Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Problem Solver ~ That’s Me :-)

For most of my career with SUPERVALU I was a problem solver. Oh, “problem solver” was never part of my job title, but it certainly was part of my job in Retail Technology and during my supervisory years as a meat specialist.

Problem solving has been so much a part of my adult life (perhaps all of my life) that I find myself solving problems almost subconsciously. Before one thinks I’m boasting, I should point out that all solutions to the problems I encounter aren’t necessarily the best solutions, and sometimes I’m not satisfied with the solution that I come up with.

Still, that doesn’t discourage me from trying to solve whatever problem I face. With respect to a given task, I’m always interested in finding a better way to complete it. Even when writing, I often rephrase a thought to better suit me. I’d like to think I’ve gotten better at communicating my thoughts over the past fifteen years that I’ve penned and shared my thoughts and deeds with others, but I’m probably not the best judge.

Since volunteering practically full time with Habitat for Humanity, I’ve been challenged to keep up with the tools I use on the job site. I’ve been known to lay down my hammer, only to discover it’s not where I put it when I went to pick it up again. I have a tool belt that helps with this sort of problem, but it only helps when I wear the tool belt, which is not all the time I use a hammer.

For the past two months, I’ve worked mostly toward creating office space and a board room in an old warehouse. Along with that goes plumbing and electrical work, so it’s a lot like remodeling an old house. With other volunteers working alongside me, it makes tool and equipment organization more difficult because we’re basically using “company” equipment and each person has a much right-of-use as the next person.

In the past week, two utility knives that I “carry” at work have gone missing; I don’t have a clue where my speed square is, or, for that matter, the location of my personal screwdriver.

A month ago, I had two carpenter pencils in my tool belt; today there’s not even one. I did find a used carpenter pencil the other day that had once been sharpened at both ends. It must be getting old, because the lead was pulling loose from the wood that secures it. I discovered this while trying to sharpen it. The utility knife I was using to shave off the wood would grab the lead and pull it out the end of the pencil.

I found a solution that I believe illustrates my problem-solving abilities. No, I didn’t find a way to stop the lead from getting inadvertently pulled out of the pencil while sharpening it. But, I did find a way to continue using the pencil for several more days without sharpening the lead. No, no, I didn’t find a hardener to keep the soft lead from dulling when scribing lumber for cutting or marking starting and ending points for a chalk-line on wallboard or sheetrock.

Are you ready for the solution? I fashioned it into a mechanical pencil, one where the barrel is fixed but the lead moves back and forth inside the barrel.

I know, I know, you want to know how I did that. Okay. I put a sheetrock screw in the other end of the pencil. The diameter of the screw is slightly larger than the hole in the pencil filled by the lead. The screw is about an inch and one-fourth long, so I can “hand” screw it deeper into the hole to push more lead out the other end. Eventually, I’ll have to cut more wood from one end of the pencil to continue using it for whatever purpose a carpenter pencil is needed.

Barbara, my wife and Executive Director of Pontotoc County Habitat for Humanity, has since supplied us with a new box of carpenter pencils, but I’m kind of fond of the one I’m using, and nobody else has asked to borrow it.

Before ~






After ~

Monday, December 19, 2011

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Choir

Dressing for our recent Christmas Music program, presented by the Adult Choir of FBC, Pontotoc, I picked a white shirt from those in my closet and the bright red tie our choir director gave me to wear with my white shirt and black pants. Once I completed tying the fore-in-hand knot and was satisfied with the length (a man’s tie should hang no lower and no higher than the top of his belt buckle), I noticed the tips of the collar seemed to be missing the stiffness I expect from my shirts.
I didn’t want to be late for the six o’clock mandate to be IN the choir room and seated, and I was somewhat fearful I’d be tardy if I could not quickly locate a pair of collar staves. Finding them, I rushed into the living room where Barbara was seated and asked her to insert the staves into the sleeves underneath the collar. I did so because my hand to eye coordination while looking in a mirror is not my best attribute.
Barbara had trouble seeing where to slip the stave into the underside of the collar and told me she needed better light. I began to back away from her with her still hanging onto my collar and had almost reached the light switch when she said she could then see better.
“It went through!” she exclaimed.
“What are you talking about?”
“It came out the button hole,” she stated.
‘What button hole?”
“The one at the end of your collar.”
“Oh, good grief! I put on a button-down collar. Just fasten my collar to the buttons,” I sighed.
If this is the start of our growing old together, the two of us may be in for a bumpy ride.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Do We Remember Pearl Harbor

