An Aside
So, here's the question: In the spring of 1980, while I was in Nashville--writing songs, going to school, etc.--where were you and what were you doing?
A periodic record of thoughts and life as these happen via the various roles I play: individual, husband, father, grandfather, son, brother (brother-in-law), writer, university professor and others.
I was born on Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina, then lived a while in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before moving, at the age of 5, to Walnut, NC. I graduated from Madison High School in 1977. After a brief time in college, I spent the most of the 1980s in Nashville, Tennessee, working as a songwriter and playing in a band. I spent most of the 1990s in school and now teach at a university in Tennessee. My household includes wife and son and cat. In South Carolina I have a son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.
10 Comments:
We were in Forest Lake, MN. I was working a full time job at a quick print place called Kopy boy, working nights in a music store as a guitar teacher, and playing weekends in bars, at weddings, VFW, Elks, and Moose Lodges all over the state. Becky was working for an ophthalmologist and enjoying the ridiculous snow fall and minus 30 degree weather.
now, this is very sad....I'm still working at the same place and living in the same town as I was in 1980.
Do you think it is time for a change..lol
That you're living and working in the same place isn't the point, Ruth. Lots and lots of people could say the same thing. The amazing thing to me is that you stayed in the same place and still came into this circle of friends.
At the same time, however, I do think you're due for a change :)
Michael..It is hard for me to make friends. Thinking back, moat of the friends I have now I have met through the Copes, and they are all wonderful friends. Friends I make on my own seem to want to take advantage of me, but maybe that is part of friendship.
THANK GOD for the Copes, I am so blessed to have great friends through them.
Hey Michael - I was at the end of my second year teaching at the University of Louisville. My mother, in Atlanta GA, was fighting cancer. A battle she would loose in the fall of 1980. I was living in a quadraplex just off the U of L campus or maybe it was an apartment at the other end of campus. I can't remember which. My then wife had decided not to come to Louisville when I went there in 1978. Rather, she went a PhD program at the University of Georgia - we would never overcome the separation and would divorce in 1982 or 83. Thanks for asking, I think about these kind of things often and am glad to have a chance to talk about them. Peace, john
John, I'm guessing that in traveling between Louisville and Atlanta you passed through Nashville a few times that spring. I find it interesting to think that you probably were only a mile or two from me way back then.
Ruth, unfortunately the kinds of "friends" who would take advantage of you are the lowest sort among our acquaintances. In true friendship is a mutual well-wishing between friends--that is, I want the best for you, no matter how it might affect my situation, and you want the same for me. Those who take advantage of our friendship in some way are friends of "utility"; Aristotle writes of these, "Those who love each other for utility love the other not in his own right, but insofar as they gain some good for themselves from him." He goes on: "Those who love for utility . . . are fond of a friend because of what is good or pleasant for themselves, not insofar as the beloved is who he is, but insofar as he is useful. . . ."
I was living and working in Bognor Regis England. I was working for a company called Rosemount Engineering and was well know in the filed of Mass flow measurement. It was a good time at work but home life was not very good.
I had heard of Nashville but I don't think I could have found it on a map! It was still 2 years away from my first trip to America and at that time I didn't take much interest in the USA! What a difference a few years made!!!!
Dennis
Michael, that is so true.... I often thought that I would like to stop in Nashville, but didn't know where to go or stay. Usually I was in my assertive driving mode - lets get through this place as fast as possible..... the places I would stop were between Nashville and Chattanooga.
I do so agree with you about friendship.... thanks for sharing thos words of wisdon
Thanks Michael...I'm beginning to understand friendship better. I know my friendship for people is not utility friendship. If others feel it is that with me, fine, I rather see it my way!!
Even though I greatly agree with you. And understanding how our paths crossed a few years ago, I do believe that we are in a place and time that has meaning, no matter what that place and time may be. However sadly enough, in the Spring of 1980 I was finishing third grade.
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