365 Days of Impacts

Many of you know that I love to sing. On my wedding day, I thought there would be nothing more special than to sing a song to Dennis. I wanted it to be a bluegrass song. I wanted it to be a song that most people knew the words to the chorus so they could sing along. I settled upon You are my Sunshine - an old bluegrass staple written in 1939 by Jimmie Davis and Charlie Mitchell. It is one of the state songs of Louisiana. Despite its happy melody and chorus, it is quite a sad song if you look up the real lyrics. So, I decided to rewrite the lyrics of the song to fit the man I was going to sing it to... The other night dear as I lay sleeping I dreamed you held me in your arms And when I woke dear, my heart was taken Stolen by your ever loving charm (Chorus) You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You'll never know dear, how much I love you please don't take my sunshine away. When I am down dear, your spirit lifts me Yo...

Almost everyone in the world knows this song - it evokes so many emotions from pride to prejudice. Every coverband HATES this song almost as much as FREEBIRD. I never minded it - probably because I am proud to be from Alabama. People make fun of our state. But I've known Alabama to be a place of great memories, love and family - for my whole life. I was born here in Huntsville on May 3, 1965. My mom and dad met on Redstone Arsenal - where both worked on the 1960s space program in different capacities. Huntsville is sort of a junior Atlanta, with a lot of transplants who are here working in the aerospace field since NASA is located here. I don't remember living here, because we moved to Florida when I was 3 months old. Hayesland was our neighborhood. It is still here, and JoPo has driven me by our former house often. It would have been a great place to grow up had we not moved around. I would spend the next 45 years of my life off and on coming to Huntsville and A...