Larry Grams

Reflections from the back nine

Larry Adamson

Archives for December 2016

Auld Lang Syne

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As we  end 2018—something I wrote a while back…. LA

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                         Just some thoughts:

What will you be doing tonight at twelve o’clock?

“I mean, should old acquaintances be forgotten? Does it mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible  because we already forgot?”
(Billy Crystal, “When Harry Met Sally”)

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The song we have come to associate with the ending of a year and the beginning of a new year is “Auld Lang Syne.” It had its beginnings from a poem written in 1788 by a Scottish poet, Robert Burns. It is one of the most often sung songs by English speaking people throughout the world for forty-six years. This song was first played in 1929 at the Roosevelt Hotel and later at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra.
“Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and days of o’lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for days of o’lang syne.”Billy Crystal is one of my favorite comedians, actors, and writers. To Billy and everyone else, let me answer your question. No, no, old acquaintances and old happenings, old times and old places, should never be forgotten. There are things from our past and in previous New Year’s Eves I have never forgotten, nor will I; nor should they be.So, on this December 31, 2013, just a few hours before the New Year, I can assure you, you are not forgotten, as well as others from my past. I wish you the best in 2019.

May old acquaintances always be remembered and often brought to mind.
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December 31, 2013
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted January 1, 2019

FAME

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Something I wrote in 2011…as 2016 nears ending maybe good for us to think about “fame” and how fleeting it can be….nothing last forever..

LA
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Just some thoughts:
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“Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, the only earthly certainly is oblivion.”
                            (Mark Twain)
 
Recently I was in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Two friends, Larry Motz, Gary Kersey and I had dinner one evening at Brett Faure’s Restaurant.
At the time I was also reading a book on the life of Bart Starr. Now both of these former football greats, Starr and Faure, are still remembered today in that city. A few days after returning, I was at my coffee place and I asked three people if they knew who Bart Starr was. In their defense they were all in their early twenties, but they did say they were football fans. Three strikes, none of the three could tell me.
 
In 1926 a lady did something no other woman and only five men had done previously. She did it in fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes breaking the previous record by more than two hours. Instantly she became world renown; and for a period of time she was America’s most famous woman athlete. Over two million people lined the streets of New York City to see and welcome her home. They called her “America’s Best Girl.” She had numerous offers of over a million dollars to endorse products, appear in movies and on Broadway. Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel in a time and style never seen before.
 
In 1975, forty-nine years later at the age of seventy-two, she was living alone in a modest apartment building in Queens, New York. She was unknown to her neighbors. Anyone who might be courting fame would do well to listen to what this lady had to say regarding fame.
 
When she was asked, “Why don’t people know who you are when they once lined the city streets to honor and see you?” She replied;
​                             
​                            “The band doesn’t stand forever on the same street corner playing your song.” 
 
Truly, fame is fleeting!
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October 7, 2011
Keep on, 
Larry Adamson

ABANDONED SHIP?

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​Just some thoughts:

Hear, hear now all hands on deck…
 
One of my favorite basketball teams is off to a rocky start. And looking into the future I think rocky may be the road of travel this year. Currently as of this writing they are 2 & 7. Two wins and seven losses.
 
The coach, he is a good guy and a good coach. What he and his school stands for do not make me want to hang my head and say “what’s going on here?” The kids are good kids, they go to class. Neither the coach or they do not embarrass me as their fan. They are trying to get an education.
 
I’ve been a basketball fan for a long time. Long time and the love of the game has never gone away. Been a fan  longer than most folks who show up for these games. Growing up in the hey day of high school basketball (1950s’) in Indiana I think it was just natural. Maybe it was in the popcorn. . Me? Me abandoned ship? You gotta be kidding.
You know one of these kids may end up being a doctor whose office, me, this old man may sit. I’ll be glad they went to class. By going to class maybe he can figure out why I don’t feel well. Maybe an accountant that I go to one day and ask “how much $$$ is left in my bucket?” One of them could end up being a teacher or principle at one of my grand kids (great-grand kids) school. Some day I will not care how they shoot the “rock.” A little too much sports talk TV or radio lingo right there. That’s for that Steve Smith clown. Steve…get a real job or at least tone it down. 
 
