Saturday, November 14, 2009

Best-Ever November Day

Today was a November day that will go down as one of the best.

In summary:
-Lucy's last soccer game
-Battle Academy's first festival with fun and games
-Mocs last home football game
-Moving halftime tribute to our military
-Mocs win in a dramatic comeback
-A marriage proposal that capped off a great win
-Playing on the field after the game
-Food, drinks and fun at The Terminal
-Being with family and friends throughout the day

It started off earlier in the week looking at the weather forecast - sunny and 70 degrees on Saturday November 14. I knew then that with everything we had planned and hoped for, it was gonna be a great day.

It started off waking up in bed with my son and my daughter looking at me, waking me. I began the day thinking about my Mocs. Could we get our 6th win? Was today, as beautiful as it was, going to be that day where we really do turn a corner?

We hurried around taking showers and getting dressed for Lucy's last soccer game of the Fall season.


Lucy started the season shy but opened up as her first organized sporting experience carried on. Her coach, Cleveland Grimes, of the North River Soccer Association made it a very positive experience. Lucy's Nana and Papa were also at today's game and got to see her score a goal and receive her first trophy!

High-tailing it home, we changed clothes and headed out to Battle Academy for the first Battle Grounds Festival. Battle Academy, on Main Street in the Southside, continues to be a great school and is doing great things in the community. We are happy that Rigby is in first grade there.

The festival featured a medieval theme, with people in period attire and fun and games from a time long ago. There were also modern games and a couple dozen local artists selling their passions. Two of our favorites, Beth Gumnick and Steve Swayne were there to support the cause.

As the clock neared 1 p.m., we drove down to Finley Stadium, where our Chattanooga Mocs were taking on The Citadel in the last home game of the year. This was not an ordinary game, it was a game where we could really live our theme of "Restore the Glory" with earning a 6th victory for the year and having a winning record.

We spent an hour in the Stadium Club with our dear Copes before the 2 p.m. kickoff. A great crowd was on hand, only to see our Mocs fall behind 21-0 before the Mocs kicked a field goal to make it 21-3 at halftime. I felt depleted.

Rigby, meanwhile, was having an absolute blast running around with one of oldest friends, Aidan, his brother Wyatt and cousin Gavin. They ran all around the stadium doing what kids do. Aunt Tobi-o-Wan was at the game with us and the Hamakers joined us as well.

The halftime show honored each branch of the military while the UTC band played each branch's song. As the color guard from each branch walked out on the field, veterans and active duty stood in the crowd. There was a 21-gun salute, Taps was played and bagpipes played Amazing Grace. That alone was worth being at the game.

After a joyful, yet rather somber halftime, the Mocs took the field. The Mocs made it 21-6 then 21-13 but gave up a touchdown and Citadel was up 28-13. Many fans started leaving. For some reason, we just felt like this year's Mocs were different and that there was still life in them.

The Mocs scored a touchdown and got the 2-point conversion to make it 28-21. And what do you know? The Mocs went for an onside kick and recovered the ball! The Mocs drove down the field but stalled, and settled for field goal to make it 28-24.

And then after a game of porous defense, the Mocs held and Citadel punted. A Mocs punt return for 53 yards to The Citadel 9 yard line happened, but I had to read about it because I was jumping up and down and hugging people.

There we were, down 28-24 and it was all of a sudden 4th down on the Citadel one yard line. Ah, but the old reliable BJ Coleman to Blue Cooper pass play into the endzone gave the Mocs the lead with four minutes to go and the extra point got us to 31-28. The Mocs defense held strong for the remainder of the game and our boys earned their 6th win of the year!

After the game, we all went down on the field. My family, Steve Hamaker and son Foy, the Copes, D. Smo, Alan and Scott Cooper clans all running around throwing football.

Meanwhile, a video montage of Blue Cooper and his girlfriend appeared on the video board. Turns out that Cooper, who caught 14 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns, was using this to propose to Maci Gault, teammate Jare's sister. What a bonus for the crowd that stayed!!

