Books by Rick Eddins:
Call Me a Countrypolitan
The Holy Land to Hallowed Ground
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Press Coverage
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Wake Weekly | Rolesville Buzz | Franklin Times
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Wake Weekly | Eastern Wake News
Story by Leslie Rudd - Staff Writer - Wake Weekly Nov. 6 2008:
Rick Eddins finds it difficult to describe his life in common terms. So the six term state representative and Rolesville native coined his own word, countrypolitan, to describe himself.
Eddins' vibrant life is laid out in black and white in his book Call Me a Countrypolitan. Bringing the story of Eddins' travels across North Carolina from the 1950s through today has been more than four years in the making.
On his frequent trips to High Point to purchase furniture for his Rolesville-based store, Eddins wanted to utilize his time on the road.
"I had a lot of time on my hands during those trips and I tried to make use of my time by making notes of my past and things that impressed me," he said.
Intending to compile his memoirs, Eddins hit a road block. "I found that you can have the gift of gab, but it's harder to have the gift of the written word."
Deciding two heads are better than one, Eddins enlisted the help of local pastor Br. Bob O'Keef. The pair worked diligently every morning for more than a year.
Over coffee every morning Eddins talked while O'Keef recorded the conversation.
Every day O'Keef typed a manuscript of the conversation and sent it back to Eddins for changes.
The impromptu arrangement inspired Eddins to see the project's completion. "That's what really energized me to finish," he said. [The book] would not have become a reality without Bob's gift of writing."
However, the book almost didn't reach the bookshelves due to constrictive publishers. "I was really turned off by the publishers' time frame," said Eddins. "I didn't want to wait a year and a half to get it printed - so I let it sit for six months.
But the book kept calling to him. "It was a shame to have it finished and not publish it," he said.
What publishing companies didn't realize was Eddins and O'Keef had the book much closer to completion than they expected. Bound manuscripts had been finished for months, with editing notes made by friends and family. Seeing the nearly completed Call Me a Countrypolitan, Advantage Publishing in Charleston, S.C., had the book published in two months.
The pen is mightier...
Writing down memories and local history may have been a challenge for Eddins, but he had no lack of inspiration from his childhood in northern Wake County.
"Writing this book brought back a lot of memories for me ... like [community member] Blind Robert. I learned a lot from him. As I got older, I realized more about him. He was blind and he didn't let that stop him. He got around in life by really listening.
"In life, like the legislature, you really need to listen to your constituents. This is the same rule for marriage, family, children - really listen to them," he said.
His book takes readers from his childhood in the tobacco fields of Wake County to the Army; from finding his wife Sherry to finding his voice in the government.
As Eddins weaves through North Carolina's distinctive history, he finds readers - local and transplants - take something away from these stories.
People pick out something that brings back memories of their own. Some people personally know the people and places in this book," Eddins said with a grin. "Others that didn't grow up here enjoy hearing about this area.
"People move here because they long for the local flavor - that's what appeals to them. They don't know exactly what it is, but there is something that attracts them to these stories and to this area."
Eddins' Call Me a Countrypolitan is available at Storyteller's Book Store in Wake Forest and online at amazon.com. Eddins will be at Storytellers' on Sunday, Nov. 23, at 3 p.m. for reading a and book signing.
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Story by Heather Mandelkehr - Wake Weekly - June 18, 2009
Wake Weekly summer intern Heather Mandelkehr met with former state representative and Rolesville Furniture owner Rick Eddins to discuss his newest book, The Holy Land to Hallowed Ground: A Travelogue in Photographs, and account of Eddins and his wife sherry's trip to Israel and Normandy in January 2008.
HM: Although Eddins penned a book in 200h, Call Me a Countrypolitan, he hadn't planned to write a book about their visit to Israel. However, with over 500 photographs, as well as notes he took about the places he visited, the book began to shape itself. He and Sherry also directly coordinated their trip with the Bible, bringing it along and reading about the places they would see.
Eddins: "That was a conscious decision in advance to take the Bible. We started thinking before we were leaving, that unlike other trips, it's not like you can read about (those places) = you may read about it in a magazine or Triple-A but it's not the same as the Bible, reading about it and experiencing it. But here's the oldest book in the world, the oldest travel guide in the world, if you will."
An unexpected circumstance of Eddins's trip was the concurrent visit of former president George W. Bush to Israel, which gave Eddins the opportunity to observe the heightened security presence and sheer number of military personnel. He noted the presence of a politically striking "No Peace Within Settlements" banner in Manger Square, which was empty after Bush’s visit, except for droves of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) soldiers.
"It was fascinating to see their level of security there, versus what we could do when a president comes to Raleigh. A lot of people have asked us "do you recommend other people to go?" I certainly would. They have different security procedures than us, but the people there made us feel welcomed. We felt very comfortable."
