CRA Class of 1987

Wow it is hard to believe that it has been 20 years since I graduated from high school. This past Saturday a group of 15 of my former classmates gathered in Memphis at a Redbirds game in order to celebrate the two decade milestone. We had a great time. The Redbirds have party decks that you can buy tickets to and there they serve all the food you can eat while providing you with a pretty cool place for a party.

It was a lot of fun catching up on what everybody has been doing. I see some of my classmates on a somewhat regular basis but we don't just sit down and have a good talk. Like I said I really enjoyed it. I do wish that some of the ones that didn't come would have been able to make it.

They had to run us out of the stadium after the game was over. We then took the party to the world renown Memphis eating establishment known as Denny's. (I think that would be a good restaurant to franchise.) Oh wait, you mean they do? We stayed at Denny's way to late and got home even later, but it was worth it.

Oh by the way, the Redbirds lost. I hardly even knew that there was a game being played.

Mt. View

This week Darah and I wanted to take a short vacation, we just couldn't decide where. After much deliberation we decided to just go to Cherokee Village and then on to Lake Norfork. We spent the 4th of July on the lake and had a great time with some of her family. The next day we got up and I decided on a whim to drive to Mt. View.

I had not been to Mt. View in over 25 years. The only expectations I had were from faded memories of a childhood visit and a recent article I read in National Geographic Adventure. The magazine writer said that Mt. View was a nice little place tucked in the middle of Arkansas worth visiting. Wow, was the author correct. We had a great time there.

When we travel we try to each lunch at a local place to get a feel for the town or area. Yesterday we ate at Wood's Pharmacy and Soda Fountain, a throwback to the old days of an ice cream shop in a pharmacy. We had sandwiches that were great. We didn't try the ice cream. We will have to go back to do that.

The town center is a square of shops with an old courthouse in the middle. There are some very nice gift shops such as: A Timeless Touch, The CornerStone Shoppe, Stone County Ironworks and other artisan shops. One of our favorite places was a fudge shop called Candy Bouquet & Stonebrook Fudge Factory. All of there fudge is homemade and great. I got chocolate and peanut butter fudge, Darah got chocolate and strawberry fudge. She also got a very good lemonade there. We also visited a old country store and bought boiled peanuts. Yum.

Surrounding the square are nice bed and breakfast establishments if you are inclined to stay in the area over night. We were just spending the day there, but we will be going back in the fall. We can't wait.

Art

As I was growing up I had no real appreciation for art. (No not Art Smith, I do appreciate him.) You know the kind that is hanging in museums and such. I saw no real purpose for it. Over time I have begun to not only enjoy art, but also to create art myself. I now see things in a whole new light. I think my love for art grew as my love for photography grew. Where once I only took pictures to record history, I now take pictures to create something artistic. How many times have you taken a picture of something and then see pictures that someone more artistic has taken of the exact same thing and said to yourself, wow I didn't see that there. I now strive to be the one who takes the "wow" picture.

Aside from photography I have now been dabbling in graphic art design. I take a mixture of photography, computer design, fonts and other things to turn out art on my computer. Recently I had one of my digital art files printed on canvas to display in my home. It looks great. It is the first in a 3 part series. I had the first one printed so I can see how it looks on canvas. I am very happy. When I finish the other two parts I will put them on here for people to see.

Art is an expression that comes from inside of you. Sometimes I have a hard time getting it out and thus become frustrated. I feel creativity swelling up inside of me waiting to burst out. It just doesn't come on a time schedule. That is frustrating.

Changes

I am not the greatest at blogging. I am not a very good writer and I am a worse speller. That makes blogging a little hard. I do like to look back and see what I was doing at different times in my life and that is why I like the idea of blogging.

Things have been hectic over the past two months for me. We (the church at Bono) finally moved into out beautiful new building. We have had huge numbers in both class and worship. God is truly working in peoples lives and we are witnessing it firsthand. We also hired a new preacher, Richard Akins. Richard and his wife will be joining us April 1. We look forward to working with them in the future.

I have recently started a class on Sunday morning based on the book by Max Lucado Facing Your Giants. I think that it will be a great help to everybody. We will be studying it for the next 12-14 weeks.

On a different note. The Crowley's Ridge Academy Falcons won their first round game in the state basketball tournament yesterday in Danville. They will play again on Thursday at 8:30.