After taking pictures and throwing our arms ragged, everyone finally left Finley. The sun was setting on one of the more memorable games ever held in the stadium's 12-year existence.



We headed to The Terminal Brewhouse with Steve, Foy and Tobi. When we arrived and chose to eat outside on the green roof, we were delighted to see Eva and Lori Hairrell and other friends who were enjoying a Saturday evening. Eva has been Rigby's "girlfriend" since they were 12 weeks old.

Family, friends, pizza, beer and good times closed the evening for us all.

So if I was to write about a perfect day, this was one of those days. Thank God for the life we have been given.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Boathouse apology attempt

A little more proof, if you needed it, that The Boathouse Restaurant's owner sent the original and now infamous emails. Make of this what you will. And kudos to local restaurants for capitalizing on the demise of the Boathouse.



From: lawton Haygood [mailto:lawton@boathousechattanooga.com]
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 8:15 AM
To: xxxxxx
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

Mr. xxxxx ,

I want to apologize for my recent comments to you.

Let me first explain why I was upset with you and possibly you might partially see what surrounded my very poor thinking and insensitive statement. The staff took a few minutes to seat you and I know that upset you which I did not understand. Since your infant was in a car seat, the manager wanted to be certain you were seated at a table with seats safe and secure for the car seat and the 3 year old. Additionally, I felt like you should have respected our right to establish our policy on bringing foods from another restaurant, whatever our reasons were and at least called and asked. It was my understanding that the manager tried to explain there were reasons for the policy beyond the health code. I got upset that you continued your arguments four days later and made disparaging remarks about my managers, who I believed had made their best effort to provide menu recommendations for your child. They handle that sort of request several times each day. It appeared you would not settle for anything less than the McDonalds food you brought for your child. In my state of irritation with you and in moment of personal weakness, I made a very insulting comment which reflected on your parenting. I did not mean for it to come out that way but it did. I had no right to make any assumptions about how you perform your duties as a parent and for that unfortunate response, I sincerely apologize.

You are correct on the Tennessee health code and I am sure it irritated you to find what she had told you, about the code, was incorrect regarding the McDonalds food. However, I do not believe the manager would tell you something if she did not believe it to be true. She, like me and most senior managers in the country, have had the understanding it was a code violation in all states. Most states, including Georgia, have restrictions on all food products brought from unlicensed purveyors. The reason being, if there is a health issue at a restaurant, they want to be able to trace back all the possible sources of the illness.

Most independent restaurants have a policy against bringing food from other restaurants , which go well beyond the health code issue. For example, we cannot tell one customer his is food is ok to bring and the next is not. Hopefully, you will appreciate the possible discrimination problems that could be involved. Certainly, within reason, we work with people who have special needs… serious dietary problems and with infant’s baby food, to name a few. But, we believe we must continue our policy on restricting foods from other restaurants.

It bothers me a great deal that I let this happen and how it insulted you, regardless of my opinion at the time. Obviously, I should have given a more generous response to begin with instead of my very insulting remark. I have no defense for what I said to you, but would like to say, this is not my normal reaction to a customer complaint. I treasure my customers and work hard as I can to please them. Hopefully, our products reflect that attitude. I hope somehow you and your family will find it in your heart to forgive me for my terribly insulting comment.

Sincerely,

Lawton Haygood

Friday, June 26, 2009

The Demise of Boathouse Rotisserie & Raw Bar

The following email chain spread like wildfire today across Chattanooga. If Lawton Haygood, the General Partner of the Boathouse Rotisserie & Raw Bar, is this type of man, then I will not step foot near his establishment.


EMAIL 1

From: name removed
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:08 PM
To: mail@boathousechattanooga.com
Subject: Restaurant Experience

To whom it may concern.

