Do you remember those days? No cellphones, no computers in the cars - all you had was a radio, a gun and a piece of paper to take a report on. God those were simpler times and when you think back - so much easier.
Now you may be asking how in the world did he get off on this topic, he is using a computer to type this blog!! Well it just so happened today that I broke my cellphone and it is going to be a couple of days before it can be replaced and I AM GOING CRAZY!! It is so sad that we have come to rely on technology so heavily in our lives. You know I was just thinking last night (and this is true) about what to write about today and I was thinking back to when I first started and how simple things were and then a certain image popped into my mind - WHEN WE FIRST GOT CELLPHONES!!! That is the honest truth, last night I thought back to when I was an investigator and we first got cellphones, funny how life turns around on you isn't it?
Now for you young folks, and I know this probably hard for you to understand but believe it or not, when cell phones first came out, you couldn't put them in your pocket!!! Those first phones we got and these were top of the line at the time - came in a bag! Yep, a bag, you carried the phone around with you in a bag, when you got in the car you had to put an antennae on top of the car so you could get a signal and all you could do with it - WAS TALK!! Oh my god, but we thought we were tough back then. Pull up to a red light and pretend you were talking on the phone, holey crap that was fun!! People would stare at you like you had a million dollars - must have thought we were doctors or something!! Speaking of which and now you really had to be there during this era when only doctors and such carried pagers and I know I am getting somewhat off topic but this just popped into my mind. I remember being at the movies one night and my pager going off and I heard a lady that was sitting behind me say "He must be a doctor", I about fell down the aisle!!!
Sorry about that, the mind wanders sometimes you know, anyway back to the phones, I can even remember the name of the company - Intercell (sorry couldn't link them to anything - they are long gone), god why would I remember that!!! But anyway, these phones were huge, had the buttons on the top of the handset and the buttons were green and red and the bag of course was black.
We thought we were walkin tall buddy let me tell ya, portable phones - who would have ever thought there could be such a thing!! Now look at us, my phone has been down for less than 12 hours and I am going crazy! Even though we have a house phone, nobody ever calls it and probably only a handful of people even know the number and besides - it is just a phone!!! No texting, no FB, no apps, no nuthin, life's a bitch isn't it. Maybe we should all just give up our cellphones and go back to using a real telephone - NOT!! Do you realize that the world would actually stop moving if we didn't have cellphones? It is true, all that radiation being put off by the trillions of cellphones out there is what keeps the world spinning these days - no one ever tell you that? Well you heard it here first then.
Let's see, we first had pagers and these pagers came with an answering service - someone paged you, you had to call the service to get your message, then we moved up big time - pagers with number displays!!! Whoosh, we were moving up in the world and then low and behold they came out with pagers that would actually let them send you a message!! Oh my god, could life get any easier? I remember those days of having to find a working payphone (there actually use to be these big boxes placed on poles that had phones in them that anyone could use - as long as you had a dime and then it went up to a quarter!!),
when the office wanted you to call them. We even had a list of numbers of the different pay phones and where they were located so the office could call us - take that quarter and shove it!! Then we really got smart - we just called 911 for free and then got the office to call us back at that number. God those were the days, so simple, until people started stealing all the phones and the phone company stopped replacing them!
Well then came the cellphones but they didn't replace the pagers of course because you couldn't just walk around with the bag phone slung over your shoulder all day long, besides the battery only lasted about an hours before it died. So we were stuck with the pagers for a while - until - REAL cellphones came out! Now we were talking, something you could actually put in your pocket and walk around with it!!! Man that was sweet, I still remember that first real cellphone - it was small, no flip open thing for me, this was a stick and I loved it! Still texting and all the stuff we have today was still a few years off but we were in heaven, until we discovered the one BIG down fall. NOW they could call us anytime!! Man we just couldn't win but those were the days, so simple, so easily pleased. MAN I MISS MY CELLPHONE!!!
Jack (Tommy) Carter
www.livethegoodlife.ws
www.southernbellemarketinginc.com
God I love that video by Kenny Chesney (The Boys of Fall)! The last supervisors meeting that I was to attend I had planned on playing this video but circumstances worked against me and we never had that last meeting. Although the video is about football it also tells the story of life, how fast it goes by, wishing your life away and being part of a team. That is how I have spent the last 28 years of my life, being part of a team.
I started my career with the Lee County Sheriff's Office as a reserve deputy ( a volunteer) and then moved into a full time position a short year later - although it seemed to take forever. Being part of a team, whether in school or in life can make things so much easier and tougher at the same time. Not all members of the team are going to get along, you will have natural team leaders, those that others just naturally follow and you will have those that are born followers - they aspire nothing more and there is nothing wrong with that, every team needs these type of people in order to survive.
I started thinking last night about my last days as a deputy sheriff, although I will always be a deputy sheriff no matter where life takes me now. One of my memories that flashed through my mind were those dreaded weekends when the Auburn University football team was playing at home and we had to work security at the games. During the early years it was actually fun, even though you spent most of the time dealing with drunk students and alumni that thought they could do any thing they wanted. What made it fun was that it was a more relaxed time, you were able to actually talk to folks, didn't have to worry about someone from the University looking over your shoulder to see what you were doing.
