Walking into our memories

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Our lives intertwine with friends and family. We choose the friends, sometimes by geographical vicinity, sometimes by group participation, and sometimes by career.

Sometimes having friends is by trial and error. Relationships can offer an uplifting experience or sometimes make a toxic mix within our lives. Thus the trial and error.

Family relationships add the same opportunities for a great lifetime experience or a mixture of misery over time.

There is an old saying “You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.”

One of the greatest commonalities we share with family though is we often love and share in the lives of people who have invested or simply been present in our lives. Grandparents, uncles, aunts, parents or other relatives who in some way made a positive impact.

Once those folks are called to their heavenly home, our family members are usually the only ones with which we can generally share memories of those gone loved ones.

Although memories of many of my loved ones run through my thoughts and dreams, seldom may I sit down and recall a specific time, place or memory with someone unless its a family member.

I recently was able to do that and it was such an uplifting experience to smile or laugh over those missed. To share in the places, people and experiences who shaped our lives, for me it left me life in a better place. I know however there are those out there for whom such would carry them in the opposite direction. The key to a successful and happy life beyond sustaining a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, is to building a life without toxic relationships.

Allow people into your life whether friend or family based on whether their presence adds to your existence. I don’t mean financially, I mean emotionally. There are a lot of folks who bring a lot of excess baggage along with them.

Now, choosing this path does not mean you will not find loneliness in your existence. Many times we give up on some of the fun, to avoid being in the midst of some misery.

We choose what makes up our lives. If you want a happier life, gravitate towards positive people who add to your days. If you want happier memories to walk within, share them with those who can make them bring a smile.

Bluegrass is in the air

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I pulled into the gates of the festival grounds and before I pulled even a few feet beyond the entrance, I could hear the musical notes flowing on the wind from the distance of the trees.

I could see people carrying their guitars, banjos and other instruments along the dirt road as I slowly made my way through the parking field and into the campground.

I passed jam session after jam session in the campground, “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” emanated from one, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” from another. Folks smiled and waved as I went by, as I neared the artist parking area. Those greetings made me feel right at home.

For years, this experience is one which I looked forward to almost every weekend once Spring arrived and throughout the year until the fall.

Bluegrass Festivals became a way of life and the people who attended week after week became extended family as we shared laughs, meals, talks, jam sessions and shows.

I once compared the experience like visiting Mayberry – we had our Aunt Beas, our Opies, Andys, Barneys, Gomers and Goobers.
I grew up performing at these types of events across the United States. It didn’t matter where we came from, what we believed, we were all part of the bluegrass family. We either played it or loved to listen to it and as long as we treated each other with respect, helped one another when needed, we were welcomed with smiles and usually an offer of hospitality where ever we went.

It was in this environment that I learned so much about music around campfires, listening and playing with pickers who just loved to play and occasionally the professionals who joined in the fun. As my stage opportunities grew and I performed at more and more events, I learned so much about performing and entertaining audiences. Those lessons only come by standing in front of an audience and learning what makes them smile, applaud, laugh or move to any variety of emotions.

This time of year always gets my feet to itching wanting to return to these type of environs. While these types of events are fewer and farther between than in my youth, they are still scattered across the United States. There are dozens of talented bluegrass artists entertaining audiences traveling across the country which fill the stages at these events.

If you have never attended a bluegrass festival, I encourage you to go outside your comfort zone and take one in. One you might try is the 51st Dr. Ralph Stanley Hills of Home Festival in McClure, Va. https://drralphstanleyfestival.com/ or check out https://ibma.org/ for other bluegrass info.

Bring your lawn chairs, pay your admission and a little money to buy something to eat from the concession stand, and enjoy the music. If you play, bring your instrument and find a jam session. Be friendly while there and you may just make some new friends. Bluegrass blessings!

Those darn socks

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I turned on the television and found a movie of interest. I set a stack of holey socks beside me along with my sewing kit.

I turned the sock inside out. I slipped the light bulb up inside and positioned it near the heel.

I threaded the white thread into the needle and tied a triple knot at its end. I then pushed the needle into the edge of the hole in the sock, and pulled it through. Unfortunately, it pulled straight through, so I added a couple of more knots at the end of the thread.

