Larry Holder's ramblings

God bless local radio

2011-03-04T13:54:00.001-08:00

Where else but Martin, Tennessee can you show up at the local radio station with a new song, and have them put it on the air within 30 minutes? I am talking, of course, about WCMT (1410 AM, 100.5 FM) owned and operated by Paul Tinkle who, along with co-DJ Chris Brinkley, bring us the "Good Times in the Morning" radio show. For several years now, they've been including songs from my first album (Til Jesus Is All) on their Sunday morning musical program, and I also stopped by one time with a new track (Lead Me to the Rock) that they played on the air.

Well, I once kidded with Chris that one day I'd write a song about the way the two would talk about anything on the radio. A few months later, the song came along, and I recorded it quickly and stopped by the studio the next morning with a freshly-burned CD-R. Sure enough, within a few minutes we were on the air introducing the new song, "Everything I Know In Life I Learned From Chris and Paul".

Since then, I've done the same with a few other songs -- "I've Died and Gone to Starbucks", "Shut Up and Drive", and "Chris and Paul Save Christmas". Also sang "There's Nothing Like the Bean!" with co-writer Jim Byford; that song has been the official theme song of the TN Soybean Festival (hosted by the city of Martin each year in early September) for about 3 years and counting. Just last Christmas, I showed up to play a few Christmas tunes (Paul also wanted to sing come carols on the air), and I finished up by playing my Christmas song, "More Than a Child".

In this day and age of pre-programmed radio controlled by the big dogs, it sure is nice to have a radio station like WCMT that is in tune to the area it serves, and has time to allow someone like me to share a new song now and then. God bless local radio!

Hunter Hayes singing one of my songs

2011-03-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

It was Thanksgiving evening 2010, and for some reason I decided to Google one of my songs, "More Than a Child", probably because Christmas was coming up. To my surprise, in addition to my own YouTube video of the song, I found one posted for a musician named Hunter Hayes. Sure enough, it was my song! Searching around a bit more, I found out that he recorded it on his Christmas album a few years earlier. I was able to get in contact with HH, and he told me how he'd learned the song as part of a Christmas musical at his middle school (around age 12 -- he is 19 now) and wanted to record it on his Christmas album. The YouTube video was from a 2008 performance in Lafayette, Louisiana (HH is from that area) at a program called Festival de Noel. Hunter is a real musical prodigy, performing once at age 4 with Hank, Jr. At this moment he is wrapping up work on his debut album for Atlantic Records in Nashville, and is fixin' to take his new songs on the road (he's also been tapped to open for part of Taylor Swift's 2011 tour, in July/August). Anyhow, it was quite an honor to find out that someone with so much writing and performing talent in their own right, is a fan of my Christmas song. If you want to see/hear his performance on YouTube, I have a link from the song's page at:
http://larryholdermusic.org/morethan.html
Enjoy the song, and keep a look out for Hunter Hayes -- he's just now getting into high gear.

Shut Up and Drive!

2010-07-23T07:48:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally put my thoughts on cell phone use and driving to music :-)
The mp3 can be found at my music website on this page:
http://larryholdermusic.org/shutupanddrive.html

[verse 1]
They're chatting in the fast lane
They're texting in the right
We're stuck on multi-tasking
Without an end in sight.

Our hands are on the wheel
But we're a thousand miles away
So busy contemplating
All the stuff we've got to say!

Shut up and drive!
Shut up and drive!
You know deep down it's really true
And I ain't talkin' jive.

I think we'd all be safer
Might even stay alive!
This world would be much better
If we'd all shut up and drive!

[verse 2]
You'll see 'em doing rolling stops
And swerving in the lane
Oblivious to what's around
Those cell phones are to blame!

And to a lone pedestrian
What a scarey sight to see:
A busy, chatting soccer mom
Turning left in an SUV!

Shut up and drive!
Shut up and drive!
You know deep down it's really true
And I ain't talkin' jive.

I think we'd all be safer
Might even stay alive!
This world would be much better
If we'd all shut up and drive!

[verse 3]
What on earth did we ever do
'Fore cell phones came our way?
How did we ever get things done
And make it through the day?

When we actually paid attention
To the things that we had planned
Instead of being captive
To that noise-box in our hand!

Shut up and drive!
Shut up and drive!
You know deep down it's really true
And I ain't talkin' jive.

