Pork

I am a Hog Fan and have been, almost as long as I can remember anything. In the mid sixties, I remember my neighbors building a large Razorback on a trailer in their carport. The 1969 shoot out between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Longhorns in Fayetteville is a vivid memory. I am a graduate of the University of Arkansas. Today, the Razorbacks pulled off perhaps the greatest road upset victory in the history of the program when they beat the LSU Tigers in triple overtime by a score of 50 to 48.

The world is so different now than it was just a few years ago. When I was growing up in Little Rock, the only news of the Razorbacks came from two daily papers and three television stations. In those days, it might take all week for some juicy tidbit of news to cross the state. Today, with the internet, news of some player’s legal transgression can be broadcast across the internet within minutes. In the old days, the media outlets had to stand behind their reports. Today, anyone with an opinion and an internet connection can be an information outlet.

Currently there is a vocal segment of Razorback Fans that wants Houston Nutt to move on. There is another segment of the fan base that says he should stay. I don’t know who is right. I’ll leave it to those that actually can make the decision.

I am concerned that many lose sight of the most important business taking place “on the hill”. For many, sports is the main business of the U of A, but in actuality, the main business of the University of Arkansas takes place in the classrooms and laboratories. Thousands of men and women enroll in the University of Arkansas to pursue a college degree. The research and education that is conducted at the University of Arkansas is the important business conducted at the University.

Razorback Sports is a series of games. Education is real life. Whether the current Razorback sports team wins or loses, at the end of the day, those of us that were persistent and earned our degrees will still have them.

Woo Pig Sooie Go Hogs!

Looking back

My Grandpa was born in 1892. In the summer 1969, when I was twelve years old, I had the pleasure of spending more time than usual with him and my grandma at their house in Northwest Arkansas. In July, when the Eagle landed on the moon, we gathered in their living room that would never know air conditioning, to watch a snowy, poor quality picture on a black and white television, linked to the world by an antenna on a pole outside the house. More than once, I remember someone being dispatched to the antenna to try to get a better picture from a particular station by turning it in the direction of the broadcast point. In those days, cable was something attached to a winch.

Grandpa and I had many conversations that summer, sitting in rocking chairs, on his front porch. I remember when he recounted his move to Arkansas from Oklahoma in a wagon. We talked about how things had changed during his lifetime. At seventy-six, he had lived in a world where families moved in horse drawn wagons and now the United States had put a man on the moon. He remembered the first automobile he had ever seen and how it scared the horses. He was amazed at changes he had witnessed first hand, and wondered what would change in my lifetime. Grandpa died that fall, and I am so glad I got to spend that time with him.

I don’t ever remember Grandpa getting in a hurry. My fondest memories of him are sitting at his side eating fresh apples and peaches, as fast as he could peel them. He was patient with us when he showed us things he thought we should know. He could sit for hours at the edge of a farm pond, fishing with a cane pole. He plowed his garden with an old horse that all that grandkids wanted to ride. I only remember being on the poor animal’s back, a handful of times. He raised sorghum cane that he and the family cooked down to make Sorghum Molasses in a wood fired cooker.

He was a recycler and ran his own home based business before it was the thing to do. He manufactured hickory bark bottomed chairs for a living, in a shop across the yard from the house, its power tools powered by a recycled old Ford Model “A” engine. He made stools, rocking chairs and straight back chairs. He learned to make chairs from my great-grandfather. He taught his children, my mom, aunt and uncle to make chairs, and he showed me and my brother how to lace chair bottoms. By the time he showed us his trade, we used hay string instead of hickory bark. A few of his chairs still survive today. I am fortunate to have two of them that I plan to pass down to my sons some day. He sold three hundred chairs to Roy Ritter for his restaurant, The AQ Chicken House, in Springdale, AR, and a hand full of them were still in use when I was there last.

Oh, how things have changed since 1969. Grandpa never had a telephone in his house and didn’t have any idea what a computer was. Cell phones, PDAs, ipods, GPS systems, microwave ovens, digital cameras, automatic dishwashers, digital recorders, cruise controls, high definition flat screen televisions and refrigerators with ice in the door all contribute to our fast paced life today.

I have one question. With all our stuff and our super fast paced life, are we as happy as a guy that had the time to sit in a rocking chair and peel peaches and apples for his grandkids?
Just a thought

Today's stuff de jour

The best thing about the name of my new blog is that it doesn’t lock me into a particular type of content. My interpretation is that stuff de jour will be whatever is on my mind for the day of a particular post. I can expound on anything I want. In future installments, I’ll explore commuting to work, home improvement projects, catering, weddings, hunting, college sports, my church, family, travel, and all the stuff I haven’t thought of yet.

My faith is important to me. It has shaped many of my views of life. Many of my activities and pursuits are in and around my church. My family is important to me. I love my wife and sons and like to spend as much time as I can with them. I look forward to retirement, but realize that I will need something to occupy my time after I clean out my desk and take all my stuff home. I hope to retire at 55 and experience a vocational refocusing for ten or fifteen years. There are a lot of things I would like to explore, but I haven't had the time yet.

I have decided that when I retire, lunch with my wife will be my priority. For almost thirty years, I have made the journey to work each morning and on too very few of those days I have had the pleasure of her company over lunch. I plan for that all to change.

This is probably enough for today. I can hardly wait to see where this ride goes. You can tag along. We may not always agree, but then, who does?