1st All Saints Day 1st-2nd Dia de los Muertos 4th First Friday Art Trail 4th-5th Holiday Extravaganza

Holiday Extravaganza, Nov. 4 & 5

The Holiday Extravaganza is set for 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 4 and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 5.

Items for sale will include themed baskets, wreaths, baked goods, jams & jellies, and raffl e items. The event is held each year to benefi t Lubbock Meals on Wheels. Community Christian Church is at 96th Street and Indiana Avenue.

The beginning of a mission

By Laurie Foster

FOUNDER/DIRECTOR, BACKYARD MISSION

Thirty years ago, Backyard Mission roofed its fi rst house, September 1992. The lady in the house was a client of Adult Protective Services, and they provided the materials. Backyard Mission provided the labor. “It has been a wonderful 30 year adventure. I had no idea what I was doing, which is why it worked. God knew exactly how to start

Laurie and her mission friend, Debbi. The old red jeep was the work vehicle.

The lady’s house. All she owned was in the one room that did not leak

and run a home-repair ministry. I had no preconceived idea of how things should go. I simply followed God’s lead. All glory to God. I am nothing, and God is everything.” Thank you for walking with us, giving to us, praying for us, working for us. You have served Jesus, as you have served our people.

Life can be diffi cult if all you see is everything that’s wrong. Start focusing on what’s right, what’s good, what’s constructive. No matter what you’re facing, if you choose a positive mindset, you’ll emerge the winner. So if you want to feel better,

you’ve got to think better. – Mufti Menk

Golden Gazette • November 2022 • Page 15 ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ by Johnny Nash

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day

While the now-classic song was not autobiographical for Johnny Nash, his recording is one of the most iconic tunes of the 1970s— or any decade—and the ultimate feel-good work about overcoming adversity and reveling in the joy of new hope and courage, and the determination to move forward.

Look all around, there’s nothing but blue skies

Look straight ahead, nothing but blue skies

“I Can See Clearly Now” has been described as “soulful pop” powered by a gentle undercurrent of reggae, a musical genre from Jamaica that blended local folk music

with such instruments as the guitar, banjo and hand drums. Yet little is known about the talented (and pretty much forgotten) originator of the song that ushered in a form of music new to a mainstream American audience.

John Lester Nash, Jr., was born in Houston in 1940 to a homemaker and a chauff eur. A good-looking, well-mannered child, he was raised on gospel and sang at the neighborhood Progressive New Hope Baptist Church.

At age 13, Johnny be-

gan performing on Matinee, a Houston afternoon program that helped to break down the color barrier on local television. Within three years, he was earning more money than his father.

Signing on to the ABCParamount label, Nash became a successful recording artist at age 17. His fi rst release fi zzled, but his second single of “A Very Special Love” rocketed into the national Top 25 on the Billboard charts. Movie work soon followed. In 1958, he won the lead role in a fi lm called Take a Giant Step, in which he portrayed a black high schooler struggling in a white neighborhood. Two years later, Johnny appeared as a gang member in the movie “Key Witness.”

Back in the recording studio, he eschewed rock ’n’ roll in favor of urbane ballads, much in the style of Johnny Mathis. By the mid1960s, though, Nash found himself out of work and pretty much overlooked.

In 1965, he and his manager/business partner Danny Sims moved to Jamaica in hopes that a new locale might rekindle Nash’s stalled career. Here Johnny met Bob Marley, a dreadlocked reggae artist who was admired but little known outside of his Kingston neighborhood.

Johnny immediately acknowledged Marley’s songwriting talent, and an introduction to Sims resulted in Johnny and Danny becoming the future superstar’s managers.

Johnny loved the new style of music that was everywhere in Jamaica. (“Reggae represented to me a layer of rhythm that was totally infectious.”) His later 45s became UK winners, and in 1968 he reached the American Top Five with his reggae-fueled “Hold Me Tight.”

