Country Boy: Way Down Home

By Jay Thomas Willis

“Country Boy: Way Down Home” is a book of sayings, thoughts, and ideas. These thoughts came from the author’s own cerebral processes. He simply sat down over a period of many months and forced his conscious and subconscious mind to produce these ideas. They are meant to inspire and to motivate. You will find them interesting, captivating, entertaining, and stimulating. It took him seventy-five years to accumulate the wisdom that went into the writing of this book. Some of these sayings are short and curt, some are longer, but you will find all of them memorable. These thoughts are meant for those individuals who have come to a crossroad and ready to do some serious thinking about their life. Mostly the author has written some words to live by.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669876205

Jay Thomas Willis

Jay Thomas Willis graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a B.S. degree in sociology. He also graduated from Texas Southern University with a M.Ed. in counseling, in addition to receiving a MSW in social work from the University of Houston. Willis has held numerous social work positions.

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 by Jay Thomas Willis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/24/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

853290

Also by Jay Thomas Willis

Nonfiction

A Penny for Your Thoughts: Insights, Perceptions, and Reflections on the African American Condition

Implications for Effective Psychotherapy with African Americans

Freeing the African-American’s Mind

God or Barbarian: The Myth of a Messiah Who Will Return to Liberate Us

Finding Your Own African-Centered Rhythm

When the Village Idiot Get Started

Nowhere to Run or Hide

Why Black Americans Behave as They Do: The Conditioning Process from Generation to Generation

God, or Balance in the Universe

Over the Celestial Wireless

Paranoid but not Stupid

Nothing but a Man

Things I Never Said

Word to the Wise

Born to Be Destroyed: How My Upbringing Almost Destroyed Me

Nobody but You and Me: God and Our Existence in the Universe

Got My Own Song to Sing: Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome in My Family

Random Thoughts on My Reality

A Word to My Son: A Celebration

Messed-Up Kid

Off-the-Top Treasures

Going with the Flow

Man’s Basic Purpose

God Told Me to Tell You

My Life and Times: Some Personal Essays

Life’s Lessons: Some Passing Thoughts

Why I Write: Notes Straight from the Hip

Just Jazzing: Thoughts from the Depth of My Soul

It’s Good to Be Alive: Focusing on the Positive Rather Than the Negative

Fiction

No Worldly Options Except Suicide or Schizophrenia: But God Has His Own Plans

You Can’t Get There from Here

Where the Pig Trail Meets the Dirt Road

The Devil in Angelica

As Soon as the Weather Breaks

The Cotton is High

Hard Luck

Educated Misunderstanding

Dream On: Persistent Themes in My Dreams

Longing for Home and Other Short Stories

Promises I Must Keep: Maintaining My Family’s Legacy

What Kind of Fool? and Other Short Stories

Poetry

Reflections on My Life: You’re Gonna Carry That Weight a Long Time

It’s a Good Day to Die: Some Personal Poetry About the Ups and Downs in My Life

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface

1 Personal Behavior

2 Acknowledging Your Purpose and Assignment

3 Family and You

4 Education and You

5 Balance in Perspective

6 A Few Tricks

7 God and Religion

8 A General Perspective

About the Author

Dedication

To everyone who misused, mistreated, abused, and neglected me. They played an important role in making me who I am today. Regardless as to how much of a ham I am. Without them I probably wouldn’t have been as motivated as I was to do something with my life.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas Southern University, the University of Houston, Loyola University-Chicago, and the University of Illinois-Chicago Circle, for providing a necessary education.

Thanks to my wife and sons for their love and support. Without them I couldn’t have made it through.

Thanks to my brother Wade for supporting me in my younger years, and most of all buying me that car when I was sixteen. It provided me with a means of getting beyond my small world in a rural area of a small country town.

Thanks to Social Security for providing me with the only means I had for attending college. My father retired when I was sixteen, and at that time, if your father retired when you were still in school, you were entitled to receive part of his Social Security benefits. That program, thanks to Richard Nixon and his Congress, is no longer in effect.

Thanks to the Veterans Administration for supporting me with much needed funds through graduate school.

Thanks to the Almighty God for introducing me to the computer so I could write as I pleased.

Thanks to the Writer’s Digest School for helping me to improve some aspects of my writing style.

Preface

The author has written a book of sayings, ideas, and thoughts. He usually sat in his La-Z-Boy in his study while listening to smooth jazz on his TV. He wrote whatever came to his mind that was felt to be appropriate. He simply tossed various ideas around in his head until he came up with something plausible. As with some of his other books, he used a process of brainstorming where he forced his conscious and subconscious mind to come up with these thoughts. A few of them are common sayings, but most of them came strictly from his own cerebral processes. He wrote at various times of the day and night. The best time for him was in the latter part of the night.

He racked his brain for many months to come up with these sayings, ideas, and thoughts. Some of them simply ran through his mind as he thought about what he wanted to write. Most of these sayings came after some deep thought.

Most of them are original, but you must consider that they came from the deep recesses of his mind and were recorded there from what he had heard and read. No one wants to read a book that is only repeating ideas circulating in the general culture. Sometimes he couldn’t keep track of his ideas and lost many of them while thinking about other things.

He entitled this book, Country Boy: Way Down Home, because at heart he will always be a country boy. He left home at almost nineteen to attend college. By that time a country boy ideology was firmly ingrained in his conscious and subconscious mind. Most of them are straight from an isolated rural farm in East Texas.

He was raised on an isolated rural farm way out in the middle of nowhere. They had no electricity for a while, no gas, no telephone, and no plumbing. There was only a three-mile trail to his house. He plowed a mule from sunup to sunset during the growing season. He also spent a lot of time cutting grass, general-farm maintenance, and herding of animals. So, you can see why he calls himself a country boy.

One of the reasons he left the farm when he did was because he feared getting caught up and having to spend his life on the farm. That was the last thing he wanted to happen.

He went to college, to the Navy, back to graduate school, and then moved to a South Suburb of Chicago. He has lived in the south suburbs for the past forty-eight years. He has two sons, a wife, and a decent home. Both his sons graduated from college. He is now seventy-five years old. He has been in Chicago twice as long as he was on the farm, but still calls himself a country boy. Some would say that the early years have the most influence on a person’s life.

He would like to think that his writings mimic a smooth jazz tune. He can’t describe this phenomenon but can only hint at such a connection.

In this book the author has made some statements that he believes to be close to the truth as you can get. He would not make these statements if he did not believe them to be true. They are consistent with his faith and his beliefs.

He has grouped these sayings into various categories. Some of the categories are fluid and sayings could just as easily fit one category as another.

Check out this and other of the author’s books @ amazon.com, or willisjay.com, by Jay Thomas Willis.

1

Personal Behavior

Because someone says something about you doesn’t mean you’ve got to become that.

Be careful about the messages you allow people to send to your subconscious.

"You