Stairway to Dignity

 I grew up in the deep south. Now my old age is spent in the high south of the blue ridge.  

Down in Louisiana, where I was born and raised, I had come from two strains of folk. The Scotch-Irish side came from my dad’s heritage. The French side came from my mother’s. 

My mother’s side directed me into a Catholic high school. As a senior, I served as Student Council President, an experience that afforded me some life direction for a while. After graduation, I traveled the dozen miles to the other side of town to attend our Louisiana State University.

I learned a lot there. As a worthless English major, I learned to read. After a coupl’a years I switched to Political Science, haha! I served as Chairman of the LSU Union National Speakers’ Committee. In that capacity, I was privileged to introduce Dick Gregory and William Buckley to audiences on campus. Imagine that! Dick Gregory and William Buckley, ha!

I later wrote a novel about it, King of Soul, which you can buy on Amazon, thanks to Jeff Bezos! Obviously, there’s a place in this world for both the big people and the little people. My education in the school of hard knocks has proven productive.

Since bustin’ loose from University,  I have spent a life as jack-of-all-trades. Somewhere in all that I was able to attract, by the grace of God, my wife, Pat. God bless her. She gave me three young’uns, who are now grownups like me and you, and one grandaughter, so far. 

A few years ago, I built this stairway onto our mountain home, so’s we could have guests through Air Bnb and VRBO and Furnished Finder.

That has worked out advantageously for us.

Before learning the carpenter trade, back in ’80’s, I had put food on the table by means of a hodgepodge of jobs: shoe salesman, advertising salesman, insurance salesman, printing salesman, log-cabin-factory worker, rodbuster on the Blue Ridge Parkway Linn Cove Viaduct, and a few other oddity jobs here and there, including one or two from which I was fired. haha! nananaboo.

As for the stairway, I can remember the day I was cutting the boards in my driveway, while listening to Congressional hearings on NPR.

I mention that because, I generally like to keep up with the news. 

Speaking of the news, I will conclude with this mention of Heather Cox Richardson’s blog on substack today. Here’s her comment, which I approved, about our President, Joe Biden:

Biden responded to the RSC budget, saying: “My budget represents a different future. One where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and biggest corporations no longer get all the breaks. A future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms, not take them away. A future where the middle class finally has a fair shot, and we protect Social Security so the working people who built this country can retire with dignity. I see a future for all Americans and I will never stop fighting for that future.”

And I do confess, y'all, that I am now living on that infamous "Social Security." Read 'em and weep, ye magamaniacs!

Postscript: Along the way, I was able to publish four novels, record two record albums, and compose 1200 blogs, such as this-here piece of journalistic shenagnigans. By the grace of God, y'all! because I did get, as they say, "saved", along the way, 1978.

Glass half-Full