me in the eyes and said to me: “Will you take me to the car and put me in my car seat?” So here we go skipping across the parking lot, me in my predictable attire, golf shirt, khaki pants, loafers holding the hand of a small black child and placing her in her car seat. I would pay good money today for a picture of that.

There’s an old hymn that was often sung at my Grandmother’s country church in Sullivan County Indiana. “Farther Along” and the drift of the song is that as we go farther along we’ll understand life, we will understand “why.” Well, I’m a lot farther along on that life journey than when I was when I sat with Grandma. But I have yet to be “farther along” to completely understand the whys and certainly the timing of a lot of matters. But I must add, no one has put me in charge of that matter, so I best just keep journeying along.

Dust Heart Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

You know, some people live their lives and leave dust on the hearts of those they meet. For me, there will always be a bit of dust that Marcellas has left on me. I bet I am not the only one. One might think that he was such an unlikely candidate or one to have such influence on another. Yes I suppose so, but then again…otherwise…

He broadened and deepened the

lives that came to know him.”

Betty Matthews

Betty, it can’t be said much better than that of another: “They broaden and deepen the lives of those who come to know them.” I was blessed by his friendship.

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May 29, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

GO BACK AND RE-READ

May 28, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

GO BACK–RE-READ

My wife and I are making preparations to move. No fun. Cleaning out closets, looking in places we have not since moving into our present day house. We have lived longer in this house, eighteen years, than any place we have lived in our nearly fifty-five years of marriage.

Going through some stuff, files etc. we had stored in the attic has caused me to reflect. You know you forget what you have filed away, what and where you placed things.

Confused Man Reading Letter Sitting Couch Night Home — Stock Video ...

But in doing such it has caused me to run on to some old letters, correspondence. Some even as far back as when our kids were very small. Just read a letter that our now fifty year old son wrote— actually printed in big letters—for Mother’s day remembrance to my mother, his grandmother. He, at the time living in a distant state, she in Indiana. Or two other letters that our two daughters also had written their grandmother. One of them could barely print.

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But my point here is this. Sitting here going through old correspondence I ran across a letter sent to me. It was from, well not really important that one knows that. But it was from a party, I would never have expected to receive such a letter. The letter was hand written on his personal stationery. Also, on the letter was a picture I had always associated with him.

Reading that letter of twenty plus years ago presented me with a different side of that person. It made me do some recalling. My previously take on this party had been that he was distant, a bit cold, seemly lacking in empathy. As I finished the letter I thought, “you know I don’t remember ever seeing that side of him.” I’m glad that letter was not thrown away and today found me again opening that envelope, taking out his writings and reading again what he had once said to me.

Moody cheerless man reading an old letter. Old memories. moody ...

Sometimes in life we need to dig back into the past and remember again. Sometimes we need to recall things that were done and said to us by those that maybe, well maybe we have not held them in the esteem we should.

Letter Envelope Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

As I put the letter back in the envelope I smiled and thought, “yea I think maybe I should hold him in little higher regard than I did before reading the letter. Maybe sometimes we need to read “some old mail.”

Stressed person holding a letter Stock Photos - Page 1 : Masterfile

Probably in the lives of all of us there is or will be an “old letter,” some old correspondence it would does good to read again. Some times the perspective we have of another is more of our doing than theirs.

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May 28, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

ALWAYS TRY TO KNOW

May 27, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

ALWAYS TRY TO KNOW

Advice: Try to always know in who’s presences you are.

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In the late 1970s’ I sat in the office of a man who was recognized as one of the foremost authorities world wide on the rules of golf. I was being interviewed for a opening on his staff. The second question I was asked, “What do you know about the rules of golf?” Ouch. Before answering I thought, “Larry right now remember where you are and who has ask that question.”

Washington & Lafayette | History | Smithsonian Magazine

Shortly after the battles in the American Revolution War peace was being negotiated. General Washington was with his troops in New York. Over time the troops had become restless because they had not been paid. Washington had sent inquires numerous times to the Continental Congress asking they act. Rumor was spreading that many of the officers were going to march on Philadelphia. Word got to Washington of the situation.

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Washington then made a surprise visit to this gathering of officers. Standing addressing them he first praised them for their service to their country and their support as their leader. He then pulled from his pocket a copy of what appeared to be a prepared speech he wished to read. Doing so he fumbled with the paper and finally after padding various pockets he found his reading glasses. Glasses most of the men had never seen. Speaking he said:

“I have already grown gray in the service of my country and now I am going blind.”

With his presences and those words the uprising was over. It was said rebellion had melted into tears.

Note: Never mind the fact that Washington had been using reading glasses for years.