Maybe Mary Dvorak of Penelope, Texas, population 211 said it best when speaking about
the Penelope, Wolverines, the local six man high school football team:
 
“We’re proud of those young men. They  may not be winning much, but they’re  giving their best, building something for the little one, down in junior high and elementary school.”
                                                           Where Dreams Die Hard–Carlton Stowers  
 
Abandoned them, come  on. What are you thinking? As I age my definition of winners and losers is changing. The final score will not always appear on the field house scoreboard. 
 
You will find me in the same seat come game time. (Even before game time to be truthful–gotta watch them warm-up–get your popcorn and coke )
 
Fans………You know:

 “Some years there aren’t enough seats on the bus for all your folks to ride. Then there  are                
​                            some years  years in which they forget where the bus is parked.” 
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December 1, 2016
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

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Below is something I wrote three years ago… This one hits pretty close to home. I had I sat with my good friend Mike Chumley and we both agreed that some of the best and most enjoyable times in the lives of the two of us….came on New Year’s Eve. Go listen to Sonny Till and the Orioles……and I hope you might remember something from the past.

                                                                     Happy New Year  
 

http://in.reuters.com/article/2010/12/24/idINIndia-53769520101224

Just some thoughts:
 
WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR’S EVE?
 
There are many songs that reference Christmas, but not many that reference New Year’s Eve.
 
I remember the first time I heard the song. I was riding in the back seat of my good friend’s (Mike), 1956 Chevy convertible on New Years Eve of 1958. It was a cold winter night, one of those Indiana winter nights when the car heater is going full blast. It was nearing midnight, and the DJ on the radio introduced a song by saying, “Here is Sonny Till and the Orioles asking you a question: What are you doing New Year’s Eve? This song is for all you guys and gals out there tonight.” It was like a Wolfman Jack thing. There was no satellite radio, only AM radio but it was great.
 
“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”
 
When the bells are ringing and the horns all blow
And the couples we know are fondly kissing
Will I be with you or will I be among the missing?
 
Maybe it’s much too early in the game
Ooh, but I thought I’d ask you just the same
What are you doing New Year’s?
New Year’s Eve
 
Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight
When it’s exactly twelve o’clock that night
Welcoming in the New Year
New Year’s Eve
 
Maybe I’m crazy to suppose
I’d ever be the one you chose
Out of the thousands invitations you receive
 
Ooh, but in case I stand one little chance
Here comes the jackpot question in advance
What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
New Year’s Eve
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Some of the best times I ever had came on New Year’s Eve. In some ways it does not seem like that long ago, Cohort and I, along with our dates, and it was New Year’s Eve.
 
                            I hope you are not among the missing.
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December 31, 2013
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

SHE READ HER MAIL -MRS. NAT KING COLE

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Below is something I wrote in 2009—hey don’t let the season slip by without hearing him do “The Christmas Song”…and a nice lady she was to me…

LA
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Just some thoughts:

It has been said he was the first African-American that was welcomed into the homes of so many whites. The year was 1956, and he was the first black man to have a television show and the first to be a headliner in Las Vegas. He sold millions of records, and his family still receives royalties from his recordings even though he has been dead forty-eight years. Most young people would not know about him; a few might recognize the name of his daughter, Natalie.
 
Sadly he died in February of 1965 at the age of forty-five.  I have always been a great fan of him and his work. He died of lung cancer at the very same time I was having my lung surgery in 1970. I found myself even more attracted to him and his career. About that time in the late 60s’, his wife, Maria, wrote a book on his life. Immediately I got the book and was moved by her writings and the story of his life.
Over the years I have collected a large body of his works, but there was one particular album he had done that I could not find. I searched everywhere and made every contact I could think of with no success. For some unexplainable reason one night I sat down and wrote Maria Cole, Mrs. Nat King Cole, a letter. I told her how much I enjoyed her book and her husband’s work. In the last paragraph of my letter, I mentioned there was an album I was trying to find, but had failed at every search. I told her how much I would love to find a source to purchase the album.
 
I sent the letter to an address that I found in an encyclopedia from my local library, thinking “She will never get this. This address cannot be right.” Time passed, and I had forgotten that I had even sent the letter. At that time I was teaching and coaching in Frankfort, Indiana, and one day as I went to check my mailbox in the teacher’s lounge, low and behold, there was an envelope, stationary style. My first thought was here is a letter from an” unhappy parent.” To my great surprise it was a letter from Mrs. Nat King Cole. She thanked me for my letter and at the end of her letter she wrote, “I’m sorry, right now I am not at our home in California where I would have access to that album you asked about.” She gave me an address and contact person in California. “You tell them I told you to contact them, they should be able to help you get a copy of the album,” were her words.
 
