Mrs. Susie Kate Taylor, school teacher supreme, was one of my childhood heroes.  I thought she was just a good teacher, and I liked her, but she was nothing special at the time.  It was later, much later that I discovered her real value to me.  She was called Ms. Taylor by her 5^th grade students at Lawrenceville Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Mrs. Taylor taught me in the 5^th grade at the tender age of 10.  I was just beginning to explore some of the questions of my world, some maybe a little prematurely.  She taught us our multiplication tables and personal health and grooming.  In addition to Arithmetic, we also studied Health, English, Social Studies, Science and Spelling.  I was a whizz in English, Spelling and Science but only fair at Arithmetic.  I loved to diagram sentences in English class and I was always one of the last standing at the spelling bee.

I think my love of word structure was a foundation for my later desires to write.  I have a fair gift to write and have done some serious writing before but my writing inspiration must come from within, not from assignment.  I have done some professional writing for magazines but I don’t like writing from an assignment; I’d much rather let the words roll from my heart.  I give Mrs. Susie Kate Taylor a lot of the credit for my writing skills development.

Mrs. Taylor lived in my town of Auburn, Georgia; well actually, she lived in Carl, but the city limit signs of Carl and Auburn were on the same post.  Both were little whistle-stop communities kept alive by the railroad and Highway 29.  Auburn straddled the railroad that ran between Lawrenceville and Athens.  When my folks moved to Auburn, and I no longer attended Lawrenceville Elementary, Mrs. Susie Kate kept in touch with me and my family.  You see, Mrs. Taylor was a good Christian lady; yea every bit a real lady.  She was a widow and lived with her only son who was a bachelor.  Mrs. Susie Kate was a Methodist, the old fashioned kind who really loved the Lord, and she loved me too.

My folks took us to Church sometimes but not regularly, but Mrs. Susie Kate often called my folks and asked them if she could come by and pick up “Jimmy” and take him to Wednesday night prayer meeting with her.  When asked if I wanted to go, “Sure, I’ll go” was my reply.  I really liked Mrs. Susie Kate and all the way to Church she would tell me about the Lord and how much He loves me.  When we arrived at the little country Church she took me around and, like the lady she was, introduced me to everyone…the proper way.  I felt important to her and that meant a lot to me.  She gave me a Bible one night at Church and encouraged me to read it.  You see, Mrs. Susie Kate Taylor loved my soul, not just my mind.  She was a rare breed; we need Susie Kate Taylors today.  You don’t hear about teachers like her these days.  Just today I was reading the headlines in the local paper about a teacher that was indicted for child molestation right here in our county.  Yea, we need Susie Kate Taylors in our schools today.

The years slipped away and I grew into a young adult and pretty much forgot about Mrs. Susie Kate.  Then, one day I heard that she had passed away.  My thoughts went immediately to that little country Church where she had taken me on several occasions in my childhood.  I thought surely that is where they will lay her to rest.  God rest her soul.  Did I mention she was a Christian lady?  Yea, she was more than just an elementary teacher, she loved me.

Jesus tells a parable in the New Testament about a house being built on a solid rock and the winds and rains beat vehemently against it but could not move it.  It has to have a good foundation to withstand the storms; yea, a good strong foundation.  I thank God for the day He brought Mrs. Susie Kate Taylor into my life to be one of the many builders of my foundation.  Did she teach me the three R’s, you bet she did, but she taught me so much more.  She taught me things of eternal weight.  She showed me the way to the Savior but she never pushed; she just pointed.

I wonder when the rewards are handed out in Glory what will she receive from the Lord.  She deserves much, but that’s God business.  Still, I’m sure she will wear a beautiful crown on her majestic head.  I can’t wait to see her again.  Yea, she was really something.  Did I mention she was a Christian lady?  Yessiree, she was a real Christian lady and my life is richer because God caused our paths to cross way back in 1959.  It made an eternal difference in this old boy.  Thank you Mrs. Taylor; I’ll see you in Heaven.

The early settlers and those who fought for our independence from England had a rough time as they began to build this great land and move ever westward.  Those who fought in the second American Revolution, the war between the northern states and the southern states, lived in extremely troublous times as this great nation was literally torn apart.  The wounds still have not healed, no not by a long shot.  Then, the world wars came and cost us even more of the cream of American manhood as our men and women lost their lives in foreign lands.

But right after the end of World War II, something wonderful began to happen; something exciting; something miraculous.  God began to bless America as she had never been blessed before.  During the second half of the 20th century, Americans experienced an explosion of jobs, home ownership, new labor-saving gadgets, and a whole new way of life filled with convenience, comfort and abundance.  The world was generally at peace and the American people prospered as the country grew at an alarming rate; that’s why they call it the Baby BOOM!  We were affluent, poverty was on the decline, jobs on the incline and our nation was enjoying a prosperity it had never known.  We were a rich nation.  Now, the whole world looked to us as the global leader.  The dollar had become the global standard and the whole world’s affluence depended on America.

But, the more we were blessed, the more we turned our backs on God.  U.S. Supreme Court decisions removed the Bible from the classrooms of America, banned prayer from public schools, removed the Ten Commandments from public places, and kicked God out of public life.  A new phrase was heard in the land as liberals and atheists took more control.  It was, “Separation of Church and State”, which made it unconstitutional to even mention God in any public forum or to have public prayer or pray at school graduations or even carry your Bible to school so you could read it on your own time.  The Ten Commandments and Christmas nativity scenes were banned from every public property, and even ridiculed on private property.  The American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance were even under attack as well.  The Founding Fathers were disgraced and public school books evidenced a radical revision of history.

America was crumbling and patriotic, God-fearing Americans could see it so clearly.  The gradual pecking away of everything sacred and holy had come to the place where Christianity and Patriotism were under attack.  Finally, the “Silent Majority” was silent no longer and they came together in great numbers all over the land and called themselves the “Tea Party”.  Their goal was to restore America to its former greatness and to lower taxes, cut spending, and reduce government, which by the way, had grown to unprecedented size.  Ah, but government was not the answer to America’s woes.

America had become so corrupt that the “Religious Right” came under attack and was hated.  Righteousness was unheard of in the land.  A return to smaller, more efficient government was the Tea Party’s goal, but that meant that the legions of blood suckers now living on the public dole would have to go to work; they didn’t want that, so they continued to vote themselves money from the dwindling coffers.  Everything was in decline; every aspect of America had been in such decay that there was apparently no restoring it to its former glory.  It looked like America was on its last leg.

Maybe she could turn to her abundance of churches and to a multitude of pastors, ministers, bishops, priests, and evangelists.  Perhaps she could turn to religion and turn over a new leaf.  Maybe she could get right with God by going to Church.  But, on closer inspection, the vast majority of churches in America had become too liberal; they had long ago gone against God’s Holy Word, the Bible.  But rather, they had tried to keep in step with the world and had become spiritually ineffective.  They had ordained Sodomites into the pulpits and ordained women pastors, promoted worldly lifestyles in opposition to Holy living.  They replaced preaching and worship with Drama Teams, Shock Parties, Youth Music, Street Plays and presentations to attract the world without changing the world.  The mantra was that you could come to church and keep your pet sins.  People had become addicted to sin.  No, the sad thing is that America’s churches were of no value to the dying nation either.

So, with a powerless church and a dysfunctional government, where could America turn?  How did it happen so fast and with such total destruction?  What had brought the great American nation into the dust?  How could the greatest experience in freedom and prosperity in the world’s history have fallen?  Was the enemy of America foreign or domestic?

She had collapsed from within without a shot fired.  God had allowed America to become something worse than a third-world country.  Third-world nations were just poor but America was despicable, immoral, greedy, totally polluted.   She had gone from “One Nation Under God” to “One Nation Against God” and He had allowed her demise.

What was her great sin?  She had turned her back and not her face to the God who had made her great.  She never did bend the knee and truly turn back to God; she never did ask for forgiveness of her national sins; she never did cry out to God in repentance. She had committed national suicide!

May she rest in peace and be a reminder to other nations that might follow in her steps, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 33:12) and “The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).  R.I.P. America!

There are a lot of old clichés that come to mind like, “You made your bed, now you have to lay in it”, or “what goes around, comes around”. Sometimes I find myself thinking about certain things that I wonder if anybody else on the planet even ponders. I believe the Lord has allowed me to live long enough to experience and witness some things that qualify me to be just such a deep thinker.

When I look around at our welfare state, with all the political correctness and insanity, I think we are just stomping out fires that we have built ourselves. I just thought of another cliché that applies, “we have met the enemy, and it is us”. And, “we are our own worst enemy”. Wow, they just keep coming…I beg your pardon.

