L Is For Lawry's Used Cars

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is L. L is for Lawry's Used Cars. My Daddy started Lawry's Used Cars in Mena, Arkansas in 1979. I have been in business with him since I moved to Arkansas in 1981. My Daddy has been in the car business since he was in college. For most of my life I have worked with him. I got started very early as these photos show. Here I am helping him sand a car in Collegedale, Tennessee.



From Tennessee he moved to Colorado where he opened Tri Town Service in the Dacono, Frederick, Firestone area. In the early 70's, the business was moved to Erie, Colorado. When Daddy moved from Colorado to Arkansas I operated Tri Town Service.



Several years ago I made a trip back to Erie, Colorado and took this photo of the old Tri Town Service building.



When we moved to Mena, Arkansas in 1981 I joined Daddy at the Lawry's Used Cars location. This is what the business looked like in the 1980's.



Here is an aerial view of what Lawry's Used Cars looks like now. Several buildings have been added over the years.



Even though Daddy is at the age when a lot of guys are taking it easy, he still works full time operating Lawry's Used Cars.



Over the years the business has had some close calls. We have been right on the edge of two tornadoes. In the 1993 Mena tornado the 4 bay carport was picked up off of its foundation and moved a couple of feet, and a tree fell across one of the buildings and we had to repair and replace the roof. In the 2009 Mena tornado We had signs blown down but very little other damage even though less than a mile away homes were completely destroyed.

In April of 2007 a controlled burn in our area became out of control. The fire jumped the tracks behind our business and burned a number of cars. Thankfully the fire was brought under control before it reached our buildings.





For 30 years now Lawry's Used Cars has been a big part of my life. It is still enjoyable to go to work each day; I get to meet so many nice people. We have had people from all over the world stop in at our little business here in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. Here is a partial list of collector cars for sale at Lawry's Used Cars.

Let Me Count The Ways

When I was in high school my least favorite class was English. I just couldn’t get into the poetry we were studying. Even though I didn’t enjoy the class, I still remember a few of the poems we studied.

I was recently reading an article that brought a poem from that class back to mind. In a Valentine’s Day survey, a poem written in 1850 was voted the most romantic. I remembered the poem from my high school class.

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach”. The poem was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She was born in Durham, England in 1806, the oldest of 12 children. She began writing poetry when she was 8 years old. When she was 15, Elizabeth injured her spine as a result of a fall. Because of the accident she became an invalid. She spent the majority of her time in her room writing poetry. In 1844, Robert Browning wrote to Elizabeth admiring her poems. He continued to write to her and they were engaged in 1845.

Elizabeth's father disapproved of the courtship and engagement. In 1846, Elizabeth and Robert were secretly wed and moved to Italy where Elizabeth's health improved. She continued to live in Italy with her husband Robert for the rest of her life.

In 1850, Elizabeth's best known book of poems was published, titled Sonnets from the Portugese. They are a sequence of 44 sonnets recording the growth of her love for Robert. He often called her "my little Portuguese" because of her dark complexion. Of all the sonnets, the most famous is #43, which begins "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Even if you do not appreciate 19th century poetry you can tell that these poems were written from the heart.

As great a poem as Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, I don’t think it is the greatest love poem of all time. The greatest love poem is found in the Bible in John 3:16,17. “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”.

What beautiful words. We need to keep in mind that it is the world that God loves, not a single nation, not a single race. Not just the “good” people, not just the people who love God back. “God so loved the world.” This includes the lovable and the unlovable; those who are popular, and those who have no one else to love them; the ones who love God, and the ones who never think of God.

Some people find it hard to accept the fact that God’s love and grace are so freely given. They want to place limits on God’s love. They prefer to think that God only loves the same people they themselves love, and that God despises the same people that they despise; That God doesn’t love people who don’t think the same way they do.

To put it quite bluntly, these people are wrong. God loves the world, and that includes both those who are just like us and those who are totally different from us. If Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn people, why are we so quick to? Jesus came to lift up, not to put down. Jesus didn’t come to condemn us; Jesus came to offer us eternal life. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we should follow His example.

God has not only shown his love for us by giving us His son, God has written us a love letter. I was never much of a letter writer, but when my wife and I were dating, 500 miles separated us. I became a letter writer. Every day when I got home from work I wrote her a letter. Imagine how I would have felt if she didn’t read my letters. Imagine how God feels when we neglect to read the love letter he has written to us.

In that love letter God wrote to you it says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Romans 8:37-39

How would you feel if you if you wrote these beautiful words to the love of your life and they were ignored. God says to us, “How do I love thee, Let me count the ways”. How has God shown His love to you? Can you count the ways? He will have to do the counting, because we will never know all the ways he shows his love to us. We so often completely miss the wonderful revelations of his love for us as we go about our daily lives.

There is a sad but poignant story from the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her father disapproved of her courtship with Robert Browning. When they became engaged her father forbid Elizabeth to marry. When she secretly married Robert her father disowned her, but that didn’t stop her from keeping in touch. Almost weekly she wrote him a letter. Not once did he reply. After ten years she received a large box in the mail. Inside she found all of her letters. Not one had been opened! Today those letters are among the most beautiful in classical English literature, yet her father never read the first one.

God's Word is His love letter to us. The love of Jesus waits in each page! Don’t leave your love letters unopened and unread. God loves you and he wants to tell you just how much. Open his love letter to you and listen to what he has to say to you.

K Is For Kaiser

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is K. K is for Kaiser. One of the most burning questions being asked today is whatever happened to Kaiser automobiles. Since I am privy to just such information, I thought I would do my civic duty and give you this privileged information.

