Russ Pearson's blog

Reflections of Autumn

Autumn reflections

By RUSS PEARSON

A wave of cool air swept into the Yadkin River Valley this past weekend...a welcome change from the long, hot summer. The change signaled the beginning of the fall season.  Autumn, as fall is otherwise known, officially begins next week, on Sept. 23; it’s my favorite time of year.                  

Overnight this past weekend, the daily high temperature dropped some 20 degrees, from the low 80s to the low 60’s; what had been the daily lows suddenly became the daily highs, at least for a few days.  For this Brushy Mountain resident, the change could not come too soon...the heat of this past summer had wilted my sagging spirits; I was more than ready for some climate relief. 

There are a number of reasons to love the autumn season.  Fall air has a unique feeling... other seasons just don’t compare. Cool, brisk mornings that gradually warm to mild, even balmy afternoons...days that begin with us sporting sweaters, before gradually transitioning to long-sleeve shirts or blouses.

The cooler air clears out the lazy, lingering haze of summer...haze that partially obstructs the marvelous views from “Brushmont,” my mountaintop domain.  The clear autumn air opens vast vistas of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains across the scenic Yadkin river valley...views that include Grandfather Mountain., Mount. Jefferson and Stone Mountain.

The turning of the leaves is yet another spectacular reason to love the fall.  Here on the Brushies, with its temperate climate, the annual transition of foliage from greens to yellows, reds, oranges and magentas is as dazzling as found anywhere; just one more reason I love where I live in this, my autumn season of life. Fall is also an annual treat for photographers...amateurs like me as well as professionals. 

The approach of autumn also signals the beginning of the football season.  While baseball still claims to be the “National pastime,” (which it may still be up north), for sports fans here in the south and mid-Atlantic states, football and NASCAR still rule the roost. 

Football teams are plentiful, ranging from Pee Wee and Pop Warner leagues to high school, college and pro teams.  As for me, I happen to prefer college football, in part because of its unequalled pageantry and the unparallel excitement of its supporters, including alumni and other non-affiliated fans...pageantry including serious tailgating not present in other American sports.

North Carolina is especially blessed to be home to some of the finest college football teams in the nation, and several other leading college teams located just out-of-state.  ACC teams like The “Tarheels” of UNC Chapel Hill; the “Wolfpack” of NC State; the Wake Forest “Demon Deacons” and the “Blue Devils” of Duke University.

Just across our northern border live the” Hokies” of Virginia Tech and the “Cavaliers” of the University of Virginia, while those vicious Clemson “Tigers” rule the turf around Greenville, S.C., just across our southern boundary.  

Then there are those “Yellow Jacket” clad “Rambling Wrecks” from Georgia Tech, just a few hours’ drive south to Atlanta, and I dare not forget those “Terrapins” from the University of Maryland, located a relatively short drive north on I-95 to College Park, MD. 

Much of the ACC’s recent rise in the college football ranks can be attributed to Wilkes County native and fellow Wilkes Central graduate, John Swofford.  John is the current Commissioner of the ACC.  Among other major contributions to the ACC, John’s strong leadership has brought Florida State, Boston College and the University of Miami into the expanded conference, in addition to Virginia Tech.

But wait, there is more to college football in North Carolina than just the big name, Division I schools...there are other exciting North Carolina college football teams in other conferences... teams like the nearby Appalachian State “Mountaineers” in beautiful Boone, perennial champions in the Southern Conference; the “Phoenix” of Elon and the “Eagles” of Carolina Central out of the Southern Conference and the “Bulldogs” of Gardner Webb in the Big South Conference.  Or how bout them “Pirates” from East Carolina University down east in Greenville, NC; the “Pirates” are always strong contenders in Conference U.S.A. 

Closer to home, fans can root for teams in the South Atlantic Conference like the Lenoir-Rhyme “Bears” in Hickory or the Catawba College “Indians” in Salisbury, or the Davidson College “Wildcats,” in Davidson, NC.  Even some of the area’s former junior colleges, (now senior colleges) including Brevard (“Tornados”) and Mars Hill (“Lions”), have added football to their athletic curricula...two small, church sponsored schools, located in the beautiful mountains near Asheville. 

Take my word for it ... there is no better way to spend a warm, fall afternoon or evening tailgating with friends and family, and then sitting in the stands with thousands of colorful fans rooting for their Alma Mater or just their favorite college football team.  The excitement is contagious and the camaraderie is instantaneous. Whether your team wins or loses, the game itself gives you something to talk about all next week, in addition to the usual table topics of sex, politics and religion.

What did you say? Which team(s) do I root for?  Glad you asked.  During my 26 year Navy career, our family lived 17 of those years in the state of Florida. During that time, our son Steve (and much of our money) went to the private and athletically independent University of Miami (UM) in Coral Gables, Fla.  During those years in the mid to late 1980s, the independent “Canes” twice won the coveted Division I National NCAA Championship.  Since then, the “Canes” have joined the expanded Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and for teams in that conference, I remain a loyal fan of the Miami “Hurricanes,” especially when they play their “wide right” archrivals, the Florida State (FSU) “Seminoles.”  

Later, both Steve and his younger sister, Claire (along with still more of our money) went to the University of Georgia (UGA), a Southeast Conference (SEC) school in Athens, Ga.  Their decisions to attend UGA left us little choice than to become fans of the Georgia BULLDAWGs.  We go to as many DAWG games as we can; it also gives us a chance to see our grandchildren. 

However, there is a family dilemma.  After attending UGA, daughter Claire married UGA alum William Perry, arguably the DAWG’s most die-hard football fan.  Claire and William never miss a UGA football game, at home or away.  Along the way, they have given us two delightful grandchildren, Max and Lila Tate. 

Meanwhile, son Steve earned a Master’s degrees in English Literature at UGA followed by a second Master’s in Far Eastern Literature at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M.  He then returned to UGA for a PhD in Comparative Literature.

Ironically, Dr. Steve is now an instructor in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville.  Like UGA, UT is also an SEC football school.  In fact, the two schools are long-time rivals dating back to pre-historic times ...back when players were considered “sissies” if they wore pads or helmets while playing the game.  Aha, did I hear you say you see the family’s “dilemma”?  It happens every fall when Tennessee and Georgia play each other in football. 

For whom do I root on those divisive occasions?  Well the answer is simple...I wait until the game ends and then claim I was rooting for the winning team all along...I really do hate to lose. 

 

The Good Life

By RUSS PEARSON

One of the great singers of our time is a well-known entertainer named Tony Bennett...you remember Tony, don’t you? He’s the gent who left his heart in that iconic west coast city where “little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.” Falling in love with San Francisco is not an uncommon fate for many of us here in Wilkes who have had the good fortune to visit that beautiful California city by the bay.

Although Bennett is best remembered for his signature song about San Francisco, over the years, he has produced many other hits...songs that have propelled the American-born, first-generation son of Italian immigrants “From Rags to Riches.”