Having grown up in the shadow of Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society, I can tell you, “we have come a long way baby “…backwards! Johnson’s plan was to help all the poor people of America break the cycle of poverty. Well, it’s 60 years later and we still have poverty. The only difference now is that all those well-meaning government programs that were designed to help poor blacks, have totally destroyed the black family structure in America. That’s right; Uncle Sam has usurped the role of the parents in every respect and caused the total breakdown of the family.

You know I’m right; look at the average low income black family today and you will find a mother, a maternal grandmother and bunch of kids but no father/husband. There is also no job and no desire to have one. Why work? You don’t have to work when you are on the government dole. The only goal in this heart-breaking setting is to have more welfare kids who will in turn have even more welfare kids, ad infinitum. And, in that situation you find the seedbed of crime and continued dependency on welfare. There is a total breakdown of society and the people of this society have a low self esteem and most often turn to a life of drugs and crime.

Then, there’s the teen pregnancy and abortion problem in America. What caused this epidemic of immorality? Yep, it’s the government again. How, you say, did the government cause this? Again, I refer back to my experiences in years past.

My public education started in 1954 and completed it in 1966. During those twelve years, we had a daily devotion every morning. There was usually a Bible scripture read followed by a prayer. Some schools would let each home room do their own devotion and some would do a school-wide devotion over the school’s intercom system. Whatever the method, the point is, the Word of God was welcome in the school; the Bible was welcome in school classrooms. I can remember on several occasions the Gideons would come into the schools and pass out pocket size New Testaments and Psalms. Every child had their own little Bible. Local ministers would, on occasion, come in and speak to the whole school gathered in the auditorium for “chapel”. Prayers were prayed over the loud speaker system at ball games and there was always a religious service for graduating seniors. These things I just mentioned sound very foreign to today’s politically-correct thinking, but that is just the way it was in those days. I never heard of anybody complaining about it or saying that they didn’t want their kid praying. People just expected their children to get a good Christian education. Many of the teachers were devout Christian ladies and gentlemen. God was welcome in American classrooms.

Then it happened. Madelyn Murray O’Hare raised enough stink to get prayer taken out of schools. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against God. The Bible was literally “outlawed” in the schools of this once great land. God was kicked out of school! That action marks the death of America as far as I’m concerned. That’s the day America began to die a slow, godless death.

Discipline is no longer allowed in schools. Just this week I saw on the news where schools are actually calling the Police to come into the school and write tickets to elementary students. That is insane! No paddling, but just call the cops? Nor is spanking allowed in the home either. As a matter of fact, with God kicked out of American life, everything began to deteriorate. No Bible in schools and no discipline in schools meant the inevitable encroachment of crime and disrespect in the public schools of America.

The curriculum was changed and history was revised to reflect the new ideology in American thought and culture. The classroom became a great social experiment with our children being the guinea pigs. They are not taught values or morality. Everything is relevant. There is no right or wrong taught. The age-old concept of winners and losers in games has been done away with so no one will experience failure. God help us! They can take it!

Sex education is a front name for liberal sex behavior being taught to our children. Birth control and abortion are provided at school without parents knowing about it. The precious children that God gave us are made the wards of the government and parents’ rights are ignored. But, we just allow it to happen with little or no protest. We lost a whole generation, then another and another, to a government education system gone mad.

The education system, the welfare system, the health care system, the social security system, and on and on are all to blame. We have become a nation of government dependents and the drug of “free give-away” is just too addictive.

The welfare and education social programs of the federal government have created a heart-breaking cycle of crime, poverty, drug use, teen pregnancy, and abortion. There is seemingly no way out of the government induced societal breakdown. So, what do the “professional politicians” do when they look around at the terrible situation they have created? Do they go back and repeal the laws that are doing so much damage American? No! They are perpetually busying themselves with creating more laws and more programs to overcome the ill effects of the programs they’ve already passed.

What amazes me is, Congress does not even acknowledge that they caused these ills to our beloved country to begin with. I think the best thing Congress can do at this point is just go home and do nothing! Lord knows, they’ve done enough! I, for one, am just sick to death of the government passing more and more laws, levying more and more taxes, so they can provide more and more insanity. STOP! For Heaven’s Sake, STOP!

Americans have always been a long-suffering lot, but when they’ve had enough, they will act. The Tea Party is evidence of a fed-up American electorate responding. The silent majority is silent no longer. Just look at the results of the last election. It was a clear referendum against government waste and spending. The American taxpayer has spoken and what they said was, “Enough Already”!

Still, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. There are no efforts underway to turn back the clock and return to our old standards. I truly wish this nation could look at where we are today and conclude that the social programs don’t work, and then turn to God and ask for His guidance. Well, that isn’t going to happen. Instead of being “One Nation Under God” we have become “One Nation AGAINST God”.

There is a certain scripture in the Old Testament that I am reminded of here. It goes like this: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” You see? God has the answer, but man says, “we will not do it”.

It doesn’t matter what Glenn Beck says, man cannot govern himself successfully. Every form of government since the beginning of time has failed, every one. Are we doomed to continual governmental failure at the hands of ignorant legislators? No! There is hope but, it does NOT lie with man, himself.

The perfect government will, one day soon, be set up and carried out; for a thousand years it will succeed. There will be no social experiments gone awry; no breakdown of the family will be experienced; and everybody will rejoice when all things are just and fair. The true New World Order is not the Trilateral Commission or the Skull & Bones Society or any other such malevolent order, but the Bible tells us that the Lord will rule with a rod of iron. All things will be fair, just and good. There will be peace throughout the whole earth.

Is there any hope that the U.S. Congress will eventually get it right? Will a change of ruling party make a difference? The answer to both these questions is a resounding, No! Things are not going to get better, regardless of which party is in power. Only when the Lord sets up His kingdom will we know true peace. Pray for that day to come quickly. JH

There is a particular verse in the Bible that goes something like this, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”  And in another place it says, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”  As a matter of fact, out of the four gospels, the only one that doesn’t contain that particular scripture is John.  Jesus was the speaker of these words and they should be heeded by us as wisdom from the Master.

It is evident that partisan politics is at an all time fever pitch in America as Republicans and Democrats fight over every piece of legislation with a down the middle split on every issue.  The two parties seemingly cannot agree on anything.  Washington DC is the most divided place in America and possibly the world.  The American people are just as divided as their political affiliations.

Everywhere you look in our public life you see a house divided.  If you observe, you will soon learn that nearly everything about America is and always has been divided to some extent.  Consider these; North and South; East Coast and West Coast; Republican and Democrat; liberal and conservative; black and white; capitalist and socialist; pro life and pro abortion; and the list just goes on and on.

We have always been a people that relished a healthy debate.  We systematically align our colleges sports teams to be competitive and aggressive.  Another part of academia is the debate team.  Our professional sports leagues are competitive.  Competition is just the American way.  But in the past few years we have become a different people; a people who are more polarized and divided than ever before.  For those of us who have been around this old world for a long time, it is evident that something is different in America today.  Something ominous, unseen and foreboding has changed us into a nation of differences, replete with isms and schisms.

It is the opinion of this writer that the primary ideological difference of the American people is liberalism versus conservatism.  It is almost as if there are two species of beings living on planet Earth with very different perspectives of how life ought to be lived on this planet.  It reminds me of a Startreck movie where the Earthlings and the Klingons are battling over very different ideology.

As I write this piece I find it very difficult to write about liberalism and conservatism in an unbiased way, without injecting my own philosophies and prejudices.  But, I do see things in a certain way and I do object to the other philosophical ideology, in the same way that the other side objects to mine.  So, no matter how careful I try to be to present both sides, I am human and cannot help but inject my own points.  Oh, I believe in the right of all men to have their own opinions and make their own choices, within reason.

I have pondered this dilemma at length and meditated on it’s causes and I have come up with some definite ideas as to why we are a “house divided”.  It seems to me that when you compare the make up of a liberal and a conservative, you come to see some interesting primal differences; very divisive differences that have come to the point of pulling apart the very fabric of this nation.  Lets look at each of them and see if we can come to a conclusion of the matter.

The conservative folks that I know are mostly middle to upper income, fairly well educated, hard working, patriotic people who believe in God.  They were reared in a home with certain principles and standards and were generally taught to play fair, work hard, pay your taxes, be loyal to God and country and live and let live.  They are pro life, pro 2^nd Amendment, pro Constitution, pro military and pro America.  They stand, place their hand over their heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America.  Many of them are former military and some are combat veterans who would do it all over again if they were called on to do so.