I pushed it through again and this time it held, so I repeated the process of stitching the hole shut.

The stack of socks with a mixture of holes in the heel or toe is about 25 deep, so the process continues as I pushed on with the task.

As I grew tired of the routine, I varied by changing the thread and sewing up holes in my boxer shots.

When I finish the process on the shorts and socks, I will gain several months of additional wear out of these items until they once again need some sewing to any new holes that develop.

Buying a bit of thread is a lot more economical than purchasing a new packet of socks or boxers.

While enjoying a movie, I am refilling my underwear drawer with useful items rather than throwing these into the dust rag storage bag. They may be there eventually but not while there is still wear in them.

While many of my jeans are now extremely stylish with well worn holes. Some are in places where I feel they should not be, so I recently picked up some jeans at the thrift store which will become patches for the inside of my jeans to fill those less that appropriate holes.

I am blessed that my folks taught me that anything you may do to lengthen the use of any item, is a productive use of your time. Fixing appliances rather than going and buying a new one. In most cases today though, you can’t buy parts, so you are stuck with filling the landfill.

In many ways life is filled with items that are ragged, worn, or seemingly on its last legs.

I often feel this way about my own physical or mental condition. Life can be a daunting experience that leaves us feeling like we could use a bit of stitching ourselves, maybe some stuffing here and there could be shifted or added to make us feel better. Alas, that is not possible for us to make such improvements ourselves. We can however work on our minds and bodies in a more long-term fashion.

A regular exercise routine can improve strength and energy. Study through reading, attending study groups or classes may encourage your mental health allowing you to uplift your outlook. Perhaps its you soul that could use a bit of polish. Pick up the Bible or a variety of biblical devotionals which you may find that will touch your daily outlook upon yourselves and others.

When you sit down and watch television each evening, think about things you might do that will allow you to improve your situation, so when you get up from watching it, you have made progress on something while you have also been entertained.

Using your time wisely and in a way that improves your life will change your world in a positive manner. Maybe starting by sewing up your socks will be a good start.

TV’s “In the Heat of the Night” hits 35

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We mark our lives in time by the passage of time. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and if we should hit longevity in our experiences, it generally involves many other people acknowledging the moment in our live.

In the United States, collectively, we just passed a marker in television history. The TV police drama series “In the Heat of the Night” debuted on NBC on March 6, 1988 – 35 years ago. A racially driven story line reaching back to the novels of John Ball and the Academy Award winning 1967 film by the same name but set in the 1980s South.

When it was started production only eight episodes were ordered. While creating so few is not unusual today, then a season order was 22 episodes. It gives me the feeling that those in charge at the networks didn’t really see the staying power of such a show and the appeal it would gain from the viewers.

Those eight episodes made the show a runaway hit appealing to the residents of small and medium size towns across the country and with them they took city viewers who connected with the small town experience.

In creating the show the developers working with MGM/UA selected Carroll O’Connor as “Chief Bill Gillespie” and Howard Rollins as “Det. Virgil Tibbs” to lead an amazing ensemble of actors who brought to life the fictitious town of Sparta, Mississippi. For those of you from that state, you likely know there is a crossroads community by that name but not like the community on the screen in the series.

From left are In the Heat of the Night stars David Hart “Parker Williams,” Randall Franks “Officer Randy Goode,” and Alan Autry “Bubba Skinner” in the Sparta Police squad room. (Photo: Randall Franks Media – Ned D. Burris)

Casting directors and producers found an amazing mix of actors to depict the characters created for the new series – Alan Autry as “Bubba Skinner,” David Hart as “Parker Williams,” Christian Le Blanc as “Junior Abernathy” and Hugh O’Connor as “Lonnie Jamison” and Peter Gabb as “Horace Goode.”

That was the original police cast that instilled a desire for viewers to tune in every week.

As the network locked in a second season of 22 episodes and MGM/UA moved its on location filming surroundings from Hammond, Louisiana to Covington, Georgia, they also changed up the cast a bit leaving the characters of Junior Abernathy and Horace Goode. They added actor Geoffrey Thorne as “Willson Sweet.”

