Time Stand Still
I had a unique experience this past week. I was invited to have lunch with some of my friends and former co-workers from American Appraisal Associates, my very first professional job upon graduation from college. Yes, we are still friends, and that is special. This was the first company to take a shot on me, and I owe these people a great deal. The bonus is that they were great people then and they are still forty years on. I cannot say that about everyone I have met in my life. How about you? If you have some time, I would love to share this story with you. Let me give you a little backstory of how all of this started, sound good?
When I was in high school, I was befriended by my accounting and bookkeeping teacher, Mr. George Durham. I called him Coach because he was the golf coach and he was a big supporter of the football team which I played on. I am not sure why he took a liking to me, but he was interested and concerned, and I really appreciated it. I was at a point in my young life where finding direction was not always easy.
Coach was from Georgia and spoke with a southern drawl which was odd for someone from northeast Ohio to hear. One day in my senior year, he came up to me in class, and we were talking one on one about what my plans were once I graduated. I gained an interest in business and specifically accounting from being in his classes and I told him that I planned to go The University of Akron and get a degree in accounting and then planned to move to Florida and away from the cold and snow of Ohio. It is a law, you know, that if you are from Ohio, you must spend part of your life living in Florida, so there is that. I had not been anywhere in my young life but had been to Florida once to visit my uncle on a family vacation so that seemed like the place to go. Coach smiled and told me that Georgia is where I ought to go, specifically Atlanta, with my interest in business and desire for warmer climate. I looked at him and replied, “Georgia? that is what you drive through to get to Florida! Truth was that I had no idea about anything outside of a 20-mile radius of the Ellet Community of Akron, Ohio so I did not know Georgia from Maine and he knew it too. He encouraged me to keep it in mind when time came to decide to move out of Ohio after getting my diploma from Akron, which I did… sort of.
I entered the University of Akron; I started taking classes to become the world’s next biggest accounting whoopsie do and two years in I realized that I do not want to be an accountant and change my major to management. It was a hot major at the time, and I thought I would be better fit telling people what to do rather than getting balance sheets to balance. So, I decide to add a computer science degree to my business degree and after five and a half years I am an unemployed double major that has been married for a year and a half to my high school sweetheart looking for a job in the midst of the collapse of the rubber industry in Akron where they made a ton of tires. It was time to look elsewhere for employment because I could not even get an interview at the time. I started looking in Florida just as I had planned but that was not going well either. Seems like any potential employer wanted someone with EXPRIENCE and I had none of that to offer.
This was before the Internet so looking for a job took longer and you had to dig and make a lot of phone calls to try and get an interview. I still have a box in the attic with all the letters of rejection I received. I am immensely proud to say that I have been turned down by some of the greatest companies in the world, thank you very much! One evening I am having dinner and feeling down since nothing is working, and Coach’s words pop into the old grey matter about Atlanta, Georgia. Michelle’s family had all moved to Florida by then (State Law!) and she really wanted to move there but I asked her if she would entertain checking out Atlanta. To my surprise she said yes (she was probably getting tired of eating Ramen every night too!). I started sending a bunch of resumes to Atlanta based companies and I made up a story that I was planning on being down there to visit family and friends and would love to stop by for an interview (I knew no one in Atlanta). To my delight I started receiving letters in the mail (no Internet or email) saying they would love to speak to me! I got nothing for 6 months and now all the sudden, I receive a dozen in a week, perhaps Coach knew what he was talking about. I plan ten meetings over a week and a half around the Atlanta area and head down to seek my fame and fortune, or at least a paycheck.
The very first interview I have is with American Appraisal and it sounds like a great fit for me. The guy that interviewed me wanted to hire me but had to check with the head office in Milwaukee before making an offer. As I waited, I went to the other interviews and got two more offers but I really liked the first one and was holding out. I called them every day at least twice a day to see if I was going to be hired until he finally said yes. I wonder to this day if he did not say yes just so I would quit calling! I got on the horn and called back to my bride in Ohio with the good news, we were moving to Atlanta. Somewhere, Coach must have known, right? As a side note, I never saw Coach again after graduation from high school but some of the guys on the golf team would get together and play a round with him occasionally and I asked them to let him know. I did hear back from one of the guys, and he said Coach got a kick out of hearing the news.
So, in February of 1984, I packed up my Chevette and headed back to Atlanta to find a place to live and start my life as an employee of American Appraisal Associates. I was the youngest person on the professional staff when I started and always felt like the “Kid.” Most of these guys were closer to my dad’s age or older when I started. They were tough but fair guys. The model used to train the newbies was an apprentice model. Being from a blue-collar town, I was cool with that and looked forward to getting up and running as fast as possible.” Please stick around a little longer as I come full circle to the luncheon in June 2026.
