Thursday, 14 years after my own dad died, Galen Foster's brother, Tanksley, died suddenly leaving a family in deep grief. This morning I did the music for his funeral. Galen is a dear friend. His brother was 58. His son is 22 and in college at UT. I sat today at the funeral where I was almost facing him. It was so surreal. It was like a flashback to 1991. I saw myself in him. I recognized his expression and his disbelief. I wanted so much to run over to him and tell him that things will not always be like they are today...but now is not the time. I couldn't--wouldn't--hear that for another year or so. My heart went out to all of them.
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On a separate note, Sheryl and I sang at Kristen Butler's wedding last night. Talk about your polar extremes! What an amazing wedding! Wow! The song we sang was quite challenging. But, we got to sing with a full string quartet and the excellent Mrs. Clarissa Cox on piano. It was a lot of fun. The reception was at the Belle Meade Mansion. Truly indescribable. WOW!
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Today I've had this weird homesickness for Abilene. Some people long to get away to the beach (don't get me wrong, I'll take St. John any day over Abilene) but I was longing for the good ol' Key City today. It's ACU Homecoming. The 100th anniversary Homecoming. Quite the shin-dig, I'm sure. I was really homesick today. I was imagining standing at Bitsy's Flower shop where we always stand for the parade. I was imagining Gamma Sig Homecoming breakfast (and then I remembered that I swore never to go again! I can always throw biscuits at Maddie and Ella and not have to pay $10 to do it!!) Tonight I've been thinking about the Homecoming Musical--Suessical, which I'm sure is fabulous. I wish we were there. I'm ready to visit. November 4th can't come soon enough!
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Today was full of family fun. We went to the Music and Molasses festival. Yes...you heard me...Music and Molasses. It was really so much fun! There were people dressed up in frontier garb and cooking over open fires. There were horse-drawn wagon rides. There was homemade ice cream! There were cloggers--yep, cloggers. There was music, and great music at that. However, I'm not sure I ever saw any molasses. Hopefully, Stephen Bailey had more luck at the Modern Dance and Syrup festival. But you'll have to ask him about that.
Tonight Sheryl made shrimp scampi, corn on the cob and broccoli. I think it was the best thing I've ever eaten. As we sat down to eat, we talked about how thankful we are that we both came from families who sat and ate together. It's really such a fun time for us.
God bless your Sunday--wherever you are...Africa, Abilene, Manhattan, San Francisco, Kansas, Virginia, South America, or right here in Nashville. We gather together in a sense, and join a great cloud of witnesses as we declare the glory of the Lord. May our hearts burn with conviction to be passionate about the things He is passionate about!
Please keep the Largent family in your prayers. Sheryl's oldest brother, Shelby, lost his son Thursday night. He died in his sleep at their home. Kye was only about 30 years old. As you can imagine, they are devastated. Please keep Shelby, Susan, Pam and the entire family in your prayers.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
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11 comments:
I thought of you and Cheryl a few times today, remembering I got to see you last year at Homecoming. It will be fun to see you when you do get out here. And so you know, if I remember correctly, GSP won the float competition from the parade with this huge fortress float they had.
Funny how I was homesick as well (see my most recent post). For Abilene, ACU campus, GSP breakfast...everything. Talked to my brother tonight and he said they had a good time...Donny said they are building a CrackerBarrell right next to the DQ off Amber...that's right next to the new SuperWal-Mart! Guess you'll see it before us. I do love the internet and this whole blogging thing...you are right, whether we are here in Africa or you are in Nashville, it's like there's a community that I belong to when we are homesick and missing family and friends. I also love the internet because after I came home from an evangelism meeting in this very small rural African village, I was able to connect to a decent internet connection and hear streaming live audio of the Dallas Cowboys win over the Giants (via a Spanish speaking Catholic radio station in Laredo, TX...how weird is that). Anyway, a few years ago we didn't have a telephone in our house here in Benin...I'm so thankful for the internet and the sense of community and connectedness it's brought to our lives.
-Randy
Well, I got to do all the things you were talking about at ACU Homcoming. I attended GSP Breakfast for the 1st time in several years. No biscuits this year - it was quite fun. Sat with Don, Doug, Scott Ramsey, Mo, and Adam Looney. We had a good time singing the old club songs. Still is funning that they are still singing the song that John Scott wrote for us back in 1990 I think. Wow!! Then I did attend the parade. However, I didn't watch much of it b/c I was holding the video camera, running along side the "Coming Home Queen" car that had my beautiful bride in it! My 2 boys were with her too so that was so fun to see. They had a great time throwing out candy to everyone. Chapel was great. Too hot for October but it sure was special and made me remember why I love ACU so much!! Missed you Brandon!!