If you have never been to a football game in the south you haven't lived. No matter what time the game starts, fans start arriving just after sun up and the partying begins. At Auburn University as probably in most stadiums these days they have suites for those alumni that can afford them. Now these suites are stocked to the hilt with food, drinks and all the amenities. During the early days, if you were lucky, you got to work the suite levels and during those days the people in the suites were alot nicer. They would invite you in to watch the game, get something to eat and basically just hang out with them and then AFTER the game the fun would really start!!! Once the suites were cleared out we would go to work!! It was like a feeding frenzy, everything was up for grabs, it didn't matter what they had, roast beef, ham, hot dogs or chicken - we took it all. We would literally walk out of the stadium with bags and boxes of food - hey it was going to be thrown out anyway.
As with everything else, as time goes by, things change and usually not for the best. It got to the point where if you were seen drinking a coke, a supervisor was calling you on the radio ordering you back to your post and after working games for roughly 15 years I decided enough was enough. I mean it just wasn't fun anymore and it took the whole day away from you, no matter what time the game was. There were times that by the time we left the stadium, we were lucky to get a couple hours of sleep before we had to be back at work and work a full shift. Now the money was nice, in those days you were paid in cash and that came in handy, especially around Christmas time but that too has gone away, now the deputies are paid through their payroll checks.
Now I don't know what caused it, maybe it was the need for money or we just needed someone to work but after being away from the stadium about 3 years I decided to go back and I literally was not there for 5 minutes when I knew I had made a mistake. It all came rushing back to me in a hurry, the drunks, the snobs, the noise and even though I was in the stadium, I didn't get to see any of the game - my post was in the inner sanctum of the stadium. That was enough for me, I didn't care if no one else showed up to work the games, I WAS NOT GOING BACK and I never did again. Instead I enjoyed the rest of the games from the comfort of my home!!
Retirement has come and once again I have joined an amazing team. Before I retired I started looking into ways to supplement my income because I knew that my retirement pay was not going to be what I was use to bringing home. I came across an Internet affiliate marketing job that allowed me to work at home and bring in good money. It was fun, different and best of all, I determined when I worked and when I didn't. This opportunity has grown even bigger today as I have partnered with an amazing young woman and we have started our own internet company which specializes in working with an internet company called ZipNadaZilch. We started the company back in June of this year and have already grown to over 400 paying members and we are expanding daily. It has been a learning experience and we continue to learn everyday and to bring new ideas to the company on a weekly basis. The name of our company is Southern Belle Marketing and we can be found at www.southernbellemarketinginc.com.
Team work is a part of life and a valuable life lesson that we need to teach our children and their children's children. If we could all work as a team, our lives would be so much easier and I wonder if that will ever happen in any ones lifetime.
Jack (Tommy) Carter
www.livethegoodlife.ws
www.southernbellemarketinginc.com
Most stories and novels that I read start from the beginning and take you to an ending, however my mind does not work that way and I was always partial to the old COLUMBO shows that showed you the murder first and then Lt. Columbo came in figured it out. So I apologize to those of you that think in the normal frame of mind but my blogs will more of a Columbo style, as things pop into my mind I will write them down. Also since my mind is not nearly as sharp as it use to be, I will do better writing down more recent events before they become a distant memory.
It is funny how current events in ones daily life can trigger memories of the past. As many of you know we are expecting a hurricane to hit near or around the Alabama area sometime in the next few days - I believe it is called Issac and who cares what they called, it is still a storm, but it brings to mind a few years back - almost 17 - another hurricane that came through - this one was called Opal and it hit us pretty hard. There have been many before and since but this one in particular sticks in my mind for several reasons and shall be the subject of my blog tonight.
You know as time goes by you tend to block out certain memories or they just fade with time and while it is true that I cannot remember every single detail of that particular night and the following days there are certain aspects that will be forever etched into my mind. I do know that my wife and I had only been married for a year or so and that I was working the night shift at the Lee County Sheriff's Office. The storm was slated to hit sometime during the night and I can remember the thought that here I was, newly married and I had to go off and leave my new family at home alone so that I could help the citizens of Lee County because that was my job and my calling. Every law-enforcement officer faces this same dilemma every time they go to work, their family is home alone while their loved one is out helping others, boy you talk about sacrifice!
I don't remember leaving the house or when the storm actually hit Lee County, as I said it is only brief glimpses of the past but I do remember being scared to death that my family was at home alone and I was out in the storm. Those of us that were working that night spent most of the night running from call to call, down power lines, trees down across the roads, roads being flooded, medical assist calls, it was constant the whole night and it seemed that it was never going to end. My most memorable event of that night was getting stuck between two down trees. I couldn't go forward and I couldn't go in reverse - I literally had a 50 foot area that I was in that was untouched by fallen trees and we aren't talking little pine trees either, these were monsters that had fallen across the road, a few seconds either way and one of them would have come down across my car. So here I was, out on the west end of the county and I couldn't do anything, except watch the sky and hope I could dodge the next tree to fall.