I wanted to inform you an incredibly unsatisfactorily experience I had with your restaurant. On Saturday June 20, I attempted to take my father to the Boathouse for a Father's Day dinner along with my wife, my 3 year old and my 1 month old daughter. My Father was in from out of state and I wanted to bring him to a dinner he would enjoy as he loves seafood. In order to make the experience enjoyable for everyone, we stopped at McDonalds prior to arriving at the restaurant in order to get my daughter some food that she would be willing to eat. My daughter can be a particularly picky eater at times and we wanted to make sure that she would be happy and there would be something she would be willing to eat.

When I arrived at the restaurant, it was noticeably not crowded yet I had to wait for almost 10 minutes while the multiple hostesses tried to determine where I could be seated. Keep in mind that it was probably close to 100 degrees out and that I have a one month old child. I finally was brought to my seat after this wait and was in the process of being seated, when a female employee whom I might assume was the manager came over to me and informed me that would could not bring me daughters food into the restaurant as it was against the "Health Code" for such to be done. I attempted to explain the situation to her and was basically put on deaf ears and repeatedly told that it was a health code issue and that my only choice was to leave and go elsewhere. I was never offered any sort of other alternative. So therefore despite the fact that I went out of my way to go to your restaurant, I had to then load 2 kids back into the car in the 100 degree heat and drive to another restaurant.

After this experience, I contacted the State of Tennessee to see if this was in fact a violation and received the following email back:

-----Original Message-----
From: Lori LeMaster
To: name removed
Sent: Thu, Jun 25, 2009 11:38 am
Subject: Re: Question

name removed
It is not a violation of the food service establishment rules & regulations to bring food into a restaurant from another restaurant. However, some restaurants choose to implement their own policies restricting foods from other establishments.

Thank you,

>> 6/21/2009 7:17 PM
Can you tell me if you are allowed by the health code to bring food into another restaurant. For example, can I bring in McDonalds prepared food into another restaurant if it is still packaged or is it a health Violation?

Thank You
name removed <<

Lori LeMaster
Environmental Health Program Manager
Tn Department of Health
General Environmental Health
425 5th Avenue North, 3rd floor
Nashville, TN 37247


As you can, See what I was told by your Employee was completely incorrect that it was an issue with the "Health Code" and may have only been a policy of your restaurant. If this is the case, it should have been explained to me as such, and I would think that any reasonable person would be willing to work with a customer in this regard. I had thought that the Boathouse and it partner restaurants were family friendly type establishments and would understand how difficult it can be at times to have children, but apparently, I misunderstood and it is your desire not to have customers with children.

Based on this treatment, I have elected not to continue to eat at any of your establishments and will be sure to also relay my experience to others, especially those with children. I also wanted to make sure that you understood that you have employees that are using the health code to enforce rules of your establishment that are not part of the health code.

I would appreciate this if this could be shared with the Owners/Manager in Charge or your establishment so he is aware of this experience and hopefully no future customers are treated as poorly as I was.

Have a pleasant Day.

name removed


EMAIL 2 - HERE'S THE SHOCK

From: lawton Haygood [mailto:lawton@boathousechattanooga.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:34 PM
To: name removed
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

name removed

You really should check with your Pediatrician, concerning a 3 year old having that much control over her nutritional program.

Lawton Haygood
General Partner
Boathouse


EMAIL 3

From: name removed
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:41 PM
To: lawton Haygood
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

Wow, Thanks for the caring response. I am in awe that someone who is the General Partner of a restaurant would be that smart assed to a customer. My daughter is not in control of her nutritional program by any means, I was just trying to let her have a treat and have something that she wanted to eat that evening and in turn let us have a pleasant night out as a family. I apologize that my family is that much of a burden to you and your company. I thought it would be important to get some feedback from a customer's experience, but apparently, it is not something that you care too much about.

name removed


EMAIL 4 - AND THE NEXT SHOCKER

From: lawton Haygood [mailto:lawton@boathousechattanooga.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:52 PM
To: name removed
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

You go to McDonalds to get a happy meal, then to a restaurant, then back in a hot car and go to another restaurant, but the 3 year old is not in charge? You need to really think about that.


