Greene Publishing, Inc.

By Emerald Greene
Publisher

I had the pleasure of attending the State Championship game this past weekend. Of course, I went to Orlando to work, covering the game for the newspapers, but a pleasure it still was.

The Madison County Cowboy football team did an outstanding job on the field.

We didn’t come home with “the” state championship title – but we have ended this 2011 season as the State Champion runners-up, which is an awesome feat that all the football players should be proud of.

Although the boys were disappointed as soon as the game was over, I hope that they can now look back and realize what an awesome job they did this year, and that being the Class 3A state championship runners-up is something to hold your head high for, and be proud of.

We, Greene Publishing, Inc., will have a special tribute in this Friday’s Madison Enterprise-Recorder in honor of the Cowboys’ awesome year. Our hopes and desires are to give the citizens of this county a full inside view of the 2011 state championship game.

Be sure to pick up a copy of this Friday’s paper and see what a great job our MCHS football players did and what an honor it is to call them “our” Cowboys.

Until then….see you around the town.

By Emerald Greene

My daughters and I went to see the movie Courageous this past weekend.  What a fantastic movie.  If you haven’t gone to see it, I highly recommend that you do.  The movie revolves around four law enforcement officers and their jobs, but dwells deeper into their Christianity and jobs/duties as a father to their children.

This movie is one of too few movies that have been released recently, as “faith-based films.” Courageous is produced by Sherwood Pictures, out of Albany, Ga, which has also produced the movies Flywheel, Facing The Giants, and Fireproof.  Fireproof became the highest-grossing independent film of 2008, with over $33,000,000.

I, for one, am tired of all “new and improved” movies of today’s times, that are filled with so much bad language and sex scenes that the plot of the movie is hard to even follow.  It is virtually impossible to find a “family friendly” movie to watch anymore.

I applaud the producers of films such as Fireproof, Courageous, Soul Surfer, The Blind Side, Letters To God and The Passion of the Christ. They are taking a stand against the evil of the world and trying to keep God in our lives, while so many others are backing down from groups such as the ACLU.

Reports and statistics show that Hollywood is beginning to see a demand for more “faith-based” films. Let’s hope and pray that this “demand” continues and that we will begin to see more and more of these movies in the theaters.

If it’s possible to bring God back into Hollywood (of all places) one should hope that our government could be our next target.  If enough Christians would grow a backbone and stand up for God, Christianity, and what this country was founded on, then we could take this country back.  We could bring back prayer in school, the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn, and law and order on our streets.

Our Founding Fathers were God-fearing men.  Somehow, we have ALLOWED that right to be taken from us. Too many political “Christians” have backed down from groups (such as the ACLU) and WE keep voting these people in office and then not holding them accountable.

A nation, which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.  — Woodrow Wilson

With the upcoming election year quickly approaching; do your homework. Search out the background and beliefs of each candidate (local government, state government, congressional government, and presidency.) Search out answers on what their beliefs are on God, Country and Government (for those three things should be in that order; not reversed.)

Matthew 7:15-16: “You will know them by their fruits.”

Don’t look at what they are telling us or promising us. Look at their track record (What have they done in the past? For, what they have done in the past is what they will do in the future.)

Take your family to see the movie Courageous and then go home and start living it. The challenge in the movie is to become a Godly father/parent.  We should all take that responsibility very personally.  For what we teach our children at home will follow them into their adulthood and for generations to come.

Christians need to stand up and become united, in our homes and in our great country.

Until then….see you around the town.

By Emerald Greene

So many times in life, we take such small incidents and we blow them up into what we believe to be such huge life-altering incidents.  There are so many things that happen to us, on a daily basis, that can either destroy us or make us stronger, depending on our attitude.

Our attitude is, honestly, over half the battle. My parents have always been such good teachers concerning that aspect of life.  Optimism was/is a way of life – not a decision. I grew up learning that the glass is always half-full (not half-empty) and if it is half-full, then I should go ahead and fill it the rest of the way up.