Bennett is also an accomplished artist on canvas. At age eighty-six, when most performers have either retired or expired, he still is actively performing on stage, while continuing to turn out beautiful and highly sought after paintings.

Of Bennett’s sizable collection of popular recordings, one of my favorites is his 1963 rendition of “The Good Life.” By coincidence, that number played on “Watercolors,” my favorite channel on XM radio as I was driving home from the beach last week. The song’s title made me ask myself, what exactly constitutes the “good life?” A complicated question with no simple answers for sure.

There probably are as many answers to that question as there are people to answer it. Answers vary from individual to individual, depending on many variables including the respondent’s nationality, family composition, circle of friends, age, race, gender, station-in-life, health, education, religious indoctrination, employment, financial security and others no doubt.

Far too often, and for far too many people, the “good life” is a function of money. Some believe that more money makes for a better life and often it does...money definitely can grease the erratic skids of life.

Unfortunately, money alone does not necessarily guarantee a good life...Just ask the late Steve Jobs, or the winners of any of the many state lotteries if wealth alone made a “good life” for them.

The more I tried to define the “good life,” the more it became apparent that a definition suitable to everyone is not possible. Finally, I decided that since life’s been good to me, I looked in the mirror and asked myself what factors have made my life so good, as wealth definitely not one of them.

Like many readers of this column, I was fortunate that the good ole stork chose to deliver me at Dr. Hubbard’s original Wilkes Hospital on Eighth Street in North Wilkesboro. From there, my parents, with some initial help from their parents (until my dad came home from WWII), reared me right here where they all called home. I could not have chosen a better place to begin “the good life,” even had I been consulted... which I wasn’t.

Among its other advantages, being born in Wilkes County gave me an official, certified American birth certificate, which automatically made me an American citizen. That would be a most useful piece of paper in the event I should someday decide to run for President of the U.S.

Can you imagine what a head start in life that American birthright gives local residents over the millions of people around the globe who gladly would give almost anything for that heritage. Unfortunately, too many of us often take that heritage for granted?

I was also fortunate to have been born into a family who wanted and planned for children. Far too many children born today are lacking either of those advantages. Sadly, they were unplanned and unwanted, not to mention the hardship of being born into families without adequate means to support them...a recipe for something other than “the good life.” Their lives more probably are headed for chronic unemployment, welfare subsistence and/or prison. Their lives are handicapped from the moment of inception. They might well have been better off not being born at all.

I had the advantage of belonging to a family that had the means and also the knowledge and willingness to provide their children with more than just the essentials...food, clothing, shelter, enriched travel, summer camps, medical care, financial support and a quality education from kindergarten thru college degrees, all in preparation for a good adult life. Add to that, a devoted extended family and you have an excellent base upon which to build a “good life.”

In the adult world, my “good life” has been an extension of those same elements as in childhood. A happy marriage, supportive extended family, many friends, two wonderful children, and two terrific grandchildren.

Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the important role one’s work plays in determining “the good life.” Most folks spend a significant amount of time pursuing their life’s work. It follows then, that the enjoyment they get from their work is the “icing on the cake” for the “good life.”

Many people seek, but never find, just the right job or profession. They become prisoners in jobs they don’t like. They are stuck in daily routines and ruts that, with each passing year, become more difficult to escape until they finally run out of options. Sound familiar?

As for me, I was fortunate early on to find and pursue a profession as an officer and aviator in the U.S. Navy...challenging and often risky work that I loved and found most rewarding. I imagine Tony Bennett feels that same love for his job. At age 86, he stills sings about “The Good Life.”

Ciao for now, or as Tony Bennett would say: “I’ll be Seeing You In All The Old Familiar Places...” and hopefully that includes right here again next week in The Record of Wilkes.

Do You Know the Way To Myrtle Beach?
By
Russ Pearson
Hard to believe it has been forty-four years since singer Dionne Warwick topped the music charts with her internationally acclaimed hit record, “Do you know the way to San Jose.” With music written by Burt Bacharach and lyrics by Hal David, the song became the signature piece of Warwick’s many recordings.
Back in those days, I was a lowly Navy Lieutenant junior grade (LTjg). After 18 months of rigorous flight training in Florida, Mississippi and Texas, I had been awarded my Navy “Wings of Gold” and had reported to my first fleet operational base at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore, California.
I especially remember when that “San Jose” song hit the airways. Steve, our first born, had just reported aboard, making our family’s duo into a family “trifecta.” With our threesome, living nearly three thousand miles from our home of record, we were graciously invited to spend our first west coast Christmas with the family of a fellow Naval Aviator, Rich Banks, at his mother’s home in, you guessed it, San Jose, CA. We enjoyed a most memorable Christmas holiday in that suburb city adjoining San Francisco,
As luck would have it, Warwick’s song came up on the XM radio in my car last week as I was again on the way from Wilkesboro to Myrtle Beach, SC. Suddenly, it dawned on me! That song could just as well have been entitled, “Do you know the way to Myrtle Beach.” After all, my family started coming to this “Grand Strand” even before it was a “Grand,” when the area’s only heavy industry was an overweight Avon lady. During those many trips, we must have traveled at least a half dozen or more different routes to get to the beach. In the earlier days of the 1950s, none of those routes was easy, and all were more difficult if the “Pearson” driving was my dad...which it always was.
Dad believed in leaving home at zero-dark-thirty in the early morning hours prior to sunrise. Stopping along the way for anything other than a speeding ticket was out of the question. Each trip was a race against the clock; another chance to better the elapsed time taken on our previous beach excursion.
My mother and two younger sisters learned not to drink liquids before departing from home. We also learned to be sure to make a last minute, thorough visit to the bathroom just prior to walking out the front door. Back then, there were no interstate highways with DOT rest stops along the way. They may have made a difference, but I doubt it. Fast forward now to the early 1990s following my return to Wilkes.
Our family had a trip in the offing to Myrtle Beach and I was plotting the best route to take. As luck would have it, Carl Swofford, a well-known North Wilkesboro businessman, stopped by our local Red Cross Chapter office for a brief visit with his sister-in-law, Ann Rita Necessary, the Chapter’s Executive Assistant.
I knew of course that if I asked any ten people the best way to get to Myrtle Beach, I could expect ten separate answers. However, I surmised that Carl must have made the Myrtle Beach trip many times over the years and probably had tried many different routes, so I bit-the-bullet and asked him how he would make that trip.
To my delight, Carl said yes, he had made the beach trip often, and only recently had he found a route that was the best way yet to get there. The route was complicated; thankfully, Carl took the time to write it down for me. Here is that route:
• U.S. Highway 421 S to I-77 S; I-77 S through Charlotte to I-485 E;
• I-485 E to Exit# 61 (Hwy 521) to Pineville and Lancaster, SC;
• Entering Lancaster, cross highway overpass then exit right onto SC Hwy 9E at sign saying: “To Myrtle Beach”;
• Follow about three miles (Continue past a fork exit for hwy 9) to right exit for SC Hwy 903E;
• Stay on 903E for about 30 miles until it intersects with US 151 S towards McBEE, SC (Caution: McBee is notorious for speed traps...watch your speed in city limits it drops fast);
• Hwy 151/34 to Darlington, SC.... Immediately past the Darlington Speedway, turn right onto Hwy 52E and go several miles to intersection with I-95 N;
• I-95 North for three miles to Hwy 327 S exit;
• Hwy 327 S to stoplight at Hwy 76 E. Follow Hwy 76E till it merges into Hwy 576 which merges into to Hwy 501 S ;
• Hwy 501 S through Aynor to Hwy 22E (Veteran’s Hwy). Follow Hwy 22E for thirty miles to Myrtle Beach;
Don’t say I didn’t warn you that the route was complicated. However, I have taken this route several times now, and can normally arrive at the beach in just 4 ½ hours.
Now, if only I had more space, I would tell you of yet another expeditious route to Myrtle Beach; a route I have learned most recently. It is simpler and just as fast. However, to save valuable newspaper space, I’ll just say this:
Turn on your GPS and plug in these waypoints: Greensboro, Asheboro, Rockingham, Whiteville and Myrtle Beach and you are there. Ain’t technology great?
Ciao for now...hope to see you here again next week in The Record of Wilke

