The Holt Hotline

I found out this morning this blog is part of the Holt Hotline, a family website that I've contributed to a time or two - looks like the contributing frequency might be a little more often now that I have discovered an audience willing to sit in front of a computer screen to read these ramblings and rumblings.

To begin with, my wife's mother's maiden name was Holt, so I guess I came by the association honestly. Lonnie "Papa" Holt was like a grandfather I never really experienced, and Grandma ("Aunt Sally" to many) was a full fledged grandmother to me, period. I never knew either of my grandmothers, one had passed away decades before I came along and my paternal grandmother had died many years ago, too. So, when the chance to have grandparents of any kind came along, I jumped into it with both feet. Papa and Grandma were pretty open minded and with it. I'll not forget the time I loaned her a book by atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair. She sat up almost the entire night reading it and had opinions on everything she read. Papa and Grandma invited us over on Thursday nights to watch "The Waltons," and Papa enjoyed watching Donahue weekday mornings at 11:00 A.M. When I got hooked watching the controversial talk show host, so did they. It was neat to see them with a mental vitality and spirit for life as well as being models of what Christ followers are all about.

Family is family and you never really lose the family dynamic, even when some of the older folks pass from the scene. Somewhere they're waiting for us to join them. Families don't break up - they just relocate for a while.