EMAIL 5

From: name removed
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:57 PM
To: 'lawton Haygood'
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

Thanks for the parenting advice. You are unbelievable and I will be sure to share this level of caring that you display with as much people as possible. I quickly drove through a drive through while my baby slept and got my daughter some food. It is pretty rude of you to insinuate that I was a bad parent for doing this, but based on the consistent response you and your co-workers care to display, I can see that it is more of a practice. I wish that I was as perfect a parent as you must have been. Perhaps if I only checked with you, prior to coming to the restaurant, I could have been better.

name removed

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Thoughts of Will Riley

Nine-month-old Will Riley sat in the lap of family members on the front row in Cathedral of Christ the King. It was a beautiful, sunny March Tuesday afternoon in Lexington, Kentucky.

The priest conducted the Mass memorial service. The cathedral was filled with the songs and prayers of those mourning and celebrating eternal life.

After the Eucharist and Communion, family members spoke of fond memories of a young life cut short. Near the end of the two hour service, the Sigma Chi White Rose ceremony was conducted by current Sigma Chi Grand Consul Bob Jones, with remarks given by past Grand Consul Dick Hester.

As Brother Hester's remarks came to a close, more than 300 Sigma Chi brothers in attendance slowly began to stand. They formed a procession that soon lined the walls of the cathedral, each brother holding a single white rose.

Each brother, one-by-one, walked by the family, consoling and comforting. Will's mother, Kate, stood strong and hugged each brother as they passed. And then, each brother released his white rose in front of her.

Will, pacifier in mouth, just stared at the people around him. He did not know. How could he? Or did he?

As I approached the family, I leaned toward Will, and grasped his small hand - his gentle touch on my index finger washed over me. Kate looked on, and my emotions released.

I turned around with my white rose and leaned toward the urn that contained the remains of Will's father, Christopher Todd Riley. More than 100 white roses already surrounded the urn. My hands hugged the urn; my wedding ring produced a small metallic sound on the lid as I whispered, "I love you, buddy." A sense of calm and isolation came over me, but as I looked back into the cathedral I realized that hundreds more felt what I felt.

More than 200 brothers followed. The procession of Sigma Chis in that great cathedral was one of the more spiritual experiences I have ever had.

As the service came to a close, I shook hands with brothers from Denver, from Orlando, from Chicago and everywhere in between. Todd was truly loved and admired by many. One would have thought Todd was 70-years-old with the following that was there, but alas, Todd left this earth at the young age of 33. A life cut short, but done so at the calling of God.

Will, you won't know your father physically, but the memories provided that day and the people in attendance will certainly provide you with the everlasting love that Todd gave to you while on this earth.

Will, your father loved you so much. I was with him a couple weeks ago at Tennessee Tech and the first thing he spoke of was you and Kate. I have a text message on my phone from him that Saturday, February 21, telling me he was "on campus now."

Will, many of us have promised to be by your side when you go to college and pledge Sigma Chi, somewhere around 2027. Until then and forever more, you have a lot of uncles by your side.

Will, your dad was a man of good character, he possessed good morals and had a high sense of honor. He fought the good fight. He wore the White Cross of Sigma Chi worthily through life. I was honored to know him, to be his friend, to be his brother.

Rest in peace, Todd.

All honor to his name.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Aileen Martin Gray

My last grandparent, Aileen Martin Gray, passed away Saturday, February 28. She was 89. She spent March 1, her 67th wedding anniversary, in heaven with Astor Holmes Gray, Jr. Rest in peace, Pap and Grandmother, you are together again!

Obituary

Mrs. Aileen Martin Gray, 89, of Peachland, died Saturday, February 28, 2009, in the Prattville Baptist Hospital, Prattville, Ala.

