The beginning

It all starts somewhere. Some of us remember when and were and some of us don't. I don't know why we remember what we do.

Most of us reading this blog were born in the 60's however it doesn't matter as growing up in not time specific. Until we are born with an ipad device that feeds us I think we are still fine.

My mother did a great job saving my baby clothes which was quite interesting. Some cool outfits I think that may not work now but you know what they will come back. I was born with very little hair and some of the outfits you would swear I was living on the Atlantic Coast. The interesting thing is when you are born you have no idea about the others that will be born in the same upcoming months.

Plus you don't know how they will effect your life over the next 18 years. Why can you not come out knowing what is ahead? I guess because you need to be surprised. You need to eventually be emancipated from what I'm not sure.

Being a child was cool, you didn't need to worry about anything, food, money, companionship. We had the world with every step we made. We were the show.

If we had brothers or sisters it didn't matter we were it. Every action we did was incredible and our parents were so proud. We had the world. We were better than a new puppy who no matter what would give the owner immediate love. We were the one's that were going to make it happen. We were the future.

It's all fantastic how it comes together. However guess what in a small town we may have come out in different months but we are he special future our parents had in mind.

How do you become special? Birth at this point we have done no wrong we are the only species that can have a loaded diaper and be loved by most of the population. We can pitch a fit and know that we have controlled the adults and no one will look at us like we did something wrong.

Here is the deal. In the beginning this is not like who's talking to you movie this is about fellow infants coming together which we did.

Female or male is didn't matter we began the year bond. We began hanging out wherever our parents took us.
Guess what it was the beginning of a life bond. From diapers (we didn't have pull-ups) to activities it was great. From the beginning we were always connected and will always be in our smalltown.

We walked the same first steps maybe a different platform but the same steps at a different location.

I wish I could remember the diaper age but I cannot. I know this the seed was planted for a lifetime friendship and it wasn't the shared diaper experience.

It was the shared family and the shared town. Pre-K was at the United Methodist Church. I remember it.

I wish I could remember the diaper days with my friends. All I know is that it became a lifetime friendship.

I hope you enjoy the read. Thank you for being part of the conversations.

Shoes

We all grew up watching a variety of shows that would show the footwear.

Archie Bunker wore black shoes. Dr. J wore converse. We didn't have payless shoes, we didn't have walmart we had a sporting store to buy shoes or catalog. I used hand me down puma's for football and baseball. they were nice.

Now and I'm sure we always have had a shoe for every occasion. Last xmas I was given a bunch of shoes. I said return them I already have more that I will ever need. Plus some people re-shoe.

My basketball shoes were $25 converse low tops. Now I'm size 9 1/2. Same size as in college. I had some great purple free nike hig tops. Wife threw them out. Nike like Apple computer came out when we were young. Some were able to get on board with the new swoosh people.

Now the swoosh is everywhere like the apple. Now how many shoes did our parent have? Yes my mother had more than my father. However I think I now have more shoes than I can be buried with. My goal is no shoe purchases and eventually maybe I can get a new pair when I'm buried.

Just a thought when does Nike brand caskets? Everything is now up for grabs. We grew up in an era we just wanted shoes, based upon whatever the catalog offered. The thing is if we ever kept all of our shoes the designs always come back. Now in Fayette  were they wearing 3 inch heals I don't think so.

Nike changed the shoe game. Shoes became a brand not a style. Guess what the shoe was about the style not the branding.


Now what do shoes have to do with a small town. Well here it is. We did everything with shoes.
We walked, did sports, did work, we did mail order.

We had not embraced brands that we didn't know about. The question is how many shoes do you have now? More than you can wear in a week?

Our shoes had a purpose, work, school, practicality.
Then branding came in play.

My shoes got me to everywhere I needed to go, in any weather and to any place. My shoes were always with me through my life.

Shoes are like friends. You don't need a brand, style you need it to function. Guess what they did. So has any Dr. Phil understood the impact shoes. I think not

Did you ever wear your parents shoes? If so you understand. The shoes are generational the shoes have history behind them.The new ones can collect data to be measured.

WOW all from a shoe.  Well guess what the shoe has the most historical data on us.
the shoe was there for everything. The problem is we would replace the show.

A friend is a shoe. they have been everywhere as well. the parents are a shoe. The longer the shoe time the more valuable the relationship

So the next time you buy a shoe let me know. the shoe is  a big deal for business. .

Mountain Dew & Mayberry

Everybody thinks about small towns or neighborhoods and think pies. They think Any Taylor.

Yes the bake in small towns but guess what we also get mountain dew. Do you remember the hillbilly artwork on the bottle. I think I saw my first mountain dew bottle a couple of weeks ago. I should've bought it as I'm not sure I will see it again in the south. Remember this is Coke country.

So how does a "pop" enter into a blog. It's funny because someone said pop to me and it was like I had been in the Amazon for the last year the word shocked me. I had a delay and a smile because guess what a "pop", soda, coke, cool drink, is demographic to where you grew up

I used to ride my first ten speed the coastal king to Voshells gas station to buy a mountain dew. Iowa was a Pepsi place. It was less than a quarter very nice and refreshing. However the drink wasn't what it was about.

