Hearsay's World Tour

At this very moment, Hearsay is on the first leg of what will be an amazing world tour. Please check back often to see where he winds up!!!

Hearsay's Cousin Hits Europe

We haven't mentioned Hearsay's European cousin, Habeas, before, have we? Habeas lives in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia.

He recently went on a tour of the city, and sent back these photos ...

This is a panoramic view of Bratislava.

Here's Habeas at a World War II memorial in Bratislava.

This castle dates to the eighth century. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Here in the background is St. Martin's Cathedral, where 13 Austrian and Hungarian kings were coronated during the Turkish occupation of Budapest in the Middle Ages.

Finally, Habeas overlooks a bridge over the river Danube, with a round, UFO-shaped restaurant on top.

Hearsay, by the way, is headed for points far and wide in the next little while. Check back ...

We Won

This is, by far, the nicest post that I have made since beginning this blog in early February.

I won, by a total of approximately 2,700 votes.

How can I possibly thank the people who worked the polls for me? Words escape me. One gentleman worked the polls for me today with a temperature of 101. Friends stood in the rain all day long, into the cool of the evening. Again, I can't find the words to express my gratitude.

Thank you. The election, by the way, won't be the end of this blog. I plan to maintain the blog on a regular basis, so please stay tuned.

This Is It!!!

Polls here in the 23rd Judicial District open in just a few minutes. If you've already voted, thank you. If not, what are you waiting for?!? Thanks so much for all of your support over this last year. It's meant more to me than I could ever say.

Happy Halloween!

Adam and Jesse hit the trick-or-treat trail last night, with Rick and I fully in tow.

That's Adam in the Superman outfit (he wore Jesse's costume from last year, but don't tell him) and Jesse as Batman. We went to my mom's house, of course, and both decided to ride their bikes while we were there.

And both promptly got their capes fully entangled in the bike chain and spokes. There for a while, I thought they were going to have to drag the bikes along with them!!!

One Week To Go ...

With a little more than seven days left before the election, the amazing rollercoaster that has been this year is drawing to a close. What has this year meant?

It's meant having the support of my family -- Rick, the boys and their "Vote For My Mommy" T-shirts, my mom and dad. It's meant having the support of friends that I've known for decades, and it's meant getting the support of friends I've just met. It's meant printing what seems like a million brochures. It's meant yard signs, big signs, banners, newspaper ads and recording a radio spot. It's meant playing bingo and watching Adam and Jesse flat-footin'. It's meant spaghetti lunches, a couple of brunches and too many barbeque dinners to count.

It's meant crowning Debbie's Snack Bar in Hamptonville the unofficial world headquarters of my campaign. If you want to know why, just visit the place. It's meant putting up campaign signs in the rain. It's meant hammering sign frames together. It's meant my mom and dad hitting the campaign trail all over the district, on their own. It's meant handing out a yard sign ... and then another ... and then another ... and then another. Rick's record for heading back out to the car for more signs is at least three times, and not once did he complain.

At least not to me.

What else has happened this year? In January, Rick had what he calls the most memorable experience of his career in journalism when he drove a race car at Talladega. That he did so less than three weeks after surgery is completely besides the point. I had surgery and was later found to be completely cancer free for the first time in two years. Adam hit the first home run of his baseball career and Jesse flourished at his summer art camp. Richard graduated from high school and is a freshman at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

And ... it's still tough to write these words ... Rick's dad, Sid, passed away. Sid had never smoked a cigarette, but instead developed lung cancer as the result of the Agent Orange he encountered in Vietnam. He fought the disease for four long years.

Thank you so much for all that you've done for my family and I over the past year. I'll see you at the polls.

Child Support Ceremony

District Court Judge Jeanie Houston took part in a ceremony today at the Yadkin County Court House recognizing those in the area who have never missed a child support payment. The event was hosted by the Yadkin County Department of Social Services, and coordinated by Valerie Zachary, the agency's child support attorney.

Zachary said the selection process for the ceremony started by looking for unfamiliar names on the Department of Social Services list of child support payments. It was a comment echoed by Judge Houston.

"We like these folks, because we don't know them," Judge Houston joked. "They're never in court for not paying their child support. We have a lot of people we can't say that about."

Below, Judge Houston is shown with Marcelo Mimiaga, Trent Shore, Edsel Wooten (the director of the Yadkin County Department of Social Services), Shamus Jackson and Jim Stanley.

CC Wright Elementary School Visits Court House

The questions from the C.C. Wright Elementary School third graders came almost too fast to answer.

Do you have an electric chair here?

How about a guillotine?

Can kids be put in jail?

District Court Judge Jeanie Houston fielded the questions one by one. No, there’s not an electric chair here. We don’t have a guillotine, either. She explained the differences between being charged as a juvenile and as an adult and when one youngster asked what kind of clothes she wore under her robe, Judge Houston unzipped to reveal her sweater and slacks set.

Then, Judge Houston got the chance to ask her own questions.

Does anyone here know how laws are made?

Sure enough, she got a reply that was right on the money.