Covington and Georgia welcomed the show as it began it’s second season filming in August of 1988 and many new adventures. Hosting a TV series was a major economic coup for both the state and a medium size town like Covington. So, all the cast moved to their new hometown crossing their fingers for continued success of all the team to create engaging stories that viewers would connect with.

And connect they did. The show became a mainstay in the top 30 weekly shows. Alongside “Matlock” and “Midnight Caller,” NBC’s Tuesday night lineup ruled the ratings.

Audiences tuned in to see a group of actors playing small town Southerners who each week reacted to the impact of the problems and topics every community across America was dealing with at some level. How the writers, actors and directors depicted these issues, offered America options in how to overcome such issues, how everyone can get along together no matter our differences, how to live together in a community, and how to succeed against adversities.

Yes, it was generally a weekly story about a crime, murder, solving mysteries, and hopefully getting the bad guys and girls. But we watched because we wanted to see how these characters that became beloved by audiences were impacted and responded to whatever faced them.

The show went on to produce what they described as eight seasons of hour episodes and a few movies filming from 1988-1994 while airing both on NBC and eventually moving to CBS. At it’s height of foreign first run, 150 countries were watching the guys and girls of Sparta and the show was top 10 in several nations. The cast and crew garnered numerous award nominations for the Golden Globes, Emmys, and Image and others. And they took home 2 Image Awards, and American Cinema Editors Award, and Carroll O’Connor received an Emmy.

“In the Heat of the Night” stands alongside the greatest police dramas in TV history, and among the few Southern dramas ever produced for episodic television. We tend to look back nostalgically, while looking more harshly at our current time. The period of this show was not an easy one in America, it was a racially centered drama in a time when our country was dealing with several racially centered issues that were dominating news cycles.

The show from my prospective was a release valve, that allowed us to collectively look at issues, and find the reality of our communities within the stories, and the strengths we have when working together rather than being divided. I am thankful for the writers who wrote the stories, the directors that guided their creation, the actors who were the face of the American South in that period and even today.

While I was not there in the beginning, in the fall of 1988, the directors and producers created a character for a young country music artist who had an earnest desire to act, I was that young actor and “Officer Randy Goode” was born giving me five years of working with “Bubba,” “Parker,” “Lonnie” “Willson,” “Chief Gillespie” and “Det. Tibbs” and all those who eventually joined the police cast, some among them: Crystal Fox, Dee Shaw, C.C. Taylor, Mark Johnson, Harvey Lee and Barbara Lee-Belmonte, Sharon Pratt and John Webb. I created with these amazing people and lived a life in Sparta, a favorite town for so many TV viewers.

As we mark the 35th of the beginning, all I can say is it was “Sho nuff” a grand old time and I want to thank all of you who watched, laughed and cried along with our efforts while maybe playing some checkers along with me. Those who watched will get the last bit. You can learn more by visiting www.RandallFranks.com/in-the-heat-of-the-night or check out my Encouragers book series for more photos and in-depth experiences with stars and guest stars.

The Spirit within

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Have you ever been in a room, and someone walks in and with your body you feel in your center mass of your chest a quiver.

As they draw closer to you, the disturbance within increases in its frequency of movement. Of course, exposing this in a public situation would be uncomfortable, so instead you hold your composure and let it pass. Hopefully, the situation does not place the person in your orbit.

I have experienced this and over the years as I moved on with my life, where I had the opportunity have watched those that the quiver warned me about. I have surmised that the Spirit within me was warning me that there was something within that person that was not coming from a good place, and they did not intend the best through their actions.

There have been occasions when such a person did come into my orbit, and it was all that I could do to withstand the impact of that exposure.

I have had similar experiences while seeing people on the news or while watching a TV show or a movie.

This feeling is much like a magnet when it pushes the same pole end apart. It’s there to warn us to protect ourselves against the evil around us.

That comes in many packages, sometimes with legs, sometimes through what we watch, hear, read, and see.

If you intake things that uplift your Spirit, reinforce it and feed it with positive, uplifting messages, love for your fellow man, then that will be reflected in the actions of your heart.
If you allow things that damage your Spirit, that expose you to darkness, evil, sadness, then your Spirit hardens and the warning quiver fades because you have in essence chosen to ignore it, then your actions will more and more reflect those negatives that you allow to invade your body.