I tried to always let my children know, while growing up, that it was okay to get their clothes dirty. “That’s why God made washing machines,” I would tell them. (So many parents stress over their children getting dirty and messing up their clothes. My goodness, they are children, and are going to outgrow those clothes anyway.)

I never did get mad over spilt milk, or juice, for it’s just a drink and it will wipe up.

However, it took me years to grasp the fact that the house didn’t have to be totally picked up and all dishes done before resting for the night. I remember going through the house in a rampage, fussing about dirty socks on the floor and food left on the counter. Cheltsie and Brooke still tell some of their favorite “tales” of some of my temper-tantrums, in my younger years, and I am truly embarrassed by my behavior back then — not to mention, it saddens me to think of the years I wasted fretting over such small details instead of looking at the bigger picture.

I have spent the last several years of my life truly working on my attitude and how I view the “bumps” of life’s highway.  I know I haven’t gotten it down perfect, but thank God I’m not where I used to be.

One of my favorite quotes has become “Life is not what it’s supposed to be. It is what it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.”

I can now smile through most adversity, and say, “This too shall pass.” Not to say I never get upset, but I have learned to not dwell on things I am not able to do anything about.

So many times, I see people rant and rave over (truly) something so small, in the realm of life; such as a car going “too slow,” or someone saying something negative about them.  In all honesty, the car that is going “too slow” will not matter, nor be in your mind 24 hours later, so why get so upset over it?  Why let it get you in a bad mood and spoil the time you are spending with a loved one in your car at the moment?  No matter how much you rant and rave (or “flick them off”) that car is NOT going to speed up and move, just for you!  So do yourself a favor and learn to calm down and just enjoy every minute of your life.

Things that seem so tragic at times are usually not as life-altering as we think. While you might be getting upset over a flat tire that is going to make you late to work, somewhere in the world there is a father getting word that his daughter has died in a car accident.  While you might be getting upset over your five-year-old spilling red Kool-Aid on your carpet, there is a mother somewhere crying for her stillborn baby. While you might be getting mad at the coach for not letting your child play first-string, somewhere there are parents sitting in a cancer ward with their child who will never be able to play sports.

Life is short and we all need to learn that there are things that matter and things that don’t.

Things don’t matter; family and friends do matter.  When you’re lying on your deathbed, you will not ask what your balance is, in your checkbook.  When you’re dead and gone, your big house or new car will not miss you, but the memories you leave behind with your children and/or loved ones will be all that they have left of you.

When your loved one is no longer around, don’t wish you would have gone fishing with them more, or invited them to dinner more often, or called and talked on the phone one more time; learn that time is of the essence, now.

Things can be replaced; family cannot.

Go make memories – and learn to let things roll off your back more easily.  A happy life is just one good attitude away.

Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.  ~Scottish Proverb

Until then….see you around the town.

By Emerald Greene

Below is a column that was published by Frank Kaiser.  Through the years it has been misrepresented as an Andy Rooney commentary, however it was not.

For all the 40+ women out there, sit back and enjoy this column knowing it’s all true.  For all the men reading this column, read and learn.

As I grow in age, I value women who are over 40 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

An older woman will never wake you in the middle of the night to ask, “What are you thinking?” She doesn’t care what you think.

If an older woman doesn’t want to watch the game, she doesn’t sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do. And it’s usually something more interesting.

An older woman knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whom.

Few women past the age of 40 give a dang what you might think about her or what she’s doing.

Older women are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won’t hesitate to shoot you if they think they can get away with it.

Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it’s like to be unappreciated.

An older woman has the self-assurance to introduce you to her women friends. A younger woman with a man will often ignore even her best friend because she doesn’t trust the guy with other women.

An older woman couldn’t care less if you’re attracted to her friends because she knows her friends won’t betray her.

Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to an older woman. They always know.

An older woman looks good wearing bright red lipstick. This is not true of younger women or drag queens.

Once you get past a wrinkle or two, an older woman is far sexier than her younger counterpart.