You find most of the conservatives in the South, Western Plains, and Southwest; basically the farm and ranch country of America.  On the other hand, you find most of the liberals in the Northeast, Great Lakes/Midwest, and West Coast; generally the industrial and entertainment industry areas.  You find that conservatives are generally Republican and the liberals are generally Democrat.  Rural folks are generally conservative and urban folks are generally liberal.  Many whites are conservative while many blacks are liberal.  You also find that most pro life folks are conservatives while most pro abortion folks are liberals.  Straight people are generally conservative and gay people are with few exceptions, liberal.  Well, I think you get the picture.

Why is that though?  Why are we such a divided people?  What has caused such a rift between conservative and liberal?  It is no secret that Obama supporters are liberal and Obama opponents are conservative.  I admit that I am at a loss in adequately describing a liberal because I just don’t understand the liberal mind.

I used to think that the word liberal simply meant someone who believes in liberty.  That is not an adequate definition because liberty itself is seen in a much different light by the two factions.  For example, in our pledge of allegiance we say, “with liberty and justice for all” but liberty really mean different things to different people.  And, justice also means different things to different people too.  To the conservative justice means upholding right in society by application of the laws of the land, which often means locking criminals away from society.  To the liberal, justice means reformation of the criminal instead of incarceration.  Or, it could mean a whole arena of options such as parole, probation, shortened sentences, plea bargaining, and early release.  Those ideas have been tried over the past several decades and have not proven to be that successful.

How often do we hear on the national news about a child or young person who has been kidnapped, raped and murdered by a registered sex offender or child molester who had been released from prison?  Immediately everyone starts shouting at the courts or parole boards for releasing such an animal on our society.  All of these things fall back on the great gulf fixed between conservative values and liberal values.

There is an area of this national difference that greatly concerns me and that is the growing separation of the races in America.  Just this week we have seen on television news where one faction is blaming the other faction for being racist and bigoted because a reported racial slur was hurled at them.  Then it is reported that there is not one person who can testify that they heard it; not one microphone picked it up; not one camera caught it.  Even if one person shouted a racial slur or word, they blame the whole crowd for the act, and label every person in the opposition as the “enemy”.  That is very dangerous talk and very explosive accusations.  This is the kind of thing that could be the spark to ignite a race war in America.

Considering the great chasm between conservatives and liberals; the great gulf fixed between Republicans and Democrats, and the high emotions that drive each faction, you can see the potential for disaster in American politics and life.  In other words, this country is teetering on the precipice of destruction from within.  American society has never been so divided.

What should be done; where should we turn?  What is the answer to this dilemma?  I certainly don’t have all the answers but I do have my own opinion as to where America should turn.  I think we should turn to the Lord in our times of trouble.  I have observed that most folks naturally tend to turn to political remedies for this problem.  The truth is, politics is what got us in this mess to start with.  In addition to turning to the Lord, we conservatives should try to do our part to see that we are not burdened down with an oppressive government.  If we truly are “One Nation Under God” then we should act like it and turn the battle over to Him.  At the same time, we should not abrogate our civil responsibility to strive for a greater nation.

Yes, we in America are a “House Divided”.  We are split on party lines and ideologies but we are still Americans.  We should each do our part in striving to make sure this nation remains a bastion of liberty and freedom.  Whether or not we succeed depends upon what “We The People” do with our government and those who govern us.  After all, the 2010 elections are just around the corner.

God Bless America!

Jim Hethcox

The kids of my era didn’t have a lot of “things” but we had imagination.  We made our own toys and we even made tiny road and building construction a fun game.   I can remember using an old hoe to make roads for my toy trucks and cars to drive on.  We also made many of our toy trucks and cars too.  “Store-bought” toys were hard to come by so we made our own.  Once I made a paddle wheel boat that was powered by a carbide flame.  I made a “boiler” out of an old snuff can and a bicycle spokes.

That’s what I mean by having imagination and being creative.  Those little games and home made toys that we kids used to make and build, made us a generation of adults that could “do” things by thinking them through and using the laws of physics and just good ole fashion brain power to accomplish things.  I’d like to think that we helped make America the most productive nation on earth.

Just the other day I was pondering Baby Boomer’s chronology to past historical events, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor and even the Civil War.  Born in 1948, I began to do some simple math and was amazed at my own historical proximity to these events.  For instance, I was amazed when I realized that I was born only 7 years after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and a mere 83 years after the end of the Civil War.  There were still some War Between the States veterans alive when I was born.  I don’t like to call it a Civil War because it was anything but a civil war.  It was actually the War Between the North and the South, or as I prefer to call it, The War For Southern Independence, but I digress.

My Daddy and Mother married in 1947.  The economy was just rebuilding from the war years and Daddy was trying to get a start with raising his family.  My brother and I were raised by two wonderful parents, but our livelihood was one of meager means.  Our parents were honest, poor folks but we always managed to have enough food to eat, clothes on our backs and shoes on our feet and somehow we managed to get something for Christmas.

Lately, I have been musing over the past; especially my childhood years.  I can honestly say that I really enjoyed being a kid.  I guess when you get closer to the end of your life, you begin to look back more to the early years of your life and relive those “good ole days” in your memory.  Early this morning as I lay awake in bed but not yet risen, I took about an hour and began pondering and reminiscing about my life thus far, with particular emphasis on my childhood years.  As I said before, I really enjoyed being a kid.

Christmas 1956 was my most memorable Christmas of all time.  That’s the year Santa Claus brought my brother and me brand new red bicycles.  We marked them so we could tell them apart.  My brother and I stayed on our bikes from sun up to sun down every day.  Till today I still don’t know how our parents could afford such an extravagant gift, but they loved us dearly and did what they could for us.

That bike was my vehicle of exploration for the world around me.  In 1957 my folks moved to northeast Georgia and for the first time in my life, I was a country boy.  Oh, I really loved living in the country and thoroughly enjoyed exploring my corner of the world.

It’s amazing how the mind and imagination of an eight-year-old boy with a bicycle can really make lifelong impressions and endless memories.  It seemed like life itself was magical.  I explored and learned more about the natural world during those years than the rest of my life.  I was living an enchanted life and was probably the happiest kid on the planet.

Then, when I was a little older, I remember that we used to build our own swimming hole at the creek; we called it our  “wash hole”.  We really made a big deal out of the construction of our wash hole.  First, was finding the proper site where the dam was to be built and where the wash hole would be just right for our swimming enjoyment.  We first cleared the banks of brush, trees, vines, weeds and anything that didn’t fit in a swimming hole.

Next came the shovel and digging work.  We dug down and made the site for the dam as solid as we could make it.  We then constructed our dam by filling feed sacks, flour sacks, cotton sacks and anything we could find, with dirt.  We placed the sacks of dirt in the flowing stream and shored it all up really tight with loose dirt to make a sturdy dam.  The overflow was most important because it had to hold up in the event of a big rain.  We built this thing with the integrity and energy of a bunch of beavers.

When the wash hole was filled and flowing properly, we made a Tarzan-type swing over the wash hole by tying a rope overhead to a big tree limb.  What great fun to swing out and drop into the water.  Oh what a time we had!  The water had a particular smell to it that you just can’t describe.  It smelled clean and natural.  It was a great joy to swim in our wash hole.  Of course, we always went skinny dipping since there were no girls allowed.  We spent many of our summer days at the wash hole just enjoying being country boys.  Yea, life was really special.

Another thing I remember is the games we used to play.  Summer evenings seemed to be the best time to get together with friends and play some really fun games like, Red Rover, Hide And Seek, Red Light, Tag and a lot of games that we just made up.  A common phrase of the kids of my day was “lets pretend like…” and then we were off to another game or adventure.  Catching “lightning bugs” and putting them in a jar was great fun right after dark.

Hot summer days were the time for baseball.  Two team captains would “choose up sides” as we used to call it.  With the teams chosen, the game began.  There too, we made up many rules as we went along, and our ball field was usually a pasture or cornfield.  We used anything we could find as our bases and we either shared a bat or used a board, plank or limb to smack the ball.  Oh, we played ball for hours on end and never seemed to tire of it.

Another of my great interests when I was growing up was hunting and fishing.  When I turned 14, my Daddy finally got me a .22 rifle for Christmas.  Daddy spent a lot of time teaching my brother and me gun safety.  That was years before there was a hunter safety course required by law.  Since my brother was left-handed and I was right-handed, he showed us how to walk beside each other so our firearms would point away from each other.  My position was on the left and his on the right as we carried our guns in a cradle carry.  That and many more gun safety rules he taught us.  We knew not to disobey him or be careless with a firearm.  I still use those rules he taught us so many years ago.

