Best Advice

“Life gets better the older you get.” – To me, this is very true.  I feel sorry for those that believe that the years spent in high school are the best years of your life.  To me, they were not…by far.  Some like the college years.  That was a pretty fun decade for me I guess.  I’m 36 now, and although I’m tired most of the time, I’ve never been happier in my life.  I have a nice house, a decent car, a great wife, 2 kids (soon to be 3 kids), a fantastic job, a very nice stable of instruments (that I don’t play often enough), and I have a good relationship with my family.  Granted, life isn’t without its bumps, but overall things are pretty darn good right now.

“Get a good education and get a good job.” – I did, and I did.

Quick story:  The summer I graduated high school, I got a job working at North Myrtle Beach for the summer.  The night before I left, my dad sat me down and we figured out the route.  I don’t know how it is now, but 18 years ago (yikes! 18 years ago?!?), there was really no direct route to North Myrtle.  During that time, you had to go through all of these little towns and make lots of twists and turns and eventually you would end up there, but it wasn’t a straight shot.  Anyways, dad told me, “When you get lost, and you WILL get lost, don’t get upset.  Stop at a fast food restaurant, take your map with you (pre GPS days), get a glass of tea, and sit down.  Wait until you see an old grey-headed man sit down and start eating.  Go over to him and say something like, ‘Excuse me sir, but I have a quick question.  Can you tell me exactly where I am on this map?’  You should be able to find your way from there.”  No problem.

Sure enough, about 3 or so hours into my 6-hour road trip, I get lost and end up somewhere in the armpit of Southern NC or Northern SC.  I don’t remember exactly where I was, but I remember there being a Burger King there, so I did as my dad had told me to do.  I went in, sat down with my map and my tea, and waited.  I happened to have driven down on Sunday, and it was just after church, so there were plenty of folks there.  Off to the side, there was an old grey headed man sitting by himself so this is who I approached.  I walked up to his little table, and as I spoke I unfolded my map and put it on his table: “Excuse me sir.  I think I got a little off course, and I’m trying to get back on my way.  Can you tell me exactly where I am on this map?”  Not even looking at the map, he looks at me square in the eye and says, “Son, I can’t tell you anything – I’m from Chesterfield.”  He then returned to eating.

I still have no idea what this means, but I’ll always remember it.  I eventually made it to North Myrtle, but I’ll always remember my first trip down there.  It’s really great when I actually run into people from Chesterfield, SC.  For some reason, they seem to understand.

In closing, I just wanted to say “Love you dad!” here on Father’s day.  And to all of those dads out there, happy Father’s Day to you all too!  I hope it’s a great one.

Here are the directions to North Myrtle from Wilkes. Looks like it's still not a straight shot.