Titanic
By
Russ Pearson
It is late April of 2012, and unless you have been so engrossed in completing and mailing your 2011 income taxes on time, or living under a rock, surely you must know that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the great luxury liner RMS Titanic. The liner’s sinking was a disaster of epic portions...a tragedy that shocked the world. At that time, Titanic was the world’s largest ship.
The sinking of the RMS Titanic is regarded to this day as one of the great disasters in seafaring history. Of the over 2,200 souls aboard this magnificent vessel, only about 700 survived. Most of the 1500 who perished, died of hypothermia in the icy waters where the water temperature was estimated to have been 28 degrees Fahrenheit. The Captain and the ship’s designer, as well as most of the ship’s crew and several very wealthy passengers, also went down with the ship.
In 1912, unlike today, chivalry and good manners were still in vogue. Therefore, women and children constituted a majority of the survivors...they had first available seats on the limited lifeboats. I fear such would not be the case again in today’s world of “every man for himself.”
To commemorate this centurion Titanic milestone, the eleven “Oscar” award winning 1998 movie, “Titanic,” directed and produced by James Cameron and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, has recently been reproduced in 3D format. This new release is now showing in commercial theaters around the country.
I recently had an opportunity to see the 3D version while out-of-town, and highly recommend it to all, and especially history buffs and film aficionados. In my book, it ranks right up there with “Gone with the Wind,” “Sound of Music,” and “Streetcar Named Desire” as one of the best motion pictures ever. Several TV channels, including National Geographic, are also currently running documentaries on how and why the seemingly impossible happened.
The RMS Titanic, built in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was thought to be “unsinkable.” Unfortunately, no one factored in an impact with an iceberg. The great ship went down in the icy waters of the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, enroute to New York City. The ship sank only a few short hours after colliding with an iceberg in the late night hours of April 14, 1912. The impact with the iceberg acted like a giant can opener, slashing large gashes in five watertight sections of the ship’s starboard side, just below the water line. All five compartments quickly flooded and overflowed.
Then, just after 2:00 AM on the morning of April 15th, the ship went down to its eternal resting or “rusting” place. It broke into two sections and sank as the relatively “lucky” survivors watched in horror from the safety of their lifeboats...many had friends and family members still aboard who went down with the ship.
The wreckage site of the Titanic was not located until seventy-three years later when a joint American/French expedition discovered the scattered debris field deep on the ocean’s floor in 1985. Being a retired Naval Officer and Naval Aviator with substantial training in survival at sea and other shipboard emergencies including “abandon ship drills,” I have long held an interest in the Titanic’s tragic story.
Among other things, I wondered how the ship’s huge size compared to the size of more recent ships involved in disasters...ships like the Costa Concordia. Concordia was the Italian cruise liner that recently struck a rock embankment and capsized off the coast of Italy. Loss of life in that mishap was minimal vis-a-vis Titanic’s fatalities. I also wondered how those two luxury liners compared in size to our U.S. aircraft carriers...ships like the USS Kitty Hawk, CVA-63, USS Nimitz, CVN-68, and USS Saratoga, CV-60, each of which I called my “home away from home” during a goodly portion of my Navy career. Once again, I turned to “Google” to find an answer and was somewhat surprised by what I found.
In the movie Titanic, the 882.8’ long, 92.5’ wide ship, weighting in at 46,000 tons, appears astronomical in size. However, measuring 951.5’ long, 118’ wide and weighed in at 114,500 tons, the newer Italian ship, Costa Concordia, was longer, wider and 2 ½ times the Titanic’s weight. As the USS Nimitz was the largest of the aircraft carriers I had the privilege to serve aboard, I chose to compare it against the two passenger liners.
By comparison, Nimitz turned out to be the largest of the three vessels. Nimitz is 1,092’ long, 252’ wide and 110,000 tons without its crew of 3,200 sailors and Airwing complement 2,480 Airmen and over 80 warplanes aboard. Its flight deck covers four acres.
Darn it all, once again, I am about to run out of space, and just as I was getting warmed up. Therefore, I’ll finish by saying that the Titanic may not have been as large as Nimitz, but it had certain features that far outclass our aircraft carriers...its heads, beds and dining facilities for example, not to mention that Titanic’s staterooms had portholes from which to view the outside world...Ah, the advantages of civilian seamanship.
Probably the most important lesson I have learned from Titanic’s shocking story is never to take a trip on any ship’s “maiden voyage,” especially one advertised to be “unsinkable,” even if your name is Molly Brown.
Ciao for now. Hope to see you right here again next week in The Record of Wilkes.

