In Eckleburg's Eyes - 9/22/2008, Part 1

I had a very busy weekend and will divide the recap amongst four posts. The weekend began where the last one ended, in Newport. I spent Friday afternoon at the Carson Springs Baptist Center in Newport, Tennessee where my “aunt” Charlotte Leibrock (CTL) was awarded the Cocke County Citizenship Award. The facility is very nice and is situated amidst the mountains. In fact, my church’s staff had held its annual retreat there earlier in the week.

The award is quite an honor. The event is hosted annually by the Senior Citizens Home Assistance Service. It was the 11th annual offering. Past honorees aree William Agee, James Gaddis, Roland Dykes (1931-2005), Rich Lloyd, Wilma Dykeman Stokely (1920-2006), Reba Williams, Dr. Nathan Ford, Dr. Fred Valentine (1928-2007), Judge John Bell, and Jimmy Dunn.

My mother and I were driven to the event by PAT(#2). We met her at her home on Cherokee Boulevard and she chauffeured us from there. I had never met her previously, but on the round trip journey, we got acquainted well. Her father-in-law is John Tullock (JHT), whose textbook The Old Testament Story I will be using when I teach at Carson-Newman College on October 7th. I learned that he lives in Delano, Tennessee, and married his high school English teacher, seven years his senior, shortly after graduation. She gave birth to their first child approximately nine months later. He was the youngest male of a massive brood of children and he was accustomed to being around older women. Evidently this was quite the scandal in the small southern community. In fact, today she would have been arrested for this sequence of events. (Can you say Mary Kay Letourneau?) This will actually be a good lead-in to my lecture on Genesis as JHT’s story has nothing on the scandals of the patriarchs and matriarchs.

We arrived early at the retreat center. Not surprisingly, we arrived before the guest of honor. The surprise was that she was on time. I feel that I can tease her as I wore a name tag on this day. I would not do that for just anyone.

I spent much of the time before the event with my grandparents, who arrived at the same time as we did. Meanwhile DLNV was her usual mingling self. By the way, if you are on Facebook, you can now add my mother. She opened her account on Thursday (September 18th). I realize many of her peers have done so (can you say peer pressure?), but I still find this strange.

Lunch was provided before the festivities began. We were served salad followed by an entree of steak with carrots, green beans, a baked potato. It was very good. We were provided a compliment of Paul Newman salad dressings with our salads. Doubt his acting ability if you must, but the man is a culinary genius!

My grandparents saved us a seat at the back of the building, as is there custom. No word on whether this relates to the parable Jesus presented in Luke 14:7-14. I like to assume so. Our table consisted of (from left) my grandparents, Teresa Stephenson (subbing for Yvette Lillard), Tommy Lillard, PAT#2, DLNV, and Mary Ford. (The last two did not get in the photo). My grandfather hit it off with PAT#2 as he had worked in her grandfather’s soda shop as a soda jerk for $15 every two weeks shortly after he was married. He enjoyed recounting his experiences to her.

A program followed lunch. Sheila Balch, mother of one of my favorite seminary classmates NBB, sang as the entertainment. The speakers for the event were Nathan Ford (NFF) and my good friend CAL. CAL told me beforehand, “I thought they only gave this award to old people.” I advised her to use that as her opening line. Though she did not take my advice, she was great. NFF was as terrific well. I sat next to his wife of 54 years and she told me that he scrapped his speech on the podium just as she had predicted he would. I guess she knows him pretty well by now.

CTL was presented the award by last year’s winner, Rich Lloyd, pastor of First Baptist Church of Newport. The biggest irony was that several proclamations were made by state officials, one of whom was Eddie Yokley (CEY). CEY defeated CTL in two failed bids to become the State Representative in District 11 in Tennessee. In fact several references were made to this. When she accepted her award, CTL acknowledged the honor and questioned her worthiness. She said she was convinced by her daughter who told her that it was the first time she was ever elected to anything and she needed to take advantage of it. That’s my CAL!

It was good catching up with old friends and honoring my Aunt Charlotte.