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PAGE 4FEBRUARY 8-14, 2015

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KENLY NEWSPINE LEVEL NEWS

AN EDITION OF KENLY NEWS

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FOR WHATIT’S WORTH

RICK STEWART

Editor’s Idea

EVERYDAY

GRACE

STEVE AND BELINDA KIRK

Everyday Grace is written by Be-linda and Steve Kirk. Steve is senior pastor of Selma Baptist Church. Reach them at 919-965-3228, or pastorstevek@bellsouth.net

HOW I SEE IT

KEITHBARNES

Keith Barnes can be reached at 919-284-2295 or kbarnes@kenly-news.com

Regardless of your age you probably recall those little trademark phrases, statements or sayings that your father, or perhaps your mother, made during your childhood whenever a certain situation presented itself.

We’re talking about the kind that in most cases were not only predictable, but were spoken many times over the years, so many times that you still recall them today.

My father, Carl Barnes, had lots of these sayings and rarely did a day go by when he didn’t use one or more of them.

It’s been a long time since daddy spoke these words of wisdom but most are still indelibly etched in my mind.

Some were real doozies and here are a few examples;

• “It’s snowing in Wendell.”Daddy would usually offer this re-

sponse whenever someone mentioned that cold weather was headed our way.

It was never explained to me exactly

what the statement meant, and I wish I had learned its origination.

It has endured very well, however, be-cause just last week someone told me it would be turning cold and I responded without even blinking an eye; “It’s snow-ing in Wendell,” with the person having no idea what I was talking about.

By the way, my wife has heard me use all of daddy’s sayings many times, including this one, and I can understand why she might be tired of hearing them.

• “I’d rather be standing out in a fi eld holding a feller’s mule.”

Whenever daddy was forced to do something he didn’t want to do or go

somewhere he didn’t want to go (like the time my mother made him go see the movie “Dr. Zhivago”) he would utter these words.

On a related note, daddy’s unoffi cial movie review of “Dr. Zhivago” was; “It was just a bunch of people riding around in the snow for three hours.”

• “I can stand the electric chair for a few seconds.”

This meant daddy could endure al-most any kind of diffi culty or problem just as long as it wasn’t for a long time.

• “If you’re waiting on me you’re back-ing up.”

When our family was getting ready to go somewhere and running late, daddy said this so we knew the reason we hadn’t left was not because of him.

Before going any further, I need to explain that my father was not an evil or cruel person, it’s just that he enjoyed a good laugh and nothing, including physi-cal traits of others, medical ailments or

and even death was sacred with him. Daddy meant no disrespect and he

was just as quick to poke fun at himself as he would others.

For instance, whenever he received a bad haircut, which was often, he an-nounced; “At least it didn’t hurt, and it‘ll grow back.”

Now, back to the list.• “I didn’t even know he was sick.” This was daddy’s response when

someone said; “I heard that so-and-so died.”

It was totally predictable and we must have heard him say it hundreds of times.

• “He could smoke a cigarette in the rain without getting it wet.”

This was daddy’s way of pointing out that someone had a large nose.

• “If he drank a cherry smash he’d look like a thermometer,” or, for the golfer, “He looks like a 2-iron.”

We heard this whenever daddy saw a skinny person and it’s probably best not

to tell you what he said about overweight people.

• “He looks like a Henry J riding down the road with the doors open.”

This is how he described a person with big ears.

By the way, a Henry J was a car from the 1950s.

• “He has a head like a cue ball.”Daddy used this phrase to describe

a bald person and, as you’ve probably realized by now, nothing, or no one, es-caped his tongue.

While these sayings are attributed to my father, we’d love to hear from our readers who remember those classic, unforgettable statements made by their parents, as well.

We know many more are out there and we’re depending on you to tell us about them.

Dad had a comment for just about any of life’s situations

My fellow columnist above, Keith Barnes, has written about things his dad used to say.

Among my dad’s wisest words were that a person “knew the price of every-thing and the value of nothing.”

And I’m afraid that saying applies to many folks today. We seem caught up in trying to get the best price regardless of the value.

For instance, I purchase gasoline from a local business that spends thou-sands of dollars in our communities.

Sometimes it’s a couple of cents high-er than a station just a few feet away. But, I know the value of his business and the value of his dollars in our commu-nity. I support him because I don’t want to see him go out of business.

I ran across an advertisement I’d

clipped from another newspaper and fi led away.

It said: Know why businesses most often close? The second line read: Be-cause they lost their customers.

All any of us have to do is look along our main streets to see the businesses that have lost their customers. What’s sad, though, is that many times those businesses lost their customers through no fault of their own.

People were more concerned about

price than value. Another example that I’ve heard is that people will drive 20 miles and park a half-mile away from a store to save 10 cents on a box of crack-ers.

I’m not saying that all of us don’t need to be cost-conscious. What I’m saying is, it doesn’t make sense to drive to an-other town to save 10 cents on a box of crackers when, in all likelihood, the same box of crackers could be purchased for nearly the same price closer to home.

When our local businesses begin to lose their customers, they surely will close.

I’m a big advocate of shopping at home fi rst. Buy it locally if you can.

Of course, I’m also very interested in our readers buying items from those businesspeople who advertise in this

newspaper.They have invested their hard-earned

money to invite you into their stores and establishments. They are asking for your business.

A friend in another town recently told me he was buying something from ama-zon online.