Message for Middle-Aged Men
By RUSS PEARSON
It all began a few days before last Thanksgiving. I reported for a regular, routine check-up with my local primary care physician, Dr. Rathmell, in the West Park Medical Center.
Nothing unusual about that, just a continuation of a routine medical procedure I have subjected my body to for many years, starting years ago with those strenuous, periodic medical exams as an Aviation Officer Candidate in the U.S. Navy in the late 1960s.
It was time for my periodic PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) blood test...a test that most middle-aged men should know all too well. If they don’t, they need to educate themselves ASAP; it could save their lives.
As events turned out, the outcome of my preliminary blood test was far from “routine.” In non-medical, lay-terms, the resulting test score had jumped upward several attention-getting points since my previous PSA test a few months earlier. The increase signaled a possible cancerous problem in the area of my prostate gland.
In order to do due medical diligence while exercising cautious concerns, a biopsy was scheduled with a local urologist, Dr. Hettiarachchi, followed by a body scan at the Wilkes Regional Medical Center’s Diagnostic facility in West Park. I was most pleased with the professionalism throughout all phases of both of these examinations.
Unfortunately, the results of the biopsy came back malignant, showing the presence of cancer in the prostate, a result I had not expected and did not want to acknowledge. On the other hand, the subsequent body scan showed no signs that the cancer had metastasized or spread. It was now time for some serious decisions on my part...decisions that boiled down to one of several options.
Prostate cancer is common in older men; some live with it for many years. Many patients are likely to die of other causes before the prostate cancer does them in. I could delay a decision now, leave it alone and continue to monitor it to see if or how it spreads, and take action later. However, I did not like having the “Sword of Damocles” continually hanging over my head; I rejected that option.
A second option would be to submit to radiation treatment. This option takes place over an extended period and has other physical drawbacks, not the least of which is the loss of hair along with other physical ill effects of radiation. A third option was surgery.
After researching the options and speaking with others who have been there, for a variety of reasons, I chose the surgery option. My research indicated that in recent years, there has been a quantum leap forward in medical technology in the area of robotic surgery and nowhere has this giant leap been more evident than in the area of prostate surgery.
In the past, manual prostate surgery has been considered a “dicey” proposition at best...a slight slip of the surgeon’s knife could severely diminish or eliminate a man’s ability to “rise to the occasion.”
However, progress in the technology of robotic prostate surgery has now greatly reduced that possibility. As I further researched this topic, I was delighted to find that nearby Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem has several of the nation’s leading surgeons in the field of robotic prostrate surgery.
One of these surgeons is Dr. Ashud Hemal, MD. Dr. Hemal has over 3,000 prostate surgeries notched on the handle of his scalpel during his 31-year career. With that background, I decided Dr. Hemal was the surgeon I wanted to do the “dirty deed” for me, and asked my local urologist to give me a referral, which he did. The rest is history.
This story is being told for the first time outside of my immediate family via The Record of Wilkes. For “Pearsonal” reasons, I have kept it a very closely held immediate family secret until now. I have chosen to make this experience public now in part because a good friend encouraged me to do so in the hope that it might encourage other middle-aged men to have their PSA tested and possibly save a life.
I was admitted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center last Monday morning, Feb. 13 at 0600. The operation began one hour later. With my wife by my bedside, I spent Tuesday (Valentine’s Day) and Wednesday recovering as an inpatient in room 564 of the Ardmore Tower. I was released on Thursday, Feb. 16. I am home now and continuing to recover comfortably.
Three postoperative biopsies indicate all signs of my cancer are gone; full disclosure will come in six weeks. That knowledge has eliminated a distressing daily dilemma from my list of things to worry about and lose sleep over in my rapidly approaching old age...important things like the eventual fate of Medicare and Social Security, war with Iran and the upcoming election of 2012.
Darn, as usual, I am out of space...so Ciao for now. Hope to see you again next week right here in The Record of Wilkes.

It’s the stupid economy

By RUSS PEARSON

Well, it has happened again! In case you haven’t heard, the Fire Mountain Restaurant located on hwy 421W (formally known as Ryan’s Steakhouse) is now closed. Sadly, some employees were unaware of the impending shutdown and came to work only to find the restaurant’s doors shut and locked.

Are the Wilkesboros going back to the “Happy Days” of my youth when Jimmy the Greek’s Café and Jack’s, Super-Service and Hadley Phillips’ Drive-Ins diners topped the list of fine dining establishments from which to frequent...unless of course you dined at the elegant Hotel Wilkes?

Fortunately, the dining news is not all bad... as Andy Griffith put it, “tote one off and run another-un on.” There is a new restaurant in town...Mama Zoe’s, located behind BoJangles off Curtis Bridge Road in the former Mayflower Restaurant building. Excellent food and plenty of it.

I mention Mama Zoe’s because our ROMEO group recently migrated there after our previous Wednesday noon’s “Watering Hole,” Big Bob’s Deli on Cherry Street in North Wilkesboro (opposite the old N.W. train depot), also suddenly went out of business.

Makes one wonder what’s going on with the local restaurant scene? James Carville, would probably say “it’s the economy stupid,” Or maybe they couldn’t pay their taxes?

What’s that you say? What is a ROMEO group? If you had to ask that question, you surely must be new to this column. ROMEO is an acronym explained several times in earlier columns.

However, if you do not know about “acronyms,” allow me to break the code. Acronyms are the unofficial language of the U.S. Government; particularly the U.S. military, and even more specifically, the U.S. Navy. They are “words” coined by joining the first letter(s) of a compound term. In this instance, the acronym ROMEO stands for Retired Old Men Eating Out.

Even though one of our prominent members, Richard Marlow, an outstanding local real estate appraiser, is not yet fully “retired, our group has opted to retain the ROMEO name as he probably will retire someday, assuming he lives that long.

However, why should anyone retire when their so-called “work” is traveling around the country playing golf while ostensibly claiming to be appraising golf courses? Throw me in that briar patch Richard, especially if you need a caddy to drive you around the course in your golf cart.

The ROMEO group has tolerated this questionable arrangement with Richard because our collective wisdom recognizes that at least one person in the group has to continue paying into the FICA account to enable the rest of us retired souls to draw our Social Security each month. Being the team player that he is, Richard considers his efforts on behalf of the group to be his voluntary contribution to the health and well-being of the community’s senior generation.

ROMEO groups are not just local phenomena. These clubs are part of an unaffiliated, unofficial national network with groups located around the country. Groups of local folks who meet together periodically, (in our case weekly for lunch) to enjoy the camaraderie of our retired contemporaries.

Our group discusses local news, weather, sports, travel, movies, sex and occasionally swop off-color jokes, but only when the female wait staff is out of earshot. Contrary to local rumors, we all are southern gentlemen to the core, proving once again that chivalry is not dead; it’s just on the way out.

However, we do attempt to avoid discussing highly controversial topics like religion and politics. Those topics can arouse personal ill will and animosity, emotions not in keeping with good order and discipline among friends, most of whom are well beyond their best fighting ages and in most cases fighting weights as well.

Our group was started a few years ago by Wilkes County’s own Bob Miller of Carolina Business Machines (CBM) and Rotary Club fame, along with David Deal, a long time, successful banker with Northwestern Bank, the local bank that merged into First Union, then Wachovia and now is part of Wells-Fargo Bank. Bob Miller has since moved away, although he does occasionally join us when visiting locally.

Other group members include Leonard Brooks, Jr., a retired executive with Tyson’s Poultry; Wilkes native, David Wiles, a highly regarded Certified Public Accountant (CPA), more recently returned to Wilkes from a business career in Tucson, AZ, via Charlotte, when he “got lucky” and married Suzie Bryan.

Somewhere about this time and for reasons I have yet to understand, the group also invited moi to join. Along the way, we picked up several additional “ole timers”...people like John Q. Myers, retired banker from Wilkesboro’s branch of the Yadkin Valley Bank; Roy Phillips, retired from Lowe’s Companies; Bill McElwee, Esq., retired attorney; Wally VanMeter, semi-retired surveyor; recently returned Wilkes native Jerry Derr and retired Lowes’ technology wizard Dan Bumgarner. I mention these individuals only because all of them love to see their names in the newspaper, excluding of course the National Enquirer.