The Kaiser automobile was the product of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation. The company was the result of a partnership between automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer and Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser of Kaiser Industries. The company rose from the ashes of the Graham-Paige Motor Company.


DADDY'S 1938 SHARK NOSED GRAHAM

In August 1944, Joseph Frazer, former president of Willys-Overland, assumed control of Graham-Paige, and announced that the company would resume automobile manufacture after the war with a completely new car. The new car was to be called "Frazer" rather than "Graham". Frazer quickly had Graham humming with activity. While looking for financial backing, Frazer met Henry J. Kaiser who also had plans for a postwar automobile. The two agreed to work together and in August 1945 formed the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation to build a new Kaiser car. Two Kaisers were to be built for every Frazer, which was to remain a Graham-Paige product. Joe Frazer became president of both companies and Henry Kaiser chairman of Kaiser-Frazer.


THE 1949 FRAZER MY PARENTS DROVE ON THEIR HONEYMOON

Graham-Paige was unable to finance its share of expenses, so the company quit the car business, and transferred all of their automotive assets to Kaiser-Frazer. Kaiser automobiles were manufactured in the United States from 1946 to 1955, when declining sales forced the closing of Kaiser's domestic automobile operations. At that time production was moved to Argentina and Brazil, where the company turned out a series of sedans, trucks and Jeeps until the 1960's.


AD FOR KAISER IN ARGENTINA

In 1953 Kaiser bought the Willys-Overland company, the producer of Jeep utility vehicles, and merged the Kaiser and Willys operations. By 1956 the company had stopped building Kaiser automobiles and was only building Jeep utility vehicles. The company changed its name to Kaiser-Jeep in 1963.


By 1969, Kaiser Industries decided to leave the automobile business, which was sold to American Motors in 1970. Included in the sale was the General Products Division, which Kaiser had purchased from Studebaker in 1964. AMC renamed the division AM General, which remains an independent company and government and military contractor. AM General sold the rights to the Hummer name to General Motors in 1999 but continues to build the vehicles for GM.


American Motors Corporation manufactured Jeep vehicles until AMC was purchased by Chrysler in 1987. Chrysler wanted the Jeep vehicle line because of the rising popularity of utility vehicles.

What happened to Kaiser? If you are driving a Jeep or a Hummer, in reality you are driving a Kaiser. Even though the Kaiser name is no longer used on vehicles, the legacy of Henry J. Kaiser lives on.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks installment of ABC Wednesday. See you next week! I will leave you with some videos of Kaiser automobiles.

Music City Meeting

I was recently asked to serve on the American Cancer Society Mid-South Division Relay For Life E-Communication Workgroup. The workgroup is made up of one ACS staff person and one Relay For Life volunteer from each state in the Mid-South; Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

This is the fifth year that my wife and I have been involved in our local Relay For Life. As the On-Line chair one of my responsibilities is placing content on the 2011 Polk County Relay For Life Website.

The Relay For Life E-Communication Workgroup is a new group that has just been formed this year to help the ACS and Relay For Life to make better use of social media and the internet.

Friday, March 25th we met together for the first time in Nashville, Tennessee. I left for Nashville on Thursday at 11:00 and met Nikki Ezell, our local ACS community rep, in Little Rock. We traveled together to Nashville. My accommodations were at the Embassy Suites Hotel . The hotel was beautiful and the accommodations were lovely.





Century Boulevard, the street that the hotel and the office building where we had the workgroup meeting were located, was beautiful with blooming trees and colorful flowers. I took a walk down the boulevard in the morning before breakfast and took some photos.









The Relay For Life E-Communication Workgroup worked well together and I feel that we accomplished a lot. I met so many nice people who are passionate about Relay For Life. Getting to meet great people is one of the fantastic things about being involved with Relay. I am looking forward to working with this great group of people this year.



After the meeting ended at 3:00 p.m. I made the long trip back home arriving after midnight. It was a long 36 hours but well worth it.

If you are not involved in Relay For Life in your community look at the Relay For Life Website and search for a Relay in your area by using the search box in the upper right had corner of the webpage. With over 5000 Relays being held in the U.S. this year you will probably be able to find one near you. If you are not participating in Relay For Life you don't know what you are missing.

J Is For Jellyfish

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is J. J is for jellyfish. Jellyfish are found in every ocean, from the surface to the deep sea. Here a a few photos I have taken of Jellyfish.



In countries like Japan, Korea and China, it is considered a delicacy to eat Jellyfish. I don't think that I would eat them.



In the Artic Sea, the North Atlantic Sea and Northern Pacific Ocean lives a Jellyfish that can grow to over 120 feet long. It is the Lion's Mane Jellyfish, the largest known Jellyfish in the world.

Here is a short video I have shot of Jellyfish



I hope you have enjoyed this weeks installment of ABC Wednesday. See you next week!

The Last Day Of Winter

Yesterday was the last full day of winter. We celebrated by taking a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas to go to Garvin Woodland Gardens. Our granddaughters have been spending the week with us and we wanted to take them to the Gardens.



We spent the afternoon there and the girls were able to explore as we took our time walking through the gardens. The tulips were at their peek, and they were amazing.



Besides the flowers, the girls loved seeing the ducks and the fish.





The girls were very busy as it takes a lot of time to stop and smell that many flowers.





At the Gardens, there are so many photo opps, and I had the most beautiful models posing for me.









We spent over three hours walking and exploring. Finally the girls got tired and needed to ride on our shoulders.



What an awesome day we had on the last day of winter. It was as good a day as a grandparent can have.