Older women are forthright and honest. They’ll tell you right off you are a jerk if you are acting like one. You don’t ever have to wonder where you stand with her.

Yes, we praise older women for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it’s not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed hot woman of 40+, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year-old waitress.

So much of this column is true, I’ve learned through the years.  I’m proud to be a 40+ woman.  I am who I am – take it or leave it.  If you don’t like me, I assure you I won’t lose any sleep over it, nor will I spend all my time worrying, gossiping, or calling and  texting my friends to discuss it, much like my younger counter-parts. I left the “drama queen” segment of life back in my teens and 20’s.

For all the other women over 40 – stand tall and be proud;  living this long shows that we have survived the teenage drama scene, childbirth, potty-training, and child rearing years.  We can now help our children through their young years with so much more wisdom and knowledge, than we once had.

Now, if we could only get the men to grow up and mature as well as we have!

Until then….see you around the town.

By Emerald Greene

I figured it up and I have attended 15 years of school – kindergarten through 12th grade and two years of college, obtaining my A.A. from North Florida Junior College.  I feel like I paid my dues, and then joined the working force of America.  I’m still paying my dues (and taxes, mind you).

But sometimes I ask myself, “When do I get to QUIT going to school?”

You see, when you have children in school you never really get to quit going to school — the quizzes, the tests, the homework and the projects.  They just never quit coming.  This year I am attending the 11th grade and I am beginning to re-live college, through Cheltsie’s first year at NFCC.

Proofing English papers, calling out science terms, solving math problems and attending class meetings; and the school year has only begun. But, oh, just helping with the homework is NOTHING compared to if I had to actually TAKE/DO all of these tests and projects. I try to remind myself often that no matter how bad, or hard, it is for me to stop what I’m doing to help with that homework, that at least I’m not the one actually HAVING to do it.

The thing that tickles me the most is “You’re not going to understand it.  You can’t do it.”  This is always said when referring to math homework.  Mind you that I LOVE math and my children know that.  I’ve even heard (a few years ago), “You won’t understand it. My teacher even said you wouldn’t understand it.”  FYI, I did.

However, I am finding it harder to remember all the math equations; Algebra II and College Intermediate Algebra are the two courses “I’m” taking this year.  It’s been 24 years since I graduated high school. However, it’s been 26 years since Algebra II.  I’m doing well, however, considering the circumstances.  The problem is I need time to sit, read and remember. Given time, I can remember. But, the girls don’t seem to like waiting on me to figure it out. I have found that they prefer to just skip me and go straight to their aunt for help. This is fine with me, for she helps them understand far better than I can.

The thing I’m the best at, I guess, is proofing English papers and/or projects. My mother was an English teacher and I feel like she taught me a thing or two through the years. It really bothers me to see how many young people are not being “taught” correct grammar. I understand grammar is primarily taught in the elementary grades, but shouldn’t it be enforced throughout their high school years? I truly don’t feel that it is. I feel that more and more teachers are putting emphasis on reading books, doing projects and looking things up on the Internet, but yet these teenagers do not know the proper way to make a subject/verb agreement, don’t know the difference between “there” and “their” or “to” and “too,” and not to end a sentence with a preposition.

So, I try to read/proof most of the girls’ papers before they turn them in. Cheltsie has never minded my help in this department; in fact, she wants me to proof her papers.

Brooke, on the other hand, has always seemed to think she can do it without my help, thus the arguments begin. “I don’t need you to proof it.”  “Yes, Brooke I am going to proof it.”  Then I proof it, hand her back her paper with all the red marks, and then she has to correct it and reprint it. New day – same argument.

But this is the life of a mother.  And I would not trade this life for ANYTHING in the world.  The life of a mother is second to none.  No man will ever understand that and no mother will ever argue that.

Being young is not easy.  I think a lot of us “old” folks forget that.  We look back and know that it (being in school) is easier than working, paying bills, being in debt and raising children.  But before you laugh at your child’s problems, please take a step back and actually remember what it was like to be that age.