Four years later came the disc that would catapult him to global stardom when he wrote, sang and produced “I Can See Clearly Now,” which sold in the millions.

Could there be a better legacy for any musician?

A wife got so mad at her husband, that she packed his bags and told him to get out.

As he walked to the door, she yelled, “I hope you die a long, slow and painful death.”

He turned around and said, “So you want me to stay?”

What a difference your lunch hour can make! Once a week, or once a month, use your lunch hour to deliver a hot, nutritious meal to someone who is homebound.

You will make their day, and they will make yours.

Call 806-792-7971

for more info.

Page 16 • November 2022 • Golden Gazette What to eat: get a little bit better as we go

Do you ever wonder, what should I eat today? I never had my own family, but I’ve always wondered how someone decides what to make for dinner night after night. I just please myself, not a family of fi ve or six.

You want to off er the best in nutrition, but they all have their own taste buds, and I notice everyone wants to satisfy them. When I was a kid, it was rare to be asked, “What do you want to eat?” We went to the table to eat and ate what was placed before us. Sometimes it sounds like people think their mother is a short order cook. We just didn’t’ live that way.

My Granny always said everyone has something they don’t like. I could not tolerate turkey. My sister did not like chicken. I never remember us being forced to eat anything, but my Granny was such a good cook, she satisfi ed everyone. That was her calling.

I didn’t get any of her skill in that department.

But many things have changed in the way we view food. If I had the power, I would make using seed oils against the law. Even in health food stores, they use seed oils. If you go to cureamd.com (cure macular degeneration), you fi nd the site of Dr. Chris

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Knobbe. He has done a fabulous job of writing the defi nitive book on macular degeneration and says the cause is our huge use of vegetable and seed oils. Most of you have or

know someone who has macular degeneration. It is no fun.

So what should we eat? There is a website called foodrevolution.com. They put out a top 10 list of good foods and bad foods.

We will start with the top 10 foods to avoid. If you eat a lot of these foods, then start with choosing to eat it only 3 times a week. You can choose to eat it less than that, over time, if you wish. The top 10 foods to avoid are sugar and artificial sweeteners, alcohol, fried foods, white fl our, processed meats, soda, commercial baked goods, grain-fed red meat, dairy and high salt foods.

I don’t always take someone else’s list as certain. A good way to get a second opinion is to go to Dr. Greiger’s site, www.nutritionfacts. org and see what he says about those foods. Some people would say, “What else is there to eat?”

Actually there are many foods that are allowable, but we have become addicted to these foods, and that is probably why we have the highest medical bills in the world, by far, and yet we are 70th on the list of health of our citizens. Maybe we need to eat better and drug less?

So let’s look at the top 10 foods we should eat - leafy dark greens, berries, mushrooms, legumes/beans, nuts/seeds, onions/garlic, tomatoes, cabbage and other crucifers, turmeric and tea.

I’m pretty sure I would have a diff erent top 10 lists, but it does give you a direction to go. I’d say dark leafy greens, of which I do not eat enough of, and berries are at the top of my list. I love the greens, but they go bad quickly. I need to eat more like the Europeans or New Yorkers where they stop by the store every day to get what they want for the next 24 hours. I do eat plenty of berries because they really are some of my favorite foods.

No one is perfect with eating unless that is all they are doing. People who have jobs and families sometimes are required to get something on the run. All we can do is our best.

What I am most interested in right now is trying to avoid anything that has the seed oils or vegetable oils in it. Why? Because I have macular degeneration, and seed oils are implicated in that disease.

If you have a problem, whether it is eyesight or a fatty liver, go to Dr. Greiger’s site called www.nutritionfacts.org. I suggest his site because it all comes from research. You can search anything. He is always adding more to his site. He talks about the food and then says, “They put it to the test,” meaning they did research on the subject, and then he gives you the research. It is on video and easy to digest.

Just playing with this list, you can see where you excel and where you are a bit behind. All we can ask for is to get a little bit better as we go.