Five Minute Friday: Jump

On Fridays around these parts we like to write. Not for comments or traffic or anyone else’s agenda. But for pure love of the written word. For joy at the sound of syllables, sentences and paragraphs all strung together by the voice of the speaker.  We love to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not. For five minutes flat.

Here’s how we do it:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt “After” with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing.

2. Link back to Lisa-Jo's blog and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in her blog’s footer}.

3. Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard.

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes for the prompt:

JUMP

Go:

I heard the clicking sound of the instructor attaching my harness.  I was single again and at that very moment....wanted to just lay down and die.  I couldn't...and I really wouldn't....but I felt that way.  My life of 23 years had ended....and I am the one who finally did it.  I was on my way back from Tennessee when I saw this sign just outside of Chattanooga that said "Want to Hang glide?"  I found myself leaving the interstate and heading toward the top of the mountain.  I felt myself magnetically drawn into the office as I pulled out my credit card and paid for this "experience of a lifetime."  My heart was pounding   I suddenly needed to use the bathroom.....but it was a little too late for that.  The instructor strapped in behind me and told me to run to the edge of the mountain and jump.  JUMP?  Was he crazy?  I turned a bit and looked him dead in the eye and asked him if he thought I was crazy.  Why would I jump off a perfectly good mountain?   He turned my head toward the edge and told me to give it all I had.  I started to run....and just as I got to the JUMP part....I felt my human brakes kick in.  I stopped within inches of where I was to step off into oblivion.  I sighed....another failure.   I could not even do this right.  The instructor sensing my pain switched places with me and literally drug me off the mountain.  We ran to the edge and continued to run when the edge left beneath our feet.  I had made the Jump.  I closed my eyes tight and prayed that God would be with me until we landed at the foot of the mountain.....then I opened one eye....and experienced God in a whole new way.  I was soaring with the eagles...I had JUMPED.  When I reached the ground and was unharnessed.  I fell to my knees and kissed the earth beneath me.  Life would go on and I would not be afraid to JUMP again.....just not from the side of a mountain.....or airplane.  A calming peace set over me and I knew I was alright.

STOP:

P is for Paducah

 

 

"Shortly after noon on March 25, 1864, Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and 2,800 of his cavalrymen, having ridden 100 miles in 50 hours, suddenly descended on the Ohio River town of Paducah, KY. They were on another of their slashing raids deep into Yankee territory with the mission of recruiting men and capturing and destroying Union supplies. Col. Stephen G. Hicks, commander of the important Union supply depot, withdrew with his 665 men into Fort Anderson, a strong eastern fort west of town. Two Union gunboats in the river helped defend the fort. Forrest sent his usual demand for surrender to Hicks: "If you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war; but if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." Forrest was not disappointed that Hicks declined to surrender; he just wanted the large quantity of supplies at Paducah. He ordered some of his men to keep the Yankees penned down inside the fort while the rest collected or destroyed the Union stores. Col. A.P. Thompson, whose hometown was Paducah, disregarded Forrest's command and ordered an ill-advised assault on the fort. Thompson "was struck by a shell, which exploded as it struck him, literally tearing him to pieces." This event, accompanied by a dozen other casualties, ended the charge. While Forrest's men cleaned out the supplies, the gunboats fired into Paducah, not hurting the Confederates but causing considerable damage to the town. Having completed their mission, the raiders rode out of town at midnight. Forrest reported: "I drove the enemy to their gunboats and fort; and held the town for ten hours, captured many stores and horses; burned sixty bales of cotton, one steamer, and a drydock, bringing out fifty prisoners." A few days later the Rebels read a newspaper that boastfully reported that the Rebels had missed 140 excellent army horses that had been hidden in a foundry. Forrest promptly sent a detachment back to Paducah. They again ran Hicks into the fort, found the horses and took them with them back to Mississippi." Fascinating Factoid: While traveling to Paducah, part of Forrest's command, the 7th Tennessee, captured the Union 7th Tennessee at Union City, TN.