I think we'd all be safer
Might even stay alive!
This world would be much better
If we'd all shut up and drive!

[verse 4]
So if you're driving past me
With that cell phone in your hand
And you see me mumbling something
That you cannot understand

Well, let me make it simple
It's not so hard to do
It's just a piece of sage advice
I'm offering to you...

Shut up and drive!
Shut up and drive!
You know deep down it's really true
And I ain't talkin' jive.

I think we'd all be safer
Might even stay alive!
This world would be much better
If we'd all shut up and drive!

Replacing the fuel filler hose in an Isuzu pickup

2009-09-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to find good info on this topic, so I wanted to share how I was able to replace the fuel filler hose on my 1991 Isuzu pickup (and for only about 30 dollars). The original hose developed a leak in the lower middle to the point that I could not fill up without quite a bit spilling, and attempts to patch it up did not help much.

I bought a 1 and a half foot section of 2 inch diameter fuel-rated hose from a local NAPA store, about 26 dollars with tax. Although it is not particularly flexible, neither is it totally rigid, so it can do a slight curve as needed. I ended up using about 14 inches of it. The diameter need was determined by borrowing calipers from the NAPA attendant and measuring the fuel intake pipe that the top of the fuel filler hose connects onto (I will refer to this as the fuel intake pipe/plate); the digital calipers showed about 1.96 inches. I also used a couple of stainless steel hose clamps (the kind you tighten with a flathead screwdriver) that I already had on-hand, in place of the original wire clamps that were difficult to open/loosen (especially the one nearest the gas tank; that one took me nearly half an hour of trying to reach and squeeze together the two ends with my slipjoint pliers).

I tested loosening the 3 screws that you find just inside the fuel intake door on the side of the truck; about halfway thru loosening they were hard to turn, so I sprayed some WD-40 on them the day before, and I also found a more substantial phillips screwdriver for taking them completely out. Note on that the nuts that they screw into are fixed to the plate of the fuel intake, so you only need a screwdriver; you don't have to hold the nuts in place while turning.

To allow room to work, I took off the rear passenger tire, after blocking the front passenger and rear driver wheels for safety. I also found having a good flashlight was helpful. Even though working outside, since there would be a few gas vapors, I set up a fan to provide a strong current of fresh air toward me at all times. I also had goggles to protect my eyes just in case.

After removing the 3 screws holding the fuel intake plate/pipe to the side of the truck, I pulled off the small vent hose connecting to it. After moving the small clamp down a ways on this small hose, I carefully used pliers to twist it a few times to loosen it enough to be able to pull it free. After this, I closed up the end of it temporarily with some electrical tape, so that gas vapors from the fuel tank would not come out of it while it was detatched. After this, I was able to move the top of the fuel filler hose downward (after pushing the part you see from the outside inward past the hole it comes thru). Of course I had to first take off the filler cap to do this. The next thing to do was to pull the top of the hose off of the fuel intake plate/pipe. It was on tight, so I took a utility knife and cut a slit into the hose for the length of the pipe underneath, about 3 inches. After pulling the fuel intake pipe/plate free, I temporarily taped the fuel intake cap to the hose top, again so that gas vapors would not come out of it during the rest of the procedure.

The next thing was to free the lower end of the hose, where it connects to the gas tank. The hardest part, as mentioned earlier, was getting hold of the two ends of the hose clamp (with the pliers) so that I could pull the clamp further up the hose and thus off of the pipe section (about 2 inches) that portrudes from the gas tank. Took me quite a few tries but thankfully succeeded. I was careful to watch out for other small hoses and such in that area, so as not to pull, nick, etc, anything else under there. Incidentally, I had only about 1/8 of a tank of fuel, but I was still careful not to do anything to create a spark, since I was still working in the vicinity of at least trace amounts of gas vapor.

