The story of my life - short version...
I was born in Atlanta in April of 1965 to two great parents (that I appreciate a
whole lot more now than I did then). This is where I spent the first 10 or so
years of my life. I lived in a community on the outskirts of the main city; our
street was always quiet, not a lot of traffic. We had some good neighbors -
there was an older couple that lived next door; another across the street (I
remember this guy was a watch repairman at one time; he had a workshop in his
backyard and helped me build a go-cart once - a wooden one that you could pull
to the top of the street and ride downhill; that was pretty fun). There was an
older lady down the street; I mowed her lawn occasionally.
I remember walking to school. It was sidewalk all the way, but it was still a
pretty good trip. The neighborhood was kind of hilly, so there was a lot of
walking uphill and downhill along the way. I actually vaguely remember my first
day of school; my folks took me and stayed 'til around lunch (I was terrified at
first, but after a while I was okay; it was just playing with wooden toys and
clay most of the time, anyway).
While we lived in Atlanta my Dad worked at a bakery (the Colonial bakery, I
think); he mostly worked during the day 'til late at night; I remember staying
up late 'til he got home a lot (I'm still a "night owl" to this day). My Dad was
always good with the home maintenance kind of stuff - he was an awfully good
painter (I can remember "helping" him some) and always kept things in shape.
When I was old enough to push the lawnmower I mowed (I remember holding my arms
nearly straight-up pushing that thing); I think my Dad paid me either 50 cents
or a dollar every time I cut the grass, and I managed to buy my own bike
(sometime later) with this money; if I remember right, that bike cost somewhere
around $100, so I had to have cut a lot of grass.
Anyway, sometime around the 4th grade my family moved back to my parents' home
town, the metropolis of Pearson - talk about "culture shock". We had often
visited the grandparents on holidays, but that didn't prepare me for actually
living there. It wasn't all that bad, but it was a big change. I remember my
first day at my new school, Atkinson County Elementary School - I was the new
"city boy". I soon made friends, though, and got along okay.
I only had to finish out the rest of 4th grade, and after summer break it was on
to junior high. While going to school in my new home town I had to ride the
bus to school; at times this wasn't fun (as naturally my bus went through some
rough sections of town), but I never had any real problems. Junior High was
pretty fun; my best memory is attending basketball games (not that I cared
anything at all about the sport - I just enjoyed watching the cheerleaders). I
will say this about Atkinson County's school system, it always (at least while I
attended) had some outstanding teachers; if you wanted to learn, the opportunity
was definitely available.
Four years later it was time for the move to
high school (good ol' ATCO High).
Unlike a lot of kids, I really enjoyed school. My freshman year I was lucky
enough to end up on the school newspaper staff (though I don't really remember
how or why I was chosen). The newspaper staff was mostly made up of sophomores,
juniors, and seniors, and they welcomed me (though I did get ribbed on a
little). While in high school I joined a fair amount of clubs - my main reason
being that this would allow me to have another picture in the yearbook (that's
true). Yeah, high school was fun; I'd probably still be there if they would have
let me stay. My only real regret (if there is one) about my time in high school
is that I didn't pursue a few high school "crushes" - but hey, no one
to blame on that one 'cept me - I just didn't have the guts.
Come my senior year I did
escort the Homecoming Queen though ("thanks for the honor, Kimberly"); and somehow
I was elected Senior Class President (don't know how or why, but "thanks Class
of '83!"), though I remember nearly resigning as it came time to give the
graduation speech - that scared me. Anyway, I made it through it.
Oh yeah, sometime during my junior and senior years (I think) I worked part-time
at the "Treat Shop" in Pearson (it was either that or "croppin' 'bacco", which I
probably couldn't have handled anyway). I remember some good times at the Treat
Shop (you'd be amazed at the pranks you can come up with using nothing but food)...
After high school was over I was sort of lost. I made the decision to go to
college, mostly because I had no idea what to do. For some reason the school
stuff always came easy to me, so I figured "what the he'...". In retrospect my
time would have
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been better spent going to tech school. I spent 3 years at
South
Georgia College and earned a 2-year degree (I kind of swapped majors along the
line); then (still not knowing what to do) I attended
Valdosta State College for
2 years. Long story short - I ended up with a bachelors degree in business
administration (I think).
It was during the my last year at VSC that I lost my Dad; this
was a pretty rough time for me. Thankfully I had some really good friends around
(I was amazed at the folks that offered support). This probably made for a major
"detour" in my life - I was definitely drifting for some time afterward
(I often think I still am). As it
turned out, I went to work with a friend close to my hometown (well, my 2nd
hometown); spent around 2 years helping him get a business "off the ground"
(Vickers Audio, Douglas). It was along this time that an old school buddy and
myself decided to try our hand at self-employment by opening up a business of
our own (Sound Decision, Alma); for me it was my main job, for my buddy a
part-time thing. This actually went really good for about a year, then it slowed
down, but we kept at it. About the end of the third year we were struggling, and
decided to call it quits. Not willing to throw in the towel just yet, I made the
decision to continue on in a town close to home (Sound Decision II, Douglas).
This new venture went well, but I was tired of having constant debt hanging over
my head, and so I gave it up (let's see, I think by this time it was around '94
or so).
I was luckily able to find a job in the same business I'd been involved in since finishing school by getting a job at Segraves Sound Center in Fitzgerald. During the first year-and-a-half or so I commuted back-and-forth from Pearson to Fitzgerald; the daily drive got old (really old) after a while, and so I moved to Fitzgerald (I think this was around Nov '96). My employment at Segraves was never meant to be a permanent job - I was planning on finding a more "traditional" (y'know, maybe office-type) job before long, but somehow this never happened (you know how it is, you just "get in a groove"). I'm not complaining, though; it definitely wasn't the back-breaking kind of work a lot of folks have to deal with, and it paid the bills.
Days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into years. in July of 2006 I awoke one morning to a phone call from the nursing home (where my Mom was a resident) informing me that she had been taken to the hospital but that it was nothing to worry about; a little while later the hospital calls, requesting that I come as soon as possible. Apparently the problem had become serious. My mother died later that night - I definitely wasn't expecting this. These days I urge anyone who still has the joy of having their parents around to cherish them every day - and be sure to tell them whatever you might feel like you should tell them. There's plenty I would have liked to tell both my parents, but I never got around to it - and then I lost the chance.
After a big slow-down in the economy (around 2007) my boss at Segraves had to put me and the guys at work on "commission", which for us meant getting paid a percentage for the work we did for the store. This was alright for a while, but it finally got pretty slow at which point I decided to try my hand at self-employment again. I opened my own small window tinting business (Tint by Clint). This seemed to go okay (considering the state of the local economy), but around March of 2008 I took a job with a local small business (still tinting automobile windows). That's pretty much where I'm at these days...
