"I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."

Remember this?  I do.  Somehow.  The title of my blog is pretty accurate: I am random.  My brain is random...why in the world I bolted awake one night recently thinking about 1994 is beyond me but I did. 

When this catalog arrived at 308 Perry Street, I was still living at home.  I was taking the year off from school and I spent Monday-Thursday working at Food World from 8 a.m. til 2:00 p.m.  My brother Thomas was in basic training at Fort Benning, GA (E-2/58, Sand Hill), on his way to becoming an infantryman in the US Army.  My sister Jeremie was a junior in high school.  

At that time, I had absolutely no direction in life.  Zero.  I remember being jealous of my friends who were at Auburn while I was "stuck" at home.  In those days, I had only a vague, cloudy vision of what I wanted in life, and to be totally transparent with you, what I wanted was really short-sighted and dismal...I just wanted to get by.  There's a whole back story as to why that is and maybe, one day, I'll put that down on paper.  

In December, 1994, my mother had a heart attack.  I was camping on some land that John Ossenfort's family owned.  To be specific, I was sleeping beside a pond that is now surrounded by beautiful homes in a subdivision near the end of Lindsey Bridge Road.  With me were Josh and Ben Bates and John Ossenfort. Around 11 pm, we see headlights, and at that time, there was NOTHING in that area but trees.  Bill Ossenfort pulls up to the campsite, gets out of the car and says "Johnny, you need to go to the hospital.  Your sister called and she was crying and your mother is headed to the hospital in an ambulance."  Jeremie was 17 at the time.  I can still feel the guilt of having been away from the house when it happened.  Mom wound up in Dothan under the care of a great cardiologist, had a great recovery, and enjoys her grandchildren....

My wish that Christmas was for mom to recover.  Mom's wish was for Thomas's plane to land safely at Birmingham--his airline had 2 crashes in the weeks leading up to his flight.  Can't really say what Jeremie's wish was, but I suppose it was something along the lines of her mom getting well also.

Fast-forward 24 years....I haven't seen a JCP Wish Book in a long time but I still have wishes.  If I designed the Wish Book, it might look like this.

Page 33.  My dad would still be alive and kicking.  And he'd love to spend time watching his grandchildren grow up.  He'd probably still be in contact with Stephen Tuttle and Greg Wicke and we'd probably travel to see them. 

Page 99.  Autism would be something that isn't stigmatized.  You would be able to order a "no longer seeing posts on facebook about kids who are different being mistreated or shunned."  And it would have free delivery.

Page 115.  Divorce would never occur. 

Page 257.  Parents wouldn't age and their health wouldn't decline.  

Page 301.  On this page, I'd find that Grey Sharpe didn't die our junior year.  He'd be in the Army to this day, probably running the place.

Page 373.   A full page of second chances.

Page 405.  People would truly know their value.

Page 467.   All the answers to all the questions that my children have but I don’t seem to be able to answer.

Page 502.   The cure for cancer.

Page 503.   A government that actually works for solutions to our country‘s problems as opposed to hurling insults at each other across the aisle.

Page 599.   Forgiveness truly applied.

Page 607.  Hope where none seems possible.

Page 665.   An endless supply of amazing music.

Page 725.   That one present that I always hoped for but never got.

Page 773.   Knowing that my children will be successful parents and grandparents one day.

Page 811.   A  Bell  206 Jet Ranger and enough money to own/operate it. (Hey, I like helicopters! LOL)

 I hope you get what you wish for.