Rick Patrick: Greene Publishing, Inc.
This morning I drove into Madison, something that I have done literally hundreds, if not thousands of times. I have driven into Madison from Valdosta (such was the case this morning) and from Perry while I was a student at North Florida Junior College and later for many evening rehearsals for drama productions. What made the trip into Madison so different this morning is that this morning, I stopped. The trip this morning had a feeling of bringing me home again.
The writer and novelist Thomas Wolf once said “You can never go home again.” I guess there's some truth to that. None of us have a time machine that can be used to relive our youth. I wonder if we would, or should, use one, even if we could. With that being said, I am excited to be back on familiar ground here in Madison.
In my Junior year at Taylor County High School, my English teacher, Gwen Faulkner (yes, the same Gwen Faulkner who taught and directed many drama productions at NFJC) told us, “In this class you will do four things. You will write, you will write, then you will write, and finally (yes, you guessed it) you will write some more.” And during that year, write we did. We wrote everything from term papers to instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. During that year, I discovered that I have a love for the written word. It is my hope and prayer that my words here will enlighten, inform, entertain, and inspire.
With the spirits of not only Gwen Faulkner, but also of Mama Patrick and Papa, Mama Mae and Daddy Jim, Aunt Mary Ann, Aunt Belle, and many others looking over my shoulder I can tell their stories. The stories of one of us becomes part of the stories of all of us. I look forward to telling those stories.