Once the old hose was pulled free, I put the lower end of the new hose onto the pipe coming out of the gas tank, with the screwdriver-tightened clamp already loosely in place. I clamped it just below the end of this pipe, which again is only about 2 inches in length. Tightened the clamp as much as possible. Then I determined how much, if any, I needed to shorten the top of the hose to be long enough but not too long for connecting to the fuel intake plate/pipe. In my case, I ended up using about 14 inches of the hose, although I could have gone as much as 15 inches. I wanted at least a couple inches of upper hose on the intake pipe. I then positioned the intake pipe/plate so that I could reattach it to the intake door with the screws. I found that I was able to firmly reattach it with the two screws on the right, without the left screw; after trying to position it flush to handle all 3 screws, it seemed that it was "close enough" with just those two, and likely required less strain on the hose overall. All completed, the hose was nearly straight from lower to upper, with just the slightest of bending along the way. Not bad for replacing the original hose that was obviously custom formed with a couple of bends. After completing the main hose attachment at the lower part (gas tank) and the upper part (fuel intake pipe/plate), I also of course reattached the small vent hose that connects to the fuel intake pipe/plate. Both hose clamps tightened as much as possible. On the upper part, the hose clamp was placed about a half inch below the end of the hose, but plenty enough above where the pipe extended into it from the fuel intake.

Hope this helps someone, even without pictures to go with it. It took me about 2 and a half hours, but I'm sure it could be done in less time. Having all tools handy will save time; for example, I had to hunt around for a stubby flat-head screwdriver for tightening the lower clamp in a very small working space. Time also includes taking off and putting back on the rear tire.

Finding a good hose replacement was the main challenge up front. No salvage yard in the area had one, and neither did the closest auto parts store (Advance). The closest Isuzu dealership was far off. Googling around, I noted that NAPA might be a solution, and sure enough, that is where I got the "generic" fuel hose. I knew not to try to use anything else (radiator hose, etc) as it had to be rated for handling fuel. It was sold by the foot, and so I estimated that I needed just short of a foot and a half. 26 bucks, not bad. I thought about having a car repair shop do the actual work, but then decided that, given sufficient planning and time, I could do the job myself. Really, the hardest part of it was working in a relatively cramped space. Otherwise, it was technically not a whole lot different than changing, say, a radiator hose. I've heard of some fuel filler hoses being some sort of "hose within a hose" but at least in this case, it was a simple 2-inch hose.

Well, I'm not a mechanic or a car expert, but perhaps my experiences will be helpful to someone who ends up trying to figure out the same thing.

Hooked on Farm Town

2009-05-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

I am currently addicted to Farm Town, the Facebook app where you steadily increase and improve your virtual farm. In a little over a week's time, I'm at level 22, with an 18x18 farm, one barn, fence all around, and presently loaded with alternating crops, most recently the onions, which by careful calculation yield slightly better than the prior 3-day harvest winner, sunflowers.
My wife introduced me to the game, with no idea that I would jump into it with such reckless abandon. Funny thing is, I found out that many of my friends at the university, including several in my area (computer center) are also fanatics. We have learned to "crop swap" (a term I think I coined, meaning I'll harvest yours if you'll harvest mine... after all, that is how the farmer can get 25% additional income from the harvest, and the guest harvester also independently gets 25% of the value of the crops harvested). And thus we aid each others' addictions, comparing notes on crop yield, fence placement, types of trees, the lack of gain from farm animals, etc. And ever-increasing farm sizes means harvesting an entire farm at once can take a half hour (that doesn't count re-plowing) which has led me to stagger my crops, so that a third come in each day (replaced by a new set of 3-day harvests such as those wonderful onions). Still waiting to unlock the purchase of pumpkins, a 4-day harvest item with a pretty good sell price.
And when I have nothing more to harvest, I find myself rearranging my arbor of trees, the run of the fences, and such. And waiting for that next increase in acreage (which by my calculations I will have, like, tomorrow). And what will it be like when I reach the 24x24 size farm? Of course there are other buildings to buy, etc. And I am thinking about using part of it to design a maze using the green hedges... with all that acreage, you've gotta just have fun with some of it, and avoid the compulsion to plow every last possible square.
The social aspect is fun. I have about 16 neighbor farmers now, and it's neat to visit each farm, leave comments, etc. It's also a good exercise in planning. The rules are pretty simple, and compared to many SIM's out there, I'm sure many would find it elementary. But there it is, pulling you in like a vacuum. Alas, I am a Farm Town addict. And I am not alone!

