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Larry Adamson

Archives for October 2015

HOW OLD IS A CHILD BEFORE THEY LEARN THEIR COLORS?

October 7, 2015 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

Just some thoughts:

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​I wonder how old a child is before they learn their “colors.”
 
My friend, Marcellas, is a 41 year old African-American man who lives in a small apartment along with  his five children, and often two to three other adults. No further description is needed about my friend. 
 
Marcellas had a kidney transplant in 1999 and is currently on dialysis four hours a day, three days a week. As often as possible I try to meet him to share a sandwich, offer him some encouragement, and hopefully a bit of sanity in his crazy, jumbled life. We often meet at a fast food location, as two to three of his children will likely be with him. If they are not with him we meet at a “meat and three” place in Nashville.
 
Last week I met him for lunch, and today we’re meeting again as it is his birthday. Near the end of our meal last week his three year old, unannounced, climbed in my lap and asked me to open the toy from her happy meal bag. I did of course; it was some sort of winged bird, push a button on its back and it lights up. After a while Marcellas said to the kids, “It’s time to go.” With that, his three year old, Peanut (that’s what I call her because she’s just a little bit), who was sitting on my lap, took her hands and cupped them around my face and said, “Will you take me to the car?” How can one resist such a request? As we got to the restaurant door she took my hand, really a couple fingers, and we started across the parking lot toward their car. Her sister took my other hand.
 
Here is the picture, me a white guy, golf shirt, khaki pants, loafers, about as traditional as one can get, with two small black children holding my hands walking across a fast food parking lot. When we got to the car Peanut and her sister asked that I help buckle them into their car seats. Marcellas and his brood left, and as I walked to my car I was made to think of an old racially bigoted relative I once had and I thought to myself, “I wish you could have observed this scene today, you old rascal.”
 
As I pulled from the parking lot onto Harding Road the question came to me. “I wonder when kids learn their colors. Who teaches them color?” Oh, soon enough they learn their colors all right. 
 
I hope the days continue when no child is afraid or uncomfortable to ask a person of another color, 

“Will you take me to the car?”
===============================================================================================
April 26, 2011
Keep on 
​Larry Adamson

Filed Under: Uncategorized

4th GRADE AT LEAST

October 4, 2015 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

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Just some thoughts:
​Today I picked up our seven year old grandson, Luke, at the bus stop just down the street from his house, something I do most weeks on Wednesdays. By the way, everyone should stand at a child’s bus stop and watch the kids get off the bus after a day at school.
 
Luke got off and started walking toward me. “Pop Pop you know what?” “No, what,” I replied.      
 “You should never have a girl friend until the 4th grade.”

Oh my, Luke, you are learning fast.

Please continue to listen closely to what they are teaching you at that school. They are on to something.

​========================================================================================
May 2, 2013
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

I’M GLAD THEY HAD THE NERVE

October 2, 2015 By Larry Adamson Leave a Comment

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​Just some thoughts: 
​On many occasions I will visit the Country Music Hall of Fame here in Nashville. 
  
One Saturday I went downtown to the Hall of Fame to see a series called Poets and Prophets. They bring in famous song-writers and feature them in a lecture, and then offer a question and answer type format. The writer they were featuring on this day had written over twelve hundred songs; eighty of them have made the charts. He wrote what many feel is the greatest country song ever written. This particular song has been played more times on the radio than any country song in history. Even people with a limited knowledge of country music often recognize this song, “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” It is a George Jones classic. 
  
During the session he was asked, “What is your favorite song that you have written?” Most folks would think he would have picked his most popular song; and remember he has written over twelve hundred songs and the “greatest’ song in country music. His answer was most interesting. “My favorite song that I have written was never a hit and never made the charts: most people haven’t heard it and don’t even know about it.” He played and sang his song; the title of the song, “The Nerve.” 
  
The audience understood his fondness for the song after hearing him sing and play it.  It is a tribute to the people he had known, many family members, who, at various times in their lives, had acted in heroic ways, had “the nerve” to do things most or many would not. He noted in his lyrics that if they had not “had the nerve” his life may not have happened, or would have certainly been much different. Have you ever thought about your own life and what might have been if the people you’ve known had not “had the nerve”? 
  
As I sat and listened to him, a number of people from my life crossed my mind. I thought about an unwed, pregnant teenage mother in 1942 (mine) and the choices she made. Or another couple who chose to adopt that child (me) and make a life for him. Had they not had “the nerve,” I have no idea what might have happened to me. You? 
“One cannot select a time to be born or an age in which to live.”   
Crying in the Wilderness–Robert E. Hooper 
​Think about your own life and all the people who…“had the nerve.” 

======================================================================================
September 21, 2009
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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Larry Adamson

About Larry

Larry Adamson was raised in Indiana.  After teaching and coaching for several years he worked as Director of Championships at the United States Golf Association in NJ.  He’s retired, living just outside Nashville,TN.  He blogs about his favorite things: sports, music, old cars, and the good ole days.




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