Today just off to my left is the album. It, along with her letter and the album cover, is framed.
 
Not all celebrities are cold, callous and indifferent to their fans. Some do read and respond to their fan mail.
 
If you are not familiar with Nat King Cole, just pick up a cd of his sometime. Never, never let a Christmas season pass without listening to him do the “Christmas Song.”
 
                         “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire/ Jack Frost nipping at your nose,
                         yule tide carols being sung by a choir/ and folks dressed up like Eskimos.”
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December 15, 2009
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

This Will Be Our First Christmas Without Her

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Below you will find something we wrote six years ago. In the years we have been in Nashville we have never missed Amy and Vince’s Christmas show. We were there again last night.  I guess the thought I would put with Amy’s as another December is here…I am sure this will be someone and possibly someone we  know this is…”their first Christmas without.” Let’s not forget them. 

Just some thoughts:
 
Last night my wife and I attended the Amy Grant and Vince Gill Christmas show at the Ryman Auditorium here in Nashville. Great show, we never miss their Christmas shows. Midway into the second half of their show, Amy sat down on a stool and said, “I want to do something a little different here. I realize that what I am going to do is not necessarily Christmas related in your minds, but maybe when I explain, you will understand how it’s Christmas related to me.”
 
She said that very early in her career, in her twenties, her mother asked her to write a poem that she could share with a ladies’ group that her mother often met with. Amy asked her the subject she was to write about, and her mother said, “Aging.” Amy wrote the following, which she quietly read to the audience.

        It occurred to me this morning as I washed this face of mine,
         How quickly come the changes with a little passing time
            A wrinkle here, a hair turned gray, a not so lilting step,
                I see me growing older, but I don’t quite feel it yet,
               At times I nearly feel my age, at others I’m sixteen,
            So full am I of all the thoughts and feelings in between.
 
Who would have thought the road of life would twist and turn so much?
    The journey makes me strong and weak and tender to the touch.
          And so this day I face the choice that I have faced each day, 
                   Will I be open? Teachable? Unafraid of change?
                                                               Yes. 
             
                I will embrace this moment. Forgive my past mistakes,
        And remember that just showing up is sometimes all it takes
                     I’ll see the kind of beauty that time cannot erase.
                       Wisdom and experience resting on my face.    

She wrote the last half of that poem twenty years later and what she said was, “with some firsthand experience.” When she finished reading she commented, 
 
“My mother died this past July; this will be our first Christmas without her.”
 
Nothing further.
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December 22, 2010
Keep on
Larry Adamson

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

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Picture

Barbara in 1943 with her parents, Frank and Margaret


Below is something wrote six years ago, 2010. I go back to it every years. Tomorrow December 19th is my wife’s birthday. Notice I do not say “how many.” (By the way….I love this picture…it would be good for all of us…to remember “our parents were young once upon a time…the picture is of her dad, mom and she the little one)  

When I re-read this I have many thoughts. But one I always have is what a generation of parents that so many of us had. I have noted here the circumstances in which my wife’s birth came about. Our country was at war, her father was somewhere in Pacific, her mother would be all alone at her deliver and later. I think back to the birth of our six grandkids and the celebrations, the “fan fare” that took as so many of us/ family was there. Not this birth.

We will celebrate pretty much as we have done in the past …dinner out in Nashville at one of our preferred places and then off to see “Vince and Amy’s” Christmas show…as we do each year.  Happy Birthday Barbara..

LA

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Just some thoughts: 
 
Wherever you are, I hope you will be home for Christmas.
 
Supposedly the genesis for the song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was written by a 16-year-old homesick college student. Prior to his published release of the song, he had discussed the song with two acquaintances in a bar. He left a copy with them. The song, was recorded in 1943, sixty-seven years ago by Bing Crosby. It bore the names of Kent, Gannon and Ram as creators of the song.  Interestingly enough, Buck Ram was later the force behind the famous group The Platters. Ram penned such classic songs as “Only you,” “The Magic Touch,” “Remember When,” “Twilight Time” and other Platter hits. Think about the monies from the rights to those lyrics.
 
The song was a huge hit when it came on the scene in 1943, WWII. American boys were scattered all over the world for that effort and so many of them wishing “They were home for Christmas.”
 