I spent most of my winter days in the woods and fields hunting squirrels and rabbits.  That’s how I learned to be a good woodsman.  Those things I learned all those years ago would one day serve me well when I became a Conservation Ranger.  I grew up doing the thing I most enjoyed; being in the woods and outdoors.

Not only did I hunt and fish, but I built and set rabbit boxes.  A friend and I built several rabbit boxes and set them near a creek swamp.  We caught some really big rabbits that way.  I checked my boxes every day after I got off the school bus.  I cleaned the rabbits and Mother cooked them.  Fried rabbit and homemade biscuits was a special treat for me.

Growing up wasn’t all play; we had our work and chores to do but that only helped build character in us.  My Daddy gave us chores to do and we knew not to let him down.  You see, he was also a strict disciplinarian.  I didn’t mind the outdoor chores like working in the garden, sloping the hog, milking the cow or plowing our mule, Kate.  But having no sisters meant my brother and I had to do housework chores since our Mother worked to help pay the bills.  We had to wash dishes, make up beds, sweep the floors and other such household chores.  I dearly hated housework and that’s usually where I got my dose of discipline.

In addition to making our own swimming hole, we also built tree houses, dug caves, built bridges over the creek or other such projects.  It was a lot of work but we spent many hours accomplishing some really neat projects like that.

You just don’t see kids doing such things like that today.  Heck, they don’t even get outside and play much anymore.  These video games and such have about ruined kids today.  There is no imagination or creativity being encouraged in them.  We have failed them by not challenging them to do things for themselves.  I think we have raised a nation of video game, TV watching little couch potatoes.  That’s no way to enjoy a childhood.  Kids should be encouraged to get outdoors and be creative.  Imagination is a wonderful thing if we would only encourage them to use it.

That is one of the best gifts to give a kid so get outside with them and teach them how to be a kid.  Just this morning I took my grandson squirrel hunting.  He bagged his first squirrel and he was so excited.  Of course, the gun safety and ethical hunting lecture came first.  Next, I think I’ll teach him how to dam up a creek and make a swimming hole, or build a tree house.

But, he has been asking me lately how to play the game of marbles and I can surely teach him a lot about that since I was one of the best marble shooters in my school.  I remember coming home with both pockets full of marbles that I had won on the playground at school.  I had a dresser drawer about half full of marbles that I kept until I was married and gone.  I don’t know what ever became of them now, but the fun was winning them fair and square.  Yep, its time to teach him how to shoot marbles like a champ.  Then we might break out the saw and hammer and build some rabbit boxes.

One of the final steps in the evolution of a conservationist is to teach others the things you have learned.  I think I have come full circle and have begun to pass along some tips and knowledge I gained by being a kid of the 50s.  I think kids today aren’t any different from what we were; they just need a nudge in the right direction.  Times may change but kids don’t.  Once a kid, always a kid.

You all have fun and remember, you never outgrow your need to be a kid.  It has been said, “growing old is inevitable but growing up is optional”.  Enjoy life while you still have some kid in you.  This can continue to be “the best of times” for all of us.  God bless!

Jim Hethcox

The Dig

To be an American today and not be stirred by what is going on in Washington you would have to be living on the moon or just not living.  Whether you are liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, black or white, rich or poor, you are most likely stirred by the recent political happenings.  Everything we have known in the past is being repealed, replaced or ignored.  Take for instance the US Constitution.  It is being conveniently placed aside or ignored while personal freedoms and institutions are being eroded and pillaged.  What makes it such a torment of mind and soul is that the attacks are not coming from enemies without, but supposed friends within.

Pinch Me, I’m Having A Nightmare!

It is all so surreal and unbelievable that it is almost incomprehensible, but it is happening; like a bad dream, it’s happening.  I just want to wake up and once again see  real Americans with their hands over their hearts, pledging allegiance to our flag, going to Church on Sundays, working in shops and factories all over America making quality products for America and the world.

Do you remember when “Made In America With American Pride” meant something?  Have you noticed that you don’t see those signs in Wal Mart anymore?  Do you know why?  Well, do you remember during President Bill Clinton’s administration when China was given “favored nation” status on trade?  That was the day this all started.  Every since then our government has been systematically favoring China and other countries and making life harder and harder for American businesses.  American business and manufacturing has been hit with everything from higher and higher taxes to stricter and stricter regulations.  Cap and Trade will probably be the death knell for American industry.   That favored nation business has resulted in the systematic forcing of American big businesses into moving offshore to stay alive.  In other words, the Federal government has made the business climate in America so hostile that businesses have had to leave to survive.

No Good Deed Shall Go Unpunished

Not only have big business come under attack, but rich CEOs and business leaders have also come under attack by our government because they have made too much money.  It is as if it was a sin to become rich.  I think our President, his Czars and his Cabinet think that if you are rich in this country, you no doubt made your millions on the backs of the defenseless and downtrodden poor people of America.  Baloney!  He thinks that the solution is to spread the riches around by a redistribution of wealth by forced government action.  And, he has taken it upon himself to make those rich people pay for their crimes of hard work and earning their money.  And all along I thought that was what America stood for.  I was under the impression that was why people came to this country from all points of the globe.  I thought that is what the American dream was all about.  Every time I saw little kids with a lemonade stand I thought about them as little entrepreneurs.  I thought they were on their way to the top with their first little steps into their own business.  Yes, capitalism is under attack in America today.

How Did America Prosper?

Does anybody remember Henry Ford and how he turned a small business into one of the biggest corporations on the globe.  Or how about Bill Gates who turned an idea into a multi-billion dollar empire.  Do you ever look around at all the Mom & Pop shops and businesses around this great country that began in a back room or basement and blossomed into a company employing hundreds or thousands of employees.  That my friends is what has made America great, but our government is tearing it all down because of a twisted ideology.

Their Game Plan

The recent moves by the government in taking over much of the banking industry, most of the auto industry, the housing industry, and daily attempting to take over every other part of American business and culture.  And, now big government is trying to take over the healthcare industry.  Where will it all end?  Well, the ones who know will not tell and the ones who wonder are helpless to do anything about it.  Who is fighting the great fight?  Who is making the valiant stand?  Where are the armies of concerned citizens marching on Washington?  Where are our elected Senators and Representatives?

Nightmare On Pennsylvania Avenue

It seems that our elected officials, mainly at the Federal level, are sitting by allowing the nation to be stolen with little or no opposition.  What is going on in their minds?  What is going on in their world?  Why aren’t the Democrats and Republicans alike standing together and stopping this destruction of our national way of life?  Where are the checks and balances of the three branches of government?  Don’t they even care?  Will we just wake up one day soon and realize that this was all a bad dream…a very bad dream, in fact a nightmare; a nightmare where the bad guys win; where the hard working men and women are punished?  God help us.

An Early Lesson In American Civics

The style of government that Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers gave us was a confederation of the sovereign states of America, with a small central government designed to carry out specific and limited functions.  The main purpose of the central government was to levy and collect tariffs, to raise and fund an Army and Navy for national defense, and to govern at the pleasure of the several states.  Well, that form of government was under attack from the very start.  I won’t teach a history lesson here but you can check it out for yourselves.

Does Big Government Work?

I am old enough to remember Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the swelling federal government of the Jimmy Carter days.  Along with FDR, they have spent literally multiple billions of dollars to swell the federal government.  But my friend those billions spent are a small drop in the bucket compared to Obama’s trillions of dollars he has spent in the first six months of his administration.  And this same wasteful government is trying to take over healthcare, financing, automobile manufacturing, housing and many other areas of our lives.  Do we need more government, less government or a different government? 

And Now, The Rest Of The Story

Now friends, right where all seems lost and unrecoverable is where the rest of the story begins.  Here’s where the grit and grizzle of this article is brought out.  Here is where we turn for our hope in a hopeless world.  Now we take a look at another scenario, another possibility, another avenue.  Here’s where we look for the real new world order that hardly anyone is talking about today.

Enter Civics 101

I identify Civics 101 as the proper, Constitutional governing of the people by citizen representatives engaged in running the people’s government for the benefit of the people and the country.  It takes a genuine statesman to serve his or her fellow man in such a way, but alas, we don’t have statesmen any longer in America.  What we have now is career politicians and high paid lobbyists who are out to feather their own nests and accumulate all the wealth they can at the expense of the very people they are sworn to serve.

