The CNN special 1968 is worth watching. Why? History matters. It always has. 1968, fifty years ago, resonates today through the resulting cultural and social changes of that year. That year changed our country and influenced many of us who lived through it. In 1968, I turned 16. Social changes rocked the country. Integration was now the… Read more »
What’s in a Name?
Most of us have several names, other than the ones we are given at birth. Throughout our lives, people give us names of affection, nicknames or abbreviations, diminutives and more. What do all of our multiple names mean? What messages do they convey to others and to us? I think they tell a lifetime of… Read more »
Earth Day…every day
4/2/2018 First celebrated 48 years ago, Earth Day is an annual event held on April 22. “On April 22,1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting… Read more »
600 Miles
“Nine o’clock the next day and I’m ready to go. I’ve got 600 miles to ride to do one more show.” Those lyrics from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s What’s Your Name paint a picture of a raucous band going from city to city performing by night and traveling by day, sometimes on 600-mile journeys to the next evening’s show.… Read more »
The Month of Love
2/15/2018 As a child, I loved Valentine’s Day. I loved making however many cards for my entire (whichever grade) class. I loved my pink or red Valentine’s Day shirt from Old Navy and heart-shaped earrings and put them on proudly to wear to school on February 14. The whole day was fun- getting all the… Read more »
Whoops…
1/28/2018 Well, I guess I’ll start something new here. I had my blog on emilymhedrick.com/journal …but the domain expires tomorrow (and I don’t want to pay again this year to keep up my awesome website that no one looks at & needs updated). So I tried to change the URL on my WordPress…but I put… Read more »
What I’ve Learned!
I’ve learned that:Mornings are beautiful! Life is good. The Future is now. I’ve learned that:Life is complicated! Ignorance is not bliss. Change is messy but necessary. I’ve learned that:The grass is green right where it is. Love feels best when you give it to someone. It’s great to live life as a free agent. The back roads of life are as exciting… Read more »
Principal’s Office
“Joyce, please report to Mother Superior” (my name was still legally capitalized then). It was April 1971 and I was in the eighth grade getting ready to graduate. My first thought was, Who told? and my second thought was, How much did they tell? (laughing) I was always getting others to do daring or sometimes, slightly dangerous things with… Read more »
I’ve Got Something To Say!
In the 11th grade, Miss Hilda Horn, my speech teacher, asked us to prepare a speech for presentation for the next day’s class. When giving out the assignment, she specifically stared at me in my seat in the back of the classroom. Why was I in a speech class in the first place? Someone told me… Read more »
Yesteryear
(As published on westernjournalism.com, Sept. 28, 2017) I saw him last spring in Montgomery, Alabama. I was there to speak to a Leadership Montgomery group. As I looked out over the crowd, he sat there, grinning. Grinning at me! Grinning as if he had a secret no one else in the room knew. As it… Read more »