When I asked if he could get it locally, he said, “Probably. It’s just easier to sit at my desk, order it and have it delivered to my front door.”

Of course, I didn’t get in an argument with him. I just said the local business that sells that item probably would have appreciated you going there.

He just shrugged.But, if enough folks become so lazy

that they won’t take the time to buy from our local merchants, then one day the

only way we may be able to get items is to order and wait for them to be de-livered.

I’m not convinced at all that shopping at home is more expensive. In fact, I think many people would be surprised to fi nd out how competitive our local merchants are.

But, even if they were more expen-sive, the value of having them as part of the community far outweighs the several pennies that would be saved by driving 20 miles away to buy it.

We want our towns to thrive. The only way to do it is to support our local mer-chants. Please consider the value and not just the cost of where you shop.

Know someone who knows price of everything, value of nothing?

Real code enforcementThe town of Selma is concerned

about the various building codes and zoning codes that are violated in the town. It’s a move to make the town more attractive to visitors.

For the past several months, with the resignation of its previous code enforcement offi cer, the town has used a Selma policeman injured in the line of duty to enforce its codes. It has worked wonderfully.

Said one town resident, when you see a law enforcement offi cer with a badge and a gun come to your front door to tell you that you’re violating a town ordinance, you tend to take it a little more seriously.

And that has been proved with the fi ll-in job that the police offi cer accom-plished. In fact, he did such a good job that town offi cials are considering making the code enforcement offi cer a sworn law enforcement person.

The law enforcement offi cer who did code enforcement was recently released to go back to full-time police duty. He said it was an interesting job but that his heart was in police law en-forcement and not code enforcement.

But it seems that Selma leaders have seen the good of having a real law enforcement offi cer out ticketing code violators. The departing police-man even created a code violation citation that could be handed to the code violator. That carries a lot more weight than a letter from Town Hall saying a code has been violated.

We think town leaders have hit upon a good idea to put the weight of law enforcement behind code enforce-ment. We suspect that it will prompt code violators to be a little more con-cerned about having the offi cer knock on the front door.

You “ain’t” never too old to be used by the Lord...

We love to listen to Jerry Clower around our house. You may have heard him before, and if you have, you may know this story. If you don’t know too much about him, you would enjoy get-ting some of his albums.

He was a country comedian who was very popular at the Grand Ole Opry during the 70s and 80s, but you can still buy his albums or check him out on YouTube today, and you should do just that...his stories are clean, and often have a meaningful life message attached.

This one is one of those stories.Now this story I’m gonna tell you

about is really funny and has a great punch-line. He often said that he doesn’t tell funny stories, he just tells stories funny. By the way, some of the best story tellers I know live around here....you know, those folks that can tell you about something so well that

you feel like you are a part of the story. Stanley Ricks is one of those folks,

and so are Dicky Broadwell and Ru-dolph Eason. Don’t miss an opportunity to hear them tell a story if you get a chance...tell them I sent ya!

So, back to the Jerry Clower story of Uncle Versie Ledbetter and the Dea-cons meeting... Uncle Versie had got-ten up in years and didn’t go to Dea-con’s meetins na’ more. He thought the youngsters, those around 50 or 60, could handle the Church biness. But Uncle Versie had gotten word that they were gonna spend some money, so he got Nugene, his grand yungun, to hitch

up the mule and wagon and take him to the Church house for the Deacon’s meetin.

At the meeting a deacon said, “I move you, sir, that we buy a Chandelier for the Church!” Another Deacon second-ed the motion and the moderator said, “Is there any discussion?” Uncle Versie said, “Sir, I’d like to speak...I want all of you to know that there ain’t nobody in this church that’s got enough of educa-tion, that when we order this chandelier from Sears and Roebuck that can spell it. Second of all, if we ordered it, and it got hyar, there ain’t nobody in this church that knows how to play it! And what I’m concerned about is, that we don’t need to spend no money on no chandelier, as bad as we need lights in the church!

(Insert laughter here!)I really like this story, and it has a

great punchline, too. But one of the rea-sons that I like it so much is because it is a great illustration that an older

fellow, who doesn’t really understand the language or ways of the younger generation, still obviously understands what’s going on quite well! Uncle Versie knew they needed lights, it’s just that the word chandelier was unfamiliar. I like to fast forward that to our modern culture when terms like internet may sound like a net that is in the doorway, and a hacker is someone that has a bad cough. Or the world wide web seems to sound like we are being taken over by some colossal arachnid.

You get my point, I’m sure, but a podcast, a blogspot or a RSS feed may sound familiar to young folks of our day, and may make no sense to folks who have never heard about it. There may be a language barrier, but don’t think that there is a gap in the knowledge and understanding of how to get things done.

This is especially true in Kingdom Building. When we discount our Senior Saints and their wisdom, knowledge,

and ability, we only cause detriment to the entire cause.

I share these thoughts today be-cause I am so thankful for the wisdom of the folks who have gone ahead of us, blazed a trail, and learned how to build the Kingdom of God for decades in our local Churches.

I encourage you to take some time this week to say thanks to a senior adult for their contributions to our society. Bet-ter yet, why not pick up a Valentine gift or two and make some visits. Why not sit down for a minute or two and hear some good stories? You might just fi nd that the stories can change your life for the better. Next thing you know, you’ll be tellin’ some great stories yourself!

Wisdom is with the aged, and under-standing in length of days. Job 12:12

Seniors have much wisdom to off er the rest of us