How many of you would like to be police officers? Several hands, a little more than half the group, shot up. How many of you would like to be lawyers? A few more children raised their hands.

Nearly seventy students and teachers from the North Wilkesboro school took part Friday afternoon in the tour of the Wilkes County Court House, where they visited a courtroom, holding cell, clerk’s office and the register of deeds.

“I look so forward to doing this every year,” Judge Houston said later. “I love doing this and I love holding court for our Big Bad Wolf trials. The kids have an interest in what we do here that’s just incredible. A lot of times, they come in with the preconceived notions that they’ve got from TV and when they get here, they find out what the court system is really all about.”

A Huge Success!!!

This was the kind of day that just makes you feel good. I started out at the Apple Festival in Wilkes County this morning and early afternoon, and then we had our cookout tonight. Things couldn't have went any better.

We went through 180 name tags, and not everybody stopped by to get one. The huge kids' inflatable bounce-and-jump-and-climb-and-slide thingamajig (what do you call those things, anyway?!?) stayed full from the word go until we had to run everybody out to break it down at the end of the night.

The cool thing about this kind of event is the help you get in setting everything up, and we most definitely had plenty of helping hands. First of all, Rick and my dad would still be stuck trying to figure out how to set the tents up if it hadn't been for Michael Dickerson. With Michael on hand, they had the tents and the inflatable up and ready to roll in about 30 minutes or so.

Michael also helped break everything down, as did John, Shane Childress and Josh Lincolnfelt. Oh yeah ... and my nephew, Denver Rakes, picked up trash. Ted Ashley brought his monstrous cooker and cooked until he had to leave for his son's football game. Walter Shore and John Spillman took over. Donna Shore Terrell and Jo de Journette passed out name tags and my campaign decals.

My biggest thanks goes to Debbie Childress, who hosted the event. She shut her business down for those two hours, and along with Marie Ashley, daughter Shanda and daughter-in-law Candy Childress, served the food.

Now, for some pictures ...

Hearsay finally made it back home today, just in time for the cookout. He brought along pictures from some of his adventures this summer ...



Jimmy Lancaster, our pastor at Maplewood Baptist Church in Yadkinville, gave the invocation ...



Friends don't come any better than these folks. That's Artie and Cindy Greer on the right, along with Chase (on the left) and Bryce (in Artie's arms) ...



Ted Ashley, working man ...



A shot of the crowd ...



That's Una and Jim Graham with Pierre and Carol Hamel ...

Hearsay Is Out Of This World

OK ... so Hearsay has been to some pretty cool places in the last few months, but this installment pretty much takes the cake. Here, our intrepid traveler has made his way to the Space Shuttle Launch Pad B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Shuttle Endeavor is currently on the pad, being readied for a potential rescue mission if something goes amiss with the next scheduled launch slated for Oct. 14.

This is Hearsay at the base of what's known as the External Tank (the rust-colored tank in the middle) and the Solid Rocket Boosters that would launch Endeavor into space. There wouldn't be much of Hearsay left if he happened to be in this spot during an actual liftoff.

Next, Hearsay is shown just outside the launch pad elevators, at the 255-foot level ...

That leads to this view, of the very top of the External Tank and the Florida coastline ...

Finally, Hearsay winds up just outside Endeavor itself, and is shown here in front of the spacecraft's Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS).

Here's an overall view of the two Shuttles standing ready for flight. It's only the third time in the program's history that two Shuttles have been on their respective launch pads at the same time. The pad that Hearsay visited is the one farthest from the camera (Photo Credit: NASA).

Harvest Festival

The umpteenth annual Harvest Festival was held yesterday in Yadkinville, and we couldn't possibly have asked for better weather. It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Our church, Maplewood Baptist, is well-known at the Harvest Festival for its fried apple pies. They tried doing things a little differently this year, fresh-preparing the pies on site. It seemed to work really well. If you've never had one of Maplewood's fried apple pies ... well ... there's always next year.

Adam and Jesse then had a soccer game. They won, and it was there that I was greeted by Kaleb and Haley Dickerson, the son and daughter of our good friends, Michael and Missy Dickerson. Kaleb and Haley had their very own home-made campaign signs, which they paraded around the soccer fields and later, the Harvest Festival.

Here's Haley and her sign ...


And here's the sign that Kaleb sported ...


It would be nearly impossible to keep Adam from this bungee jumping activity. He's jumped at the last three or four Harvest Festivals, not to mention the Dixie Classic Fair. And the higher he goes, the better.

Hearsay In Music City

Joe Estep, Rick's best friend, took Hearsay on a whirlwind tour of Nashville the other day. Here's just a few of the hot spots they hit in and around town ...

Missing Signs

It happens in almost every election ... a candidate's yard signs go missing. Sometimes, signs are removed by authorities because they've been placed where they shouldn't, such as in right a ways and so forth.

Other signs are removed by supporters of one candidate over another. It's a frustrating proposition, to say the least. At best, it's childish. At worst, it's illegal.

In the last few days, several of my signs have been removed in Wilkes and Alleghany counties, at least one more than once. As a result, I've had several people ask if I want them to start taking down the signs of my opponent in this election, Bert Greene.

