GIG LINE
By Marsha M. Brown
Listen up folks! Good news first! Thanks to Tim Willis (veteran) of Manteo and Gary Kierney (veteran) Hatteras Island, the Dare County Veterans Advisory Council list of businesses that participate in and support our local Dare County Veteran I. D. Card by offering a special ‘veteran’ discount has grown in leaps and bounds.
Just in the last two weeks…nine new businesses have signed onto the list. YAY! Hip, hip hooray! Seven of the new sign ups are located on Hatteras Island and the other two are in Nags Head and Manteo. Together they include six more restaurants; an outdoor wood furniture business; another auto parts store and even a veterinary clinic! W-O-W! If you’re a resident Dare County veteran and you don’t have your I.D. Card…what are you waiting for? No matter what other veteran type card(s) you may currently have in your possession, please get this ‘Card’ and save money locally. And…if you don’t care about a discount (good for you), maybe you could use it, calculate your savings and deposit the difference in a jar to give to the V.F.W. or American Legion…especially around Veteran’s Day weekend in exchange for the little red poppies to give to friends and family.
Remember months ago I told y’all that Billy and I would be issuing the ‘Card’ to local vets each Monday at the Dare County Administrative Building from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM only through the end of June? NEWSFLASH! Because we’re getting more & more calls from vets interested in acquiring their ‘Card’, we’ve decided to continue issuing them each Monday (same location but rather from 10:00 AM -1:00 PM instead. The slightly adjusted schedule will still allow you time to come during lunch if need be and allow us time to leave a little earlier for other meetings we attend. In the meantime, if you have a question or we can help you in some way, please call me (252) 202–2058. For updates on the continuing list of businesses that want to honor you, see www.darenc.com – then in search bar type VETERANS.
Just wondering…has anybody written ‘thank you’ notes to put on veterans truck/car windshields or in their hand lately? If you have, let me know & please keep it going! J
Following my submission of last week’s ‘GIG LINE’ column, a friend of mine mentioned that if folks didn’t know me better they might have thought I was a proponent of cigarettes/smoking. To be honest if the topic didn’t bring such a sad memory for me, I probably would have laughed. I like feedback…really I do, but in simple truth…I’m not a smoker at all. In fact the only time I ever tried to smoke a cigarette was during my junior year in high school when a close friend was staying with us for the weekend. We were in my bedroom upstairs in our old family home huddled close to an open window. We lit the ‘ciggy’ up…then smoked a few puffs…blowing the white fog out the window as fast as we could so my Daddy wouldn’t get a whiff of it downstairs. I tried inhaling it and not inhaling it and neither technique was all that satisfying to me. I thought it tasted terrible and I proclaimed that had the little buggers tasted better…like strawberry or butterscotch…then…I might have eaten them rather than smoked them. But…my Mom…my sweet, sweet Mom enjoyed (like many) the predestined puffs of smoke – and at only 52 she was diagnosed with lung CA. In only six very short months, she went to be with the Lord. I was 26…so cigarettes? I’m not interested.
Last week I heard a comment on T.V. that hit me. Someone said something about never remembering a time in their life when they heard that people were fleeing from our country and they were right! We aren’t a country people want to leave from…but rather come to…hence the ‘melting pot’…our way of life is attractive and enticing and our traditions? The best. Everybody wants in…not out! Let’s ‘keep on keeping on’ and stay the course; let’s always stand up for and beside those who fight to maintain the things we hold dear. Remember the pride of our military…the sacrifice of our troops…the blood, sweat and tears l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y that have been shed for the country we love…our America!
You know folks, I’m not a politician…I’m not running for office…I’m not wealthy…and I’m not a ‘suck up’…but if I believe something in my heart…I want to share it with those I love and care about. And when I write GIG LINE and it sounds as if I’m preaching…I don’t mean to. I know the majority of people love our country and our vets…I just want to remind all of us…(myself included) the value of our veteran’s service and how much they appreciate knowing that people haven’t forgotten their sacrifice.
Thank you veterans for what you have done and thank you folks for loving our veterans! Those who served yesterday and who serve today are all very special. I thank God for our veteran’s skills, talents and commitment to do their job to the best of our ability…for us. What would we do and dear Lord where would we be today without our veterans?
A message from Billy to you: “Keep trying…don’t give up on the V.A.; hang in there, seek the help you might be entitled to and possibly eligible for; you’re deserving as is your family of any help, health care, or benefits that persevering might afford you. It takes time and patience and in the mean time…if need be…”Hurry up and wait!”
Be happy…be safe…and be proud. What we have, what we are and what we stand for has been proven to work for all of us for centuries. Never take the sacrifices of our military men and women or the sacrifices for granted. God bless you all. Stay tuned.