CLEOEJACKSONIII.COM
  • My Home Page
  • My Life and Ministry
  • My Ongoing Thoughts
  • My Favorite Bible Verses
  • My Favorite Stories
  • My Favorite Jokes
  • My Favorite Quotations
  • My Favorite Web Links
  • My Contact Info
"Helping Others Communicate"

"WHAT’LL YA HAVE?”

11/29/2021

 
The annual football game between the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology is often referred to as “Clean Old Fashioned Hate”.  This past Saturday, the Bulldogs played the Yellow Jackets in their yearly gridiron grudge match. 

This time, at least, the Bulldogs came out on top.  Actually, they came out way over the top.  So much so that I can already see how the sarcastic bumper stickers are likely to read:  “Culture 0, Agriculture 45”.


As I watched the game, I reflected on my own various trips to these two schools and their respective stadiums over the years.  Samford Stadium and Bobby Dodd stadium are at once uniquely different and somewhat similar. 

In Athens at U.G.A., the defining feature is surely the hedges, between which the game is played.  In Atlanta at Ga. Tech, it is likely the city’s skyline looming up and over the field of play in every direction.


One thing they have in common is their respective proximity to a world famous restaurant known as “The Varsity”.  The latter now has multiple locations all over the metropolitan Atlanta area.  But its principle location has always been directly across the street from Georgia Tech.  Not surprisingly, its first expansion was to open in Athens, Georgia, not far from the University of Georgia’s campus.  

Billed as the largest drive-in restaurant in the world, the original downtown Atlanta location takes up two entire city blocks, and can accommodate up to 500 cars in the parking lot and 800 indoor diners simultaneously.  Known principally for its chili dogs and fries/onion rings, as well as it frozen Orange drinks, it can serve as many as 30,000 hungry customers in a single day!

According to its website (https://thevarsity.com/):

“The original Varsity was opened in 1928 on a 70' X 120' lot with a white picket fence by a man named Frank Gordy; a man with a $2000 nest egg and "million dollar taste buds." Through his dedication to freshness, superior quality, advanced technology and serving the best food fast, he gained a reputation that is known worldwide.”

A pastor I know, who grew up in Atlanta and attended the now defunct O'Keefe Junior High School, the property of which has since been subsumed by Georgia Tech, once told the following story about how the Varsity Restaurant was founded.

He related the story of how a sharp young man once flunked out of the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Upon his expulsion, the young man was purportedly told by the Dean of Students that he would never amount to anything.  Thereupon, he promptly went across the street and opened up a restaurant, known as The Varsity, determined to prove the Dean wrong.  That he soon did!

I have searched the internet and have been unable to verify this story.  It seems that after graduating from Reinhardt University, a certain Frank Gordy did indeed go on to enroll in the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

For whatever reason though, in 1925, he left and started his now famous restaurant in 1928.  One website says he decided that Tech “was not for him”.  Yet, Ga. Tech’s own alumni page proudly proclaims that he came back to Tech and graduated in 1929.


It is obvious, therefore, that after ninety plus years, the intricacies of these various transitions in Gordy’s life are ambiguous to say the least.  Why exactly he left Georgia Tech and then went back is not clear. 

And yet, none of this, takes away from the power of the story I first heard some forty years ago and related above.


How many times has someone with a vision had that dream all but squelched by nay-sayers?  How many times have visionaries been told that they would never succeed? 

Praise God, therefore, for people who have vision.  But praise God even more so for people with both vision and passion!!!  After all, it is one thing to have a vision.  It is another thing altogether to hang in there and see that vision through to fruition. 


Frank Gordy seems to have known all of this.  He seems to have known in his heart that his restaurant would succeed, and, for this reason, he worked with all his might to make this happen.  On his very first day in business in 1928, he served 300 people. To put this in perspective, when hot dogs were selling for a nickel a piece, he brought in a whopping $47.30. 

A year later, on the very day that the stock market crashed, he posted $68.30 in receipts.  What is more, by the end of the 1930s, during the Great Depression and the bleakest economy in U.S. history, he had already made his first million dollars!


Let's apply this. 

Do you have a dream?  Do you have a vision?  If so, then don’t surrender it in the face of nay-sayers!  Instead, have a passion as big as your vision!  Then, just plan your work and work your plan.  In due time, who knows?  You may well see the reward for your efforts!  Frank Gordy certainly did.


So did a young man named Joseph in the Old Testament.  He had great dreams about his future.  And he dared to share those dreams with others, who then chose to frown on them.  Yet, he believed, he persisted, and in due time, he triumphed.  You can read more about him and his journey in the Old Testament Book of Genesis, chapters 37 and following.

To this very day, if you enter a Varsity restaurant and approach the counter, you will hear someone say, “What’ll ya have… What’ll ya have?”  I close this post with the same question.  What will you have out of life?  What will you have today, tomorrow, and on into your future? 

Perhaps the best answer to this question is, “I’ll have my chosen vision with a side of passion!”  Trust me.  That selection should both fill you up and sustain you for quite some time!

SOURCES:
 
https://thevarsity.com/; 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gordy;
https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/dining/the-varsity-turns/jr5gVAXtsUIIBQCJyu49wI/.

SCRIPTURE:

https://biblehub.com/niv/genesis/37.htm.

Comments are closed.

    Cleo E. Jackson, III

    Occasionally I will add
    a few thoughts to my blog. If you find them inspirational, I will be
    honored.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All