But First… A Joke:
A retiree wobbled into an ice cream shop and carefully climbed up onto a counter stool. He wheezed for a minute and then ordered a chocolate sundae. “Crushed nuts?” asked the server. “No,” he answered. “Bad knees.”
Bonus Dad Joke:
Dad, when he puts the car in reverse:
"Ah, this takes me back."
A Verse to Contemplate:
Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. - Philippians 3:13-14.
Have I Told You This One?
As Paul Harvey used to say, “and know, the rest of the story.”
A few weeks ago, I get a call from one of my first bosses, John, and he let me know that he was setting up this lunch with the old gang at American. My very first boss, Ed, was in town (he also moved to Florida) and would like to see everyone. He is 10 years older than me and has had some health challenges recently and I was not sure how he would look. Ed was the best boss when we worked together. He went to bat for me many times. Helped me get raises and promotions and genuinely cared about me but was tough and made me earn my stripes too. When I screwed up, he was also the first one to let me know about it. He inherited me since the big boss hired me without bothering to let him know. I laugh now but yikes, how did this ever work?!
I pull up to the restaurant at a local mall in Marietta and as I walk from the car, I see these two older guys with white hair slowly getting out of the cars in the handicap space and getting the walkers out of their trunks. I did a double take and realized it was Ed and another coworker from back in the 1980s. I went over and greeted them, and they looked at me in that way you look at someone at a class reunion that you haven’t seen in 30 years until you lock eyes and then the ole brain remembers.
As we gather in the restaurant and start talking about the old days over lunch, the memories start flowing back like a tidal wave. I am laughing, listening, and having a wonderful time. Given Ed’s health struggles I start wondering if this is last time I might see him or the others as well. I am 66 years old and still the “Kid!” It is weird to see others age. The reality slaps you in the face. It is hard not to notice the physical changes in me and them since those days of yore but reliving those stories and having great memories is awesome. But time does not stand still, in fact it speeds faster each year it seems.
After a three-hour lunch I tell everyone that I have to head back to work and generate some tax money so they can all get their checks at the first of the month since I am the only one working. I give everyone handshakes and hugs and head for my car and the Atlanta traffic.
As I get in my car and turn on the radio, Time Stand Still by Rush is playing. The album this song came out on was released in 1987, not too long after I moved to Atlanta and met all the people that I just had lunch with. I thought the timing was unique given the meaning of the song. It is not titled Time Stands Still, which most people say when the mention a moment when it felt like time stopped for a minute, it is titled Time Stand Still because it deals with the mediation of the fleeting nature of time., the inevitability of aging, and the importance of being present. The song serves as a gentle reminder to appreciate the current moment rather than getting lost or worrying about the future. The song was written by drummer Neil Peart and was inspired by the impact of spending many years touring and having to neglect friends and family. Realizing how quickly life and youth were passing, the song became a reminder to stop, look around, and cherish the sensations of the present before they slip away.
Rush has recently begun touring again after Peart’s death eleven or twelve years ago. They reunited with a female drummer from Germany that is fantastic. During the first concert in Los Angeles a few weeks ago she absolutely nailed a drum fill on the song Tom Sawyer that made national news (at least in the music world). I thought this was a lucid reminder that we all can and will be replaced when our time is done so we should take the time to enjoy the present as much as possible.
Some of song lyrics that I like in Time Stand Still are as follows:
Time stand still
I'm not looking back
But I want to look around me now
Time stand still
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now
Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger
I let my past go too fast
No time to pause
If I could slow it all down
Like some captain
Whose ship runs aground
I can wait until the tide comes around
Summer's going fast
Nights growing colder
Children growing up
Old friends growing older
Experience slips away
The innocence slips away
Looking at life from my 66-year-old eyes is a lot different from my 24-year-old eyes. My goals and desires are different, and my priorities are life adjusted. When you have fewer years in front of you than the years behind you it changes you. At least it did me. Thankful to the people in my life that cared about me from Coach to Ed. You guys are the best.
Time Stand Still
A Prayer:
Lord, help me to see the story You are writing in my life as an adventure. Thank You for giving me Your Spirit to lead me on my journey. Help me to see how you are putting every piece in place and that even the minute details, especially the minute details, all fit together just as You have planned. Amen.
Book Recommendation:
How to Test Negative for Stupid (And Why Washington Never Will) by John Kennedy U.S. Senator (2026)
Music Recommendation:
Hold Your Fire by Rush (1987)
Quote of the Day:
“Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.” —Jim Carrey
A Cool Place to Visit:
Fells Point, Maryland