The group has also selectively invited other prominent retirees to join, including citizens like Lewis Hill Jenkins, Alvin Sturdivant and Harold “Mule” Ferguson. However, all claimed to be too young; besides, all are still working.

That’s it for this week...Catch you next week after the Super Bowl game. N.Y. Giants vs the New England Patriots...Manning vs Brady. Should be a great game. Ciao for now.

IT'S THE STUPID ECONOMY

A Time to Live (Part II)

As regular readers will recall from last week’s column, my first cousin, Harry Pearson, Jr., a native of North Wilkesboro and an award winning newspaper man and now publisher of an upscale magazine (The Absolute Sound), asked me if I had to live in any period other than the present, in what period would I choose to live.

This is the kind of abstract question that most people, in the daily pursuit of their very busy lives, have neither the time nor the interest to consider, especially since it is a moot question that beckons a moot answer. Like it or not, we are stuck right here in the present; hopefully we like the “here and now” better than the “then and when.”

However, belonging to that select class of citizenry known as “retirees,” i.e. seniors who constantly struggle against having too much time on our hands with nothing to do, I found thinking about the answer a welcome, time-consuming distraction from my daily routine. It also exercised my brain as I thought about the pros and cons of all the various possibilities of choosing a time to live, past, present or future.
In last week’s column, I eliminated large chunks of time in history from consideration and gave my reasons for so doing. Most of those reasons boiled down to the fact that all periods prior to the early 1900s lacked the personal conveniences we all take for granted today. Things like electricity, hot and cold running water, indoor toilets, telephones, radios and TVs, air conditioning and centralized heat.

Then there was the lack of those personal hygiene and sanitation items that make our lives today much more comfortable than life must have been in our grandparents time just 100 years ago. Things like shaving creams and razors that make it possible for most men to shave their hairy faces and women to shave their legs, underarms and bikini lines, unless they live in England.

How about toothpaste, bath soap, deodorant and mouth wash? Can you imagine living and working around people who reek of body odor and/or bad breath? I can, because I have been there and done that in earlier times and I feel certain that some folks still have not learned what most of us learned about personal hygiene from our parents and in Health or P.E. class in school.

Have you ever wondered how people got along in olden times before modern feminine hygiene products and toilet paper were readily available...back in the days when making tobacco pipes was not the only use for corncobs? You can find the answer if you Google it.

All week long, I have continued to consider my answer to Cousin Harry’s question. After lengthy and due consideration during a major portion of my spare time, I finally have decided on an answer. If I had to live in a time other than the present, and finding no time in the past in which I would want to live, only one option is left. I would choose to live in the future, assuming that Nostradamus’ prediction about the world coming to an end in the year 2012 does not come true, as so many of his amazing predictions have thus far.

Living in the future has many advantages. It would allow me to achieve several personal goals, one of which is to live longer than my ancestors on both sides of the family. To achieve that goal, I must continue to live for at least an additional twenty-one years.

An additional twenty-one years would in turn allow me to achieve a second personal goal. I would like to still be around to see my two grandchildren, Max and Lila Tate, graduate from college, possibly marry, and add yet another generation to the Pearson-Perry family line.

As rapidly as the world of technology is now progressing, can you imagine the advances that are destined for twenty-one years from now? I cannot wait to find out...trips into outer space are not out of question.
Nor can I imagine the advances in medicine that will take place between now and then. Cures for cancers and heart disease will add even more years to our life spans...living to be 100 will not seem nearly as farfetched as it does now.

Twenty-one more years will take us to the year 2033; the year some current projections predict that Social Security will run out of money. I want to be around to see if that really happens. It should make for some interesting Record columns.

Finally, at the current rate of one column a week, times fifty-two weeks a year, times twenty-one years, I can look forward to writing another 1,092 columns for The Record of Wilkes, the county’s first worldwide newspaper.

Ciao for now. Hope to see you right here again next week.

It’s the Stupid Economy
By
Russ Pearson

Well, it has happened again! In case you haven’t heard, the Fire Mountain Restaurant located on hwy 421W (formally known as Ryan’s Steakhouse) is now closed. Sadly, some employees were unaware of the impending shutdown and came to work only to find the restaurant’s doors shut and locked.

Are the Wilkesboros going back to the “Happy Days” of my youth when Jimmy the Greek’s Café and Jack’s, Super-Service and Hadley Phillips’ Drive-Ins diners topped the list of fine dining establishments from which to frequent...unless of course you dined at the elegant Hotel Wilkes?

Fortunately, the dining news is not all bad... as Andy Griffith put it, “tote one off and run another-un on.” There is a new restaurant in town...Mama Zoe’s, located behind BoJangles off Curtis Bridge Road in the former Mayflower Restaurant building. Excellent food and plenty of it.

I mention Mama Zoe’s because our ROMEO group recently migrated there after our previous Wednesday noon’s “Watering Hole,” Big Bob’s Deli on Cherry Street in North Wilkesboro (opposite the old N.W. train depot), also suddenly went out of business.

Makes one wonder what’s going on with the local restaurant scene? James Carville, would probably say “it’s the economy stupid,” Or maybe they couldn’t pay their taxes?

What’s that you say? What is a ROMEO group? If you had to ask that question, you surely must be new to this column. ROMEO is an acronym explained several times in earlier columns.

However, if you do not know about “acronyms,” allow me to break the code. Acronyms are the unofficial language of the U.S. Government; particularly the U.S. military, and even more specifically, the U.S. Navy. They are “words” coined by joining the first letter(s) of a compound term. In this instance, the acronym ROMEO stands for Retired Old Men Eating Out.

Even though one of our prominent members, Richard Marlow, an outstanding local real estate appraiser, is not yet fully “retired, our group has opted to retain the ROMEO name as he probably will retire someday, assuming he lives that long.

However, why should anyone retire when their so-called “work” is traveling around the country playing golf while ostensibly claiming to be appraising golf courses? Throw me in that briar patch Richard, especially if you need a caddy to drive you around the course in your golf cart.

The ROMEO group has tolerated this questionable arrangement with Richard because our collective wisdom recognizes that at least one person in the group has to continue paying into the FICA account to enable the rest of us retired souls to draw our Social Security each month. Being the team player that he is, Richard considers his efforts on behalf of the group to be his voluntary contribution to the health and well-being of the community’s senior generation.

ROMEO groups are not just local phenomena. These clubs are part of an unaffiliated, unofficial national network with groups located around the country. Groups of local folks who meet together periodically, (in our case weekly for lunch) to enjoy the camaraderie of our retired contemporaries.

Our group discusses local news, weather, sports, travel, movies, sex and occasionally swop off-color jokes, but only when the female wait staff is out of earshot. Contrary to local rumors, we all are southern gentlemen to the core, proving once again that chivalry is not dead; it’s just on the way out.

However, we do attempt to avoid discussing highly controversial topics like religion and politics. Those topics can arouse personal ill will and animosity, emotions not in keeping with good order and discipline among friends, most of whom are well beyond their best fighting ages and in most cases fighting weights as well.