When I have not ignored its warnings, that Spirit has guided me safely through much of my life.

Although like any headstrong child – of any age – during some periods and on some days, I have lost my way, giving in to other senses and feelings allowing those to overshadow the Spirit. That has always been to my detriment, emotionally, sometimes physically and financially.

When it occurs, it weakens my Spirit, depletes my energy and scatters my focus. It saddens me when I realize that I stepped outside the blessings my companion offers.

I believe that the Spirit is God’s way to be present in our lives and to walk with us in all that we do. When we ignore it, we are choosing to follow our own will, which is a choice that He gave us. Sometimes though when we follow the Pied Piper down the path, at some point we will have to pay the piper. Our hope then must be that if we choose to walk another path that it does not lead to our destruction or into the total hardening of the Spirit within us, so we no longer recognize ourselves.

Let’s fill our minds, our hearts, our eyes, our ears with the uplifting Word and with images, stories, films and TV shows, that reinforce the good within us. Let’s cast off that which is meant to draw us into a downward spiral with some aspect of destruction inevitable.

Will I find it?

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There are times I find myself looking for something that had eluded me.

In childhood, one of my favorite Saturday morning shows was “The Land of the Lost.”

In the story line, humans fell through a crack in space and time to the period and place where they had to exist with dinosaurs.

I am not sure where that crack is they fell through. I have never seen it but I have a feeling that it simply appears and disappears at will.

I currently have a line of socks sitting on my ironing board with no mates.

The crack seems to be drawn to my dryer. While I generally have liked wearing matching socks, I

am beginning to think that trend will have to change in order to stay ahead of the losses.

Perhaps it has a magnetism, the crack simply appears when something desires to escape its surroundings and find new adventures.

I don’t know where those little items get to that seem to take the trip.

Eventually, though they find their way back and usually just slightly off from their original position no worse for the wear.

I imagine though some of them could write a book that only the other in adamant objects could appreciate.

I have often placed the disappearances especially on items like car keys or things which delay departure as simply an angelical nudge to prevent some unknown course of action which would not have been in my best interest.

Even those times pass as the item reveals itself and the original desired departure occurs.

Sometimes I wonder if they are lost or are we.

Are we searching in vain in this world trying to find something that we do not really need?

Is the path that is promised that is ahead what we have really lost?

As we look upon recent events both here at home and abroad, sometimes I feel that we all have now fallen through that crack into the land of the lost. It seems that the dinosaurs have taken a different form but they still put our future at peril.

In the increasing sequence of velocity of the negative, I am pleased to see through the crack the reverberations of those who are seeking the Light of God’s love, being drawn into Revival at points reaching out initially from the crack that revealed itself at Asbury in Kentucky.

Perhaps this crack will widen and allow many more of the Lost to be found, perhaps the socks will find their match, the keys will reappear with destination fully ready to receive all those with a willing heart.

May our land become the center of such rejoicing in God’s gifts that no one resides in the land of the lost.

Where oh where are you tonight?

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That’s a line from a comedy skit I heard so many times, I can still sing it by heart from the long-running TV show – “Hee Haw.” “Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I’d found true love. You met another and th… you were gone.”
February always brings on thoughts of romance. I never realized when I was younger that skit would be a comedic commentary on my own love life or lack thereof.
Sometimes though God gives us ways to find humor in all aspects of what we face.
It is better to be able to laugh at ourselves rather than be settled in a rinse and repeat cycle of frustration, sadness or anger.
Over the years, I tried my best to learn how to be a good potential suitor.
I was taught how to act around females, what to wear depending upon the occasions, how to dance, and how to eat depending on the level of formality. Manners were the key I thought.
Then I realized many of the prettiest girls were drawn to the bad boys who seemed not to have any.
I could never pull that act off. Just wasn’t in my make up.
Although once I studied acting, I could manage a decent stab at it.
Early in my life experience, I tried but found no takers.
Then when I got a little older, I tried but wasn’t much interested in finding any takers that held on.
None really seemed like they wanted to anyway.
Once I did start trying harder, is when I seemed to be into repeating the lines of that song again and again.
I got so tired of the experience; it eventually became a comedy of errors that seems endless.
But despite my losses, I was comforted in knowing that marriage is an institution and I never want to be institutionalized anyway.
I know that love exists, otherwise folks wouldn’t spend all that money on those greetings’ cards with hearts and all those heart shaped boxes of candy, and dozens of red roses. Those must be the cement upon which hearts with initials are drawn upon.
“She took my heart out and stomped that sucker flat,” Lewis Grizzard joked.
I can say for sure that experience is not exclusive to the late columnist. Many of us have found our hearts on the floor.
But no matter how many times it hits the floor, you know, it has the ability to bounce back.
The right smile, the right look, the right words, a perfect song and your heart soars again to new heights.
And within you, you find the hope and the dream that love is possible.
You know, with God all things are possible.

