Twas the night before Christmas and all through the town,
Everyone seemed happy, not even a frown.
The stores were all busy, making sales by the minute,
Last minute shopping, maxing out the credit card limit.

He watches them all as he sits all alone,
Thinking of his family, his wife and his son,
He knows they are home, and will soon be asleep,
But he’ll be out all night, proudly walking the beat.

He’s part of the few, who gladly sacrifice,
He’s willing to pay that ultimate price,
He cares what happens out on the street,
So you and your loved ones can sleep in peace.

He’s not the only one, there are a few more,
Who devote their lives, for those they adore
They are the ones, who you will call,
If you have trouble, have a fire, or a fall.

They will be out there all through the night,
Serving and protecting, accepting the fight.
So this Holiday Season, please don’t forget,
The men and women, who you, they protect

Eight years ago today my cousin was hit and killed by a train as he was on the way to his girlfriends house. He was only 17 years old. In the words of Clay Walker in his song “Just A Few Questions”, “And why did my cousin have to die in that crash? A good kid, only seventeen, I still wonder about that. It seems unfair to me, some get the chance to chase their dreams, and some don’t.” I have questioned this for 8 years, but I guess all things happen for a reason right? I remember getting the phone call from my dad. Me and my brother were standing in a gas station/diner in Montgomery, AL. When I answered I couldn’t understand what was happening. I couldn’t hear my dad because of loud sound in the background. When he said the words, “It’s Brent”, I understood then what that sound was. I could hear my mom and sisters in the background crying. The cry you hear from someone when they have lost a loved one is a sound you never want to hear. I wish I could describe the feeling I had, but if you have ever lost anyone you loved then you know that is impossible. I told the people cooking our food we had to go, I paid for the uneaten food and got my brother in the car. He knew something was wrong but I didn’t have the courage to tell him for several miles down the interstate. When I finally tried to tell him all I could do was cry. When I finally got out that Brent had been killed, my little brother just turned his head from me and wept. If you ever want to feel small, feel completely out of control, watch your loved one cry and know there is nothing you can do to help. Once we made it back to Huntsville and to Brents house, everything seemed to start blurring out. I remember seeing my family, we all sat around outside in disbelief. How could this happen to our family? Why us? Why Brent?

After the funeral was over everyone tried to get back to normal. We all knew this would never be possible. Brent was one of those people that was a friend to all. He was one that you could sit and talk to for hours about your problems, and he would never tell you about his, he didn’t want to burden you. Brent was one of the most loving people I have ever met in my life. He had hundreds of friends that came to the funeral home to pay their respects and say their last goodbyes. Some couldn’t even make it in the funeral home. We both worked together at Subway and our boss told me he stood outside with a large group of people, there was no room inside. Even the standing room had been taken. Brent was one who, at 17 years old, would see me in Wal-Mart or at the mall, come over, give me a hug, and tell me he loved me. He wasn’t ashamed at all to give his mom a kiss in front of all his friends. Matter of fact, he was one to brag about how much he loved his family. Oh how I miss my cousin. I can only hope that I myself can be more like him.

RIP Brent. 8/2/02 We love you and miss you!

“The Site”

I visited the site today
Where you went with Jesus to stay
The pain cut through me like a knife
Its not fair you lost your life
Just days into your senior year
Your friends and family shed a tear
We all gathered around one night
We mourned for you with candle light
Inside the gym where you played ball
On the very court where you gave it your all
It has been several years since you left
But at that spot has been no more death
God loaned you to us for a special price
You had to pay the ultimate sacrifice
Now no one else will die there
No other family will feel that pain
No one else will lose someone
With nothing else left to gain
Now still to this day I ask God why when I pray
But I guess the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away
I miss you so much and think of you every day
When I see the white cross on the side of the highway

27 Years Ago…
Ronald Reagan is President. George Bush is Vice President.

The worlds most popular word processing program is launched. Microsoft Word.

Average cost of a new house: $82,600.00

Average income per year: $21,070.00

Average monthly rent: $335.00

Price for a Dodge Ram 50 Truck: $5,665.00

The world population was estimated at 4.72 billion (today it is almost 7 billion)

In Lebanon: A terrorist attack by a suicide bomber destroys the United States Embassy in Beirut, killing 63.