There’s a lot of hype today, December 7, 2011, about never forgetting the dastardly deed we remember as Pearl Harbor. Truly, in the lifetime of most of us, it’s an event eclipsed only by the terrorists’ act of 9/11/2001.

In subtle ways we’ve long forgotten Pearl Harbor. Yes, a movie about it still shows up on TV every so often, and the media reminds us of the anniversary, but in our day-to-day lives, we don’t remember.

We continue to buy Japanese automobiles in numbers so great that most American automobile manufactures now struggle to stay in the black, financially. Before China started making everything for us, we bought a lot of TVs, radios, and gadgets made in Japan. Even then, did we stop and think that our purchase was enabling the nation that crippled our naval fleet and left so many Americans dead or wounded back in ’41? I doubt many thought about it.

But, Pearl Harbor was only the beginning of the atrocities by the Japanese. They normally chose to fight to the death rather than surrender, thus, many American lives were lost as our military sought to capture Pacific island after Pacific island. Captured soldiers were treated horribly by the Japanese, but who cares to remember that in our “global economy?” Instead, we continue to question our ethics in the use of the atom bomb to bring Japan to the peace table.

We live for the moment, and as a people, we could not care less about Pearl Harbor. Ask anybody under the age of twenty-five what happened on December 7, 1941, and there will not be many who know. The reason is simple, we’ve forgotten, too, and it happened so long ago that it’s no longer relevant to our younger generation.

Surely, many of us have not forgotten and many of us will never forget, but our numbers are shrinking.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

One-Man Gui-tar

Our motel in Naivasha, Kenya, modest by American standards, was transformed into something of a nightclub on weekends. We had been forewarned that there would be loud music on the weekends. What wasn’t revealed was that the music played well into the morning hours.
It’s rare that I hear music, any music that I enjoy listening to. There are just not that many places that play songs by Bill and Gloria Gaither. I like a little music in my life, but like preaching, it doesn’t take a lot to do me. But, stick me in an automobile where I can’t control the radio, set me down in a church pew and play and/or sing a contemporary-style song or two, or bed me in a motel with loud music playing while I’m trying to drift off to sleep and I’m miserable. Here, I associate the word misery with Chinese water torture.
So, I’m an odd sort of bird, who has very limited likes when it comes to music. However, I do enjoy really good music, just not the sort that appeals to the masses, certainly not much of what shows up on shows like American Idol.
I wouldn’t have enjoyed the music at the motel any better had it been sung in my native tongue and not Swahili. I don’t listen to the words unless it’s a ballad or a gospel song, and as far as I could tell, the singer was singing American country music, but not the Patsy Cline or Hank Williams songs that are dear to my heart. Fortunately, I was so tired both Friday and Saturday nights that the music didn’t keep me awake all night.
Our group wanted a change from the typical evening meals served at the motel, so we let staff know we’d be ordering pizza. They provided us a dining room adjacent to the band area. Our driver, known only as Ben to me, was invited to dine with us. Our meal coincided with the start time for the band. I could hear guitar music, a singer, and drums. When I asked Ben about the band, he told me it was a one-man gui-tar. I don’t think I can break down guitar as he pronounced it, but he accented both syllables equally.
It sounded like a small group of musicians to me, so shortly afterwards, I slipped away to check out this one-man gui-tar. Just as I thought, there was a drummer pounding away on a set of drum, you know, a big bass drum a couple of snare drums and cymbals. I returned to share my discovery with Ben.
“Yes,” he smiled obligingly, “It’s a one-man gui-tar.”
“But he’s got a drummer.
“It’s a one-man gui-tar,” Ben insisted.
Still curious, I pressed him for additional information.
“What do you call one guitar player, one drummer, and a second vocalist?”
“It’s a one-man gui-tar.”
By this time other team members had started listening to our conversation.
“What if there are three singers?
“It’s a one-man gui-tar.”
I continued to add an extra singer until the count reach five and each time Ben’s answer to my question was, “It’s a one-man gui-tar.”
“Okay, I see the pattern here, Ben. What do you call one man playing a guitar with a choir of singers?”
Are you ready for this one?
“A choir.”
“Dang,” I silently mused, then asked the obvious, “At what point between five vocalists and a choir does the definition of a one-man guitar change?”
Ben laughed and explained any band with one guitar player and one or more vocalists is simply called a one-man gui-tar. It’s only when a second guitar player is added the terminology changes and the group playing/performing is called a band.
See, if I hadn’t gone to Kenya, I’d have never known what a one-man gui-tar is.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Ask For Neal