Memphis Central High class of 1977 is alive and well

2008-11-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Our class had its 30th reunion on October 10 and 11. We'd never had one before; nope, not a 10th, 20th, nada. A few of us got together and decided to plan toward something, and we also decided to combine with the classes of 1976 and 1978 which turned out great. About 125 total attendance (about 100 plus some spouses). One of the best decisions was to have J2 Class Reunions handle the administrative stuff (collecting money, getting the venue, catering, DJ, etc) so we ourselves could enjoy the event just like everyone else. Another great feature was a 45-minute gig by the band Tahbet Wax, which was a reunion itself of a band comprised of a couple of CHS 76'ers and other bandmates. Two are currenly professional musicians, George Bradfute (of the Nashville music scene) who graduated CHS around 74, and Jon Wells, a free-lance Vegas drummer from CHS 76. Also Luther Bradfute on keyboard and guitar from CHS 76. Our reunion weekend started with the homecoming game itself on Friday night, followed by an after-game gathering at Tsunami on South Cooper (thanks to the generosity of Tim Smith, CHS 77, who runs the restaurant/bar with his brother). Saturday included a lunch (BBQ) in the CHS cafeteria, with the freedom to roam the school and see old and new features. Saturday night was the main event at Holiday Inn East on Poplar, with the full ballroom, catered dinner, cash bar, and of course music (with a DJ, except for the 45 minute band gig). The whole thing came together better than any of us could have imagined. Many friendships were reconnected, and it was just a great time to soak up the positive vibe of the evening. Over all too soon, but with enough inertia to launch reunions yet to come.

I've Died and Gone to Starbucks

2008-03-30T10:48:00.001-07:00

I love coffee, drink it all day, and decided to write a song about it. Hope you enjoy. You can find the mp3 of it at my website, at larryholdermusic.org/died_and_gone_to_starbucks.html. (In case you wonder if it's legal to use a trademark like Starbucks as a song title, yes it is, according to legal info from a reputable law practice I found on the web).

(verse 1)
I need my morning coffee
Like the flowers need the sun
Without that jolt of java
This ol' dog ain't gonna run.
My fondest dream's a coffee bean
That's roasted golden brown
So fill it to the rim, my friend
Caffeine, don't let me down!

(Chorus)
I've died and gone to Starbucks
There's latte in the air
A double mocha, venti, please
With room for cream to spare.
My spirits quickly soarin'
With another cup o' joe --
I've died and gone to Starbucks
Have mercy on my soul!

(verse 2)
I'll have a cup of Breakfast Blend
To get an early start
And then some Kona coffee
Just to keep me feelin' smart.
A cup of cappuccino
Somewhere along the way
And how about a DoubleShot
To finish up my day!

(Chorus)
I've died and gone to Starbucks
There's latte in the air
A double mocha, venti, please
With room for cream to spare.
My spirits quickly soarin'
With another cup o' joe --
I've died and gone to Starbucks
Have mercy on my soul!

(verse 3)
I know there are some folks out there
Who say it's in my head
"Give up that habit, son" they say,
"Drink caffeine-free instead!"
Well, thanks for the advice;
I think I'll keep my normal brew
Just pour the highest octane
If it's all the same to you!

(Chorus)
I've died and gone to Starbucks
There's latte in the air
A double mocha, venti, please
With room for cream to spare.
My spirits quickly soarin'
With another cup o' joe --
I've died and gone to Starbucks
Have mercy on my soul!