Again good to know who’s present one is in. Don’t be like these two guys. A rookie in the NBA once ask Hall of Fame basketball coach and player, Lennie Wilkens, “Do you how hard it is to do what you are asking.” The second guy asking, Chet Atkins, “Do you play guitar.”

I was glad on that interview day I knew where I was sitting and who had asked the question. By the way I was surprised with his reaction when I gave him my answer.

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May 27, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

A FOUL BALL

May 26, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

A FOUL BALL

Sometimes when one does not know what to say maybe the best thing to do is “hit a foul ball.” When in doubt, deflect. Let me explain this way.

Famous Iowans - Ronald Reagan | DesMoinesRegister.com

Ronald Reagan: The 'Great Communicator' advanced from sports ...

In the early days of baseball broadcasting often it was done by wire. In other words a person sat not at the ball park but in a radio studio and took the happenings of the game by wire. Games were re-created. President Ronald Reagan was once such a broadcaster, He broadcast over six hundred games Chicago Cubs games by re-creation in a studio.

A: Ronald Reagan did radio re-creation of Cubs games from teletype ...

One such broadcast the wire went dead. No information coming to him as to what was happening as the player was at bat. The wire had gone dead and he had told his audience and “the ball is on the way to the plate.” Wire dead. Now what?

Chicago Cubs' Albert Almora Jr.'s Foul Ball Strikes Young Fan : NPR

He thought there was one thing that doesn’t get in the score book. Quickly he said to his audience, he called the player by name and said, “and he foul’s off the first pitch.” Not only did he report the foul ball but went on to describe how it was fouled down the third base line into the crowd and now two little kids were fighting over the ball for a souvenir.

This past Mother’s Day I was reminded of a re-creation of a foul ball my mother served up to me. Mom was in a care facility, her mind failing. I had gone to see her taking my wife Barbara with me. As we stood over mom’s bed I said to her, “Mom look here who is with me, do you know who this is?”

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Mom’s wires may have gone dead but Ronald Reagan had nothing on her. She looked, smiled and you could see the wheels turning. Lights were going off but troubling connecting. Then she said to me: “Yes, yes I do I know who that is, it’s someone I love.

She had just thrown a ninety mile hour plus fast ball by me. Right down the heart of the plate and all I could so was stand and watch.

Maybe when the wires have gone dead and we don’t know what to say, just foul one off and wait for the next pitch.

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May 26, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

I WAS ASHAMED

May 25, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

“I WAS ASHAMED”

Sometime back I had the pleasure of visiting the Mississippi home of the literary great, Williams Faulkner. Faulkner said a number of things with lasting value. He once said:

“Unless you’re ashamed of yourself every now and then you’re not honest.”

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This Monday May 25th is Memorial Day. A day in which we have the opportunity to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice served in our country’s military.

I must say there have been some times in which I identify with Faulkner’s statement about being ashamed.

In thinking about this Memorial Day I was reminded when our son left for the military. In my book Just Some Thoughts, “Off to War and I Felt Ashamed” page 537 I write in more detail regarding those times and happenings.

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I well remember the morning I took him to the National Guard Armory in Flemington, NJ to begin his service. Not only remembering the morning but the long night before. Just a few days previous he had completed his high school education and now was leaving for service.

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Everything about that time makes in a sense makes me ashamed. I could not help but think of the time that my older brother was stationed for one year in Korea during the Korean War. Or how my biological father had served in the Battle of the Bulge during WW II. And now here I was taking our son to begin his service and fortunately our country was not at war. Even with that consolation I still had great reservations about the whole matter.

Even though I knew that over sixteen million American men and women served in WW II and nearly five hundred thousand never came home I still could not erase the feeling in the pit of my stomach.

9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand on Normandy Beach to ...

I must say he did and I both did just fine. He ended up spending something like nearly ten years in full time duty and reserves. Some years later he and I would travel together to Europe and be with a group in which for twelve days during that time we would re-create the journey of the American solider on his landing at the beaches at Normandy all the way to the heart of Germany. Bunkers, hedgerows, air gliders, you name it. During that time we would visit eleven of the thirteen American cemeteries located in Europe. I will always remember the Sunday morning he and walked the beaches of Normandy. So quite, it was as if nothing had ever happened. He and I both knew better.

Local residents prepare for Memorial Day by visiting graves ...

Heartbreaking photos show relatives visiting graves of loved ones ...

So on this Memorial Day I hope things are good in your world. As a kid growing up in Indiana this day I will always remember. It would start with my parents making their annual visiting to the cemetery walking and talking among the graves they would visit. Later in the day it would be spent at relatives houses, waiting for the watermelons, placed in the wash tub to get cold. Taking turns cranking the freezer for the home made ice cream. And hearing Sid Collins describing the running of the Memorial Day classic, the Indianapolis 500.