Although I often disagree with Abraham Lincoln on many issues, he did get one thing right in the Gettysburg Address when he declared us to be a nation “of the people, for the people, and by the people”.  But, today is it a government that ignores the will of the people, spends at the expense of the people, and generally disregards the will of the people.  Don’t they realize that it is all about “We The People”?  It isn’t about the politician or the lobbyist, or the globalist, or the industrialist, or the journalist or any other entity except the American people.  It is the American people that have made this nation great and not the government.  Thomas Jefferson knew that a big government is a destructive government.  So, Civics 101 in America is failing miserably to produce the kind of government the founding fathers envisioned.

We Have Failed Civics 101

Civics 101 is not the solution to the dilemma but a way to identify what has gone wrong in America.  This one thing I will say and be straightforward about it; government is NOT the answer to our problem.  It has been well shown that government is the problem and not the solution.  It is often said that we don’t need more government but less, as Jefferson declared.  Less government is still not the answer if our elected representatives won’t represent us in Washington.

The Bottom Line

One thing that can be proven by history is that we don’t learn from history.  If we were to study the histories of the nations and empires of the world from the beginning of man’s civilization, we would see that there has never been any form of government that has succeeded.  All human attempts at self governance have all ended in a dismal failure because of what is in man’s heart.  Man has the total incapacity to govern himself successfully and perpetually.  He just is not fitted to govern himself.

If history is our teacher and we conclude that we cannot govern ourselves, then what?  Where do we turn for the answers to our perpetual dilemma?  Obama’s obvious attempts to drastically change America is just the latest in a long string of despots trying to make their own agenda and plans the ultimate end.  Personally, I think he is moving at an alarming pace to destroy America as we know it.  What he plans to make out of the rubble is anyone’s guess since he hasn’t publicly revealed his ultimate plans

Where Is Discernment?

When you listen to people discuss a multitude of issues about what is going on in the world today, you wonder if anybody has any spiritual discernment about what is happening in the world.  I mean, why don’t more people have their finger on the right pulse of global happenings?  Why does everyone seem to turn to politics and government to solve the problems of the world?  Why do politicians think that the only solution to a problem is to enact another law or pass a bill or veto an opponent’s bill?  Don’t they know that the events of today were set in play by unseen forces before the world began?

The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”.  Does that sound like Obama is the real enemy?  He is only a blind pawn being used by the “ruler of the darkness of this world”.  The real enemy is Satan and his fallen angels or as we rightly call them, demons.

Who Is Worthy To Rule Us?

I wonder how many men and women alive today have a clear understanding of where we are in human history and what lies immediately ahead?  What form of government is best for humanity?  Who would make the best leader of mankind?  Is there one who has earned the right to rule the world?  Yes, of course there is and His name is Jesus Christ.  He will set up a real, new world order.            That new world is about to appear along with a new world leader.  But beware, because Satan will bring his evil  representative, the Antichrist, on the scene and will deceive many. The real new world leader will reign in righteousness and deliver a government that will work wonderfully for a thousand years.  There will be no sin to tarnish this wonderful world government and men will live in peace and harmony under the blessed Son of God.  I think this is to demonstrate to mankind that only God through His Son, can rightly rule mankind.

Let’s Wrap It Up Now

Man today, as throughout the ages, is very concerned about his world and where it is headed.  It is right for men to care and try to make a difference in his nation and his leaders.  It is natural for man to want to be governed by those who will do the right thing, but man is so warped and twisted in his corrupt heart and mind that he cannot rightly assess what is right and true.  That is why we have such divisions in our thinking and in our choices.  That is why we are divided into schisms as, conservatives and liberals; Republicans and Democrats; Socialism and Democracy; more government and less government; capitalism or socialism.

How Are We Supposed To Behave Now?

The Apostle Paul teaches us in Roman chapter 13 how we are to respond to lawful authority, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. I’ll bet you never thought of the police as ministers of God, huh?  Well, the Apostle Paul is teaching us how to live lawfully and respectfully toward civil authority for the good of mankind.  Paul also states in Romans 12:18, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men”.

We can get upset with Obama, and healthcare, and cap and trade and takeovers, and on and on and on, but we really should be preparing for the world to come.  The next event on the prophetical calendar is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to receive His Church.  All the signs have been fulfilled and there remains nothing yet to be fulfilled before He returns.  Are you ready to meet him my friend?

These things were written to open your understanding about the world to come and the prospects of a world without sin.  Watch and pray for it could be any day.

God Bless you all,

Jim Hethcox

Truth, what does that mean?  Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that God desires us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Today, both Spirit and Truth are most often in error in the modern church.  Why is that?  Why can’t men worship and serve the True God in the true way?

Take a look at yourself, Laodicea!  You are so extravagant, ornate and richly built that you think you have finally arrived in religious perfection.  But, listen to the description of you by the Lord of Glory.  “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”  Revelation 3:17-18

Modern church, have you stopped to examine even your prescription for salvation?  How did your attendees become members of the Lord’s Church?  Are they truly in the household of faith or are you and they satisfied just to be members of the local assembly?  Do you think people become members of the Church because they have “made a decision for Christ”?  Did they get in by “accepting Jesus” or were they truly born into the household of faith?  A thorough examination of Biblical salvation will reveal much.

First, you will conclude, like Jonah (Jonah 2:9), that “…Salvation is of the LORD” and not of human initiation or origin.  Secondly, true salvation is a birthing.  Like physical birth, spiritual birth has a Father, a Mother, a gestation period, labor pains, the bringing forth a “new creature in Christ”, and the baby has NOTHING to do with it, except experience what is happening to him or her.  And thirdly, the new convert can then give a testimony about what God has done for him, but this erroneous “decision making” salvation produces a testimony and attitude of what the convert has done for God.  It is “I” centered and produces such statements as: “I got saved”, “I accepted the Lord”, “I let Jesus into my heart” and on, and on, and on, ad nauseam.

The present day misconception of salvation is shored up by the modern soul winner and minister by using the scripture in Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me.”  There is even a popular painting of the Wrong Jesus (see article) standing at a door that doesn’t have a door knob, and He is knocking in an attempt to “request” entry.  The idea presented is that Jesus cannot open the door to your heart, but that it is up to you to “decide” if and when to “let Him in”.  How many times have you been told that the Lord cannot violate your freewill?  Please, give me chapter and verse stating that.  It is simply not biblical.

A deacon of a local church once made a statement to me as we chatted over a cup of coffee.  He said, “You know, God can only do what you let Him do”.  That, my friends, is the popular understanding, or should I say gross misunderstanding, of the God of the Bible.  The deacon’s statement is typical of the attitude of members of the worldly church today.  People see God as too weak as to impose His will on mankind, but must wait on man to “let Him” exercise His will.  May I say that if salvation was left up to members of Adam’s fallen race, no one would ever be saved.  We had better be most thankful that God has broken through our stubborn, fallen, lost will and began a work in us that will last throughout eternity.  In short, if it is up to man there would be no salvation.  But, thanks be to God, who by the power of the Holy Spirit, can and does exercise His Sovereign and Holy desires on His children and brings them into his household for time and eternity.  Amen!

Lets get back to the popular door knocking painting and verse in Revelation 3:20.  This verse has been taken completely out of context and grossly misapplied.  The Bible clearly shows Christ knocking on the Laodicean Church door and not on the lost sinner’s heart door.  He is inviting true converts to come out of the latter day church of error and have fellowship with Him “in Spirit and in Truth”.

Another tactic of modern religion is to try to excite or appeal to the emotions of a person, especially the tender-hearted young person.  An emotionally charged sermon or church service meant to appeal to the feelings and sentiments instead of the Spirit is misdirected.  I am not saying these ministers are purposely misleading people, no no.  I think they are sincere in what they say and do, but I say they are sincerely wrong.  Again, I encourage you to see what the Lord says about salvation in the Word of God.

Here are some scriptural samples of what the Word of God says about True Salvation.  As you read these excerpts of scripture, ask yourself whether man with his will and decisions is the initiator of his own salvation or if salvation is the results of what God does in us and for us, working through the Holy Spirit unto quickening, conviction, and salvation.  (emphasis mine)

Jesus said: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”  John 6:37

Again He said: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”  John 6:44

“According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.”  Ephesians 1:4-6

“(God) Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began…  2 Timothy 1:9

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 1:6

“Which were born (saved), not of blood (your Mother), nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”  John 1:13

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”  Philippians 2:13

There are many more scriptures that I could list that would show without a doubt that God saves us through His will and by His power and not because of our decision-making or our sinful, fallen human will.  That hellish doctrine got its beginning several centuries ago in the Roman Catholic Church and has perpetuated itself through the ages to make man the author and initiator of his own salvation.  Don’t you see that this Satanic doctrine robs God of His Sovereignty?  He alone determines who will be in His household of faith.  It is according to His good pleasure and His eternal purpose and will.  Anything short of that, or anyone who says otherwise is just not Biblical in their perspective.  I personally say that it is the devious work of Satan to pull down God in man’s eyes and make Him less than He is.  Remember, Satan is the enemy of your soul and he has had over 2000 years to disrupt and destroy God’s works and Word.  He is the author of confusion and lies and this doctrine of self will is one of his chief ploys of deceit.