My early days with Wal-Mart data processing

2008-02-27T13:51:00.000-08:00

When I was in college, Wal-Mart was still a fairly small company, I'm guessing around 300 stores in perhaps a 6-state region, with only 5 warehouses (now called distribution centers) two of which were in the headquarters hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas (one attached to the general office).
I had job hunted in Houston, Texas, where my older brother once lived, and actually had a computer programming job offer from the Fluor Corporation. But during the last semester of school here at The University of Tennessee at Martin, I happened to attend a meeting of the ACM (the only meeting I ever attended, as my job as a cook at the local Shoney's ususally precluded my attendance), and the speaker was the vice president of data processing for Wal-Mart, Glenn Haburn. His talk about a large computer operation in a small town (Bentonville at the time was population 10,000) sounded appealing, so I got his business card and followed up with a letter, which got me invited to visit at their expense. I flew from Memphis to Bentonville on a small Skyways airplane (they used joke about it as "scareways"), landing in a small airport in Fayetteville. The department secretary drove me to the general office, and the route we took passed a lot of rural farmland with cows and chickens -- no sign of a metropolis in those days! This was also before the nearby company, Tyson, made it big selling chicken to MacDonalds.
I got a personal tour of the local warehouse by the directors of data processing, Frank Parker (who nearly always dressed in a cowboy shirt, and was one of the few sporting a beard, which was only allowed for data processing folks) and "John T." Williams (a former IBM-er assmebler-programming guru who hired on with Wal-Mart). Also a tour of the data processing area (it seemed like there were only around 3 dozen application programmers at the time, plus perhaps 4 systems programmers, a few operators, and an area called Data Communications that handled the transfer of data between the store computers and the general office; at that time through a telephone interface, as there was not yet satellite communication). Anyhow, we were mutually impressed with each other, and a job offer soon arrived.
I started work there on August 29, 1981. Right after graduation, I had already committed to serving as a Baptist summer missionary in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and thankfully Frank Parker ok'd me to delay my job start until that was completed. My first assignment was to the Warehousing project. Project leader was Randy Mott (who later rose thru the ranks to become vice president of Information Technology, then later hired by Dell as CIO, and then CIO of HP). A really great guy, with his famous run-together phrase "gotolunch?" and stacks of green-bar printouts of source code and reports proudly bearing his username, PROGRM. Others on the team were Wes Beckham, Tina Peltz and Gary Evenson. Wal-Mart was a "big blue" (IBM) shop, running a good-sized IBM mainframe and the VM, VSE, and MVS operating systems (the VSE stuff was migrated to MVS), and CICS was the transaction processing system, which I learned on the job. It was actually a great opportunity, because back in those days most processing was "batch", and few programmers had yet learned "online" processing. The primary language was COBOL, although the Store Network project coded in IBM 370 Assembler.
Gary Evenson and I later moved into a new project, spun off from warehousing, called Traffic and Trucking. The trucking system, written for CICS in COBOL, was based on 3 DL/I databases (IBM hierarchical databases, the big thing at the time before relational stuff like DB2 came along), one each for Drivers, Trucks, and Trailers (keep in mind that the semi truck that pulls a trailer is distinct from whatever trailer it might be pulling behind it). The traffic system, on the other hand, was for providing online data entry and processing of the stuff transported by other trucking companies. Gary was project leader. He liked to smoke (still ok in those days -- he gave me a small desk fan to blow the smoke back his direction in case it bothered me) and whose main hobby was canoeing. Gary drove an old Ford Mustang.
With my knowledge of Assembler programming, I was able to become project leader of the Store Network Host project (which was the mainframe side, complemented by the Store Network project led by Rusty White. The stores at the time had IBM Series I computers, and Rusty's group coded in a special assembler macro language that I think they developed themselves. Our side used IBM 370 Assembler, and wrote macro-level CICS (compared to command-level CICS). Other names I remember from the Store Network Host project are Rick Bowen (who helped me build a cedar fence) and Karla Poye. I remember Rick learned programming while in the Marine Corps, and was an ace Assembler programmer.
Later I became the first Training Coordinator for data processing. Prior to that, we had training material and I had been given the ad hoc responsibility of coordinating it, while still a project leader. The then-VP of data processing, Billy Martin, announced the new position at a departmental meeting.
I had developed an interest in systems programming, and so later moved from being training coordinator to systems programming for the VM and TSO project under Steve Marack. We wrote in Assembler.
During a trip to Martin, Tennessee, while talking to Dr. Otha Britton, who was my advisor at UTM and now the director of the computer center, I was made aware of a job opening for a programmer at UTM. Although I was not looking to change jobs, it sounded interesting, as my wife's family was in Martin (compared to being 8 hours away in Bentonville). After much soul-seeking and prayer, I opted to take the offer, and started there on October 1, 1987. So my total time at Wal-Mart data processing was 6 years and 1 month.