Is it a God thing?

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Whenever I find myself facing an uncertain future, whether it’s in work or my personal life, ultimately, I always find myself praying for Divine intervention.
I ask for guidance. I ask for forgiveness. I ask for patience. I ask for inspiration.
It always seems I am asking Him for something. But seldom am I thanking Him for what He has already given.
From my personal experience, I know He hears and in His own way answers our requests. Sometimes the answer is no. We seldom understand that result. In fact, sometimes we interpret it, as He is not there. He is not listening. He has forsaken us.
From our own actions, many of us deserve to be forsaken but thankfully, as part of His family we will not be. We may not always get what our hearts desire. Our lives may not be easy. And sometimes they may be downright miserable. He is still with us.
In the face of what seems to be an ever-increasing presence of things that are ungodly being placed in front of us through media and in our own vision of the world around us,
I must conclude if there was ever a time for us to cry out to Him and ask His mercy upon us, it is now.
In recent weeks, I have been in prayer over lack of direction in my life, over falling short in His service and in trying to walk ever closer to Him. We all fall short of His love.
Yet, in the simplest thing, He can remind us “I am here, and I love you.”
I have a small golden key chain I was presented when I graduated from high school. I had never used it, only pulled it out and looked at it, thinking I will use it for a special occasion. Despite many years coming and going, I had not used it. I finally pulled it out and put my car keys on it. A small golden ball that served as a nut held the mechanism into place, thus holding the key ring into the golden circle into which it was mounted.
One day I went to the post office, I got out and the key ring fell apart dropping pieces to the ground. I bent over picked everything up and went on my way. I did not realize that the small golden ball that served a nut was not among what I picked up. I realized later at home it was gone. It could have unscrewed and fell off anywhere, I checked my clothes, the floorboard of the car, around the house, to no avail.
A couple a weeks passed when the thought hit me as I pulled into the post office again, go and look where you were parked that day. So, I did. I walked over to the empty parking space, took two steps beyond where my driver’s door was and there it sat. It had rolled and sat there for two weeks with no vehicles rolling over it. Not a soul had noticed this little golden ball the size of a large bb. After I had become acclimated that I would never be able to use the key chain again. God sent a thought, moved my body, and there was something I had lost, a piece of something I cherished just lying on the ground safe in a place it should not have been.
I have spent a lifetime in the music industry. I have strived to attain recognition for my music on the mainstream charts. That, along with awards is one of the ways we gauge our acceptance and success. I can tell you; those things just do not just happen. Behind the scenes, there are many actions taken by you and folks who support you which facilitate such an opportunity. I have been praying tirelessly for career guidance for months. This past week, I was notified that I had topped the Cashbox Magazine music charts with a song I wrote with Cotton Carrier and released years ago – “God’s Children” performed with the Watkins Family.
Never in my life had I been on the Cashbox charts, and then out of the blue I was number 1 on a mainstream entertainment chart with a song picked out of the blue by radio presenters with no behind the scenes promotion, no single release, not even trying. If that is not a God thing, I don’t know what is.
Look for the God things in your life. They are there, big and small. And when you find them, don’t forget to thank Him!

Dreams that inspire

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I ran down the dark corridor. My heart was beating fast as I heard footsteps rushing towards me from behind. I opened the door at the end as it swung inward and next, I found myself dangling from the doorknob over a dark pit that seemed bottomless.


I held on for dear life trying to pull myself back up into the hall.


Which was worse? Falling into the dark unknown or making it back to the solid hallway where I was being chased by who knows what.


