Dr. Chris Gilmer, President

My favorite television show of all time, among many diverse favorites, is The Waltons. In some ways, my life has not been that different than John Boy’s life. Often my family might not have had much, but always we had each other and the bounty that the land tended by our elders provided to sustain us. I remember hoeing garden rows so long you couldn’t see one end from the other on a hot July day, and how I wish I could do it all again.

Before we went to sleep, tired from an honest day’s work, and long before the aroma of sausage frying and Mamaw’s biscuits rising would awaken us, we would say good night to each other just like the Waltons did on TV. How I miss that little house on the road to Damascus, Mississippi, and how I wish I could say, “Good night, Papaw” one more time and fall asleep with the calm assurance he was watching over us.