In closing, let me say that much of the misconception of modern salvation is derived from an over zealous interpretation of the Great Commission.  We are commanded to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”  Mark 16:15-16   We are not told to make them believe, simply to preach the gospel.  Look at Matthew chapter 13 verses 1 through 9 at what Jesus teaches about salvation through the parable of the sower.  Notice that the sower’s job is to sow the seeds.  He does not pick the ground or place the seed, but just sows, or preaches the Word.  Where the seed falls and the results of the seed is not up to the sower of seeds (preacher) but it is up to God.  The gospel will fall on deaf ears much of the time but some will hear and believe.  That ability is not within the man, but is in the power of God to draw, and save.

We somehow think our job is to “Bring Them In” as the old song says, but that is the office of the Holy Spirit, not ours.  You sow the seed, He will make some grow.  Those seed that He makes grow will produce good fruit.  Those that you make will produce bad fruit.  Jesus said:  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves”  Matthew 23:15.  This is a very serious matter.  The present day church is being filled with illegitimate children instead of true converts.  That produces a counterfeit church.  Jesus taught extensively about this error all through the 13th chapter of Matthew.  Please take the time to read it from a King James Bible.  See what Jesus warned us about the Church and especially the latter day Church.

If the Spirit pricks your heart about this matter, seek Him in prayer and ask Him what He would have you do.  Wherever He leads is the right place for you.
God Bless,

Jim Hethcox

The fruit of our labors was the cream of life.  I used to love it when Mother would open a jar of her homemade vegetable soup on a cold winter day.  She made vegetable soup that had a taste that was out of this world.  I have never tasted any soup that good since my childhood days.  Some evenings after I finished my homework, one of my nightly chores would be to churn.  We had a big churn that sat in the kitchen with cheesecloth tied over the top to keep the flies out while it clabbered.  When the time was right we would put the dasher in, put the lid over the handle and begin to churn up and down…ker chunk, ker chunk, ker chunk over and over until the butter separated out of the milk and began to form into big lumps in the milk.  When the butter was fully formed into lumps of raw butter, Mom would take a strainer and separate the butter from the buttermilk left behind.  Both were good products in their own rights.  The butter would be good for cooking and table fare and the buttermilk was for drinking or making homemade biscuits, yum!

Mother put the fresh raw butter onto a plate and begin to work it with a butter paddle to get those little pockets of trapped milk out.  Then, when she was sure she had it all drained and separated, she would salt it a little and mix it well.  Then, she either put the butter into a butter mold and made a cake of butter or she would take the paddle and make a round cake of butter.  Then, just for a classy touch she would take the butter paddle and carve little flowers on the butter.  After she was finished with making the butter she would put wax paper over it and put it into the refrigerator for cooling.  Oh man, that butter would make a biscuit open it’s mouth wide for a big pat.  One of my favorite breakfasts was to take about three buttered biscuits, open them on my plate and pour some good syrup over them.  Mother would always fry up some streak O lean or fatback and serve it with the butter biscuits.  Oh, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.

Our mule that I mentioned earlier was named Kate.  She was a good natured gal and a hard worker and I got along just fine with her except for the day she stepped on my bare foot.  Kate could Gee and Haw with the best of them.  I enjoyed following her barefooted behind a plow and in that fresh turned earth.  It was warm but soft and my toughened bare feet stumped right through it at Kate’s pace.  I love the smell of fresh plowed earth.

Plowing was a pleasure to me but I hated working the crops with a hoe.  Hoeing around the corn and chopping out the weeds was too much like work.  My Granddaddy Hethcox taught me how to pull the soil to the young corn stalk so it would get a good root structure and plenty of earth and moisture.  He knew a lot about farming since he farmed all his life too.

Milking Pet was an adventure in itself, especially on those freezing cold winter days.  I would take the milk bucket out to the barn early in the morning before school and mix some cottonseed meal and hull for Pet to munch on while I milked her out.  The milk bucket always had some warm water and a clean cloth in it to wash her teats off before the milking began.  All went pretty well and I was pretty good at getting the milk out of her and into the bucket.

But, as any of you who have milked a cow will know that sometimes the cow will pick her foot up and plant it right down in the bucket of milk or either kick it over.  Oh, that would make me so mad.  And she knew what she was doing with that cockle berry laden tail that she used so well to swish me in the side of the head.  She could have swung her tail and slapped herself but I think she knew it was a formidable weapon and she was good at slapping me in the cold ears with her prickly cockle berry whip.  Ouch!  That usually made me so mad that I would take my fist and pop her in the back leg, which in turn would cause her to kick the milk bucket over.  So, I learned to make a truce with Pet.  You slap me in the frozen ears all you want but I won’t hit you with my fist.  I just wore a sock cap over my ears and tucked my face beneath my shoulder and milked as fast as I could.  As soon as I finished the milking, back to the house in a flash I went to get ready to catch the school bus.  My Mother would take the foamy milk and first strain it through a screened funnel and then she strained it again through cheesecloth to get out any foreign particles before pouring it up into jars and putting it in the refrigerator.

Yep, we had electricity but not running water…well not the kind of running water you think.  I tell folks that we had running water where we lived but it was not hot and cold but Jim and Steve.  Mother would say, “Jimmy, run get me a bucket of fresh water” or “Steve, run get me a bucket of water from the well”.  That well was about 60 feet deep, and it was hand dug right into the limestone where the sweet water was.  Oh and it was so cold in the summer time.  When I worked up a sweat and big thirst I would draw a bucket of water from the well and just tip it over and drink right from the bucket letting much of it pour onto my neck and chest.  Oh that water was the sweetest and coldest water in the whole world.  I would almost founder on water, it was so good.

We had a big oval galvanized bath tub out near the well sitting on about a 10′ X 10′ linoleum rug so you wouldn’t get your feet dirty when you stepped out.  Here’s how it worked: we would draw that cold water out of the well and take it over to the bath tub and pour it in so the sun could warm it during the day.  You had to plan your bath in the early part of the day so your water would be warm by nighttime.  It was always after nightfall that we would slip out with a towel, wash cloth, soap and clean undies and get our bath.  Steve and I would take turns going first.  One time I would go first and the next time he got to go first, but we both bathed in the same water.  In the wintertime we bathed from a wash pan in the kitchen with water warmed on the stove.  My Mother insisted that we be clean before bed and she always made sure we wore clean clothes to school.  They might have been worn and a little ragged but they were clean.

I have to mention a little about washday here.  Washday; what can I say?  I hated it with a passion.  There was a lot of water to be drawn from the well.  Mother had an old wringer type washing machine on the back porch that she used to do our washing.  But not having running water, except for the kind mentioned earlier, we had to draw it from the well and carry it up onto the back porch in a number 2 washtub and lift it up and pour it into the washing machine.  Mother washed the whites first, and then the color clothes in the same water, run them through the wringer to remove most of the soapy water and stack them onto a counter or into pans.  All the while she was doing that, Steve and I were drawing the rinse water.  When we had enough rinse water we would once again carry it up on the porch and when needed pour it into the washing machine again.  Then, the rinse cycle would begin with the whites first, then the colors.  Then, it was off to the clothesline to hang them up to dry.  Some items, like our blue jeans, would be soaked in starch water, wrung out in the wringer and then Mother would put what she called “pants stretchers” in them before hanging on the line.  That insured a good stiff starching with good permanent creases.  That cut down on some of the ironing.  She worked hard to make us look and feel crisp and clean.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention washday during the winter months.  North Georgia can be a cold place in the dead of winter, but the chores must go on.  So, my dear Mother would work just as hard on the back porch washing, rinsing, starching, and hanging clothes on the line.  I’ve seen her hands red, chapped and cracked from the cold North Georgia wind and weather.

Right after the war…the Big One…my Daddy came home, married my Mother, had a couple of little boys, my brother and me, and began to farm on the GI bill, as they called it.  Life was hard back then, but the country was being rebuilt by those men who had fought so hard in far away lands.  Now their attention turned to making a living and rebuilding their own country.