The song carries a special meaning and feeling for me and my family. I can’t help but think of a young, about-to-be mother, who at the time was living in Chicago. Her husband, Frank was somewhere in the Pacific Ocean as a member of the Uunited States Navy. December 19, 1943 found this mother-to-be without her husband or family. She was all alone. A country at war, a husband at sea and she was about to bring a baby into this world. At 7:07 p.m. sixty-seven years ago tonight, in the Roseland Community Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, Margaret White, my mother-in- law, delivered a 7.25 pound baby girl. She named her Barbara Lee. I bet her father (Frank) wished…   

I’ll Be Home For Christmas
 
I’m dreamin’ tonight of a place I love, 
even more than I usually do.
And although I know it’s a long road back, I promise you
I’ll be home for Christmas you can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe and presents under the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me where the love light beams.
I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.
 
And that is what it was for millions of people that Christmas, December 19, 1943. Just a wish that they could be home.
 

PictureBarbara 2014


Barbara Lee White, twenty-two years later, would become Barbara Lee Adamson.
 
I hope you will be home for Christmas.

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December 19, 2010
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

WITH SOME, OUR REMEMBRANCE NEVER CHANGES

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​Just some thoughts:
“Connor spoke of the provocative beauty of an East Carolina cheerleader ​who would be fifty-five years old today. But for Greg and me, that pretty girl will be twenty-one and glowing with radiant youth until the day we die.” 
(Pat Conroy – My Losing Season)
 
After we finished playing a round of golf, we sat in the dining area of the country club. We had great weather, great company, and a most enjoyable time. The four of us had all graduated from high school about the same time, around 1960. A lady came by and stopped beside one of the fellas at our table, and they exchanged conversation for a few minutes. She was very pleasant in her conversation, and the years had been kind to her in her appearance.
 
When she walked away, the man who she had been talking with smiled and then acknowledged to me that the two of them had gone to high school together. Then with some degree of melancholy and a smile he said, “Every time I see her I still see her as I did in our senior year, 1960. She was the prettiest cheerleader I think I ever saw. Still to this day when I see or think of her, it is how she looked back then.”  I smiled and affirmed his feelings. I think we all understood what he had said and maybe even a bit of what he left unsaid. I got the feeling there was more behind his smile and her touch as she touched him gently on his shoulder when she walked away.
 
You know there are some people who are or were once a part of our lives that we never forget and regardless of time, they will always appear in our minds as they first did. Even if it was many summers ago. As Conroy said,   
 
                                 “Glowing with radiant youth until the day we die.”
 
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August 19, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson
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TOO FAR TO GO

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Just some thoughts:

I had this thought this morning over my early morning coffee: 

                   Some places are a long way to go………..not to be anywhere when you get there..

​That can apply to more than just the highway.
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November 12, 2016
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

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Just some thoughts:
                              
I have this very good friend (Baxter) of nearly fifty years who has been a school bus driver in Alabama for the past fourteen years. Not an easy task. No, not an easy task in this day and age.

Each school day for the past fourteen years he has driven this bus with forty students. At least twice a day he picks-up and returns these young people.

On this one particular day there was this young man who had a electronic devices that he continued to play with the loudest volume he could find. My friend ask him if he would please turn the volume
down as he would play the device going and coming. The young man first chose  to  ignore the driver’s numerous request to do such. Finally after repeated times asking the young man to please turn down the volume, he did. But then continued to pout and be of an annoyance to the driver and others who sat around him. Without question he continued to be a problem and defiant to the drivers wishes. Students who are searching for significance often choose to seek there identify in ways that can be difficult for others. Such with this young man.

On Friday afternoon of that week as the driver stopped to let the young man get off the bus the driver called the young man by name and said ,”_____ here is a dollar, buy yourself a coke at tonight’s
football game.” The young man looked at the drive responding , “what, what’s this for?” The driver again said,  “here…have a good week-end and buy yourself a coke at the game tonight.”

Since that time the young man has not been an issue for my bus driving friend. You know just maybe sometimes the best way to first face adversity is try a bit of kindness. I don’t guarantee it will always
be successful but maybe just maybe it is a good way to first try and see what happens in return.

I think my friend decided that his first approach to this young man’s anger and hostilely would be try a bit of kindness. My friend used one of the Biblical philosophies there is:

“As much as is possible within you…live at peace
with all men.”
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