Each page of the book's photographs and narrative is accompanied by a short scripture. Eddins said his daughter Jennifer - to whom the book is decimated - helped choose and transcribe these passages. She was pregnant a the time he wrote the book, and the family learned the baby would most likely need surgery shortly after birth.
"By writing the book, it helped to keep my daughter's and my mind on something positive at a time of concern. So my daughter and I, what we did is pulled different scriptures out of the Bible, and then we basically went through and looked at the ones we thought picked up more meaning to go with that particular site. We had choices there, but we were looking for which ones we felt applied more to us and how w felt. So somebody else could go use other verses they felt closer t0 - and I understand that - but that was our personal decision."
Eddins described the trip as evoking an indescribable feeling of reverence for the places he visited, and his awe for the maintenance and preservation that allowed him to visit these sites. Photographs in the book include biblically important sites that were preserved by later generations over the past several thousand years by building churches aver the sacred spots.
"We wanted to remember it in the best way - just to writ something down and have pictures with it. We were fortunate and blessed to be able to go, and if other people, for whatever reason, are unable to go, they can read the book through their mind and see through their eyes how Sherry and I enjoyed the trip and what it meant to us. How a local person - just a regular, normal person from Rolesville - can have the emotions, the emotional attachment that comes a as Christian with going to the Holy land and Israel."
The Holy Land to Hallowed Ground is available from Amazon.com and at Eddins store, Rolesville Furniture, in downtown Rolesville.
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Story by Meredith Gilley - Rolesville Buzz: November 2008
There is a popular saying that goes: "You can take the person out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the person." This sentiment rings true when getting the opportunity to speak with Rick Eddins in regard to his new book, Call Me a Countrypolitan.
Having been born and raised in a rural section of Wake County, Eddins worked his way into a six-term seat in the house of Representatives. The word "countrypolitan" is a term he coined in his book to describe the mix of country and cosmopolitan he's brought to the table over the years.
Call Me a Countrypolitan is a book that could have gone in many directions, from a catchall for bi-partisan criticism, to a presentation of his platform outlining his ideas and ideals to be used in future elections. Instead, what I found was a very insightful look into the workings of the North Carolina government and the inspirational chronicle of a life still in progress.
One of my favorite stories had to do with a blind man who was able to make his way walking the back roads of Franklin County unassisted, making his living by collecting scrap meta. During the times that "Blind Robert" got confused, he would stop and listen, occasionally clapping to determine his whereabouts, before continuing on his way.
The concept of stopping and listening became a major theme throughout the book as he talked about issues ranging from hog lagoons, to education,, to victims' rights (for which he is a big advocate.)
"By taking the time to listen to all sides of an issue and learning more than what lies on the surface, coming to an agreement may not be as hard as once thought," said Eddins. From his years in congresses, Eddins took a lot of flack over certain issues because he was not so fast to jump on a bandwagon, though he was expected to. One of his hopes in writing this book is that it will help people see that getting involved - and educated - about issues is important.
He quoted Tip O'Neal for saying, "All politics is local." And a lot of times national and international policies do not faze people as much as local happenings, unless a national problem hits close to home. One of his examples was that someone may not be aware of NAFTA until a local plant closes, or they may not follow the war in Iraq very closely until someone they know is serving over there. A few issues that hit close to home, as much as victims' rights and education, have been areas where Eddins has really made a difference.
One of his biggest accomplishments is the opening of Franklin Academy - and the support of charter schools in general. In Countrypolitan, he gives many sound reasons why charter schools are a great way to help make our system better. For one, if a charter school doesn't perform, it is shut down - not so for a public school that doesn't make the grade. This has a lot to do with the number of kids at a public school as opposed to the small number at a charter school. We also talked about how adding vocational programs to high schools for students who are not college-bound would be a great way to give them a marketable skill after graduation. His book is full of statistics about the state of our education system, and when you compare those to the statistics at Franklin Academy, you will see that he is on to something. According to Eddins, when parents find out he is on the board of the school, they usually ask, "is there anything you can do to get my child in there?"
Throughout the book, Eddins takes us through the many accomplishments he as made in both his political, personal, and professional life, and attributes much of that to the values instilled in him by his father. His father taught him that through hard work and perseverance, almost anything can be achieved. He shows this to his son by building their home by hand and hand-digging their well for water.
Whether it was the flooding issues in Zebulon after Hurricane Floyd, or working with both constituents and officials over the Neuse River Bridge, Eddins made on point really clear: your congressman is here for you. Many times when a bill has been introduced, the vote has been swayed one way or the other due to constituents' phone calls either in support or disapproval of the bill. In a nutshell, you can't expect your congressman, or any other official, to serve his or her district if you are not heard.
Now that he is no longer in office, Eddins works with his family at Rolesville Furniture and is "floating" at the moment. He hasn't ruled out running for an office down the road, and proclaimed, "I had a life before I went into office, and I have that same life waiting for me now.