Thankfully, I didn’t have to find out as my alarm went off bringing me safely back into my bedroom.
Dreaming can sometimes bring us to smiles, sometimes to fear, sometimes in between.


I have spent time in many dreams sitting and talking with loved ones who were long passed. Those moments are usually cherished opportunities to spend a few more minutes with a dear friend or relative.


Other dreams have found me in places I have never been experiencing new adventures with people I have never known or with faces I recognize. Those are usually quite comforting as well.


As a youth I saw dreams as roadmaps to where God wanted to take me, and often he placed the footsteps out ahead of me as if they were flashing in neon.


Those took me places I could have never dreamed of in my waking hours.


Are dreams simply our imagination running wild?


Are messages from our past, our future, or from our loved ones gone on hidden within?


I know that people in various forms of study have spent endless hours trying to answer those types of questions. From the Biblical stories of Joseph interpreting the dreams of pharaoh, to whatever scenario one might surmise from their own research, dreams play a vital part in our lives.


They give us relief, sometimes hope, and sometimes fear. No matter what they provide, if you are blessed with a good dream experience, be thankful for what has passed. Perhaps it is a God wink to uplift.


If it’s not such a good experience, maybe that is an inducement to examine your life and find where you might improve to clear your heart and mind, so next time it can be.


For me, despite a few frightening ones along the way, the good ones outweigh those, and from time to time, I do believe God’s drops in a bit of guidance here and there to make my life better, if I only recall it.
So, get a good night’s rest…

Stuck in a rut

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I have often heard a comment when people seem to be immobilized in life about them being “stuck in a rut.”

Another adage equates the rut with a grave suggesting that covering oneself up and relenting to your demise may be the best course of action.

Since there is only a slim chance any of us reading this are likely driving a covered wagon to get stuck in the rut, and even a lesser number are actually grave diggers, I will suggest, we have the ability to change our direction without filling our own grave with us in it.

However, often we might seem to be like the proverbial mouse on the turning wheel, getting nowhere in our efforts to redirect our lives.

Can we get out of the rut and “In the groove?” That’s another one of those descriptors meaning we have everything going our way. It reflects the needle within the jazz record groove moving smoothly over the surface of the album or the jazz talents being in sync with one another. A later adjective would have simply been “groovy.”

But for our analogy, its predecessor fits as we are seeking the right path. But unlike the needle going around the circles on an album, we do not know where our groove will lead.

However maybe all it will take is for us to get up and turn the crank on the Victrola to give us that momentum to find out.

What do you want next in life?

Is there a new job which is your hope?

Do you have your eyes on that perfect person to share your life?

Maybe its smaller, a few repairs, a part-time job, or simply studying a new subject that will give you skills needed for a better life.

I have often found myself seated on the precipice, trying to decide whether to jump into the unknown or remain safely perched on my solid rock watching the world roll by.

It is only when I had the strength to push off from safety that I actually began to see that forward momentum impact what was to come.

Safe is a nice thing. Comfort is a nice thing. We all have aspects of our life in which we desire those adjectives to dominate. Sometimes though we must strive away from the safety and comfort to help us find those new adventures which will forge what is ahead of us.

My multiple great uncle John Shields stepped into the unknown beside Lewis and Clark as they explored the interior of the continental United States for my third cousin Thomas Jefferson. How could he decide to embark on such an arduous adventure. I am not sure but when he was asked, he went.

My first cousin (13-removed) Sir Walter Raleigh embarked on numerous adventures, some which could have easily ended in his death, but yet he went, with his final one resulting in English execution at the behest of Spain.

Jumping bravely into the unknown does not always result in happy endings but it does add variety in the tapestry within which the threads of our life are depicted.

So, is it better to stay in the rut or to rock with all our might to force ourselves out of it, so we can gain forward momentum?

I can’t speak for you, but for me I will rock with all my might until I am able to push on to reach whatever God has in store. I pray those things are blessings and He protects me from all harm which could befall me.

But if that not be my fate, then I only ask the Grace to face the adventure with dignity, patience and understanding in whatever comes my way.

What will be your fate? Are you filling the dirt in around you with each day or does your groove show you a way out?