I often wonder where the time goes. I was looking back through some old photographs recently and came across this photograph of Jilda and I. We were at the beach and I remember that day like it was yesterday.
It was the year after hurricane Fredrick hit Mobile and I worked for South Central Bell and was sent south to help put that city back together. Jilda joined me a few weeks later and we spent a great summer in South Alabama. We had a crew of about twelve guys in our hotel, the Howard Johnson, and we became very close friends in those months we spent there.
All the guys would work all day and Jilda would lay out by the pool until early afternoon, then she’d hustle down to the grocery store and buy up food for supper. All the guys pitched in money each day and we had ice chests full of drinks and fresh meat and fish and a grill on the deck and when we go home every evening we ate like royalty.
We had our German Shepherd Duke with us because he loved to ride. He stayed with us a few weeks until one unfortunate incident with the cleaning service. Apparently, the maid like to watch her soaps in our room while Jilda was at the pool. She was in there one morning cleaning our room and watching TV when Duke wandered into the room from the deck. As she was leaning over the bed to fix the sheets, Duke ran his cold nose up the back of her skirt and she let out a blood curdling scream that was heard in Montgomery. The manager, who had become quite fond of Duke, told us the dog had to go.Duke went to live with Jilda’s mom and dad until our tour of duty in Mobile was completed.
We’ve changed a little through the years. Jilda’s hair is a little shorter and my hair… well it’s gone now, but we still love to travel.
One thing that I’m really glad that we did through the years is take pictures. You can look back through our picture box and get a good feel for how we spent our time. There are a lot of pictures of us all over this country and a lot from other countries too. There are pictures of our nieces and nephews you can watch them grow just by looking at the photos in our picture box. We have pictures of all our dogs and pictures of all our friends. We also have pictures of all our cars and guitars.
In looking through those photographs you will also pick up on another theme… music. Music has been a big part of our lives from the start. Most of you probably don’t remember, but Jilda was in Miss Dora High in 1969 and she sang “Gentle on My Mind” and I played guitar for her. I think that was the first time anyone had used a guitar in Miss Dora High.
You will see pictures of us at Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, at the Wine and Cheese Festival in Napa Valley, California, at “The Widows” pub in Ireland and floating down the Warrior River on a pontoon boat singing “Proud Mary”.
So when I start to wonder where the time went, I take comfort in looking back through our picture box. Life is a gift, celebrate it each day.