{"id":1530,"date":"2012-01-25T15:59:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T15:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2012-01-23T16:13:43","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T16:13:43","slug":"get-to-know-mike-osborne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/25\/get-to-know-mike-osborne\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to know Mike Osborne"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Guys, if you haven&#8217;t registered for GraceCon2012 yet&#8211;<del>WHY NOT?<\/del>&#8211;please do <a title=\"registration page\" href=\"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/gracecon2012\/\">here<\/a>.<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-greener-grass.blogspot.com\/2011\/12\/favorite-christmas-memories.html\">Favorite Christmas memories<\/a><\/h3>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-RP_cUiX9xAQ\/TvoqBsZ7mRI\/AAAAAAAACtM\/sPCwVn8Wp34\/s1600\/Union%2BSC.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690907287724202258\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-RP_cUiX9xAQ\/TvoqBsZ7mRI\/AAAAAAAACtM\/sPCwVn8Wp34\/s320\/Union%2BSC.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>As a child, I lived in Mayberry. Ozzie and Harriet were my next door neighbors. Father knew best, and my best friends were Mike, Robbie, and Chip.<\/p>\n<p>Well, not really. None of those things were true. But growing up in the small rural town of Union, SC, in the 1950s and &#8217;60s was like living in those insulated, idealized TV towns &#8211; at least until you peeled off the veneer of racism, class envy, poverty, illiteracy, sexism, crime, discrimination, etc.<\/p>\n<p>One upside to my upbringing in a small southern town is that I have some very warm memories of Christmas. And I&#8217;m genuinely thankful for them.<\/p>\n<p>Such as&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Going with my Dad to the &#8220;country&#8221; to cut down a Christmas tree<\/li>\n<li>Popcorn balls and pecan pie<\/li>\n<li>Waffles cooked with pecans on Christmas morning &#8211; Dad&#8217;s specialty<\/li>\n<li>Totally believing in Santa Claus, for an embarrassingly long time of my life<\/li>\n<li>Leaving cookies in the den for Santa Claus<\/li>\n<li>Thinking I really heard Santa Claus on the rooftop<\/li>\n<li>Staring with wonder at the Santa and reindeer set that my parents put out on the living room coffee table<\/li>\n<li>(OK, you get the idea; Santa was a big deal)<\/li>\n<li>Keeping a fire going in the fireplace<\/li>\n<li>Impatiently waiting for the grandmothers to arrive so we could begin opening presents<\/li>\n<li>A new bike almost every year (complete with banana seat, raised handlebars, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>Wishing for a white Christmas that never came (it seemed to rain every year)<\/li>\n<li>Watching tons of corny Christmas TV specials with my parents (Andy Williams, Mitch Miller, Sonny and Cher&#8230; sheesh!)<\/li>\n<li>The annual Christmas service at our First Presbyterian Church (here&#8217;s a shout-out to Mr. Nabors, our faithful organist)<\/li>\n<li>Walking the neighborhood and looking at everyone&#8217;s Christmas decorations (our neighborhood gave prizes for the best exhibits, and Dad entered something creative every year)<\/li>\n<li>Seeing Main Street decked out in lights<\/li>\n<li>The annual Christmas parade, which featured my Cub Scout troop, Miss Union High, the Shriners, the marching band from the &#8220;black&#8221; high school &#8211; oh, and Santa always brought up the rear<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My parents are both gone now, but I&#8217;ll say a belated thank-you anyway for all they did to create special Christmas memories.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Guys, if you haven&#8217;t registered for GraceCon2012 yet&#8211;please do.\u00a0 The leadership has worked and prayed to give you a creative experience that is deeply enriching for you.\u00a0 Good bible teachers, fun &amp; good refreshments, as well as hit the street discussion with other guys and some great music from Chris and a group of guys.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/25\/get-to-know-mike-osborne\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"25\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guys, if you haven&#8217;t registered for GraceCon2012 yet&#8211;WHY NOT?&#8211;please do <a title=\"registration page\" href=\"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/gracecon2012\/\">here<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-greener-grass.blogspot.com\/2011\/12\/favorite-christmas-memories.html\">Favorite Christmas memories<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-RP_cUiX9xAQ\/TvoqBsZ7mRI\/AAAAAAAACtM\/sPCwVn8Wp34\/s1600\/Union%2BSC.jpg\"><\/a>As a child, I lived in Mayberry. Ozzie and Harriet were my next door neighbors. Father knew best, and my best friends were Mike, Robbie, and Chip.<\/p>\n<p>Well, not really. None of those things were true. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-pastor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1FrAa-oG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1531,"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christcommunitychurch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}