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1977 Indy 500: Foyt wins in Hulman's final race

You know I guess sometimes being ashamed can help makes us proud. Probably a bit good for all of us at one time or another to feel a bit ashamed.

When I think about on it, yes in some ways I am ashamed, but I am very thankful for those who have given so much for us. May we never forget the price that has been paid for us to be able to try and live life as best we choose.

In a far and distant land somewhere inscribed on a stone it reads:

“When you go home, tell them of us and say,

for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

Hope you enjoy the day.

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May 25, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

WHY DO YOU HATE?”

May 24, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

“WHY DO YOU HATE?”

My wife and I have started the process to sell our house. Yes, selling, downsizing. Not really moving from Franklin, just moving a couple miles into a cottage type community.

Real Estate Agent Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

All this has prompted us to receive many phone calls from real estate agents inquiring about the sale, etc. Today I took a call that I am still shaking my head over. In any of the information listing the house, at this time it has been indicated the house is “For Sale by Owner.”

This morning I took a call from an agent and less than two or three minutes into the call he said to me, “Why do you hate real estate agents.” I kid you not. I paused a minute thinking did he say what I think he said. “Excuse me.” He repeated his statement.

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I then ask him a question. “Why would you ask such a question” You don’t even know me yet from your question you assume I hate someone. I try not to hate anyone and because one does not do something at this time, such as putting their house up for sale with an agent, that means they hate them. I would hope this does not mean they hate.” “Well you know what I mean, what do you have against agents.”

In my opinion this party has either not been trained at all or poorly trained in the art of sales communication.

But I wonder if that isn’t too common an attitude today in too many circles ” If you “don’t” then that means you “do.”

Really? Are we at the point that because one does do something another thinks they should, or doesn’t agree with, then they must hate. Really?

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With that I had to get me a second cup of coffee and go sit on the porch and think about that one for a bit.

“Why do you hate…….. real estate agents?”

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May 24, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

JUST ONE

May 23, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

JUST ONE

Don’t ever underestimate the value of just one person. Just one.

WW2 Picture Photo Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill pose 1185

In 1931 Winston Churchill was almost killed when he crossed Park Avenue in New York City late one night. He had looked the wrong way, as he would customarily do in London, hit by a car, knocked to the ground.

Just a little over a year later President Franklin Roosevelt had gone to Miami, Florida for a political rally and speech. An assassin opened fire on an open car in which he was riding. Sitting next to Roosevelt was the mayor of Chicago. He was killed.

Adolf Hitler Stock Pictures, Royalty-free Photos & Images - Getty ...

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Think about this, in the times of Churchill and Roosevelt there also stood these four men: Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and Mao-Tse-tung.

I shuttered to think what the world might be like this coming Memorial Day in 2020 had there not been just those two people, Churchill and Roosevelt, on the world scene. Just two people in a world of millions.

You know whether it is a country, a company or a family sometimes the value of just “that one person” in it………cannot be over emphasized,

It may be a world leader, or a person at your work, a teacher where your kid goes to school, an individual in your community, or your church, or your mom, your dad, your child, or your husband or your wife.

Never, never under estimate the value of “Just One.” Our lives might operate quite differently if there was not just that one person in it.

Might even do us some good to think a bit about who that person might be. That without them in our lives, how different it might be.

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May 23,2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

RUTH’S CRISP PRICES

May 22, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

RUTH’S CRISP PRICES

Today passing a Wendy’s brought this memory.

Wendy's Stock Pictures, Royalty-free Photos & Images - Getty Images

Today I’d pay Ruth’s Chris Steak House prices for a bowl of chili at Wendy’s. Yes, yes I would.

The restaurant - Picture of Ruth's Chris Steak House, Greenville ...

I like chili. I like Wendy’s chili. There is something about chili and a boy growing up in Indiana. You see before most every basketball game during my high school days I would have a bowl of chili just before leaving for the game. My grandmother would often fix it. Chili is so associated with basketball in Indiana. In the 1950s’ the hey day of especially small school basketball in the state, what was called chili suppers were popular. Before and after a game the school’s band would be sponsoring a chili supper. Home made chili and pie in the school’s cafeteria.

I bet today I could get my old friend Tom Meeks to come out of retirement. He’d find his stripped shirt, whistle and come whistle a basketball game if I could promise him a big bowl of chili, some homemade apple pie,with a scoop of ice cream on top. Even if he was officiating the game at White’s Institute. (Be careful there’s blood on the floor there from his missed calls) I guarantee you he’d do it. Chili suppers before and after games, they were social gatherings in a community.

