Novemember 27

The leftover turkey is disappearing slowly from the refrigerator or "Frigidaire" as my grandmother referred to any refrigerator brand. That last slither of sweet potato pie was scarfed up last evening in celebration or as consolation from the Alabama-Auburn game. This is the weekend many of you will put up a Christmas tree and decorate the house to get into the spirit of the season. It is a time of joy and goodwill towards all men except that brother in law that still owes you $50 from last Christmas. 24 days from now is the beginning of winter, Christmas is less than a month out and the air is getting cool and crisp. I am planning on building a fire in my Big Lots fake fireplace I bought last winter. It gives the house a certain ambiance that reminds you of an unaffordable chalet in Pigeon Forge. Merchants seem to be optimistic that this season will be a good one. Most folks surveyed say that they are tired of not spending and ready to take the cuffs off and reach for the pocketbook between now and Christmas. There are all kinds of deals on electronics this year like flat screen televisions and home entertainment systems. Have you all seen the fastest selling electronic gizmo of all time? The iPad has revolutionized communication, information and entertainment. Many feel that the iPad is to this generation what television was to the baby boom generation. It is amazing what the iPad can do. You can email, play games, listen to music or watch movies on it. It has a series of applications like buying books. I bought the autobiography of Mark Twain a week ago and paid ten dollars for it instead of forty dollars at the bookstores. George W. Bush's book was half price of what it was selling for in the brick and mortar stores. I was able to download the Holy Bible for about a dollar. I also can check on my Facebook friends on the iPad. I found out about the Disney movie on the legendary race horse Secretariat from Sue Muse via Facebook. More and more people are having digital reunions with long lost friends and relatives because of the creation Facebook that is just over five years old. The creators of Facebook are now trying to make emailing go the way of the horse and buggy by combining texting, emailing, and other forms of social media for us to communicate. Do you remember your first cell phone? Mine was a Motorola and was in a bag that weighed about 10 pounds. The Blackberry, iPhone, and the other smart phones can make photographs, video, work as a GPS, text, and access the Internet. Oh, and you can make telephone calls with them too. Are any of you pondering dropping your home phone because you hardly use it? The home telephone might ring 10 times during the week and it is usually someone wanting me to sell me "never paint again" vinyl siding or wanting me to donate to homeless Hooter's girls. I just wish my grandmother had lived long enough to have seen the innovations in the way we communicate these days. My grandmother saw the early days of the telephone, radio, and television. She never saw a lap top computer,fax machines, mobile phone, dvd, compact discs, mp3 players, or satellite television and radio. When she'd talk on the Bell South telephone she thought you had to talk louder when you were on a long distance call. "We can't talk long, you know this is long distance," she shout into the phone talking to my Aunt Leslie in Miami. Do you remember when we had just four digits to dial on the old rotary phones? When Tallapoosa got 574 as a prefix was a big deal back in the 60's. How many of you recall when it was a long distance call to Bowdon, Carrollton, Cedartown, and Heflin? I got to thinking that at one time we had taxi cabs in Tallapoosa. What ever happened to that business in our town? Has everyone in town been issued a car? Tallapoosa never had a Toys R Us, but we did have a Western Auto that had Christmas toys displayed all over the store just a couple of doors from Essie Mae's. I remember the Tallapoosa Christmas parades and the lighting of the town's Christmas lights and the tree outside of city hall. It also was the annual appearance of that jolly fellow who's belly shook when he laughed. Yes, my Uncle Ty "Fat" Meunier always loved the holidays. A week ago last Thursday I made my first visit to Tuscaloosa and to the University of Alabama. The Tide squeaked by Georgia State by 56 points. I worked for the flagship station for Auburn football for 7 years but my heart has always been with the Crimson Tide. I bought a hound's tooth patterned tie from a vendor outside Bryant-Denny Stadium. The memory of the Bear is everywhere. Meeting Coach Bryant in 1981 was something I'll never forget. If you have never visited the Paul W. Bryant Museum, you need to do so. There is a film exhibit voiced by a Haralson County boy, the incomparable Keith Jackson who's mother Polly Bragg owned the Merle Norman cosmetic studio in Bremen for many years.Keith Jackson was the original play by play voice of Monday Night Football for ABC Sports and a lot of folks miss him announcing college football games from the Big House in Ann Arbor, the Los Angeles Coliseum, and Legion Field in Birmingham. We long to hear Keith Jackson's enthusiastic cries of "FUMBULLLLLLLLLL!" and "Woah Boyyyy!" during great gridiron contests of years gone by. A good one is coming up later today with Georgia and Georgia Tech, both teams not having the kind of seasons their fans wanted but it still should be a good game. The Atlanta Falcons seem to be on the verge of locking up another winning season.