The first mobile phones are introduced to the public by the Motorola Company in Chicago. The grandson of Alexander Graham Bell answered the first commercial mobile phone call.

Camcorders and CD’s are first introduced.

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, on the Space Shuttle Challenger (June 18th).

Lotus 1-2-3 is released.

The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, record 125 million watch.

TV Shows that were airing includes: Dallas, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., The Jeffersons, The Love Boat, Knots Landing, and Simon & Simon.

Movies Released: Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Smokey and the Bandit III, Mr. Mom, Trading Places, and Terms of Endearment.

Music: Michael Jackson won Grammy Awards for “Thriller”, “Beat It”, and “Billie Jean”. Song of the year was “Every Breath You Take” written by Sting. Lee Greenwood and Anne Murray each won a Grammy for the male and female country music vocalists of the year.

Milk is $1.89 a gallon, bread is $.66, a stamp is $.20, and gas is $1.84 a gallon.

Baltimore Orioles were the World Series Champions and the Washington Redskins were the Super Bowl Champions (man a lot has changed ha)

Rubik’s Cube, Boob Boxes, Cabbage Patch Kids, and “Baby on Board” signs were taking off.

Ocean Spray introduced the very first “juice box” to America.

Ray-Bans were popular.

Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys died from a drowning accident.

Crack cocaine is developed in the Bahamas and soon makes its way to the US.

The “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign debuts.

Travis and Betty Day are married.

If I lost you, the world would have no color
If I lost you, the sun would no longer shine
If I lost you, I wouldn’t be worth a dollar
If I lost you, I could call nothing mine

If I lost you, there would be no tomorrow
If I lost you, there would be no one to turn to
If I lost you, my life would be full of sorrow
If I lost you, I’d always be sad and blue

The Site
For Brent

I visited the site today
Where you went with Jesus to stay
The pain cut through me like a knife
Its not fair you lost your life
Just days into your senior year
Your friends and family shed a tear
We all gathered around one night
We mourned for you with candle light
Inside the gym where you played ball
On the very court where you gave it your all
It has been several years since you left
But at that spot has been no more death
God loaned you to us for a special price
You had to pay the ultimate sacrifice
Now no one else will die there
No other family will feel that pain
No one else will lose someone
With nothing else left to gain
Now still to this day I ask God why when I pray
But I guess the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away
I miss you so much and think of you every day
When I see the white cross on the side of the highway

RIP My Cousin

The Site – For Brent

Now if you don’t have kids, you may be reading this wondering what the big deal is. As my son gets older, it makes me realize that he is going to be heading off to preschool soon. After that it is kindergarten. On to middle school, then high school, and hopefully I pray one day he will go to college (so he can be scouted by the Atlanta Braves and play Major League Baseball so daddy can have a big house and nice cars and not have to work!). When I think about him growing up, these are the things I think about, and to be honest, it scares the life out of me (except the part about him playing for the Braves, then I just get excited and imagine what it’s like to live in a huge house, drive a vette, and have season tickets to the Braves games to watch my son play ha). It does scare me, but at the same time it is so fun watching him grow up. I tell my wife all the time how much fun I have watching him play with his toys. Just the little things like him learning how to roll a car across the living room floor brings me joy. Then if you add in the other things like him learning to wave, point at things he wants, clap, and trying to mimic what you say, I feel like I will explode with “dad pride”. Of course his first words had to be “mama”, but when I heard him say “dada” I believe my life stood still for a few minutes. Nothing in this world can compare to having your baby look at you and call you by name (my name is officially dada ha).

So for him to grow up he has to have birthday parties. Wow, one down and a ton more to go. I’m glad these things only come once a year. While I was so happy and enjoyed watching him having fun and opening gifts, it wore me out. I need a year to recuperate, at least. Now if you are familiar with 1st birthday parties then you know that the birthday boy/girl is supposed to have their own cake. Well, my son has this cake in front of him and as he starts to stick his hand in it to grab a big chunk to eat, he stops, looks around, then sticks his finger in the icing and barely eats a small piece. He keeps looking around waiting for someone to take the cake from him. When he finally realized that the cake was for him and he could dig in, well, he dug in. Cake and icing everywhere. All over his face and body. But he had fun. And so did I. He has now started to walk. Wow. My baby is, uh excuse me, my toddler is walking! He started taking a few steps before his birthday but now, on his birthday, he is standing up and walking all the way across the living room by himself. Again the whole “dad pride” thing just about exploded out of me again.