Funeral services will be 2:00 p.m. Wednesday in Peachland Baptist Church with Rev. Larry Allen and Rev. Charles Cauthen officiating. Interment will follow in Peachland Cemetery. The family will greet friends at Leavitt Funeral Home on Tuesday from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Mrs. Gray was born in Anson County on May 31, 1919, a daughter of the late Fannie Lee Hyatt and Jasper Lee Martin Sr. She was married to the late Holmes Gray Jr. She was a longtime resident of Peachland, recently moving to Millbrook, Ala., to be closer to her son.

Survivors include one son, Holmes (Sandi) Gray III of Millbrook, Ala.; five grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; half-brothers and sisters, James “Jim” Martin and Nancy Lovett, both of Wadesboro, Lillian Carpenter of Polkton, and Elizabeth Horne of Peachland.

Mrs. Gray was preceded in death by three brothers, William Thomas Martin, Hendley Martin and Hubert Martin; and three half-brothers, Jasper Martin Jr., Guy Martin, and Nelson Martin.

Memorials may be made to Peachland Baptist Church, P.O. Box 146, Peachland, N.C., 28133. Leavitt Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be made at leavittfuneralhomewadesboro.com.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

A win thanks to 237


As Super Bowl XLIII was winding down, I could not help but wonder where the Steelers defense had gone. Larry Fitzgerald wondered that too as he ran straight down the center of the field for a touchdown, giving the Cardinals the lead.

Ah, but when the Cardinals took the lead, there were two minutes and 37 seconds left on the clock. That's 2:37. For those who know me well, a lucky number of mine is 237. I sat on the couch just thinking, this is it - the Steelers are going to come back and win this thing.

For the love of The Ohio State University (Santonio Holmes) and Miami Ohio (Ben Roethlisberger), the Steelers drove down the field, scored a touchdown and captured their sixth Super Bowl championship.

Big thanks to 237!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Son and nephew

I had the pleasure of taking Rigby and my nephew, Connor, to the Mocs vs. Georgia Southern basketball game tonight. Connor was visiting Chattanooga for the weekend - he lives in Knoxville.

Upon picking Connor up, I turned off the radio and listened to the conversation in the back seat. They talked about movies, games and friends at school. I did not think much of it and just drove on to the arena.

We got to the arena just in time for tip-off. Those two boys practically sat in their seats the entire game, except for going to get 32-ounce cokes and a tub of popcorn, as well as trips to the restroom.

As a big Mocs fan, I take much pride in how Rigby is starting to grasp basketball and cheer on the Mocs. He was yelling for plays to be made, cheering when we scored, attentively watched the scoreboard and pumped his fist just like his daddy does.

Connor followed right along, following Rigby's lead and danced to almost every Mocs pep band song. Throughout the game, they urged for the Big River blimp to fly over them and drop the coupons - it never made it over us.

The second half was full of action on the court. At the beginning of the half, I placed my trust in the boys and went to the concourse to get them ice cream. As I made it back my section, they were in their seats, cheering on the Mocs - it was a good feeling to take a little risk and know they were okay, but noting that I had some friends watching over in the row behind.

The Mocs scored 100 points and the boys were very excited about our win. After the game, I took them down to the court and they ran around playing a game involving throwing their hats in the air and swinging at each other - no harm no foul I guess.

We made the leisurely walk back to the car and then headed back to the Oglesby Ranch in East Ridge, where pizza and family awaited.

The radio was still off, and that is when I realized what I did not think about when I was driving to the game - how special that moment was. Here were two little boys in the back seat, talking about their favorite movies, talking about favorite movie quotes and scenes, barely getting a breath in between. One of these boys I helped make, the other one I held in my arms soon after he was born. I have known both of these boys since their life on earth began and have watched them grow into smart, energetic and caring beings.

For a thoughtful moment I pictured them 70 years later, talking about who knows what. What a great day.

~ ~ ~

P.S. Here it is midnight. I am finishing this entry at the keys of my MacBook Pro and Rigby is sitting by my side, blowing torches out on the Indiana Jones Lego game for the Nintendo DS.