The Eagle Magazine
"Southern Nights"
This was a week to remember, the whole family pitched in to make this work. My nephew Brian made the airport run to pick Joe and Elizabeth up. David and Ellen hosted them during the day so they could work remotely; yeah, so Joe works in LA, California and Elizabeth works in NY, New York, but they live in Philadelphia, PA, so Lawrenceville, GA works just fine. What can I say, we live in a new world! The calls went out to the far flung Georgia family, we booked a table for twenty-five at Ted's Montana Grill and low and behold twenty-three showed up! What a night, laughing and talking, telling stories of our childhood, remembering my Mom and Dad and holding our waitress hostage for nearly three hours. As I said, it was a night to remember.
I was born and raised in the south; Georgia to be exact. Even though I lived in lots of towns and went to many schools during my childhood, we never lived outside Georgia. Once we lived in Rossville, GA; we were so close to the line that I could spit out my bedroom window and it would land in Tennessee. We also lived so close to the Florida line once that we could hear the gators grunt at night. Still, we always stayed on Georgia soil.
Now, since I left my childhood home, I've lived in many states and even another country and I have come to learn that what they say is true, you can take the boy out of the south, but you can never take the south out of the boy. I even put this line in a song, "I miss the family and my southern life." It's true, I do love Pennsylvania and I love Nottingham, the village and the church, but from time to time I miss hot summer Georgia nights, iced tea on the porch and chicken fried in an iron skillet. I suppose we all yearn a little for the land of our raising, so it was with great anticipation that I left Mercy's Vessel heading for Lawrenceville, GA and the home of my brother David.
We were so glad the morning we left Gulfport to find that the driving rain we had all day Sunday had given way to a bring sunshiny Monday morning. For many people, a six-hour drive is pure torture, but after all my travels, it's to me a walk in the park. We arrived by early afternoon and felt like we were getting an extra day. While we were still in Gulfport, my youngest had called and said he and his fiancé were going to fly down to Georgia so that Elizabeth could meet the family. That would be my brother David and my two sisters June and Cindy along with their kids and grandkids. I was as surprised as Clark Griswold when cousin Eddy showed up for Christmas, but a whole lot happier about it!
Well, Friday we had to head back to Nottingham and you know what, we couldn't wait to get home. I'm a man with more than one home. I wouldn't move from Nottingham if you paid me, but I wouldn't miss my trips down south for anything in the world. As I think about it I have to say, I'm a very blessed man.
