GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE FOR Wednesday, March 04, 2026

We are at the half-way point for the week, should we continue, or turn around and go back? Oh, before I forget, please go to the "Featured" section of Georgia Folk and Farm Life, find my post, "Miracle On US80," read it and give some feedback on it please. I don't know why, but last night the subject of prunes came to mind. I have not eaten prunes since 1966.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, nasty, disgusting prunes.

This is not a complaint, I could go another sixty years without them, or I could eat some tomorrow, it's not like they are asparagus or beets, you know, like "HOG FEED!" If prunes were a lil bit nastier, unpleasant to see, and unable to make music, they would be the Conway Twitty of dead, stewed, wrinkled, laxatively-inclined (I just now made the word "laxatively" up) fruit, now don't try to do this at home, as I am what they call a "perfeshonal." I wanted to tell you a story about our late, beloved Donald Atkinson, but I think I might have posted already recently and just forgot that I did. I will tell it here, and if you have heard it before, it won't hurt for you to do so again. I suppose most of you know that Donald was a member of the "pecan" Atkinsons, who were synonymous with pecans and pecan candies and products here in Garfield for many decades. Like many members of that family, he was an alcoholic, and a larger than life character. Many years ago, The Lord delivered Donald from "evil," in his case it was drinking, but God lifted him from that life of despair, and set him upon a path of servitude for others. He and JoAnna opened New Beginnings in Christ, their men's Christian drug recovery home known as, "NBIC," here in Garfield. I never knew a man who had more faith in God, in a real way than did Donald.

In fact he is almost impossible to talk about to those who did not know him, and I say that about no other man. Donald was in the pecan orchard maintenance business, was a large scale grower of pecans, he had a large farming operation, and he bought and sold trucks, automobiles, farm equipment and more at auctions. He enjoyed auctions, and was a shrewd buyer and seller. He bought equipment and vehicles at online auctions as long as it was not too far away. For a while Donald bought Ford Ranger pickups as often as he could find them at a bargain price, he just had good experiences selling them easily, and making money on them. He bought a white Ranger pickup online from the Washington County Board of Education's maintenance department, that an employee hit a deer with. He and I went to get it in Sandersville, I drove because Donald always asked me to drive, while he was in deep thought. Donald was thinking all of the time, and sometimes it was hard to bring him back around to being conscious of what was going on around him.

Donald Atkinson...

Donald's mind was always running, and running fast. Now, the plan was to drive the Ranger truck he bought, back to Garfield. He had a rollback that I ran for him, but this time he said no, we would not take it, because we would drive the pickup back. I had not looked at the pickup online nor seen its condition described. I still smoked then, and when we got there Donald got out with his checkbook to go pay for the Ranger, while I stayed outside smoking. After smoking my cigarette, I walked over to where the pickup sat, to see how damaged it was. I looked at the front end, then raised the hood and looked under there, and saw that the fan had gone all of the way through the radiator, and there was other substantial damage to components on the front of the motor. I ambled back over to the admin building, went inside to join Donald who had finished and was headed out to join me. As we were about to step outside, I said, "we are not going to be able to drive that truck home, the fan has taken out the radiator, and it's all messed up." Donald asked quietly, "you opened the hood?" I said, "yes I did." Donald said, "I wish you hadn't done that, I was going to pray over it." There was no anger in Donald, he was just disappointed that I had looked at the damage before he had placed his hands on it and prayed. Some of you will laugh and say that was silly. I won't, because I saw many miraculous things that occurred when Donald prayed. Could you have Faith enough to be as confident in your prayers, as he was? I wish you could have known him.

8They loved God, family, and horses,

Thank you for the honor of being your servant, and may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Numbers 6: 24-26, KJV

we boyz three, babee conway, lil merle, & me