Packing enough clothes for a 15-day trip oversees into two checked bags is enough of a challenge, but as we were carrying tools to use on a worksite, keeping the weight of the bags under fifty pounds became something of a problem. Barbara and I decided to purchase a large duffle bag to hold mostly my things and some tools. We also bought a small duffle bag for me to use for a short stay at a safari lodge as well as to accommodate the luggage restrictions of the small aircraft that flew us to the game conservancy.
Suffice it to say, the large duffle bag was a mistake. With its bulkiness, and at just under fifty pounds, it taxed both my strength and my pleasant disposition every time I had to move it. Why I didn’t buy one with wheels is a question I’m still asking. Let’s just say the unwieldy device was enough to make a preacher cuss.
Clothes tend to shift around inside a duffle bag that’s not bursting at the seams. We did a lot of motel hopping in Kenya, so what was in the middle of the bag one night might be at the end of the bag the next night or a night or two later. Organization was a nightmare, but adding to the nightmare was the fact that our motels, by and large, lacked spaces allocated for baggage. There were none of those nice little folding racks found in cheap American motels. Conditions for living out of a suitcase were less than ideal.
I swore I would buy a large suitcase with wheels before lugging the duffle bag back to Pontotoc, but with the dollar’s weakness against the schilling, a bargain was not to be found. And, going through check-in at the airport in Nairobi on the night of our departure, I was still lugging the cumbersome, loathsome duffle bag.
I had left some clothes for the disadvantaged in Kenya and all the tools were donated to Habitat for Humanity, but part of the weight of these was offset by the souvenirs we had bought. It was a few pounds lighter than before, but not by a noticeable amount.
Check-in went fairly normal. I handed over my passport for scanning, a boarding pass was issued, and my bag was checked and strapped with a luggage tag, and a luggage stub was affixed to the back of my boarding pass.
Three hours later, around midnight, we filed, orderly, aboard the airplane that would take us to London. I had hardly gotten comfortable in my window seat when an airline representative boarded and asked if I were Mr. Carter.
I assured her I was, and she handed me another luggage stub, stating simply, “This has your baggage claim number.”
I pocketed it, all the while wondering why I had two stubs and only one bag.
After deplaning in London, a couple of our team members, including me, had to pick up a boarding pass at the American Airlines counter, as there had been a printer problem back in Nairobi. The very nice lady, who issued my pass, informed me there was no bag on our flight that matched the claim number assigned to me. I then retrieved the stub given me after boarding in Nairobi. It matched a bag on the flight, but she said I would have to go to the gate and identify the bag before it could be stowed aboard my flight to Chicago.
An agent adjacent to her had been tuned in to what we were discussing, and he said, “That’s my flight,” which I supposed to mean he would be assisting at the gate.
“Don’t worry, Sir,” he stated, “I’ll meet you at the gate and take you down to identify your bag. Just ask for Neal.”
But, as you might suppose at airports such as London’s, the gate assignment for my flight was not immediately forthcoming, especially since I was looking at a more than four-hour-layover. Fortunately, when traveling with a group, time passes more quickly than when traveling alone.
When we finally were in line to access the gate (lots of security in London) there was no Neal. I spoke to an agent at the gate desk and explained I was to meet Neal about a matter of luggage. Shortly afterwards, Neal arrived, found me and told me the baggage was not yet at the gate but should be shortly.
“I’ll find you as soon as the baggage is here,” he assured me.
“I’m easy to spot,” I replied, “in my red jacket with Ole Miss on the front.”
About ten minutes passed and Neal motioned for me to follow him. He was wearing a lime-green security vest, so I wondered what other passengers thought as I followed him from the waiting area. He led me into a room where another security guard met us and from there we went through security doors accessible by badges and passcodes.
At some point, Neal asked about Ole Miss, “Isn’t that the college in the movie Sandra Bullock was in?”
Knowing he was talking about the Michael Oher story and the movie “Blind Side,” I respondeded affirmatively, somewhat surprised by his memory. The other guard accompanied us at all times. An exterior door was raised and there sat my duffle bag on the pavement.
“Is this your bag?” Neal inquired.
I could see my name tag on the handles as well as the red/white/blue ribbon tied onto one end, and I responded, “Yes, it is. My name is on the name tag.”
Neal didn’t take my word of it he bent down to flip over the name tag, read it, right himself, and quiz, “The Bodock Post?” even, pronouncing bodock correctly.
“Yeah, that’s my newsletter,” I replied.
We chatted briefly about my hobby as we made our way to the waiting area of the gate via a different route of security doors. I looked inside my billfold to find my last Bodock Post business card and gave it to him. He gave me his, as well.
I thanked him for his helpfulness and was generally impressed with his politeness and professional manner, to say nothing of London Heathrow’s security measures. Fly American, I say, and if you do get to London Heathrow Airport sometime ask for Neal.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Kenya Motel ~ Heritage Club Resort