As far back as I can find, my Daddy’s ancestors have always been farmers.  Most of the time they were sharecroppers.  That indicates poor people trying to make a living off the land but needed some monetary help with the seed and fertilizer for a share in the harvest to keep their families alive.  There were enough wealthy landowners who were willing to buy seed and supplies for a share in the proceeds of the land.  The labor was supplied by the sharecropper and his family.

When I look back at all the things I’ve experienced along the way I can truly say that I have done some things that people just don’t do any more.  I’ve picked cotton for 25 cents a day, plowed a mule, milked a cow, drawn water from a well, and used an outhouse until I was married and moved out.  I’ve worked on a chicken farm, gathering eggs and feeding and watering thousands of chickens daily.  I’ve built and swam in a “wash hole” as we called it.  I’ve built and set rabbit boxes and caught and eaten fried rabbit with biscuits and gravy.  I’ve driven a team of mules and wagon.  I’ve pulled and bundled fodder and stored it in the crib.  I’ve kissed a girl in the hayloft and also in a corncrib.  Country girls are really friendly.  In short, I’ve done it all.  We were poor but we were rich.  I miss those slower times even though they may have been hard times.  Some things in life are worth working for.  You get the best quality goods when you grow or build them yourself.  We grew organic and didn’t even call it that.  We recycled and didn’t call it that.  We used solar energy and didn’t even call it that.  My Mother had a solar clothes dryer…you know, a clothesline and clothes pins.

Sometimes soon I think I’ll write a few lines on some sayings and phrases we used to say when I was growing up but don’t say any more, like “you boys help me get these clothes in off the line, it’s coming up a cloud“ or “Jimmy it’s your turn to empty the pot.”  That is not a reference to marijuana.  It has to do with the chamber pot, as they Yankees call it, and it was emptied out in the outhouse that I mentioned earlier.  Another name we called it was the “slop jar”.  Then, after emptying it, you had to draw a bucket of well water and wash it out and leave it in the sun to dry and disinfect.  I’m really glad of some things today.  Indoor toilets and showers are on the top of my list.  You know, you will have a hard time even finding a slop jar today.  All those things are now considered antiques.  I have another name for them that I can’t mention here.

I see a lot of things in antique stores today that used to be commonplace around our farm and house when I was growing up.  Things like the mule’s collar, haynes, and single tree, the slop jar, the churn, the well bucket, and a thousand little things like the butter mold and granny’s old foot pedaled Singer sewing machine.  Oh, the things I’ve seen and done.

The next time you turn on a hot shower and stand there and enjoy the water running over your tired body while you relax, or the next time you go to the grocery store and pick up a gallon of milk or a dozen ears of corn, thank God for people who had to work to bring them to your reach and for your convenience.  We have a lot to be thankful for today but we’re not a thankful people.  Maybe if we all had to turn the clock back a few decades and try to survive the way the old folks used to do, we’d appreciate how easy life is today.  Still, I miss working in the field, milking Pet, plowing Kate and swimming in the wash hole after a hot day in the field.  Ah, the good OLD days.  But, they are gone forever and live only in my memories.  Thank God for those memories of bygone days of the good times, the hard times and the home folks.

Jim Hethcox

The revelation of our Confederate Marine came when I was working with a cousin on a book he was writing about our ancestors during the War For Southern Independence. He lives near Montgomery, Alabama, and we lived in Metter, Georgia at the time. We decided we would meet at the Troup County (LaGrange) Archives and do some research while editing the manuscript for the book.

For some time my wife and I had been searching the archive records at the Georgia State Archive, the Alabama State Archive, the South Carolina State Archive, the Statesboro Public Library and the Ladson Library & Archive in Vidalia. She had energetically searched for some indication of her great, great grandfather’s service in the Confederacy. To learn that he had not fought for the South would have been a great let down for her. She had searched every record and roster of the Confederate Army that she could find and hadn’t found any evidence that he had served in the Confederate Army. She had about concluded that he must have been a carpetbagger or scalawag. The reason for this conclusion was that the census records showed that he owned 836 acres of land in Gwinnett County, Georgia right after the war. Could her ancestor have been a Yankee transplant who came to Georgia in order to take advantage of the poor, beaten Southern people during the Yankee occupation called the Reconstruction? We both hoped against hope that was not the case.

While my cousin and I were working on the manuscript that day in the Troup County Archive, my wife had been browsing through a record book of Confederate Widow’s Pensions. She looked through the names, listed alphabetically by last name, for her great, great grandmother’s name. There it was! Priscilla Holman was the widow of William Washington Holman who served in the CSMC. She turned to me and asked, “Jim, what does CSMC stand for?” “Why, that stands for The Confederate States Marine Corps”, I said. We both were taken aback with this revelation. Finally, she had found her ancestor’s Confederate record. He was not listed in the Confederate Army because he wasn’t a soldier, he was a Marine; a Confederate Marine! Hallelujah! We couldn’t believe it. What a double relief that was; first to learn that he was NOT a Yankee and then to learn that he was a Marine for his beloved Southland. Glory be, that was good news!

Just learning that he was in the CSMC gave her a new lead in which to look, so off she went on a new exploration to learn as much about her Marine ancestor as she could. Her search took us back to the Georgia State Archive, and the Statesboro Public Library in Statesboro, Georgia. Amazingly, we found more records of the Confederate States Marine Corps in the Statesboro Library than anywhere else. They had a roster of all the Confederate Marines listed with their rank, service location, and other pertinent information to the Marine.

Here’s what all she learned about him specifically, and the Confederate Marine Corps in general. There was a contingent of Marines stationed at New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and Drewry’s Bluff, VA. During the war years there were only about 600 to 800 Marines in the whole Confederacy, depending on the particular time. So, to have an ancestor who served in the Confederate Marine Corps is indeed a rare incident. There are, no doubt, a lot of people walking around today who are descendants of Confederate Marines but are not aware of their ancestor’s service in the elite corps.

The history of the Confederate States Marine Corps is almost the history of the Confederacy itself. Founded by former United States Marine Corps officers, the efforts of this small select group in combat and in garrison reflect the coastal and maritime struggles of the Confederate States as a whole. In 1861 Confederate Naval Commodore Josiah Tattnall was endeavoring to assemble some semblance of a naval squadron in the Savannah River to cover the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. Tattnall’s naval efforts were strengthened by the arrival of Marine Captain George Holmes’ Company A, from Pensacola, Florida.

William Washington Holman, was a native of Gwinnett County, Georgia when the war for Southern independence commenced. From what we have been able to learn, he went to Decatur, one of the Marine conscript camps, and caught a train to Savannah where he enlisted in Company E of the Confederate Marines.

Lieutenant Henry L. Graves reported in Savannah from Drewry’s Bluff on February 2, 1863, for service on board the newly built ironclad, CSS Savannah. Upon reporting, he found that his first job would be to recruit a Marine Guard. He found only some 12 or 13 men available on the station with a requirement of 35 to 40 or more. Graves visited the various conscript camps and enlisted draftees for Marine Corps duty. This was apparently the source of the numerous enlistments reported on the muster rolls of Company E as being made by Lieutenant Graves at Decatur, Georgia. We therefore, conclude that this is the reason William Washington Holman was conscripted into the Confederate States Marine Corps and was sent to Savannah. He was one of the Marines that Commodore Tattnall needed to round out his contingency of Marines serving in the Savannah Squadron along the Southeastern coastal waters.

The designation of the Marines at Savannah as a “Marine Guard” was replaced by the designation of “Company E” in the spring of 1863. In May of 1863, the men of Company E were placed in a new barracks called Fair Lawn, which was described as “a beautiful place in the outskirts of the city”. The barracks were surrounded by a large grove of old oaks and hickory trees all covered with Spanish moss. Marine Captain, John R.F. Tattnall, the son of Commodore Josiah Tattnall, was making efforts in April to provide field music for his new Company E, and ran the following advertisement in the local Savannah paper:

C.S. Marine Barracks
April 18, 1863
MUSICIANS WANTED
For Company E, Confederate States Marines; four musicians – two drummers and two fifers. Apply for further particulars at the naval office on Liberty Street, between Bull and Whitaker.
J.R.F. Tattnall
Captain C.S. Marines, Commanding

Eventually, Private William Washington Holman would be assigned to the ironclad, CSS Savannah, built in the port of Savannah and commissioned to be used in defense of the coastal waters. She would see much action and would be instrumental in capturing a Yankee vessel, the USS Water Witch. On the afternoon of May 31, 1864, 15 officers and 117 men from the Savannah Squadron (mainly from the CSS Savannah) left Savannah going downstream in seven boats under the command of Lt. Thomas Pelot, C.S.N. The men finally reached Racoon Key on the night of June 3, and the decision was made to make a night attack on a Federal vessel lying in Ossabaw Sound. After midnight of a dark and rainy night, the boats approached the ship, which turned out to be the USS Water Witch. Although challenged and fired upon, the Confederates managed to board her, and after a sharp fight of some 10 minutes, captured her. The attack cost the life of Lt. Pelot and four men. Three officers and ten men were wounded in the battle.