I remember tests, quizzes, homework, housework, after-school work, peer pressure, pimples, teachers, rules and the hormones.  Life is not so grand at 16, when you are 16.  Just remember that from time to time when dealing with your teenager.

Have you hugged your child today (and told them you loved them)?

Until then….see you around the town (or schoolyard).

We’ve all heard the stories that our parents and grandparents would tell of how hard life was when they were young; having to walk to school, having to salt-pack food because there were no freezers, having to cover meat in lard in order to keep it from spoiling, having to milk the cow every morning for fresh milk to drink and/or having to travel by mule for days to get to “market” to buy something they needed. Those stories never meant much to me when I was a kid.  In fact, it did nothing but make my parents seem even older than what I thought they already were.

But I watch today’s youth, and listen to the complaints of “how hard life is” and I just have to laugh.  At my ripe old age of “40-something,” just comparing my childhood to theirs seems insanely incomparable.

First and foremost – The majority of today’s youth do not know what a hard day of work is. The majority of them come home from school and sit on the couch and watch TV or play their electronic games all night.  The majority of them feel the world has come to an end if their parents make them get a job when they turn 16 or 18.  In our day, when we got home from school, regardless of our age, we worked.  When work was finished, THEN you went home and you did your homework.  IF there was time left over before bedtime, then you got to sit and watch TV. In my household, we either worked at the office supply store, the newspaper, the farm or were planting pine trees till dark.

We didn’t have computers. We had to write everything longhand.  We balanced our checkbooks via a paper statement, we paid our bills with a check and envelope, we did our business bookkeeping longhand on those 40-column pads, we had to handwrite school term papers or type them on a typewriter (without a delete key – we had to use correction tape and white-out).

We didn’t have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, or write a school paper, we had to go to the library and search through encyclopedias. Of course, we couldn’t just use one source, so we had to get several different encyclopedias AND look up several books on the subject, too by using the card catalog and searching through thousands of books to find that one book.

We didn’t have satellites and cable television. We had ONE channel – Channel 6.  Some of the lucky people got channels 6 and 10; and if you were really lucky, you got Channel 27 on good days (but possibly by putting aluminum foil on the rabbit ears to get it – and then you still had to watch the station through the “snow.”) If the President was on that night – he was on all three stations; and the Jerry Lewis Telethon – that made television unwatchable for 24 hours. We didn’t have 100+ channels to switch between.

Which leads in to “Where is the remote?” As children, we didn’t have a remote. If you were one of the lucky households to have two or three channels and you wanted to see something different, you GOT UP and went and changed channels yourself.

Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon didn’t exist.  We got cartoons on Saturday mornings ONLY.  We waited all week just to watch Bugs Bunny, the Roadrunner, the Smurfs, Scooby Doo and Speed Buggy.

We didn’t have email, texting, unlimited long distance or Facebook.  If we wanted to talk to somebody, we had to write them a letter – with a pen and piece of paper. Then we had to put it in the envelope, go to the post office, buy a stamp and mail it. Then it would take a week to get to them, a few days for them to write back, and a week for them to mail it back to us. If we wanted to talk to someone on the telephone, long distance, our parents would time us so that the phone call wouldn’t cost them a fortune.

We didn’t have cell phones. If we left the house, we just didn’t get to talk to any of our friends, until we came back home (and that was after school, work and homework was finished.)

We didn’t have PlayStation, Xbox or Wii. We had Atari with about two games; Asteroids and Space Invaders. No high resolution graphics, no killing other people, no digital surround sound. We shot at rocks or aliens, in black and white, and it was the same game over and over and over and over.

We didn’t have PSP’s, iPhones, Gameboys, ipads, or iPods to play with in the car, on road trips; and we sure didn’t have portable or built-in DVD players in the car to watch movies on.  We actually had to read a book, talk with the family or play games like: searching for every alphabet letter on billboards and signs, trying to find all 50 states on car tags, or playing the “I’m going on a trip” game.  When things got really boring on a long road trip we could always revert to singing “100 bottles of beer on the wall.”