One of the "grassroots" things I did at Wal-Mart (which was later copied by many departments) was putting up a bulletin board of photos (I got a Polaroid camera for it) of everyone in the department, as we were growing enough that I could not always remember everyone's name.
Another thing I took advantage of was Wal-Mart's "open door policy" which basically meant you were free to talk to anyone in the company, without going through a chain-of-command first, at any time. I opted to talk to the president, Jack Shewmaker, and later on president David Glass, using this policy. I just went over to "executive row" and asked if they were in. Of the two, I was most impressed with David Glass for talking one-on-one; Jack Shewmaker was best at talking to larger audiences.
Wal-Mart stock was doubling and splitting every year. Sam was still around (I was in close proximity a couple of times, but can't recall if I ever actually spoke to him). We first beat top-dog K-Mart at sales per square feet, and later beat them at total sales. The first Sam's Wholesale Club opened in Oklahoma City, just 6 months after Sam said he wanted to start that up. I remember another project in data processing scrambling to retrofit some programming to support the new division, since up to that time only regular Wal-Mart stores existed (there were not any Super Centers yet, either). I also remember Wal-Mart making its first billion dollars of sales in a single year. I used to refer to K-Mart "the K word" and would not actually step into one of their stores for many years.
When I first came to Bentonville, what is now a museum was actually still a (very) small Wal-Mart store located at the court square (Bentonville had a small civil war park, and traffic went around it; county office buildings and shops surrounded it). There was also a nearby "sample store" that Wal-Mart associates (don't ever say "employee") could shop at for merchandise that was not generally sellable (perhaps, for example, a damaged box, but the contents were fine). Sort of like an internal flea market. This later moved to a much larger location. But all of this reminds me of how Wal-Mart started out very small and humble. It was a fun place to work, with a lot of good folks, including many practicing Christians (Jack Shewmaker was a member of First Baptist Church in Bentonville, where I also attended). Sam's success was in hiring good folks dedicated to seeing the company grow and succeed, and at least in the early days, there was very little turn-over. (Turnover in data processing was almost non-existent).
A point of trivia -- the first Wal-Mart is not in Bentonville, but rather in neighboring Rogers. Bentonville is store 100 (not sure if the 100th store opened, or if perhaps that number was reserved for it). You can tell the relative age of a Wal-Mart by its store number -- Martin, TN for example is 107. I remember when data processing scrambled to handle store numbers over 999 (sort of like the "Y2K" thing of handling years past 1999 when they were stored as 2 digits like 99).
One interesting thing I worked on was actually the first experimental "online" credit card approval system for Wal-Mart. I wrote something in Assembler that would take a request from a store and then communicate to the clearinghouse bank over a connection called VTAM. We tried out this home-grown programming with one of the stores. I don't recall what became of the project, but at least it was a "proof of concept". Of course nowadays this sort of thing is taken for granted, but at the time, Wal-Mart did not do "real time" approval of credit cards -- if you used a credit card for a purchase over 50 dollars, the cashier had to call over a manager who would call in for approval. This was also back when all items were individually stickered -- I also remember when UPC bar code scanning was a new thing. Another "first" for me was being the first at Wal-Mart to learn and use relational database programming (SQL for DB2). It was another proof-of-concept assignment, but I did indeed self-learn the basics of SQL (and the QMF utility).
The first IBM PC came out in 1981, the same year I started at Wal-Mart. It was interesting to see these new microcomputers, since everything up to that time was mainframe (we used 3270 terminals that were hard-wired to the mainframe through miles of coaxial cables). Outside of regular hours, I wrote a small program, in BASIC, for a local CPA to process tax returns on the IBM PC under the DOS operating system (this was a few years prior to Windows). I also attempted to port it to CP/M for another CPA who was using that instead of DOS (CP/M was an early alternative to DOS on the original IBM PC's, but it went the way of the dodo bird and betamax tapes). Speaking of betamax, I also recall the videotape standards war between them and the VCR tape everyone now uses. If you bought a betamax player, your investment soon became as useful as an 8-track player (remember those?) I did not see a Macintosh until I went to work for UTM in 1987.
When I started, Wal-Mart's stockholder meeting was still held in the local high school gym, and then Sam would have out-of-town stockholders over to his house for BBQ (not being from out of town, I never got to go to that). Later, after the HQ built a good-sized auditorium, the meeting moved there. Then later it moved to a larger facility I think at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
I visited Bentonville recently (2004) and nearly could not recognize it. The small town and neighboring area is now wall-to-wall stores, restaurants, hotels. Like taking the busy part of Paducah, KY and plopping it on top of Martin, TN (which has a similar population to the Bentonville I once knew). But no matter how big it gets, I will always remember the early years, the "fun years", when we were not the king of the hill yet, but were getting there. As long as Wal-Mart folks remember their roots, there will be good years ahead. To the associates past and present, God bless y'all.

My first blog entry

2008-02-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I was visiting another blog (good afternoon, rainramblings!) and ended up setting up a blog! More to come.