Our group was started a few years ago by Wilkes County’s own Bob Miller of Carolina Business Machines (CBM) and Rotary Club fame, along with David Deal, a long time, successful banker with Northwestern Bank, the local bank that merged into First Union, then Wachovia and now is part of Wells-Fargo Bank. Bob Miller has since moved away, although he does occasionally join us when visiting locally.

Other group members include Leonard Brooks, Jr., a retired executive with Tyson’s Poultry; Wilkes native, David Wiles, a highly regarded Certified Public Accountant (CPA), more recently returned to Wilkes from a business career in Tucson, AZ, via Charlotte, when he “got lucky” and married Suzie Bryan.

Somewhere about this time and for reasons I have yet to understand, the group also invited moi to join. Along the way, we picked up several additional “ole timers”...people like John Q. Myers, retired banker from Wilkesboro’s branch of the Yadkin Valley Bank; Roy Phillips, retired from Lowe’s Companies; Bill McElwee, Esq., retired attorney; Wally VanMeter, semi-retired surveyor; recently returned Wilkes native Jerry Derr and retired Lowes’ technology wizard Dan Bumgarner. I mention these individuals only because all of them love to see their names in the newspaper, excluding of course the National Enquirer.

The group has also selectively invited others prominent retirees to join, including citizens like Lewis Hill Jenkins, Alvin Sturdivant and Harold “Mule” Ferguson. However, all claimed to be too young; besides, all are still working.

That’s it for this week...Catch you next week after the Super Bowl game. N.Y. Giants vs the New England Patriots...Manning vs Brady. Should be a great game. Ciao for now.

A time to live

By RUSS PEARSON

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from my cousin, Harry Pearson, Jr., publisher of a high-end audio magazine, The Absolute Sound, in Sea Cliff, New York. Harry was born and partly raised in North Wilkesboro before moving with his Mother and sister to Charlotte in his early teens. In his e-mail, Harry asked if I had to live in any other generation, which generation would I choose.

An intriguing question. I am happy living in the present generation, enjoying my life in the here and now; I really have no strong desires to live in any other era. However, if I had to choose, when would it be? When would you choose?

Being a student of history, I am reasonably familiar with what life was like in past decades, centuries and millenniums, so I immediately ruled out living in the prehistoric era. I gave up on dinosaurs when I was five years old. Besides, living in a cave with snakes and other varmints, while constantly hunting for food would be a little too much “back to nature” for my blood.

Living during the time of Jesus would have been tolerable, except that you had to depend on your ass when you had to travel great distances to pay taxes and sign up for the census and you could not call ahead for reservations at the Inn. However, those folks did seem to have plenty of seafood, bread and wine to go around for everyone, even in those days, well before supermarkets.

The middle ages would not be too unpleasant, depending on your station in life (kind of like today). Being in the “nobility” class would be fun, with all those ladies in waiting and servants like Don Quixote’s pal, Sancho Panza, attending to my every need. In the meantime, I could live it up in one of those magnificent castles surrounded by a moat full of Alligators and snakes protecting family and friends from those menacing hoards of invading vandals attempting to crash my frequent house parties.

As a member of the current “Warrior Class,” being a Knight in shining armor would also be fun, especially if I didn’t have to polish all that armor after each jousting match. Neither Brasso, Duraglit nor Wright’s silver polish had yet been invented in days of old when Knights were bold.

However, not unlike today, life in the peasant class would be a real downer. Slaving away day-after-day, in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, year after year on behalf of the ruling class “Masters.” Receiving no benefits like annual bonuses, stock options, medical care, retirement plans, annual vacations and clothing or travel allowances...not to mention exposure to all those dreadful deadly diseases like the Black Plague that wiped out half the population of the earth during the Middle Ages.

To cut to the chase, my parent’s generation would have been an exciting time to live. They were born during the early “roaring 20’s,” a time when the world lay at their feet on a downhill ride. Many new inventions and contraptions that we take for granted today were taking much of the strain out of everyday life experienced in previous generations and the “Great World War, to end all wars,” had ended.

President Woodrow Wilson personally went to Europe to represent the United States in the “Treaty of Versailles.” That was the treaty that would create the League of Nations and ensure that world wars were a thing of the past; never again.

In the 1920s, the economy was booming. Wall Street was taking off for the stratosphere; nightlife and speakeasy floorshows were “sensational,” and despite the prohibition amendment of the Constitution in 1917, booze was still plentiful and after the 19th Amendment in 1919, women could vote and were rapidly assuming positions of equality.

Recent inventions like automobiles, airplanes and farm machinery were coming of age. Electricity was rapidly spreading across the country, as were movie houses, indoor toilets and bathroom fixtures. The telephone, radio and phonograph were making life more enjoyable, as were light bulbs, sewing machines, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric stoves and irons, refrigerators and freezers.

The Kodak Brownie camera was making photography available even to average households. Great strides were being made in farming, medicines, foods, personal grooming and hygiene products, e.g. toothpaste, deodorant, perfumes, aftershaves, and yes, even toilet paper...what did people do before all these wonderful inventions, especially toilet paper and feminine hygiene products? (Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question).

The more I realized that living in this current generation with its many advances (e.g. ATMs, I-Phones, Internet, Facebook, etc) has spoiled me, the more I realized that living in any generation prior to my parent’s generation would not have been fun; therefore I ruled out being born in any time frame prior to the 1920s.

However, my parent’s generation was not all fun and games. They lived thru some extremely tumultuous times...events like the crash of the stock market that profoundly shaped their lives. Like the fabled Biblical tale about Jericho, the market crash of 1929 caused the walls surrounding the “good times” to come tumbling down, setting the stage for the decade of the1930s and the “Great Depression,”

The “Great Depression,” a gloomy period in our nation’s history...a decade of despair that took major government programs and a Second World War (WWII) finally to resolve. The war itself cost millions of lives worldwide and billions of dollars before it ended in 1945.

Over 460,000 American service members died in that epic effort to save the free world from German, Italian and Japanese aggression... aggression that came too close for comfort. WW-II was a period of severe rationings and great sacrifices for the American people; it made the previous “Great War” seem like a training exercise.

My Dad, along with millions of other American men and women, many from Wilkes County, joined that war effort and changed the world forever, earning those courageous folks the title of the “Greatest Generation.”

