Kay Harms

I’m Turning 50! and 50 Golden Memories that Define Me

So
I’m turning fifty this year. The big day is fast approaching, in fact. I have
spent most of my 49th year dreading this birthday.
 I
never thought I’d be one to dread the golden birthday so much. But, alas, it
has about eaten my lunch.
Until
recently. In recent weeks I’ve taken a new approach toward my 50th birthday. I’ve
decided to proactively welcome it rather than nervously dread it. I liken it to
the difference between being victimized by an unwelcomed intruder and flinging
the doors open with a hearty and well-prepared welcome, complete with flowers
on the table and dinner in the oven, for a long anticipated guest.
My
50th birthday, from here on out, will be treated like a special guest for which
I am putting out the red carpet.
That
said, today I give you one of what will (hopefully) be seven or eight Lists of
Gold. I will post one such list each Sunday leading up to the big day. I’m just
kicking this thing off with a hair brain idea, so I’m not really sure what the
other lists will be, but I think you can look forward to things like:
  • 50
    Golden Blessings for Which I’m Thankful
  • 50
    Golden Lessons I’ve Learned
  • 50
    Golden Moments I Treasure
  • 50
    Golden Scriptures that Have Blessed Me
  • 50
    Golden Places I’ve Been

You
get the idea. It’s all gold. And it’s all my effort of setting the table and
putting on the Ritz for my big golden day, so that it doesn’t show up all
unexpected and unwelcomed and leave me all undone!
Here
we go:
50
Golden Memories that Define Me
during
childhood…
  • When
    I was about four, running down Red Oak Drive, falling down and skinning my
    knee, then being carried home by my daddy, where he and mom bandaged my “gaping” wound with a Bandaid and love.
  • When
    I was five, breaking my leg by sticking it through the bottom of the carriage
    swing to stop it because Greg McDonald was swinging us too fast. (They
    say your first memories are usually painful situations. Evidently “they” are
    right.)
  • My
    daddy carrying me down the aisle in my Aunt Ida’s wedding because I was a
    flower girl…with a broken leg.
  • Catching
    lightening bugs and putting them in a little plastic contraption we got in a
    box of cereal.
  • Playing
    Batman and Robin with Mark, Rodney, and Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane always got to be
    Batgirl and I was always Cat Woman.
  • Throwing
    up before almost every class party for Valentine’s, Christmas or Halloween from
    1st through 5th grade and therefore missing most of them.
  • Setting
    up a “beauty shop” in my bathroom, sticking a sign in the front yard
    advertising my services and waiting patiently for customers who never showed
    up…thank God!
  • Asking
    Jesus into my heart and being baptized by the interim preacher who mistakenly
    called me Kathy Winton. I’m assuming
    it took anyhow.
during adolescence…
  • Going
    shopping with my friend Michelle. We were such big girls!
  • Reading
    scores of Nancy Drew books and discussing the ridiculously improbable plots
    with my friends Candy, Gayle, Laurie, and Kim.
  • Being
    wildly in love with my social studies teacher, Mr. Gary Medford, as were my
    friends Candy, Gayle, Laurie, and Kim.
  • Travelling
    across the United States with my family for four weeks in a van and pop-up
    camper to see the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Mount Rushmore. Swearing the
    one place in this country I would never return to was Arizona. Ahem.
  • Learning
    to water ski with my Aunt Ida and Uncle Gus in Pennsylvania. Hearing from them
    about the Appalachian Trail that went through the mountains bordering their
    backyard, and promising myself that one day I’d backpack that thing.
  • Playing
    softball for the 76ers and thinking I was all that…and I really wasn’t.

 during
the teens…
  • Dancing
    the night away to the BeeGees, Abba, Fleetwood Mac, the Commodores, Michael Jackson, and the Village People at the dances we had all week during band camp each summer.
  • Giggling
    and plotting and commiserating and talking for hours and hours with my girlfriends–like
    Michelle and Candy and Jeanna and Julie and Dana and Lee and Elizabeth and
    others. My, oh, my, did I ever have some of the best girlfriends a teenaged
    girl can have! And we’re all still friends to this day… 🙂
  • Doing
    sit-ups under the direction of Ed, our rifle instructor, and being told to “keep
    your knees bent or you’ll pop your ovaries out.” LOL!!!
  • While my parents were out of town, me
    and Candy driving my younger brother Jimmy and a girl to the movies in my dad’s red,
    white and blue pick-up truck, them sitting in the bed of the truck all the way
    to Smyrna and back.
  • Going
    to the lake with Candy and her family for Labor Day weekends, water skiing and
    skinny-dipping at night with her and her sisters.
  • Learning
    to snow ski with my Aunt Ida and Uncle Gus in the Pennsylvania Poconos.
  • Being
    on stage for the first time in Pippin
    at the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program. 
  • Co-starring
    as Dolly in my high school’s production of Annie
    Get Your Gun!     the next Spring.
  • Going
    to Wallace’s (which became Johnny’s then Donny’s then Johnny’s again) for
    barbecue with the gang during summer band practices. Always ordering a chopped
    pork sandwich with Brunswick stew…even to this day.
  • Going
    to Gatlinburg and Sevierville, Tennesee, and other such wonderful places with
    the marching band.
  • Making
    paper flowers at Six Flags Over Georgia, night after night after night, all summer
    long.
  • Riding
    the school bus and toting that big, cumbersome French horn case every day.
  • Graduating
    from McEachern High School and saying goodbye to some of my best years and the
    best friends of my life. (No, I’m not a sicko. Life did continue after high
    school. But high school was oh so sweet for me.)

