Lately I’ve found that most of my posts could be classified into just a few categories.

1. Church issues – mostly what’s going on at church and other church related activities
2. Retro categories – “Those were the days….” “When I was in school….” Usually my lame attempt at remembering the past.
3. An occassional link to some weird story.
4. Daily life – what’s going on here.

Or these posts can be a combination of all of the above.
On with the rest of the post….
With this new school year makes me remember the past. 7th grade may have been the toughest school year for me. Starting out in a new school where everyone seemed to be searching for their place. You had people there who seemed to have their ideals together. Then there were other people who were desperately seeking attention. It was a new school for everyone. Seventh graders were the lowest on the totem pole for the school which housed 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. Ironically, it seems, at this school ninth graders ruled the roost.
During this time everyone was either trying to be the coolest, or trying not to rock the boat too much and be noticed. I was one of those trying not to rock the boat. Each day I would go about my classes hoping that no one would notice me and be able to harrass me.
One day I noticed a 9th grade girl in the lunch room. On her shirt it said “One in the Oven” or “Yes, that’s my baby” with an arrow pointing down to her pregnant bulge. At that point reality set in. I knew I had just stepped into a whole new world. This wasn’t elementary school anymore.
Meanwhile the Scottsville church has a new preacher. I am not sure if it was a rush job or what. They had been without a preacher for a little over 2 weeks before they hired this new one. I guess they were anxious to get a new one sooner rather than later. I’ve come to the conclusion that Scottsville preachers usually don’t last longer than 5 years. Why is this? I have some theories about it, but they are way to complicated to be shared here.
Sooner or later they’re going to have a Reality TV Show channel. They’ll show reruns of the Real World, Big Brother, Survivor, and all of the rest of those type shows. Within the past 2 years I’m sure they’ve produced enough of these genre of programs which could fill their timeslots for several months.

For many kids around here, today is the first day of school. It’s been quite a while since I had a first day of school. My last “First Day of School” was when I was taking classes at Lipscomb in the Spring of 1999, but those days are long gone.
Here are some random memories of the first day of school:
Just a few days before school started, my mom would take me and my sister out to Wal-Mart or Target to buy school supplies. In the early 80s, we’d buy our stuff at the Big K (since there was no such thing as Wal-Mart around here). It was somewhat exciting to get new stuff for school, but there was always a sense of sinister foreboding that seemed to follow you around at those back to school sales at the retail stores. It was a sense that your fun time was over and it was time to get back to work.
It was a big deal in Junior High and High School when you picked out your wardrobe on the first day. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so I always put alot of thought into it.
Then there was meeting my teachers. My sister usually paved the way for me since she was a good student. If I got one of her old teachers, I usually had an advantage since the teacher would assume I was a good student too.
On a related note, I think I will go to my old elementary school and pull my permanent record to see what’s in there. In order to instill fear onto students, teachers would always say “This will go on your permanent record.” Well what exactly is “Your Permanent Record” ? Does it show all the grades that you ever made? Does it show that “B” I made on that obscure spelling test in the 2nd grade? Stanford Achievement Test Scores?
My friend, Roy Agee‘s girlfriend, Kristie Ridgon, made it onto a story on CNN.com with this AP photo.

I went to Kentucky today to see some friends in their Eagle Scout ceremony. Made me think of my brief years in the Boy Scouts. Actually I technically never made it to Boy Scouts. Instead I only got to Weblos, which is the step in between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. I was in 5th grade at the time. Our meetings didn’t seem to be fun anymore. It was pretty much all work. So I dropped out. I’m not much of an outdoorsmen myself. I couldn’t identify a tree to save my life. And I certainly couldn’t make fire. So I guess I wouldn’t have made a good Boy Scout.
In fact 5th grade was a pretty tough year for me. My teacher was a real nuisance. She gave way too much homework….much of which was pretty pointless like writing spelling words ten times each. Usually took me 3 hours each night to do all of my homework.

The snow is on its way….supposedly. The weatherman is predicting 1-3 inches tomorrow morning. I am going to go on record right now as saying there will be no snow….no noticeable snow that is. Anytime they predict 1-3 inches, it usually means that there will be a dusting of snow at the most. I remember some days in school, especially junior high, the weatherman would predict snow. During the morning hours, everyone was saying there would be 1-3 inches. As the day wore on, the snow rumor would increase to 6 inches. By the end of the day, the rumor was saying there would be a blizzard headed our way. The next day? Absolutely no snow. Such disappointment jaded me about snow predictions. I just don’t believe anything anymore.
I saw Lord of the Rings today. I didn’t care for it. Too much hype. Too long of a movie. The movie could have cut an hour off from it and still kept the story line. It ended on a down note too. I thought they were going to get rid of this nasty ring which was causing them all the trouble. Next I find that it’s going to be the 3rd movie before they get rid of the ring. What gives?
I guess this dislike of the movie stems from being forced to read The Hobbit in 5th grade. I didn’t care for fantasy movies and novels back then, and I certainly don’t now.

A few days ago a friend and I were going through an old junior high yearbook. In the process of remembering old times I asked my friend what ever happened to this certain classmate. I was not friends with this classmate, however his face always stood out in the yearbook. My friend said that the classmate had committed suicide when he was a sophomore in high school. I believe he took his own life due to a number of problems in his life. But primarily it was because his girlfriend did not want to make their relationship more serious. It’s sad. While I was not friends with him, the news of his death did have an impact on me. Looking back on it I wonder if there was anything that could have been done to make this person not see suicide as a way out. In the junior high yearbook the pictures show him in a couple of clubs. His body position in those pictures seem to indicate that he was uncomfortable. He was never smiling. Sure, junior high can be a rough experience for anybody, but I have to wonder if his experience was even worse.

The final tally for last night:
Number of Trick or Treaters: 0
Number of unopened bags of candy: 3
Needless to say it was a slow night last night on my street.
This morning millions of Americans woke up and checked their yard to make sure it hasn’t been rolled with toilet paper. And thousands woked up to find their trees wrapped in toilet paper. We got rolled once when I was growing up. But it was from someone who we didn’t even know.
Changing the subject…. I now know 2 people who turned out to be “youth pastors” of Christian denominations. I went to high school with these people. During those years these people were anything but nice to me. They put me down at any chance they got. I find it ironic that they turned out to be youth pastors….a profession that requires one to be accepting of everyone. I am unsure if they have really changed their ways or if they are playing chameleon. Certainly no one should be held accountable for what was said in high school. However I just find it weird that these 2 people, who probably bugged me the most in high school, decided to be youth pastors.