Out of space again; so ciao for now. (To be continued)

Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004:
The Record - North Wilkesboro, North Carolina

Happy New Year 2012
By
Russ Pearson
There is a popular joke making the rounds on the Internet that says, “Life is like a roll of toilet paper...the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.” While that is meant to be funny, it is so true. My life is a living testimony to its validity.
I find it incredible that a whole year has come and gone since the last time I struggled to stay awake long enough to watch the ball drop in Time Square, and to hear a Guy Lombardo wannabe big band play “Auld Lang Syne.” So as we look back on the year of 2011, most of us will probably I say “Good Riddance,” notwithstanding the fact that we did manage to rid the Earth of several of its most evil characters this past year.
It is time now to turn our attention to the year ahead, and look forward to things like the remainder of this season’s college bowl games, including the National Championship Division I game between the LSU Tigers and the Alabama’s Crimson Tide on January 9th. Hopefully, this rematch will be more exciting and higher scoring than the first game between these same two teams earlier this season. Soon after that game comes the Super Bowl.
Need I mention it is already past time to queue up for some great college basketball games, especially here in the ACC...then comes the always exciting “March Madness” games? Oh yes, and don’t forget that 2012 is also a major election year.
One New Year’s custom is the long-standing tradition of making New Year’s resolutions. I gave those resolutions some serious thoughts again this year, until it hit me...none of my last year’s resolutions had come to pass, so why not just rerun the ones from last year? “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
The fact is, I actually accomplished the opposite of what I had resolved to do last year, e.g. lose weight, eat less, drink less and exercise more. Wonder if that ever happens to normal people?
I thought about resolving to have more sex. Then I remembered with the price of Viagra running about $10 a tablet, I just couldn’t afford it. The $40 a year I am already spending on those little blue pills is about all my limited Social Security budget can afford; that would be a wasted resolution.
Then I thought about exercising more often, but finally decided that physical exercise is too much like work. After all, I am retired from work now, although writing this weekly column often seems like work to my rapidly declining memory. Did I mention that I am retired now?
Then, I thought I should give up smoking. That nasty habit is either illegal or frowned upon in most public places, and especially in restaurants, movie theaters, hospitals, churches, hospice facilities, kindergartens, schools and the office of The Record of Wilkes newspaper.
Then I remembered that, like sex, I can’t afford to smoke either. Then my wife reminded me that I gave up smoking forty-four years ago, back before quitting was the popular thing to do.
I gave up a two-pack-a-day Marlboros habit back in 1968; I went “cold turkey.” I kicked the habit immediately after buying a new, Porsche in Pensacola, FL. Buying a new car was something virtually all of us newly commissioned Navy Ensigns on the aviation (“Brown Shoe,”) side of the Navy did when we finally started flying and drawing “flight pay.”
That car had genuine leather seats and naturally, I did not want the nasty smell of cigarette smoke to overpower that manly leather scent. Besides, I didn’t want to dirty the shiny new ashtray...I was trained by F.D. Whittington at Whittington’s Esso in Wilkesboro and knew that a dirty ash tray could lower the car’s resale value if I ever decided to trade...which I did some eight years later. Nobody on this planet keeps a cleaner car than F.D. Whittington. BTW, are ashtrays and cigarette lighters still found in new cars?
On my local doctor’s advice, I considered resolving to give up my acquired taste for fine wines. You know, the good stuff like the premium wines Robert Rizoti sells at his popular Oakwood’s Grocery on Brushy Mountain Road. I particularly enjoy a glass or two of fine wine before, during and after dinner. Robert has picked up some of the slack since our long-time family friend, Clegg Culler, closed his market on Main Street in downtown Wilkesboro.
However, with all due respect and deference to Dr. Rathmell, I decided to put the community’s needs ahead of my own...I just couldn’t let down the local vineyard growers who depend so heavily on me for their economic support. Grape growers like my Brushy Mountain neighbor Zack Henderson.
In case you aren’t aware, wine is rapidly replacing the tobacco and the moonshine industries as North Carolina’s biggest legal cash crop, and especially here in the newly designated “Yadkin Valley Wine Region.” Wine is rapidly returning to the prominent position it formerly occupied prior to “Prohibition.”
I especially enjoy the slightly sweet taste of a good Riesling with poultry from our local Tyson’s plant, and a smooth, velvety Pinot Noir when having a thick, juicy steak or other red meat dishes. A classy Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon is also on my favorites list. In addition, the ever-popular Rose wines tickle the taste buds when enjoying a pork, lamb or veal dish.
When all was said and done however, I finally resolved in favor of supporting the local economy; to eat more chicken and drink more wine. Above all, I resolved to come up with a new column every week. For a “retired” gent, coming up with a new column every week strongly resembles work, but Ken Welborn warned me about that when I started. Did I mention that I am retired now?
Ciao for now. Wishing you and yours a Happier New Year in 2012 than we had in 2011. Cheers.

Happy New Year 2012
By
Russ Pearson

There is a popular joke making the rounds on the Internet that says, “Life is like a roll of toilet paper...the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.” While that is meant to be funny, it is so true. My life is a living testimony to its validity.

I find it incredible that a whole year has come and gone since the last time I struggled to stay awake long enough to watch the ball drop in Time Square, and to hear a Guy Lombardo wannabe big band play “Auld Lang Syne.” So as we look back on the year of 2011, most of us will probably I say “Good Riddance,” notwithstanding the fact that we did manage to rid the Earth of several of its most evil characters this past year.

It is time now to turn our attention to the year ahead, and look forward to things like the remainder of this season’s college bowl games, including the National Championship Division I game between the LSU Tigers and the Alabama’s Crimson Tide on January 9th. Hopefully, this rematch will be more exciting and higher scoring than the first game between these same two teams earlier this season. Soon after that game comes the Super Bowl.

Need I mention it is already past time to queue up for some great college basketball games, especially here in the ACC...then comes the always exciting “March Madness” games? Oh yes, and don’t forget that 2012 is also a major election year.

One New Year’s custom is the long-standing tradition of making New Year’s resolutions. I gave those resolutions some serious thoughts again this year, until it hit me...none of my last year’s resolutions had come to pass, so why not just rerun the ones from last year? “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

The fact is, I actually accomplished the opposite of what I had resolved to do last year, e.g. lose weight, eat less, drink less and exercise more. Wonder if that ever happens to normal people?

I thought about resolving to have more sex. Then I remembered with the price of Viagra running about $10 a tablet, I just couldn’t afford it. The $40 a year I am already spending on those little blue pills is about all my limited Social Security budget can afford; that would be a wasted resolution.

Then I thought about exercising more often, but finally decided that physical exercise is too much like work. After all, I am retired from work now, although writing this weekly column often seems like work to my rapidly declining memory. Did I mention that I am retired now?

Then, I thought I should give up smoking. That nasty habit is either illegal or frowned upon in most public places, and especially in restaurants, movie theaters, hospitals, churches, hospice facilities, kindergartens, schools and the office of The Record of Wilkes newspaper.

Then I remembered that, like sex, I can’t afford to smoke either. Then my wife reminded me that I gave up smoking forty-four years ago, back before quitting was the popular thing to do.

I gave up a two-pack-a-day Marlboros habit back in 1968; I went “cold turkey.” I kicked the habit immediately after buying a new, Porsche in Pensacola, FL. Buying a new car was something virtually all of us newly commissioned Navy Ensigns on the aviation (“Brown Shoe,”) side of the Navy did when we finally started flying and drawing “flight pay.”