 in
college…
  • After college orientation and registration, announcing to my mom that I had registered for honors
    drama, economics, Italian and fencing…and her subsequent response.
  • Eating
    the best bacon cheeseburger ever at The Grill in Athens, Georgia.
  • Dressing
    up for football games in my red corduroy jumper and puffy white blouse.
  • Sweating
    at football games.
  • Driving
    the tram and parking cars at Six Flags Over Georgia…and getting a parking lot
    tan.
  • Dealing
    with a boyfriend that was abusing one of the girls on my hall when I was an RA
    (resident assistant) in O-House.
  • Seeing
    Hershel Walker on campus.
  • The
    day Anna Strain knocked on Michelle and Julie’s dorm room door and invited the
    three of us to join her and others for a Bible study in her room one floor
    down. I know this was one of those pivotal days in my life for which I am most
    grateful, and she probably has no clue…
  • In
    answer to his question, telling my friend Steve that if I could do anything in the
    world and money was no factor I’d want to make a career of teaching women’s
    Bible studies.

as
an adult…
  • Meeting
    my husband James at a Bible study hosted by mutual friends, me wearing sweats
    and no make-up, my hair wet from swimming; James freshly showered and shaven,
    ready to “meet someone.”
  • Marrying
    James, with our dear friends and family surrounding us, all of us singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness during the
    wedding ceremony–two verses, even though James swears we sang six.
  • Giving
    birth to my son Daniel…on a day that was both the most difficult day of my
    life and one of the most glorious.
  • Making
    huge mistakes and discoveries as a first-time pastor’s wife at Bowdon Baptist
    Church, serving with wonderful ladies such as Kendall, Angie, Evelyn, Pearl and
    Beverly.
  • Giving
    birth to my daughter Abigail on a Saturday night in Texas City, Texas, just
    after finishing and hanging the curtains for her nursery.
  • Playing
    and strolling and singing and crafting and rocking and driving around Texas
    with Daniel and Abigail…oh so happy to be a stay-at-home mom with the two
    sweetest little children a mother could ask for.
  • Making
    lovely, godly senior adult friends in LaMarque, like Frances and Beverly and
    Barbara and Marillas and Patty and Janice, but longing, absolutely longing for a girlfriend my age to do
    life with.
  • Meeting
    Kim and her husband Brent at Red Lobster in Mesquite, Texas, when he was being considered
    to join James on staff at First Baptist in Mabank,…and knowing right away
    that I had found my friend.
  • Falling
    down on the golf course laughing with Kim, running the Susan Komen 5k together,
    making sugar cookies with our kids to deliver to shut-ins, celebrating our
    shared birthday, and speeding back from watching movies in Mesquite to pick up
    our kids from school…late again.
  • Attending
    my first writer’s conference in Glorietta, New Mexico, and rediscovering my
    passion and potential for writing; in fact, selling my first two articles there.
  • Driving
    into Sierra Vista, Arizona, for the first time, tears puddling in my eyes,
    feeling like I was surely at the end of the earth.
  • Sensing
    the mighty work of God as He helped us not only learn to bear living in Arizona, but to love and embrace it.
  • Sharing
    the Satisfied…at Last message with women in places like Seattle, Canada,
    Japan, Kansas, and Texas. Watching God work in mighty ways.
  • Watching
    my children turn into godly, beautiful people I now count as friends, and being
    amazed at God’s grace.
Whew! That was fun…at least for me. Join me again next weekend as I prepare to welcome my 50th birthday with 50 Golden Moments I Treasure.

Comments

  2. Tessa says

    I love this post!!! I love learning new things about you and I love that you are embracing 50! I also
    Love that you threw up before all of your on stage appearance, just because I know the amazing speaker that you have turned out to be. I will be 30 this year and I had already decided to embrace it but this gives me even more motivation 🙂

    Reply

  7. Doug Orsi says

    Kay, I love the fact you grew up on Red Oak Dr. and I was just on White Oak Dr…states apart! 🙂 Still, the thought of it made me smile! Kay Harms, you are such a good looking almost 50 year old, you make us younger ladies appear older!! I better stand up straight and put on some lip stick! Blessings my friend, your heart is so in line with mine, it makes me thank God for Sisters like you! Michelle

    Reply

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