Birthday Week Hodge Podge

My birthday was on Monday.  That was also Tax Day, the day Lincoln died, the day the Titanic sank.  What a great day in history.  I am doing A-Z Challenge and have chosen history as my topic.  I was not sure I could work it in with Hodge Podge each week so I decided to just do two separate entries.  Okay-so.....if you're playing along with the Hodgepodge today be sure to add your link to the bottom of Joyce's post by clicking here before you run off to visit the neighbors. Here we go~

1. April 15th is the deadline for Americans to file their state and federal income taxes...my birhtday.......what's a job you do on a regular basis that could be described as 'taxing'?
I'm going with the first thing that popped into my head-laundry. I find that job extremely taxing. It is a never ending job.  It seems that the minute I have it all done.....Frank changes clothes and I am starting all over.

2. I'm participating in the April A-Z blog challenge and the Hodgepodge happens to fall on letter O this week. In keeping with that theme...olives, onions, oysters, okra...of the foods mentioned, what's your favorite O food?
Olives and okra are my two favorite O foods.  I love friend okra and olives stuffed with pimento.
3. What is something memorable you experienced as a child that your own children (or future children/nieces/nephews) will not get to experience?
Using a rotary dial phone with a party line.  It was so much fun to pick up and eavesdrop on the neighbors.  Using a typewriter.  Using a non-electric percolator coffee pot.  These are things I loved as a child.

4. Term limits for our elected officials...your thoughts?

You really don't want me to get started here.  Yes....I believe two terms and you are done.  Politicians like Strom Thurman are ridiculous.  I also believe that once they leave....they leave...period.  No drawing their salary for the rest of their life.  They go back to whatever they did...and draw that salary....and we wonder why we are in debt?

5. On April 18th 1775, Paul Revere made his famous 'midnight ride'....when did you last make a midnight ride? Perhaps the fate of a nation wasn't hanging in the balance, but tell us where you were headed anyway.
We took a midnight ride in Orlando when we were there last Spring.

6. What would freak you out more...a mouse running across your floor or a big fat hairy spider?
I don't like either....but the mouse would be the number one nemesis.

7. I love it when people ask me____________________________.
-about God and my relationship with Him.

8. Insert your own random thought here.
I have joined the ranks of the Duck Dynasty fans.  I love this show.  I love the fact that they pray all together at the dinner table, don't cuss, teach some lesson. Do you watch it and who is your favorite character?  Mine is Jase and Si.

O is for the Battle of Olustee

Most people do not think of Florida as part of the Civil War, but it was.  Northern Florida was the part that actually participated in the Civil War.  On February 20th, 1864, at the Battle of Olustee, the largest conflict fought in Florida during the Civil War took place.  A Confederate force under General Joseph Finegan decisively defeated an army commanded by General Truman Seymour. The victory kept the Confederates in control of Florida's interior for the rest of the war. Olustee was the climax to a Union invasion of Florida a few weeks before. General Quincy Gilmore, commander of the Union's Department of the South, dispatched Seymour to Jacksonville on February 7. Seymour's troops secured the town and began to send cavalry raiders inland to Lake City and Gainesville.

Just behind the troops came John Hay, private secretary to President Abraham Lincoln. Hay began issuing loyalty oaths to residents in an effort to form a new, Republican state government in time to send delegates to the 1864 party convention. Under the president's plan of reconstruction, a new state government could be formed when 10 percent of the state's prewar voting population had taken a loyalty oath. Seymour began moving towards Lake City, west of Jacksonville, to destroy a railroad bridge and secure northern Florida. Finegan possessed only 500 men at Lake City, but reinforcements were arriving. By the time the two sides began to skirmish near the Olustee railroad station, each side had about 5,000 troops. Throughout the day on February 20, a pitched battle raged. The Confederates were close to breaking the Yankee lines when they ran low on ammunition.