That car had genuine leather seats and naturally, I did not want the nasty smell of cigarette smoke to overpower that manly leather scent. Besides, I didn’t want to dirty the shiny new ashtray...I was trained by F.D. Whittington at Whittington’s Esso in Wilkesboro and knew that a dirty ash tray could lower the car’s resale value if I ever decided to trade...which I did some eight years later. Nobody on this planet keeps a cleaner car than F.D. Whittington. BTW, are ashtrays and cigarette lighters still found in new cars?
On my local doctor’s advice, I considered resolving to give up my acquired taste for fine wines. You know, the good stuff like the premium wines Robert Rizoti sells at his popular Oakwood’s Grocery on Brushy Mountain Road. I particularly enjoy a glass or two of fine wine before, during and after dinner. Robert has picked up some of the slack since our long-time family friend, Clegg Culler, closed his market on Main Street in downtown Wilkesboro.

However, with all due respect and deference to Dr. Rathmell, I decided to put the community’s needs ahead of my own...I just couldn’t let down the local vineyard growers who depend so heavily on me for their economic
support. Grape growers like my Brushy Mountain neighbor Zack Henderson.

In case you aren’t aware, wine is rapidly replacing the tobacco and the moonshine industries as North Carolina’s biggest legal cash crop, and especially here in the newly designated “Yadkin Valley Wine Region.” Wine is rapidly returning to the prominent position it formerly occupied prior to “Prohibition.”

I especially enjoy the slightly sweet taste of a good Riesling with poultry from our local Tyson’s plant, and a smooth, velvety Pinot Noir when having a thick, juicy steak or other red meat dishes. A classy Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon is also on my favorites list. In addition, the ever-popular Rose wines tickle the taste buds when enjoying a pork, lamb or veal dish.

When all was said and done however, I finally resolved in favor of supporting the local economy; to eat more chicken and drink more wine. Above all, I resolved to come up with a new column every week. For a “retired” gent, coming up with a new column every week strongly resembles work, but Ken Welborn warned me about that when I started. Did I mention that I am retired now?

Ciao for now. Wishing you and yours a Happier New Year in 2012 than we had in 2011. Cheers.

Christmas 2011
By
Russ Pearson
The college football season is winding down now just as the long-awaited college basketball season is gearing up. The colorful leaves of fall have come and gone, and that slight nip in the autumn air has turned to a wintry-weather cold.
Festive lights and colorful wreaths now decorate the downtown streets of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro as the sounds of Christmas music fill the evening air over the towns’ loudspeakers. You don’t have to look at your trusty Tar Heel Oil calendars to know it must be December. Once again, ready or not, the holiday season has sneaked up on us; I love it!
I suppose everyone has his or her own favorite part of the Christmas holiday season. Perhaps it’s the Christmas trees with their colorful lights and ornaments, or the decorations displayed on so many local homes and in so many yards. Perhaps it’s the fellowship and good times with friends, neighbors and families, or the scrumptious holiday foods... the smell of seasonal foods cooking in the kitchen, or the annual taste of “flavored” eggnog or mulled wine.
On the other hand, perhaps it’s the candle light worship services at churches throughout the community, each with a choir singing traditional Christmas pieces that have prevailed through the ages. Nor do we dare forget those happy Christmas carolers who periodically delight us, as well as the sick and shut-ins, with live vocal performances often at our doorsteps.
Some folks really enjoy the shopping scene. They happily spend hours browsing malls and local stores looking for just the right gifts for those special someones. Now-a-days many like me, prefer to crank up ye ole desktop or laptop computer and do their Christmas shopping online, which suits me just fine. I don’t cater to crowds, but now, more than ever, I enjoy shopping for family members and especially for our two grandchildren, Max (7) and Lila Tate (4).
Nothing warms a grandparent’s heart more than seeing the joy on the faces and eyes of the children’s when they wake up early on Christmas morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Watching them rush from their bedrooms to see what good Ole St. Nick has placed under the tree...and to see if he ate the cookies and drank the “milk” they left for the grand old gentleman...that is always a Kodak moment in our family.
Then the sight of the kid’s eagerly unwrapping those colorful and meticulously bound packages under the tree, beautiful ribbons and all...wrappings that the kids manage to unwrap in mere seconds. Sometimes later, those colorful discards are fed to the fire’s flickering flames, adding a colorful hue to the fire’s dancing flames?
There are just so many individual parts of the Christmas holidays in our collective short and long-term memories. Can I possibly be the only one who really enjoys Christmas parties, complete with “punch” and mistletoe?
However, the most memorable and enjoyable part of all for me is the magnificent music, perhaps to be expected of an old trumpet player and church choir member. I love the music of Christmas and never seem to tire of it. I always look forward to hearing it every year.
As a Navy career veteran who spent several Christmases deployed on aircraft carriers in Westpac and in the Med, my favorite Christmas song is still “I’ll be home for Christmas.” However, I will admit that the “Baked Alaskan” dessert in the ship’s Wardroom on Christmas Day was a real, rare treat that we don’t often have here at home. In any case, our deployed service members, many in harm’s way, are especially in my thoughts and prayers now, and this time every year.
Over the years, I have purchased at least one Christmas album each season, starting back in the mid-1960’s. In so doing, I have collected a substantial library of Christmas music from many genres. My collection ranges from classical to rock, from jazz to country and even some opera.
These eclectic Christmas albums range from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to the Canadian Brass; The Ray Conniff Singers, Percy Faith, Mitch Miller, Chet Adkins, Manheim Steamroller, Roberta Flack, The Manhattan Transfer, The Anita Kerr Singers, Brenda Lee, Montovani, Ottmar Liebert, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles, Kenny G, Elvis, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Rogers Williams, Perry Como, Yanni, Johnny Mathis, Barbara Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, Celine Dion and more.
Then there are the great Christmas movies, plays and musicals like “The Nutcracker”, “A Christmas Story", "The Muppets Christmas Carol", "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "Miracle on 34th Street", "White Christmas", "Home Alone", "Elf," “The "Nightmare Before Christmas", “The Grinch who stole Christmas”....all modern icons in the ever developing Christmas tradition. Oh yes, did I forget to mention Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?
For me, listening to Christmas music, as I am doing via XM radio while writing this column, is my very favorite part of this extra special season. Christmas music creates a smooth, mellow mood; it is relaxing, like in name of the Eagles hit song, “Peaceful, Easy Feeling.” It helps to calm the tensions, stresses of everyday life in this otherwise hustle/bustle world, and makes me thankful for the many blessings all Americans enjoy, whether deserved or not.
Christmas music fills the air with a feeling of peace and goodwill. It puts even the most cantankerous, despicable, disgruntled curmudgeon misanthropes among us in a more cheerful, pleasant, friendly mood, even in this political year, when feelings of harmony, goodwill and unity appear to be utterly lacking, and especially in the body politic...Ummm, makes me wonder if our Congressmen and Senators ever listen to Christmas music in Washington, D.C.?
Ciao for now... See you here again next Wednesday. Oh yes, watch out for Reindeer crossing the highways, especially if they are pulling a sleigh full of large bags filled with toys.