One more thing: Yes, Randy is right - Cracker Barrell 5 minutes from Campus. Is this heaven yet? The only thing that was sad to me was that "Mr G's" was no longer there. Don't know how long it has been gone but I have special memoreis of that place with lots of friends. But a Super Wal-Mart and Cracker Barrell that close - are those angels singing?
Homecoming was pretty good this year - being the Centennial year, ACU is pulling out all the stops to make every event a really big deal. I think your girls would have liked the musical this year (Seussical).
And Donny, Mr. G's has been gone for a long, long time.
Reading all these ACU Homecoming rememberances brought back my own memories of the event. Granted, I was only a child and never attended the breakfasts, parades, etc but we ALWAYS went to the football game. My father is a huge football fan and we would go watch the Wildcats play football since other than H.S. that was the only game in town worth going to!
I would sit and watch all the people there, not the game, especially the college students and high school students that were there. My favorite part, of course, was when they crowned the homecoming queen. I mean for a little girl in Abilene this was as close to royalty as it got. My other favorite part was admiring the mums that the girls would be wearing. Do they still do that? I couldn't wait to grow up and be in high school and college so that I could wear a mum with the ribbons and the charms and the glittery lettering to a football game! But alas, we moved to Virginia after I finished 7th grade and nobody there had even heard of mums. They had no idea what I was talking about! They would be like, "you mean chrysanthamums?" and I would say, "well that's the flower, but you put these ribbons and charms and stuff on it"...and then I would get these weird looks like I maybe I should go back to Texas.
Anyway...thanks for letting me reminisce a little.
Even though I've never been to ACU, your writing allowed me to catch a glimpse of fun times at a Christian university. I hope my son (15) will have the chance to experience some of the same things in a christian setting.
By the way, I'm one of those Floridians that Greg mentioned. We plan to come back next year to Zoe. Hope you can put in a track for us rookies with dreams of doing some of the same kinds of things in worship that you do at Otter Creek. If you can send any suggestions concerning starting a praise team I'll list my email. God Bless.
Cecil Walker
walkerc2@brevard.k12.fl.us
or
cwinwc@yahoo.com
I have not, am not now, and never will be homesick for Abilene, but I think I might get a flavor of the feel when I long for the snows of Minnesota.
I want to say the following publicly:
I love Bradon and Sheryl and the wonderful kids that go with them. They are friends, family, and ministers to me. What an honor to have these people in my life. They have given me friendship, advice, music, and companionship and something else, they introduced me to P.F Chang, a gift I will never forget.
Please keep to your way of living as the world is better for it - especially mine.
Hi Brandon:
First time commenter here. Your post today reminded me of things I miss too: Beauty of the fall in Nashville and the beauty, er.. well, Abilene. I grew up in the Nashty went to good ole David Lipscomb from kindergarten through high school and then transplanted to Texas for college at ACU. I think we actually met at OC one random sunday morning when I was home and my 2 precious aunts were visiting the states from India around Christmas time. (I'm sure you don't get just a ton of random indian ladies in full sari on a sunday morning!) They wanted to see what "church" was like and I remember you being very welcoming!
It was our five year reunion this Homecoming and it was AMAZING. We had such a wonderful chapel on Saturday(no presentment of class checks and other boring awards) but rather a wonderful video history of the progress that ACU has experienced. I may have shed a tear. Some of our friends reconnected over late nights at Bueno, lunch at Mr. Gatti's, songs around the GATA fountain, and uplifting worship at Highland. It was a cup-filling weekend to say the least. We also stopped in and visited with Phyllis Trevathan who is remembering the anniversary of Charles' death this week. They were special to us and I'm sure to many of you and your friends.
Anyway, just wanted to thank you for your thoughts! I enjoy reading it! (And what a stinking small world that you are buddies with the Doggetts! I am BFF with Karen's sister, Laura Polk Blackstock.) Crazy!
Hi, I am a friend of Ripple and just found this site. I am also wondering if Kye Largent that you mentioned is the same Kye that was my roommate in Memphis in the early 90's. He had moved to Detroit (to study law and live with his dad?) and then we heard he later moved to Florida. He was a heavy-set guy with a greatful dead skull tattoo on his arm or chest. If this is the same Kye, please contact Ripple so that we can properly pay our respect to him passing on.
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