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Story by By: GARY CUNARD, Times Publisher - Franklin County Times Dec. 17 2008:
Billed as a "collection of stories of love, of politics, of faith, of business and more," a book authored by Wake County businessman Rick Eddins delivers not only stories with a deeper meaning but also inspiration and wisdom forged in real-world business and politics.
Eddins, whose grandmother, Claudia "Mammy" Young, lived on the family farm between Louisburg and Bunn, has lived a varied life as a businessman, husband, father, politician and activist who helped form Franklin Academy, an extremely successful Wake Forest Charter School.
Titling his book "Call Me a Countrypolitan," Eddins captures a look at life from a
self-described country boy who went into politics.
It is, he says, the "not quite finished" saga of his life including the tough decisions he faced as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives for 12 years to dealing with government bureaucracy and bureaucrats to building a successful furniture business off U.S. Highway 401 in the heart of Rolesville.
In one of the more moving chapters of the book, he describes in detail his experiences as a witness at the execution of a convicted murderer at Raleigh's Central Prison while mentally recalling the differences in the way the convicted killer was treated with the way his uncle, who was brutally beaten and murdered, was treated by his assailant.
Going a step further, Eddins discusses his role in the controversial, politically motivated debate over capital punishment in North Carolina and his role in fighting a moratorium on executions.
During his term in the House, he kept a piece of crime scene tape, presented to him during a campaign, as a continual reminder that a single crime creates many victims and that the families of victims are often forgotten or ignored in the criminal justice system.
The book covers a wide variety of subjects from controversies such as regulating the hog industry to dealing with noise complaints generated by the construction of I-540 (the Outer Loop) around Raleigh.
One of the most revealing tales in Eddins' book involves creating a "school of excellence" that's known as Franklin Academy.
Noting many "alarming facts" about public schools across the nation, not the least of which is the drop-out rate of students, he recounts being invited by area businessman Bob Luddy to help create the highly regarded Franklin Academy.
Although starting from scratch was daunting, he admits, actually finding a workable location was the most challenging part.
He recounts in some detail the roadblocks and hurdles tossed up by various political entities that endangered and delayed the project right up to a demand from the NC Department of Transportation for massive road improvements after the new school building was constructed.
In an aside, he comments that when he visits the school these days, "I sometimes take the long way around so that I can use that left turn lane. It's hard for a right-wing politician to turn left, but it reminds me of how dirty politics can really get."
And he adds wistfully, North Carolina's problems would be much less severe today if the state "had about a thousand more Bob Luddys out there."
Luddy is a well-known southwestern Franklin County native whose Captiveaire company is an anchor in the county's industrial park.
But if the book is a saga of tall tales and the inside "scoop" on many of this region's challenges and problems, the final chapter is meant to be entirely inspirational.
It begins with a quote from Plato, "Those who think themselves too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber."
In that last chapter, Eddins said he hopes "that others will come to realize that individuals can, indeed, make a difference; that life is worth living to its fullest; that God will use us for good if we listen to His call and obey His direction; and that, working with others we can win the great political, cultural and economic contests which we face."
His final challenge is simple and succinct: "I invite you to join the battle."
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Call Me a Countrypolitan is available at amazon.com, at Rolesville Furniture and at the website www.callmeacountrypolitan.com. During the holiday season, he has pledged that profits from the book will be donated to purchase telephone calling cards for U.S. troops. Eddins is a native and lifelong Wake Countian. He and his wife, Sherry, live in Raleigh and operate Rolesville Furniture. He served six terms in the NC House (1995-2006), is past president of the Rolesville Business Association (now Chamber of Commerce) and is a founding board member of Franklin Academy Charter School.)
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By Johnny Whitfield - Eastern Wake News - June 3, 1009
Saturday marks and anniversary many veterans will recognize. June 6, 1944 was the first day of the D-Day invasion that set the stage for the end of World War II.
In 2008, former State Representative Rick Eddins of Rolesville, and his wife, Sherry, visited Normandy, the site of one of the famed beach landings that began the invasion.
Eddins put a number of the photographs from that trip into a book, "The Holy Land to Hallowed Ground."
The book also includes photographs and stories from the first part of their trip, which began in Israel.
The pictures are telling. One shows a memorial to the paratroopers who stormed France that day. The memorial is of a paratrooper whose parachute caught on the spire of a rooftop, leaving the soldier hanging helplessly from the side of the building.
Another photo shows the pockmarked beach where Allied mortars shelled the beach before the soldiers came ashore.
Still another picture shows the Arlington-like cemetery where American soldiers and sailors who died the attack are buried.
Eddins' book is available on Amazon.com or you can stop by Rolesville Furniture to get a copy of your own.
It's worth your time, especially during this short time span between Memorial Day and the D-Say anniversary.
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