No, I do not. I won't allow it. If I find that anybody in my corner has stolen or destroyed any of Mr. Greene's signs, I will personally pay for replacements. Such actions will not be condoned by my campaign in any way, shape, form or fashion.

The Boot Story

We're back home after Sid's visitation and funeral Wednesday in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn. and his graveside service yesterday in Johnson City. It has been a sad last few days.

That said, that's the last thing that Sid would have wanted. So much so, that I think it would be wholly appropriate to share one of the most infamous "Sid" stories ever told. There are at least a couple of different versions of the tale, and this is Rick's, as recounted in a column he wrote that was published in the June 9, 1994 edition of The Alleghany News following the death of Sid's father, Ronald Sidney Houston:

Ronald Sidney Houston, my grandfather, passed from this life into the next early on the morning of June 5. The first thing that struck me after walking away from that hospital room was that I'd never hear the "boot" story again.

At least not like Papaw told it ...

The story concerns my father as a young boy, my great-uncle Ben, a fishing trip and a pair of boots. It was the kind of tale that got better each and every time it was told.

The story goes like this. One of Uncle Ben's favorite sayings was that so-and-so didn't have enough sense to pour you-know-what out of a boot. If anybody -- it didn't matter who -- did something stupid, Uncle Ben would declare, with varying degrees of embellishments, this particular oath.

On this particular outing, Uncle Ben took off his boots and wandered off for some reason. Dad promptly decided that he would put Uncle Ben to the test and see if he actually had enough sense to pour you-know-what out of a boot.

So Dad ... well ... you-know-whatted in Uncle Ben's boots. And, apparently, Uncle Ben really didn't have enough sense to pour you-know-what out of his boots before he put them back on.

At about this point in Papaw's version of the tale, anybody listening would be in tears laughing. Except, of course, Uncle Ben and Dad. To this day, Uncle Ben declares Papaw should have beat the living daylights out of Dad, while Dad denies it ever happened. All the while, Papaw just kept smiling that devilish smiles of his.

RICK'S NOTE:
Dad, in the last few days, I have been by your bedside and to your funeral and burial. I still can't believe you're gone. Please know that I love you, and so do Jeanie, Adam and Jesse. Doug and I will do everything we can to make you proud.

Funeral Arrangements For Rick's Dad

Plans have been completed for Rick's dad. A celebration of Sid's life will be held Wednesday, Sept.3 at Anderson & Son Funeral Home in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn. from 5-7 p.m. Central time, with a funeral service to follow at 7 p.m. Central time.

A graveside service will then be held the following day at the Houston Family Cemetary in Johnson City, Tenn. at 3 p.m. Eastern time.

Sidney L. Houston 1943-2008

Rick's dad, Sidney, passed away yesterday afternoon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Rick with him, as were Rick's brother, Doug, Sid's brother, Larry, and Larry's daughter, Angie. Sid was 65.

After serving stints in Korea and Japan with the United States Army, Sid went to Vietnam in 1970-71. He left the service with the rank of captain in the early '70s and afterward became an accountant. In the picture above, that's the Houston men ... Doug, Sid, Jesse and Rick from left to right on the front row, and Richard is holding Adam on the back row.

The funeral will be held near Sid's home in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn., about 75 miles northwest of Nashville, and he will be buried in a family cemetary in Johnson City, Tenn. Dates and times have not been confirmed at this time.

Please ... no flowers. If you are so inclined, simply buy a book for a youngster close to you.

For Sid ...

How do you start a note like this?

Rick's dad, Sidney, is in critical condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, fighting what looks to be the last stages of lung cancer. He's been in the hospital since Sunday night, and took a turn for the worse yesterday. Rick left home and is with his dad now, along with Rick's brother, Doug, and Sid's brother, Larry.

I would very humbly ask for your prayers for Sid, who is 65 and a veteran of the United States Army.

First Day Of School!!!

Today is Adam and Jesse's first day of the second grade. Wasn't it just yesterday that we had the little pipsqueaks pose in front of the West Yadkin Elementary sign on their first day of three-year-old preschool?

Both were a little nervous, but went into their respective classrooms without a hitch. I just can't seem to get my arms around the fact that they will graduate high school in 2019. Good grief.

Below, Adam is just being Adam and Jesse is being Jesse ...Here I am with Adam, the social butterfly ...

Hearsay ... The Lost Picture

Somehow, this photo of Hearsay at New Hampshire Motor Speedway a couple of months ago got lost in the shuffle. So ... here it is. That little guy sure gets around, doesn't he?

Hearsay Is Where?!?

Hearsay continues on his adventures with our friend, Jennifer Estep. Here, he's shown with Rick's best friend since high school and Jen's brother, Joe Estep, at The Bunganut Pig Pub & Eatery in Franklin, Tenn., just outside Nashville.

What exactly is a bunganut pig? Good question. There IS an explanation, and it has something to do with a pig going to school at Oxford.

At any rate, Hearsay got to hang out with Joe and Jen, and even members of the band they went to see. There are a few rumors concerning where Hearsay will be next, so stay tuned.