When more cartridges arrived, the attack continued. By late afternoon, Seymour realized the fight was lost and he began to retreat. The Yankees suffered around 1,800 killed, wounded, or captured, while the Confederates lost about 900 men. The battle did disrupt the flow of supplies from Florida to other Confederate armies, but it failed to bring about a new state government. Most of Florida remained in Confederate hands until the end of the war.

N is for Nashville

        "In a last desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville in November 1864. Although he suffered terrible losses at Franklin on November 30, he continued toward Nashville. By the next day, the various elements of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's army had reached Nashville. Hood reached the outskirts of Nashville on December 2, occupied positions on a line of hills parallel to those of the Union and began erecting fieldworks. Union Army Engineer, Brig. Gen. James St. Clair Morton, had overseen the construction of sophisticated fortifications at Nashville in 1862-63, strengthened by others, which would soon see use.
      From the 1st through the 14th, Thomas made preparations for the Battle of Nashville in which he intended to destroy Hood's army. On the night of December 14, Thomas informed Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, acting as Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's chief of staff, that he would attack the next day. Thomas planned to strike both of Hood's flanks. Before daylight on the 15th, the first of the Union troops, led by Maj. Gen. James Steedman, attacked the Confederate right, pinning down one Rebel corps there for the rest of the day. Attack on the Confederate left on Montgomery Hill did not begin until after noon. With this charge's success, attacks on other parts of the Confederate left commenced, all eventually successful. By this time it was dark and fighting stopped for the day.
      Although battered and with a much smaller battle line, Gen. Hood was still confident. He established a main line of resistance along the base of a ridge about two miles south of his former location, throwing up new works and fortifying Shy's and Overton's hills on the flanks. The Federal IV Army Corps marched out to within 250 yards of the Confederate's new line and constructed fieldworks. During the rest of the morning, other Union troops took position opposite the new Confederate line. The same brigade that took Montgomery Hill the day before received the nod for the attack against Overton's Hill. This charge, although gallantly conducted, failed, but other troops (Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith's Israelites") successfully assaulted Shy's Hill in their fronts. Seeing the success along the line, other Union troops charged up Overton's Hill and took it. Hood's army was routed. Thomas had left one escape route open but the Union army set off in pursuit.
      For ten days, the pursuit continued until the beaten and battered Army of Tennessee recrossed the Tennessee River. Hood's army was stalled at Columbia, beaten at Franklin, and routed at Nashville. Hood retreated to Tupelo and resigned his command."

M is for Manassas

 

 

M is for Manassas (a.k.a. Bull Run).  This was the first major land battle of the armies in Virginia. On July 16, 1861, the untried Union army under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell marched from Washington against the Confederate army, which was drawn up behind Bull Run beyond Centreville. On the 21st, McDowell crossed at Sudley Ford and attacked the Confederate left flank on Matthews Hill. Fighting raged throughout the day as Confederate forces were driven back to Henry Hill. Late in the afternoon, Confederate reinforcements (one brigade arriving by rail from the Shenandoah Valley) extended and broke the Union right flank. The Federal retreat rapidly deteriorated into a rout. Although victorious, Confederate forces were too disorganized to pursue. Confederate Gen. Bee and Col. Bartow were killed. Thomas J. Jackson earned the nom de guerre “Stonewall.” By July 22, the shattered Union army reached the safety of Washington. This battle convinced the Lincoln administration that the war would be a long and costly affair. McDowell was relieved of command of the Union army and replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who set about reorganizing and training the troops.

I have been learning a great deal about the Civil War with this choice of History.  Most of it has made me sad....sad that at one time in our history there was brother fighting brother and so many died defending what they believed to be right.

The Last Ride

**Normally I post pictures for Project 365 on Sunday, but a tragedy happened in our town over the week and one of our former students, Griffin "Grif" Pritchard, posted this article in the Herald Sports that I felt needed to be posted again.**  The article is copied in its entirity with permission of the writer.