Now the rural area of Lee County is served by volunteer fire departments and without their help this county would not survive. This is a group of dedicated men and women that volunteer their time and sometime their own money to serve those in the areas that they live. This particular area was served the Southwest Volunteer Fire Department and they were my saviors that night. I can't tell you how long it took for them to get there, they probably had to literally saw their way through but they did come and boy was I glad to see them!!! Within a few minutes they had me free - so to speak, you still couldn't travel very far without running into another down tree but at least I was mobile again. The rest of the night passed without much more stress EXCEPT I didn't know how I was going to get home when I got off!! Every road was blocked, of course I had spent most of the night out in the county and had no idea how the cities has fared but as I was soon to find out - it was the same.
We were told to be ready to work over, depending on how the long the storm stayed around. Fortunately by the end of the night and as the sun began to come up Hurricane Opal had moved on to mess with another place. This still left me not knowing how I was going to make it home but I knew one thing, I was either going to walk or drive because I was going home. I remember leaving the office and picking my way through and around down trees, my mind racing - not knowing how my family was (this was before cell phones), how had the house fared and what lay in store for me when I finally did get there. My first real memory of pulling up to the house was seeing a beautiful red maple we had in the front yard laying on its side having been completely pulled out of the ground but amazingly that was the worst damage I could see. Of course there were trees down every where, power lines, cable lines and telephone lines hanging in big clumps every where but amazingly the house was still in one piece. I remember walking inside and holding my wife for the longest time, just thankful to be back home and everyone was OK.
We both relayed our events of the night - how she had held the kids throughout the night and had ridden out the storm inside a closet. The next few days were spent trying to clean up the neighborhood, chain saws were running constantly and slowly but slowly life began to get back to normal. We were without power for almost a week but we found ways to stay occupied - remember this was 17 years ago, my son just turned 16!!
I hope you have enjoyed my wander off into a current event that brings back some memories of simpler times. I hope everyone is safe during the next few days as we await to see what Issac is going to do. Keep in mind this one thing - while you are at home with your families there are brave men and women out there among you keeping you safe and putting their life on the line during these times of disaster.
Jack (Tommy) Carter
www.southernbellemarketinginc.com
www.livethegoodlife.ws
Wow!!!! Retirement, something I have dreamed of for almost 30 years and it is finally here!! I was so excited, here i had worked all my adult life and most of my teenage years and finally the time had come - freedom or so I thought. I have had no regrets with my decision whatsoever but life is different now for sure. My hope with this blog is to re-live some of my past experiences both as a child and then growing up and becoming the man I am today and along the way my hope is to share with my readers, my mistakes, my accomplishments - maybe tell a few "war stories" along the way and bring people into the brand new world I have discovered and the new friends I have made, none of which I have actually met in person but people that I know I can turn to when needed. My life has been adventure, some good , some great, some bad but that is life isn't it?
I have been truly blessed in life, I have a wonderful wife who has stood beside me when times have been truly horrible and we have celebrated the good times together and now is my chance to give something back to her for putting up with me over the past 18+ years. She has sacrificed so much because of my career - buy hey she knew that going in but perhaps not to the extent as it turned out to be. So we will explore these changes throughout my life.
Maybe this blog will help those wanting a job in law-enforcement, those that want to work at home www.southernbellemarketinginc.com (my latest adventure) or perhaps those wanting to start a family - who knows, we will travel the road together and see where it takes us.
This may turn out to be the ramblings of a man trying to make sense of his life, why it turned out the way that it did, who knows? I do know one thing for sure - I wouldn't change a thing - well maybe one thing - make that million dollars I never did, buy hey what are you going to do? Life is not always easy but you take it one day at a time, try to do the best you can, take chances along the way, some work out - some don't but you know if you don't try you will never know and that is what it is all about - taking chances, otherwise it is just moving from day to day and that is just boring. Live your life to the fullest every day, make mistakes - learn from those mistakes and don't be afraid to say "hey that was pretty stupid!!!". Never life your life based on what other people think, you will NEVER get any where - it is your life, try to make the right decisions, most of us know right from wrong. I spend most of my life dealing with those that didn't care if it was wrong or not and not a single one of them ever made something of their life and that is no way to live!
So I hope you join me on this adventure, I will try to keep it motivational, sometimes it will be sad, sometimes happy but always entertaining. There is a whole world out there that most of you will never see except on TV and unfortunately it is not like it is on TV. So I will try to bring some reality along with me, I hope I don't scare you off! It will be an adventure that is for sure. I have met some truly exceptional people in my life, a few famous people and even a couple of Presidents - so hang on - it could be a bumpy ride!!! One thing you will always be able to count on, it will be the truth, no matter how bad it may be - what would be the point otherwise. Now having said that - this WILL NOT be a gloom and doom blog, what would be the fun in that, but life does throw you some curves along the way and how you handle those curves determines your true character. So let's build that character together and you can decide for yourself if the ride was worth it!!!!
Jack (Tommy)Carter
www.livethegoodlife.ws
