In this picture, I am about 59 years old.  As I write this, I am 60.5 years old.  I was born at the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital aboard the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base on January 18th, 1954.  My mother was a “local,” Vivian Inez “Mickey” (Morton) Gibson, and my dad was a young Marine, Billy Gene Gibson.  There was about 14 years difference in their ages.

The picture of me taken in front of the water, a small bay, in front of my Aunt Pete’s house at 521 Riverside Drive in Portsmouth, Virginia. I’m guessing that my mom took the picture. Note the black rectangle near my head. This was part of the internal camera that had broken off and showed up in several pictures taken with the same roll of film. There is another picture of Aunt Pete and Ervin Wilkins (her boyfriend) taken on his boat in front of her house. I think her “body language” speaks volumes.

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I attended Swansboro Elementary and High School and graduated in 1972.  I then went on to college, attending first UNC-Chapel Hill, then Campbell College, and finally UNC-Wilmington, graduating from there in August of 1976.  I didn’t attend graduation the following year, or get my diploma for several years, although I eventually sent for and received it. I put the paper diploma in a oak frame. The wood was so hard that it was always difficult to keep the tacks that held the glass in, seated. *And one time when I had requested transcripts from UNC-W, I was looking through them in the back bedroom at 204 Johnson Blvd. in Jacksonville. I recall seeing several courses that I hadn’t taken, and then I realized that they had confused my dad’s time, much earlier than I had attended, and lumped both his grades and mine together. I never corrected them. That might have been at least 16 years difference.

I became a Christian in January of 1977. I had gone through severe depression after college. And then I had a mystical spiritual experience, even going down to Disney World in Orlando, Florida with John Sharp. But, I knew I had to do a 180 from the direction I had been going and so I stopped drinking alcohol and doing Marijuana. I never tried anything harder like Cocaine, or Meth. Still, I had an addictive personality and recall that one time, while at UNC-Chapel Hill, I stopped and realized that I had had a drink of some kind of alcoholic beverage for every day of 30 days.

Funny how I have several hard liquor beverages in my bedroom closet and hardly ever drink. Actually, I found that I liked Peach Schnapps and I may taste a thimble full or less once or twice a week, but the Disaronno, has been untouched for months, if not a year. I don’t like the taste of beer, and it has been several years since I at least tried some to recall how much I hated the taste. And, I don’t drink for two main reasons. I don’t want to comfort myself, from any problems that might occur, with drink. And the other, is that I’m fairly serious about my Blood Sugar Levels and weight, and an alcoholic beverage just doesn’t fit in with maintaining either. Literally, I take a sip to remind myself of how good it tastes.

Surprisingly, I have a concoction that I call “Bill’s Drink” and I have drank a Carafe each day for more than six months. It consists of the following four beverages: Orange Juice, Cranberry Juice, Pomegranate Lemonade Drink Mix, and Iced Tea & Lemon Drink Mix. I get the two mixes from Walmart. I’ve got to have all four of these mixed together to really enjoy the drink. If I don’t might just be satisfied with drinking iced water.

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I joked about spending my retirement in my early years, and that apparently is how things are working out.  I have been employed at Fayetteville State University since August of 1995, originally teaching faculty and staff how to use various PC applications, and then as the Webmaster (later Web Developer) and Blackboard (LMS) Administrator since 1998.  I played a lot of tennis, even teaching it through the Onslow County Rec Dept. for both children and adults. *I even bought a Wingfield Tennis Racquet Stringer. But I was never the businessman and never made any profit off of it, or my teaching. I did get paid by the County, Onslow. But, I would teach a lesson for a can of tennis balls, and that might have been as cheap back then as less than $3 an hour.

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My mother died on December 16th, 1980 of Leukemia.  Colonel Harlan Sanders died the same day, also of Leukemia. I was 26 years old at the time and thought this was normal. Not that Col. Sanders had died, but I thought any parent could die even when I was relatively young. Having lived as long as I now have, I know she was taken way too early… but not really.  I recall that it was a cold windy day, the day of her funeral.  The funeral service was performed at Jones Funeral Home in Jacksonville and then the procession drove to the family cemetery near Swansboro for her burial.  I recall a black policeman, one of two officers, whose task was to leap frog with his partner and stop traffic in Jacksonville for the procession.  As the hearse and the vehicle I was riding in approached the black officer, he would doff his cap, bring it to half-staff, and snap to attention.  It’s the little things you remember, and this special act of respect, by this officer, was appreciated to this very day.  What is that, almost 34 years ago?

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A year or so before my mother’s death, I had felt the call to return to school, seminary, to train to be a youth minister.  I had gotten a “wait” reply, and then with my mother’s illness and death realized that if I had gone earlier, I would have had to stop my education.

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But, here is where I make a big mistake.  I had written to several seminaries and I think Southern Seminary, in Louisville, KY was the only one that had responded.  I had filled out the application and been accepted and one afternoon I was on my knees praying just inside my front door at 204 Johnson Blvd. in Jacksonville, NC when God told me to “wait”.  It caught me by surprise, and a stopped and then here was the error,… “but God, everything is ready and it is just two weeks before the semester starts.” (or something to that effect).  How many Christians have made that same error?  Trying to explain to God why things should be other than what He wants.

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So, I packed up my belongings and headed off to Louisville, KY.  I attended Southern Seminary for a couple of years, floundering, and eventually switching from MDiv (Youth Minister) to a Masters in Social Work program (brand new).  *I like the picture of me at Southern because of how the tree and all it’s branches seems to be coming out of my head, like electricity, although bent.

I eventually left with about 56 hours of graduate work and headed briefly to Lineville, AL (S.I.F.A.T.).  This time encompassed the 1984 Summer Olympics.  And somewhere during this time, people playing tennis started saying “my bad” after they had made an error.  I thought it sounded very “back woods” and didn’t pick up the saying.

After living in Alabama for about 11 months I returned to Jacksonville, North Carolina. Well, there was still a black family living in my house at 204 Johnson Blvd., so I lived in a trailer down in Kellum’s Trailer Park for a while. Mary Ann was always good to me.

Eventually, I went to work for the Salvation Army, and then later for the New River Baptist Association. E. J. Hines was the Director at the time, and Faye Edwards was his Executive Assistant. I would go on to work three jobs while I was also attending Coastal Carolina Community College to get an MST A.A. Degree. Actually, the job with the Association ended because we were losing money. But, the Hem of His Garment II continued on down in Swansboro and was successful. I guess it became just the Hem of His Garment. *I was “bad mouthed” by some down that way for thinking I was taking from them, and yes, I was, but that’s because I was trying to keep both going. I didn’t have an option to close one, the one that had been around longer, and leave the other going.

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[NOTE 04/01/25]: And now I am editing this page again, and I’m 71 years old. [end NOTE]