(Left to right looking at picture–Daughter Jill–Wife Barbara–daughter Jennifer and mother-in-law Margaret)–sorry you may have to scroll across to get all the picture)

What’s the thing with chili and my mother-in-law? You see every Sunday morning my wife and I would pick her up for church. She would be standing in the lobby of her retirement place. Dressed to fit the occasion and never late. You did not wait on Gumbie. (Her name given by one of our kids.) After church we would go out to eat.

“Gumbie where do you want to go eat?” Often she would say, “Oh, let’s just go to Wendy’s it’s close to my place.” And often we would go, she did like their french fries. She and my wife would always finish off their fine dining by getting themselves a chocolate frosty. What is it with women and chocolate? She was a jewel. No mother-in-law jokes for me. All the time I knew her she had my back. She passed away six years ago at the age of ninety-four. This morning early as I made my way to my coffee place I passed a Wendy’s–thus the creation of these remembrances.

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But I’d only pay those Ruth’s Chris prices for a bowl of chili at Wendy’s under one condition. That condition, that some way I could take my mother-in-law. If fact not only would I pay those prices I’d leave them one of the biggest tips they ever saw. But only, only, if she were with me.

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May 23, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

NOW RUTH

May 21, 2020 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

NOW RUTH

Bad news, that business about Abigail and asking for a date. I did.

She turned me down. She did it graciously, but with a smile, “No, I’m sorry.” I think I actually lost out to a fella with a better lookin’ donkey, money and his parents had the biggest flock of goats and sheep in all of the land. Also, owned the biggest cheese factory in the world. You know goats and cheese they go together. You’ve heard of it, Pimento cheese.

A Large Herd Of Goats And Sheep On The Green Grass In The Daytime ...

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Another lady of interest I thought about was Ruth. Now there is an interesting lady. Why might one be attracted to her? She was even married once before.

She was from one country married a guy from another country so they had mixed cultures. I think about the sadness in her life. Her husband dies, her father-in-law dies and history thinks probably she had no children. That was a big deal back then. A widow with no means of support. At the mercy of society. Also, no Habit for Humanity at the time.

Understanding a different culture | Cultural identity | ReachOut ...

I think one of the things that might have attracted someone to her was her attitude toward life. No where do we read of “poor pitiful me.” One thing I so respect is her attitude toward change. Change was often handed to her and she just dealt with it. Some folks just don’t deal well with change.

Ruth and Naomi. How much I love the character of Ruth! (With ...

Ruth and Naomi - Bible Story Verses & Meaning

“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people your God will be my God. Where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Ruth–Chapter one

Where you choose to go, live, associate with I will also. All this said to her mother-in-law when her mother-in- law tells her, “you need to go back where you came from, go back home.”

Time For Change Representing At Present And Changing Stock Photo ...

As I said some folks do not adjust well to change. I think about my own life and my wife. When we married we moved a little over one hundred miles from our families. No big deal. But at the time her father was terminally ill, she was an only child and her mother was left to deal with that situation.

New York City Stock Pictures, Royalty-free Photos & Images - Getty ...

After nearly fifteen years in one career area I chose to leave that field. We not only changed careers but we moved to a distant state. Change. And my wife never flinched a bit. Three years after that I changed careers again and we moved. This time completely across the country. Moved to what was in some ways a “foreign” land for us. It took our family to where we lived thirty miles west of New York City. To a state and place neither my wife or I had ever been. Change. Again my wife and family never said “no way.” There was not, “this is a deal breaker” issue.

Then change again came in 2002. We retired and again moved “clear” across the country from New Jersey to Tennessee. All during our years we moved, we built houses, we sold houses, bought houses, liked some houses, did not like some houses. But like Ruth the bottom line was, “where you go I will go.”

Maybe in a few ways I have been married to a Ruth. But had I lived in Bible times I think she was one that one might have at least had an interest in meeting because of who and what she was. Ruth, she had a kindness and compassion about her. Concern for others.

The relationship between women and their mothers-in-law is often ...

Said of Ruth about the care and attention she gave to her mother-in-law Naomi:

“Your daughter-in-law is better to you

than your seven sons.”

Interesting this lady would go on to have some famous relative, her great-grandson, that would be David.

Coca Cola recipe: Top secret formula 'uncovered' by This American ...

Hey I bet the lady–Ruth— I bet would at least have made an interesting “coke date.” Maybe? (Just don’t bring your mother-in-law)

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May 22, 2020

Keep on,

Larry Adamson