While we were lodged in Kenya, Barbara and I found our accommodations adequate for our needs, though nothing of the sort we expect from motels in America, the lone exception being the Serena Lodge at the Masai Mara wildlife preserve. We spent more nights at the Club Heritage Resort (motel) in Naivasha than anywhere else. For protection from malaria carrying mosquitoes, we slept under netting to prevent mosquito bites. Apparently it worked for as far as I can tell, I received no mosquito bites during the two weeks we were in Kenya.
Because Kenya is situated on the equator and the climate in Naivasha was mild, we did not need air-conditioning or heating systems to remain comfortable at night. Personal hygiene by the Kenyans we met seemed adequate, but for whatever reason, washcloths and hand towels were not provided by the motels. Barbara and I each had one bath towel, but that was all.
We had closet spaces but no dressers in our rooms, thus living out of a suitcase was more difficult than normal. The bathrooms consisted of a wall-mounted lavatory with a mirror, a commode, and a shower, all in a space roughly four feet by seven feet, with no vanity, no shower curtain, and virtually no hot water.
The shower head contained an electric water heater, but it did not function very well. Most everyone in our group, including me, reported taking cold to lukewarm baths. I would complain, except having seen the makeshift shower stalls the more than 335 families living in one of the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps, I’m grateful the motel had an indoor facility, and I didn’t have to bathe out of a plastic container.
We enjoyed private dining for breakfast and dinner, which was a nice treat. The same members of the motel staff served us daily. There was plenty of food to choose from, but very little that appealed to me. I almost converted to vegetarianism while in Kenya, because I found very little meat that I could chew and swallow.
For my first few days in Kenya, I ate the pale-yolk eggs that were served. I tried them scrambled and the eggs looked white. I tried them fried and they looked white. I tried an omelet with peppers and cheese and it too looked white. I don’t think I tried them again.
The sausages served for breakfast looked awful and tasted like cheap bologna. Twice we were served bacon, and twice I tried to figure out what part of the pig it came from. It didn’t have enough fat to come from the belly and wasn’t lean enough to be Canadian bacon.
A few mornings I tried the fresh fruit selections, but generally I shied away from fruit. I don’t trust the handling fruit procedures in America, and I surely don’t in a third-world country. So, I ate a lot of toast and jam or toast and peanut butter for my breakfasts.
Our evening meals at the motel offered some variety from our noon meals eaten thirty miles away, but by the end of the week, I had given up chewing anything they called beef. As an old meat man, I’ve cut just about every part of a steer from the head back and down, but I’ve never seen meat that had gristle throughout it.
Early on in my Kenya trip, I learned that most any of the vegetable combinations or stews could be combined with the ever-plentiful rice. I also learned to put enough hot sauce on the food to make it go down easier. I never went hungry, but after two weeks in Kenya I came home ten pounds lighter.
While I may have grumbled and complained about my life in Kenya, it should not be construed that I didn’t have a good experience. As I told a teammate, "I wouldn't take anything for experiencing Kenya for two weeks, but I can't think of anything that would merit my returning."