On December 21, 1864 the CSS Savannah was fired by the Confederates as Sherman’s army approached the outskirts of Savannah. She went down in the Ogeechee River channel near Savannah as the officers and members of the crew marched overland about eighteen miles to Hardeeville, SC. As far as I know, she still lies on the muddy bottom of the Ogeechee River.

A platoon of Marines of Company E served a short time on board the CSS Macon as she went upstream from Savannah to Augusta. Some of those Marines were assigned to Shell Bluff manning a 68 pounder 8 inch Columbiad, and was assigned to defend the river against ascending Federal gunboats.

Is this the end of my Marine story? No, this is the brave beginning of our family’s participation in the Confederate States Marine Corps and the United States Marine Corps. My brother-in-law, J.C. Holman, the great, great grandson of Pvt. William Washington Holman, joined the Marines and was assigned to a tank corps back in 1964. Then in November 1967 my brother Steve, our good friend Robert Johnson, and myself joined the Marine Corps under the buddy system. We were promised that we would stay together during our basic training.

My brother was wounded in Vietnam and is the recipient of two Purple Heart medals and Robert came home without a scratch but later died from exposure to Agent Orange. I often think of Robert coming home as a walking dead man. He was married and had two children before he became ill and died. We all three were “grunts” and managed to stay together through Parris Island Recruit training and ITR at Camp Geiger, North Carolina. From there we were separated and went off to different duty stations. We served from 1967 through 1969 during some of the worst fighting of the Vietnam war. God only knows how I managed to stay away from that hell hole of a country, but somehow His divine providence worked in my behalf, and I was spared having to go there.

When my wife learned that her ancestor had served on the CSS Savannah, we set out to find out what the ship looked like and some details about her. While surfing the Internet one night, we found a model of the ship that was hand made by a gentleman in Sydney, Australia who was a former member of the Australian Navy. He had a hobby of building exact replicas of any kind of ship or aircraft past or present. I was able to contact him via email to make some inquiries. I was impressed with his work and he was impressed with the fact that an actual descendant of a real Confederate Marine was contacting him. To make a long story short, he agreed to build an exact replica of the CSS Savannah as a gift for my wife. I commissioned him to do just that and he built a beautiful 24 inch replica of that great Southern fighting lady built and commissioned right there in the port of Savannah. She was a great vessel and we are proud that one of our ancestors was privileged to serve aboard her in the Confederate States Marine Corps. Whether CSMC or USMC, we are proud of our family’s Marine Corps heritage.

Semper Fi,
Jim Hethcox

Have you taken stock lately of the people who are running this government?  We once had statesmen who served at the pleasure of the people back home who elected them to look after their interests while serving in Washington.  But the days of the statesman are past; we are now under the heavy-handed control of career politicians, most of whom have a personal agenda.  Oh, there is a vast difference between a statesman and a career politician.  The career politicians today, that are running this country’s government, are serving their own interests and the interests of their party or of the lobbyists.  Those professional lobbyists are paying out many thousands and even millions of dollars to get bills passed that hurt the taxpayers back home, yet they sell their votes and influence to the highest bidder.  They are busy lining their pockets with money taken at the expense of the little man.  We the people suffer when these self-serving politicians are in session.

There has long been an outcry by the people about how Congress votes themselves big pay raises.  The common man is disturbed when they hear how Congress passes laws for their own personal retirement system while exempting themselves from having to pay social security and other taxes. The congressional pension system enables every person who serves in Congress, whether it be one term or a lifetime, to draw a healthy pension for the rest of their life, all at the expense of the taxpayer, and all this is for a part time job.  It used to be considered a privilege for a person to be elected to office and serve at the pleasure of the people back home.  Many today are calling for term limits on Congress just like the presidency, and I for one agree that it is much needed in today’s political climate.  It is no secret that the politician’s main interest is not to serve the people, but to get themselves re-elected so they can continue to dip into the till.  All is academic to that main interest of getting re-elected for another term so they can continue to build their power base and expand their influence.

If our situation wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable to listen to the news commentators, as well as the people of this country, talking about the woes of big government.  The reason I say laughable is because the real reason the South seceded from the North was big government’s control of affairs that should have been left to individual states.  The North wanted a strong central government to rule over the several states and the South wanted a less intrusive central government that served at the pleasure of the sovereign states.  The South wanted to depart in peace and form its own government that more closely mirrored the Jeffersonian style of government.  One only needs to read the Constitution of the Confederate States of America to see what they had in mind when they seceded.  “States Rights” was the battle cry of the Confederate soldier but the history books have contorted and twisted the truth so as to paint the Confederacy as an illegal regime built on the premise of slavery.  That is so far from the truth and a subject that rightfully belongs to another blog.

“Less government” seems to be the big topic today of the “tea party” crowds that gathered in cities, towns and burgs all over this land recently.  You know, the “crowds” that the Obama administration is trying to ignore, and the “crowds” that CNN and MSNBC and the rest of the liberal media downplay and label as racists and rednecks.  It’s hard to deny the grassroots movement that is going on in this country, but the Obama administration is doing just that; ignoring that it is happening in hopes that it will just go away.  Well, Mr. President, they/we are NOT going to go away.  You sir will have to deal with a grassroots movement that has been in the making for a long time.  The “silent majority” is silent no longer.  As a matter of fact, they are well organized and very outspoken, and I think it is a good thing to see what’s finally happening in this country.  I’m not saying there should be another revolution, because in a revolution you can never be guaranteed the results you had hoped for.  Rather I am calling for a good, clean “mid-course correction”.  America, we need to put our house in order once again and bring this top heavy government to it’s rightful place.

“Control Spending” is another of the major topics of the tea party crowds.  This government has gone completely mad with spending money that it doesn’t have and even printing it to make more available.  Don’t they know that just to turn on the presses will devalue the dollar worldwide, or don’t they care?  Paper money must be backed by something tangible like silver or gold, but the Federal Reserve bases the dollar on the country”s confidence in the dollar.  That confidence is waning fast and is in serious trouble today.  They are mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren just so they can go on a wild spending spree in hopes of buying their way out of the mess they have created in the first place.  Politicians  in Washington had better start seriously listening to the people of this country or they will find themselves without a job.  I hope to see every seat challenged at the coming elections and a major unseating of those fat cats in DC.

It’s time “We The People” regain control of this government and fire the career politicians that are making a self-serving career out of our loyal trust.  It’s time we elect people in congress who will work for the citizens of our country rather than serving special interests. For a long time now I have said that one thing Washington needs is a lesson in Basic Civics.  It seems the whole town has lost it’s political compass. It is time for those fat cats in Washington to be sent home packing with their tails tucked between their legs.  It’s also time for Congress to repeal those self-serving laws that line their personal coffers while exempting themselves from the same taxes they levy against the common man.  It is time for the leadership in Congress to be reminded that they serve the people; the people do not serve the government.  “We the People” seem to be ignored or passed off by the politicians as ignorant and unworthy of their respect. It”s time for the Federal government to realize that it should serve at the pleasure of the states and not the other way around.

The recent overseas behavior from the highest office in the land is just an indicator of how much trouble we are in on the world scene. The last thing we need is a President who goes overseas and runs our country down and apologizes for our “past sins”.  These actions make the United States look weak and ashamed. Doesn’t he realize that he is not just a man called the president, but the Presidency is an entity in and of itself and represents us all?  He surely was NOT representing me when he bowed from the waist to Saudi Arabian oil baron.  The very idea of the President of the United States bowing to a Muslim prince who has been known to give great financial backing to terrorists who kill Americans should disturb every American.  How much longer will we be considered a super power?  How much longer will “We The People” tolerate this chicanery and outrage?  I say it is time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.  I recall taking an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic…which includes career politicians.  If our government only exercised itself as far as the Constitution allowed it and no further, we would be in a much better state.  We are supposed to be a Constitutional Republic.  What in the world has happened in the past two centuries?  What would our founding fathers think of this big government today?  God help America!

Jim Hethcox