It was hanging out and listening to everyone that came in for either a oil change or a fill up. Do people remember when someone filled the gas tank for you. Checked the tires, oil etc? I'm guessing the ones that read this do. The next generation not so much.

Mayberry they hung out at goobers. Well we hung out at Voshells and before that Ioco. What is Ioca it's gone. America likes to do a good job of erasing memories like gulf, sinclair etc.

The reality is was cool. We also would use a vending machine, that required cash not a credit card.

Credit card I remember when it was just paper seeing my parents seldom used it. Not like us where the strip wares out and we need to get a new one.

Here is the thing. It was not about a transaction instead it was about a history. Mayberry and Mountain Dew are a history.
You remember where you had the drink how much it may have cost and most importantly who you had shared the mountain dew with or who you had experienced the small town with.

Something tells me it was around .50 for a 16 ounce in the machine. Who would've thought that the non-business water cooler was the pop machine.

So did mountain dew have impact on the social interaction? No because it was just a great meeting place. The social interaction came from people willing to be engaged without inhibitions.

Mayberry and pops what a great place. If only they would put them back in the workplace instead of the water cooler. I know not healthy but is not talking healthy?

It's all good because you know what sharing a drink with friend is priceless

WOW small towns

My son started middle school and we both went in for the advanced screening. My eyes might have been bigger than his. We had a talk a few times as we were approaching opening day. I was like get ready this is big time and big next step you need to be ready.

He was and he was not the one that had to ask directions to the lunch room to pay for his lunches.
Every now and then we all know the stories and they are real and we have told them and relayed them to our kids. They start with I remember or Things were different, Different times. I don't know yes they are different and why should you expect them to be the same.

I also went to work that day and I remember telling my co-workers I only went to one school, one piece of land, no bus for me. Bike or walk until old enough to drive. No change in friends unless someone moved in or moved out. I wasn't moving out the school area. So maybe it is more complicated but in reality probably not and people may make it more than it is.

I don't know. I just know that so far he walked into that school and WOW he got my attention because something seemed to click in him. The person that cannot match any colors, know what time it is, now was all of the sudden responsible. Quite crazy how it works.

So in reference to WOW and discussions with some of my friends and associates who went to much bigger schools. BTW Fayette Cardinals Reunion happened recently and I heard it was fun. I've been told I need to be there for the 30 years WOW. Where did the time go. I may show if Mike Prochaska and Darby Jellings agree to a new match with more specific rules. That is another story for a different time.

Smalltowns the point of this blog is this we are all WOW. Where do you find a community to so strong. Connections that have lasted 30 plus years and others that have re-connected. Success is measured by who we became and we are all what are parents wanted. Honorable people. We say what mean, and do what we say we are going to do.

I tell my kids during the week they have to be in by five or in that range. My rules go back to my parents days. Have a family dinner. (Unfortunately I break the rules thank you Atlanta traffic) During the week. On weekends have dinner or supper it that is the correct terminology. then you can go play. WOW is the now that it's no longer safe to be outside in a neighborhood of 40 homes. Don't understand. I know why but WOW.
WOW made the time in Fayette. Great friends, great times, great memories. We were very lucky to have each other and all of those people that grew up in similar small towns they were lucky as well.

I love the fact that when I see a Cardinal the conversation is so easy even if we have not seen each other for 30 years that is a WOW.

If you can and I'm sure you do please make sure all of our kids and I hope they do as well for the next generations. Let them experience yoursmalltown.

Apologize for any grammatical errors. Look forward to your thoughts. I'm very happy we all go to experience the WOW factor of our Small Town USA.

Have a WOW week

Seemed like a good time to post

I hope all is well everyone. I think it's almost been a year since I posted something on here.
Well facebook, linkedin, twitter, flikr, meetup (started by a iowa guy) youtube you name it they are still growing.

I don't know how many devices you have in your house and I'm talking about blenders. Right now I'm at over 12. I'm not even counting my landlines as I basically never use them. Part of a bundle that will cost me more to remove it.

Who would have thought all of us from a small town who used to just show up at someones door via, bike, car, shoes and yes the landline to communicate now spend around 4k a year or more to stay connected to friends and family. Nice business for the technology industry.

Not as good business for the local cafe, unless your posting on facebook where you just checkedin.

I watched the Croods over the weekend about a caveman family. Very nice movie but makes you wonder do our children see us as cave people? I always find it interesting some of the questions they ask like did you have? Were you alive then?
I don't remember maybe we all asked similar questions to our parents. The reality is many of us are operating  in the same communication space they are.
We need to because humans are social and the human brain needs to be fed information. Luckily most of us have some sort of circuit breaker.

Intelligence always changes things. That's good and bad. Now you have data mining and analytics before this I think you had conversation and gossip to get the data you needed. Some of it useful some it not.

Well that's it for now. I hope all is well with everyone.