Monday, September 26, 2011

Judy Johnston Maxey

In the early seventies, Judy and Terry Maxey moved to Pontotoc and bought (or built) a house with a few acres of land near the Damuth property south of Pontotoc. The Maxeys were soon involved members of First Baptist Church. Terry and I were in the same Sunday School Class and quickly became friends. Judy was busy kept busy with the twins, Tracy and Stacy, who were, according to some sources, little holy terrors.

I don’t remember whose idea it was to start a card club, but I remember the Maxeys, Prewetts, Huddlestons, Weatherlys, Bighams, and the Carters comprised the newly formed social club. We rotated host homes on a monthly basis, and we always enjoyed a meal in the host home prior to getting down to playing a friendly game of cards.

We never wagered on the games we played, but sometimes the spirit of competitiveness bordered on hostility. I know Judy and I butted heads on more than one occasion. I possess an argumentative nature, and there were times when I felt I had met my match in Judy Maxey. We never left a card game mad at each other, but one might have cut the tension in the air with a knife.

It was the fun times we had more so than any of the card games played that kept me looking forward to the next monthly meeting. As our children were birthed and grew, each of the couples in the club found it more difficult to squeeze in a Friday night once a month for our gatherings. The Bighams relocated, and we tried out several couples, including the Winstons and the Palmertrees. The once childless Huddlestons somehow managed to bring a son into the world before our card club split.

For Judy, the twins were still being themselves when she gave birth to another son, Patrick, of whom some would argue was more terrible to control than either of the twins. I can’t weigh in on this one because I never had to keep any of them, but Patrick and our son, Jason, became best of friends.

Of the couples in our original card club, two found the stresses of marriage, work, child rearing, and an active social life more than they were willing to endure together. First the Huddlestons threw in the proverbial towel then the Maxeys. Eventually, each divorced spouse found someone else to cherish within the bonds of matrimony. For Judy, her second marriage was a short-lived one, and, at its dissolution, she took back her name from her first marriage.

For the better part of twenty years, Judy battled cancer. The battle left her a mere shell of her former self, emaciated, and fragile. Fiercely independent, Judy spent this past year largely dependent on others to care for her.

Her youngest son, Patrick, became her primary caregiver as her health deteriorated and she needed a family member to act on her behalf. Patrick did an admirable job seeing that his mom was cared for in hospitals, assisted living facilities, and finally nursing homes.

Shortly before dawn on Sunday, September 25, 2011, Judy Johnson Maxey slipped quietly across the divide that separates the physical world and the spiritual world and into a realm where she now abides in the light of the Living Lamb.

I shall truly miss my friend Judy. I know she must have struggled with that great question, “Why me” when adversity struck her, but she handled pain and sorrow with dignity and a sense of purpose. While it’s been several months since I last saw her, she was then the same friendly and cheerful individual I had grown to appreciate years earlier.

Gladly, I can say that which separates us today is but temporary. I cannot visit her nor can she visit me, but one day I’ll see her again, not as she appeared when last I saw her but in a glorified body that will never grow old or suffer the ravages of disease. Goodbye, until we meet again, Judy… until we meet again.