******* Sports fans, please indulge me. Thursday afternoon, two candles were extinguished and this is my way of paying my respects. So please excuse the break from your normal programming. Things will return back to normal with my next post next week. ******************

"The threat of a late spring storm couldn’t stop a father and son from going on an afternoon drive. They boarded the bright red big rig as the motor roared to life, humming at a contemplative growl.  The son, revved the engine and the sat on the horn, bringing a smile to his old man’s face as the diesel shook and twitched.  The bright red monster lunged forward, moving slowly through the town.  Led by a loving wife, the son relived those precious moments knowing their time together was getting small as the distance to their destination began to shorten.  When the father and son reached the gates, the wife drove on through. There was a slight pause and a shift of the gears, the truck again lurched forward and the father and son charged through to the other side. The son navigated a tricky turn before finally pulling to a stop.  The band Aerosmith sang “Life’s a journey not a destination.” And the events of Thursday afternoon truly speak to that. Once the son reached the destination, he exited the truck and a handful of his buddies – with friends and family watching – helped his father down and carried him to his final resting place.  More than 500 people turned out over the course of two days to pay their final respects to Debbie and Austin Gandy. Their lives tragically cut short, both perishing in a car crash in the wee hours of Saturday morning.  But this is not a story about tragedy, this is about triumph. As Austin’s brother Bill said during the eulogy: “It’s about putting the pieces of the puzzle back together.”  I’m not one for funerals. I attend the ones I’m required too but never do I say much about them. This one was different. I grew up with the Gandys. Whenever I’d go to see my parents and go to church I could count on two things – talking high school softball with Debbie (complete with scouting reports on certain area teams) and Auburn football with Austin (complete with a scouting report on what he thought of the new guy).  Both of their younger children Morgan and Tatum, played softball at Benjamin Russell. Morgan has just finished playing college ball and Tatum, a senior, will play at Central Alabama.  Judging by the turnout, and the amount of people who keep striding toward the church, I wasn’t the only one with such memories as people began to fill the pews of Comer Methodist Church in Alex City nearly an hour before the start of the funeral. By the 2 o’clock hour, inside the church was standing room only.  The great staff at Radney Funeral Home had to set up speakers outside the church to accommodate the more than 100 people gathered on the concrete steps and ramp.  Austin, lived with and battled ALS for several years, Debbie stood by his side. Even as the disease began to take its toll. No matter how bad it had gotten, whenever you asked Austin — confined to a motorized wheelchair — how he was doing, his answer was always “Just Right.”  He had enough forethought to preplan his and Debbie’s funeral down to the songs the congregation would sing and the solos my mom would perform.  The last ride on a big rig, that was an audible called by Mark, his son.  As the two were carried out of the church, first Debbie and then Austin, onlookers watched and cheered as the paul bearers affixed his casket to a custom-made rack on the back of the truck. A truck that carried both Mark, and his sister Bethany, and Austin millions of miles across the country. With Mark at the wheel, revving the engine, making the beast roar, whoops and hollers and screams of “Roll On!” echoed through the parking lot.  It’s amazing that as raucous and humorous this funeral was, it still had its intimate moments. In a show of total class, the entire Benjamin Russell softball team was in attendance and filled the church’s choir loft. Morgan and her handful of former teammates and best friends stayed at each other’s side throughout the weekend.  Rain began to fall at the cemetery, softly at first and then harder with each passing moment. But it couldn’t drown out the family singing the chorus of Conway Twitty’s “That’s My Job.”  “That’s my job. That’s what I do. Everything I do is because of You. That’s my job you see.”  Wow, just typing that brought tears to my eyes and I’m not an emotional person.  “Life is about making adjustments and accepting new realities,” Bill said during the eulogy.  The new reality is this for this family: They may have lost their mom and pop. But after the outpouring of support, they gained a whole lot of cousins and aunts and uncles.  There are still trials and tribulations and questions without answers and some may never have answers. But knowing the family and their stubborn tenacity and love for one another.
They’ll be Just Right.
It’s that simple."
Good job Grif.  I know they would be very proud of this article.  I am!  If you read this today....please keep the Gandy family in your prayers.  They have a long road of grieving ahead of them.