We didn’t have iPods to download thousands of songs onto.  We had 45 and 33 1/3 RPM records, which we had to be very careful with as to not scratch them or we could never hear that song all the way through again. We had 8-track tapes and then cassette tapes. If we wanted to hear a particular song then we had to hit the fast forward button, click play, click fast forward, click play, click fast forward, click play…… oooppps too far…… click rewind, click play, click rewind, click play. But, the worst of it all was when your tape got “eaten” by the player. The tape would wrap around the player and we would spend 30 minutes very carefully unwinding the mess from the player and then keeping the tape straight as we would roll it back into the cassette with a pencil. If we didn’t have an 8-Track or cassette with a song we wanted then we had to call it in to the radio station and sit by the radio all day with our tape recorder, ready to mash “record” when the song finally came on; and then the DJ would usually talk during the first part of the song and ruin it.

We didn’t have the luxury of complaining about our household chores with sayings such as “I don’t want to load/unload the dishwasher.”  “I don’t want to unload the dryer”…… we didn’t have dishwashers and dryers; we actually had to wash dishes by hand and hang clothes on a clothesline.

And there was no such thing as calling HRS if our parents spanked us.  If we did wrong, we got beat for it. If we did wrong at school, then the principal beat us and when we got home we would get beat again. Discipline was actually accepted back then and was considered a good thing. The saying, “it takes a village to raise a child” was alive and well because all of our friends’ parents had permission to beat us if we did wrong at their house, also.

As I sit here, in my “mid-life” age, I might not have had to walk to school “uphill in the snow, both ways” but I think my life was pretty dang “hard” compared to what today’s youth is “suffering” through.

And if you think your kids don’t think you’re too old as it is, turn on some black and white re-runs of Andy Griffith or Lucile Ball and see what kind of looks they give you then.

Until then….see you around the town.

Emerald’s Gem Box

Emerald Greene
Publisher

There’s a country song named “Voices” that explains how he (the singer) walks around hearing voices in his mind. The voices are from his parents and grandparents and the lessons that they taught him through the years. Such as his Dad telling him to “Work that job, but don’t work your life away” and “Quit that team and you’ll be a quitter for the rest of your life.” His Mom telling him to “Drop some cash in the offering plate, on Sunday,” and to “Say a prayer, every time I lie down at night.”  His Grandma saying. “If you find the one, you better treat her right” and his Granddad saying “You can have a few, but don’t ever cross that line.”
Our voices in our heads are also commonly referred to as our conscience. I think that a conscience is created in our early years from what we are taught (or not taught). When we are having trouble making choices, then those voices in our heads are to help us guide our way through our decisions.
As we grow older we don’t have someone with us, at all times, helping us to find our way through this crazy life. It’s times like that; I appreciate those voices in my mind. Voices that my Dad and Mom instilled in me from a very young age and that still follow me around every day, and whisper in my ear.
“There’s nothing worse than a thief or a liar.” Which was often followed with, “A thief will lie and a liar will steal.”
“Always act like a lady.”
“Quitters never win and winners never quit.”
“Always look for the Silver Lining in everything.”
“Will this really matter in 10 years?”
“Whatever you do today, you will have to live with tomorrow.”
“If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.”
“You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.”
“Respect your elders.”
“Respect other people’s personal property.”
My brothers were taught to “treat a lady with respect” and I was taught that a real gentleman would show me that respect.
And “I love you.”

The word “can’t” was not allowed to be used, in our diction. For, we were taught that we COULD do anything we put our mind to. If we said “I can’t do it” then my Dad made us do it until it was done, just so he could say, “See. You CAN do it.”
And the ever-famous “It don’t rain on Harvey Greene Hill.” Which meant, rain or shine, we got up and we went to work.
Proverbs 22:6 says: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
When all is said and done – and we’re buried six foot under ground – our riches and values will be forgotten.  But, we will always be remembered for how we lived our life and how we treated others.
Until then….see you around the town.