Monday, September 05, 2011

Chicago Three and More

They came into our home during the wee hours of Friday morn. They napped perhaps four hours after their twelve-hour plus journey from Chicago. These were three young adults, who will be part of our Kenya Mission Team and will travel with us in early October to “the dark continent” and help us build a Habitat for Humanity house for an IDP (Internally Displaced Person).
They put in a long day’s work at our fish-fry fundraiser to help support our Mission Trip. They all have good jobs working for corporations in Chicago but were willing to take time off work to travel to Pontotoc.
Karen, an employee of Accenture, is our team leader and has participated in Habitat builds in Pontotoc for several summers. She is also the person who conceptualized our mission trip.
Mel, aka marvelous Mel, works for Morningstar and has also participated in Habitat builds in Pontotoc as part of the Charis Ministries group of which Karen is also an active member.
We had not previously met Eli, but since Mel vouched for him as one of her Morningstar friends, we welcomed him into our home and were thankful for another pair of hands and feet to help with the fish fry.
Already, Barbara and I think of them as family and are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with them while on the Kenya Mission Trip. The three nights they were in our home went by all too quickly, and now they are driving back to Chicago.
On Sunday afternoon we invited our other local team members into our home not only for a team meeting but also a meal. Gloria, Mattie and Keith each have special talents that will be needed if we are to complete a house in the nine days we will be working in Kenya.
Our Mission Team’s Pontotoc contingent will rendezvous with the Chicagoans in roughly one month where we will board an aircraft to fly first to London and then into Nairobi, Kenya. The excitement is building, and we will surely have lots of experiences to share when we return.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Fun With Felicia

Now, you’d think being over-protective would be a parental role, but sometimes this trait is found in the child. I believe my niece has rightly inherited her over-protectiveness from her mom, my sister, Sarah.
Saturday, August 20th was my wedding anniversary, so Barbara and I went out to eat for dinner and invited my sister, Sarah. We had not previously eaten at Boochey’s near Thaxton, MS, but chose to go there based on what we had heard of its food and atmosphere.
We had hardly finished our meal and gotten into our car when Sarah received a text message from Felicia. Felicia and husband Cullen were not at home at the time. The gist of the message was Felicia was to bake and decorate a cake for someone and wanted her mom to pick up a few things from Walmart.
Sarah replied to the text, “I’m on my way back from Thaxton and will run by Walmart on my way home.”
This piqued Felicia’s cat-like curiosity.
“What you doing in Thaxton.”
By this time Barbara and I were fully engaged in the text conversation and prompted Sarah to respond with, “My man friend and I went out to eat.”
Almost instantly, Felicia’s response came, “What???”
As if given time to absorb the relevation and adjust, Felicia soon asked her mom a favor.
“If you really, really love me (notice the self-doubt), you’ll bake the cake for me, so all I’ll have to do is the icing.”
I suggested Sarah respond with something about Tunica.
“Okay, I should have time to do that when I get back from Tunica.”
By this time, I was pulling into Felicia’s drive for Sarah to drop off the ingredients for the cake icing. Sarah took the supplies inside, leaving her cell phone in the backseat of the car.
Momentarily, Sarah’s cell phone rang. I reached over the back of my seat for the phone, and in doing so accidently “answered” it. I saw the caller ID listed the caller as “Felicia, My Favorite.” Instead of talking, I gestured to Barbara that the call was from Felicia. After a few seconds, I hung up without saying a word.
In the blink of an eye, the phone rang. Again the caller ID indicated Felicia was the caller. This time, I spoke audibly but with a deep voice.
“Hello”
Felicia asked, “Who’s this?”
“John,” I replied stoically and in the same deep voice.
“I’d like to speak to Sarah Sue,” Felicia responded with some uncertainty.
“I think you have the wrong number.” I stated.
“I don’t think so,” Felicia demanded.
With no further words, I hung up on her again.
Barbara and I erupted with laughter and were enjoying our part in the masquerade rather immensely.
Two text messages appeared on Sarah’s phone almost simultaneously.
“Mom are you OK?”
“Call me.”
About then, Sarah had returned to the car, and we quickly filled her in on the happenings. She, too, laughed at our scheming and continued to cackle, as she phoned Felicia to assure her she was indeed okay and that she had been out to eat with Uncle Wayne and Aunt Barbara, the last of the red-hot lovers, on their wedding anniversary.
“I’m not amused,” Felicia calmly replied.
And, in her best principal-in-training-voice, Felicia remarked, “I don’t think it’s the least bit funny.”
As far as I know, Felicia still doesn’t think our “funning” her funny. But, we do. Bawahahahaaaa!



Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Seeing You Play

Rayanne and Mignon circa 1981A musical extravaganza presented by long-time piano teacher, Patricia Henry, was performed last Friday night and Saturday afternoon to the delight of several hundred attendants. Somehow, Patricia Henry manages to pull off the seemingly impossible, assembling dozens of her former students, music club members, and others to perform musical selections using multiple pianos, keyboards, an organ, as well as a handful of orchestral instruments. Doing so once would be an achievement, but Patricia is up to about a half-dozen such performances over the past dozen years.

As my daughter, Rayanne Adams, is one of a select and talented group of pianists chosen to perform, I always look forward to Patricia’s programs. Rayanne’s childhood best friend, Mignon Montgomery Williamson, another pianist beaming with talent, is also a member of the core group of pianists upon which Patricia bills as her musical extravaganzas.

Because Rayanne and Mignon were practically inseparable in their youth, Mignon’s father and I came to think of each other’s daughter as one of our own family. The years of separation since their youth have weakened that bond of friendship and association, but I still think of the two as sisters and am proud of the accomplishments of each one.

Patricia knows she can count on certain individuals to stay together when playing as a group, and she asks her other talented players, who have less experience in group performances, to listen to her core players in order to keep time, musically. The end result, in my mind, is that of listening to a single great piano being played.

My daughter and Mignon often played piano duets for First Baptist Church in their young years. It was especially gratifying to see them perform similarly in Patricia’s musical extravaganza, and I admit to being proud of their solo selections as well.

For the greater part of her music life, starting at age five, Rayanne has been unflappable with regard to performing before an audience. But, I witnessed her worrying about being “good enough” for the first time as she struggled to master certain pieces while doing all the usual activities as a wife and mother, maintaining a job, being involved in the music program of her church, and trying to plan her eldest daughter’s wedding.

A number of individuals sought out Rayanne after the two performances to express their appreciation for the program and to comment on how much they enjoyed “seeing her play.” It was the “seeing her play” phrase that gave her pause to wonder what she might be doing with her actions to call attention to herself, something team players seek to avoid. We, her family, attempted to explain what we felt others were expressing.

“Rayanne, folks just recognize your ability to express yourself in your music. That’s what they mean by ‘seeing you play,’” we consoled.

In ordering several DVD copies of the music program through a company under contract with Patricia, I had the opportunity to discuss the music program at length with Patricia in the privacy of her home.

I asked her take on “seeing you play,” which she explained, thusly, with regard to her students, “What I’ve always told them is when you’re playing, your fingers are doing the talking and singing the song for you. And, you’ve got to play it like you mean what the words are saying in the song that you’re playing. And, I’ve always told them that they’re not a robot. That if you mash a button on a robot it does the same thing, same tone, but we’re human, and it’s a lot of difference when a human stands up and sings, and they put feeling into their face and in the way they do their voice. Well, you’ve got to do that with your fingers when you’re playing; you’ve got to put your feeling in.”

Rayanne and Mignon, thirty years laterApparently, Rayanne has gotten good enough at putting feeling into her music that it’s recognized by others. Certainly other players have similar abilities and they, too, develop distinctive styles of playing and expression, but it’s nice to know others see what I see in Rayanne’s creative expressions in music.

Musical talent seems to flow through the Carter bloodline, but my portion is far less than that of my son and daughter. Jason is an outstanding guitarist and singer. His genre of choice is the Blues, but he’s comfortable doing certain country classics. Both my children play well in their respective arenas and as far as I can tell, folks enjoy “seeing them play.”

Note: Photos from 1981 and 2011.