Time is so precious. Before we know it he will be off to school and moved out. Then we will look back on his first birthday and agree that time was indeed precious. I’m going to make the best of it. Not only for my son but for others in my life. This is something we all need to do. Stop our hectic lives and take a step back, look around, and just enjoy the moments we have now. Whether you want to play a round of golf, catch a baseball game, go fishing, or spend it with family, these are precious times and we should treat it as that. You never know when these precious moments will no longer be here. So I say to myself as much or more than to anyone else, spend your time wisely, and enjoy it. Bring joy to someone else’s life, it will rub off on you. So to my brother, yes, you are right, I’m getting old. But I’m gonna have fun all the way there, thanks to my son!

Thanks to Church on the Move

So like I said, here I was talking about soccer saying how boring and annoying it was, how they needed their own category….all while I’m watching it. So here it is. The USA vs. Algeria. Down to the wire. If the USA doesn’t score then they go home. England is beating Slovenia and USA is tied with Algeria at nothing a piece. If it ends here USA goes home and England advances with Slovenia. I’m watching the USA/Slovenia game and sitting on the edge of my seat, thanks in part to those stupid horns. There is an update that England wins, USA now HAS GOT TO WIN. They have come so far to go home now is what the commentator is saying. And there it is, time is up. Game over. So I thought, and then another soccer rule that I don’t understand. Someone holds up a sign that says these two teams get to play for another four minutes. I think someone was penalized at the end which caused the time to run out, since the clock NEVER stops in soccer. At least I don’t think it does. So here we go, I’m thinking to myself that USA has got to score here. You can feel it in the air, yes they are going to score. Why am I saying this? I hate soccer. Soccer is a stupid sport right? I push that thought aside and say I will deal with it later, right now I’m mentally willing the United States to kick that stupid ball through the goaltender and score. What a play at the end, the USA scores a goal, the fans go absolutely crazy, the players are running around like maniacs, the guy that scored the goal slides through the grass as his teammates pile on top of him celebrating, and I almost knocked my drink off the table because I jumped up so fast yelling in excitement. But wait, I’m yelling at the TV telling the guys to stop celebrating! I just know the ref is going to throw a flag…or a card…for excessive celebration, but he doesn’t. I’m used to football. By the way this is one rule that I think football should look at because I had so much fun watching this team celebrate that one goal. They knew they just had to keep Algeria from scoring in the next two or so minutes and they would advance. The minutes tick of the clock and final score is USA 1 Algeria 0. USA advances and wins their division, or group, whatever it’s called. Wow what a game. My heart is racing, I’m cheering on the USA while the team celebrates. Wow, I just got all excited over soccer. A boring sport.

So today I want to tell you all, if you have never watched a soccer game then you should. I would love to attend one in person one day. Of course now I just want to go watch team USA play. I’m not sure if any other soccer games are as exciting or not, but the World Cup is definitely a sport that will be on my list from now on to watch whenever I get the chance. To everyone that has been soccer fans or players and have taken the heat by others, like me, saying soccer is a boring sport…man were we wrong. I can’t wait till the next time I get to watch the USA play soccer and hopefully go on to win the World Cup. I think I might actually like a little soccer every now and then. You know, if it wasn’t such a boring sport. GO USA!

Here is something I wrote for a good friend after he was killed in the line of duty:

The Thin Blue Line

In Memory of Eric

The Thin Blue Line just got thinner tonight.
With one Officer less the stars don’t shine as bright.
When the call goes out for Officer needs assistance
You race to the scene, lights flashing in the distance
As your brother in blue stares back up at you.
The blank look in his eyes, the tears on your face.
The heart sinking feeling, the emptiness inside.
You scream over the mic, Officer Down!
Can they hear me? Where are the medics?
Why is it taking so long? He can’t die!
As the emotions drown out the surroundings
As you choke on your own tears
Now you begin to realize
The Thin Blue Line just got thinner tonight.
————————————————————-

RIP Offc. Eric Freeman
EOW 12/15/07

By

Joseph Adam Day

Copyright © December 15, 2007 – All Rights Reserved
and may not be duplicated without permission