About Me -- Part One

What I know, definitely, without looking anything up:

I am a male of the human race, having thinning white and dark brown hair and lightly tanned skin. I have sired four children of my wife of almost forty years.  The first of our children, now deceased, was born in 1978. He died in 2001.  I have visited his grave almost every month since then.  The other three children were subsequently born in 1980, 1982 and 1984. All three of them have jobs and two of them are married.

From our second born and his wife, my wife and I have two grand sons.  Both have been diagnosed to be on the autism spectrum.  The oldest one is "high functioning" while the younger does not talk, but now is quite curious of his surroundings and knows how to communicate what he wants.  My daughters-in-laws are quite opposite of each other, but I love them both.

I have a copy of my birth certificate, so I know I was born in California in 1953, making me 64 years old as I write this.  My earliest memories are of a short time in which my family lived in western Louisiana. I am not sure how old I was, but I remember my fifth birthday when we lived in north Florida.  I remember when my second brother was born, so that puts a memory in 1958, when I was 5 1/2 years old (also in northern Florida).  About this time, I remember climbing up a very big pile of sand in central Florida.  I drew a picture of it for school.  I remember a rare snowfall in north Florida about that time.

I remember changing schools when I was in the third grade.  That is when I changed my name from "Jimmy" to "Henry," my dad's name. That was in 1963, and so I clearly remember the announcement on November 22nd that the governor of Texas and the President of the United States had been shot.  I remember thinking it was tragic, but I didn't think the President "could" die. I was 10 and an optimist.  In 1964, the four of us boys were thrilled when mom brought home our baby sister.  We helped name her! A few years later, our family moved to southwest Georgia, still only a couple hours drive from our cousins in north Florida.

Strangely, as close as I followed the space race, I cannot directly remember Project Mercury.  I have some faint memories of things like the first space walk.  By the time of the Apollo flights I can remember them vividly. I was in "Middle School" by then, and thought I wanted to be an astronomer.  My dad had bought me a telescope!  I remember the Christmas of 1968, when I was wearing a full cast on my left leg after having been injured in a football game near the end of the season.  I missed getting a Letter jacket by just a few quarters.  I was 15, and soon to be 16. I stayed up that Christmas Eve to hear the Apollo 8 astronauts read Genesis 1 as they came back around from the first visit to the far side of the moon. The next summer, in 1969, I was confined to a tent after "lights out" on Sunday, July 20th, listening to a transistor radio as Neil Armstrong and Buz Aldrin said their first words from the surface of the moon.  We had watched the landing after checking in to Scout Camp.

My Junior Year of High School I had to settle being the team "Manager." I got to assist in wrapping ankles, carrying equipment and carrying water during games.  We almost made the state playoffs that year, and I got my Letter jacket.  Go Green Waves!!  The next year, we changed schools. We couldn't have a football team, yet, but our basketball team that year was awesome! I was in the first graduating class of that year (1970-71).

In our high school days in southwest Georgia, both my brother and I committed our lives to Jesus Christ after having been members of our church for a few years.  We both felt called to preach the gospel and both of us later went to Seminary.  My brother went on to a double-career as a High School History Teacher and long time preacher of a small church in a small town near where we graduated from High School.  He retired from school teaching but still preaches at the same church.  A life-time bachelor, he was married last year!

I will end this trip down memory lane for now, since this blog has gone on for a while.  I hope to post the "rest of the story" soon.