Archives for January 2017

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to those of you who over the past months- couple of years have bothered to take a look at the various blog postings on Larrygram.weebly.com . You have been most kind in doing such and to those who gave a get back note to me…. a special thanks.  

“Take good care of all your memories, for you cannot relive them.”
        
(Bob Dylan)

Again, thank you—Larry Adamson 

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January 28, 2017
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson 

​Just some thoughts:

February 1st —February 28th is Black History month.  ​

Who is, or was, the most impressive person you’ve ever met? I was recently asked that question.
 
I told the person asking, “That would be like asking someone sitting in the front row of a performance of the Rockettes, ‘who is the prettiest girl in the group?”” I said I could not name one specific person, but over the years I could name a few that I was fortunate to meet in which I was greatly impressed.
 
One of them was a man named Fred Gray. Mr. Gray is one who I would consider a part of  American history. In May of 1996 I spent an afternoon and evening with Fred Gray. Some of that meeting might be a story for another time.
 
Many people might recognize the name of Fred Gray and associate it with two figures in American civil rights history; Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King. At age twenty-five  Gray was their lawyer. Mr. Gray was an African American born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. While many associated Mr. Gray with the civil rights movement cases of Parks and King, they fail to know, what I think, is an equally important civil rights story. Looking back on history it is easy to say or think what one might have done, because we can now look at the outcome of such decisions. Not so when all was taking place.
 
Nine months before Ms. Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus, Gray represented a young fifteen old girl, Claudette Colvin, for a similar act of resistance. In March of 1955 Claudette refused to obey a Montgomery city bus driver’s order to give up her seat to a white  person. When she boarded the bus that afternoon to go home from school she made her way to the back of the bus, the area where all blacks were expected to sit. She did not sit in the section reserved for whites, but she sat in the back of the bus. The number of riders that afternoon was many and she was later told by the driver “Get up and give your seat to these folks.”  She told the driver, “I’m not getting up, I  paid my money and I’m sitting where the black folks are told to sit.” The bus driver called the police and she was taken, some say dragged, from the bus and arrested.
 
Interesting note, Gray, being a young lawyer and in my opinion a very astute one, asked a more experienced lawyer, Clifford Durr, to help him prepare the case. Durr was a established white lawyer there in Montgomery. Durr agreed. Durr did this at great cost.
 
”He and his wife, Virginia Foster Durr, endured public scorn and social ostracism from prominent whites in the city for their sympathetic support and involvement in these lawsuits. I (Gray) will always be grateful to Clifford and his wife, Virginia, for assisting me in becoming a good lawyer. Durr provided this service without charge.” 
                                                  Bus Ride to Justice​ – Fred Gray  
 
Having taught American history during the years I taught high school, I considered it an honor and a privilege to be in Mr. Gray’s presence even if it was only for a day. Mr. Gray was there when history was made and I believe Mr. Gray helped shape history, not many folks can say that.
 
The world could use more folks like Mr. Gray and Mr. Durr.
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February 17, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:
 
He came marching toward him from the garage area and all the boy could think of was, “What have I done wrong?”
 
As he approached him he stuck out his hand, “Kid, you’re going to be ok, you are going to be one of the best.” The year was 1985, the kid was fourteen years old, and his name was Jeff Gordon. The one shaking his hand and offering congratulations was one of Gordon’s heroes, the king of sprint cars, the old veteran, Steve Kinser.
 
Kinser had just done one of the best things someone can do for another, he had affirmed the young man. Webster describes the word affirmation as declaring something to be true, a statement of truth, a positive belief, encouragement.
 
In 1960 when I was a senior in high school I can still remember the words of my baseball coach.
“Adamson, if we can get you to hit the curve ball better, I think we might be able to get you some scholarship help to a small college.” Wow! That encouragement coming from my coach meant so much to me. He had played professional baseball, he knew baseball and for him to say that meant much.  Well, I never learned to hit the curve ball much better, but I’ll tell you what I did do, I tried harder in baseball that year than any previous year. I tried to be worthy of my coaches statement.       
 
Many years later I had the good fortune to be offered a position with an elite sports organization, United States Golf Association; a world recognized organization that was beyond my imagination. I remember how inadequate I first felt when coming on staff. The people I met had credentials and sports backgrounds so much more than I had acquired. I asked myself the question, “What am I doing here?” Not long after arriving on staff two or three veteran staff people said to me in various ways: “You’re going to be fine. You can do this job. You have the necessary skills to do well at this position.” I spent twenty-three years on staff so I guess I did, at least better than I did trying to hit that curve ball.  However, those words of encouragement did wonders for me.
 
I believe Jeff Gordon’s life was changed by the encouragement he received on that day. I know what those words of support and encouragement did for me.
 
When you see people with possibilities in various areas of life, encourage them and tell them, especially the young,                                                                       
                                                 “You can do this, you will be good at this.”
 
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March 7, 2013
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.
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October 15, 2016
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

===========​Just some thoughts:

“I’ve come to recognize that one of the functions of a grandparent or family elder is to pass on these stories, in an effort to sustain a sense of family history across time and the many separations that occurs. This is an important function –the forces that blow families apart have reached a gulf force in our time. One can see this in the demise of the family dinner  table. In my childhood it was uncommon for the family to eat less than two meals a day around the same kitchen table.” 
 
“But dinner (called supper then) was a virtually inviolable ritual. Only natural disasters, severe weather or some catastrophic breakdown in the day’s work schedule could daily or abrogate family dinners at the kitchen table. In this I don’t believe we were exceptional. Working and middle-class families sat down at the dinner table every night–the shared meal was the touchstone of good manners. Indeed, that dinner table was the one time when were all together, every day: parents, grandparents, children, siblings. Rudeness between siblings, or a failure to observe the etiquette of passing dishes to one another, accompanied by “please” and “thank you,” was the training ground of behavior, the  place where manners began.” 
                                                              Larry McMurtry–Dairy Queen
 
In reading such I though of how in my own childhood how this was true and at those times stores were told and family history remembered. This practice would still serve our families well. 
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January 24, 2017
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson

​Just some thoughts:

                              “Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”  
                                          Ernest Hemingway–The Old Man and The Sea
 
My 75th birthday is just a few weeks away. I seldom have need of that alarm that sits on my night stand next to our bed. Hum…
 
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January 5, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

​Just some thoughts:

It is a movie that came out in 1999. The setting is Baltimore, Maryland in 1954-1955.
 
Anti-Semitism, race changing relations, youth dealing the issues of coming of age, the birth of rock-n’-roll,  life is changing very quickly for this Baltimore family as also is for others at this time. A movie with humor about the times yet a great deal of seriousness in dealing with the times and the issues they brought. 
 
I really liked the movie. I found some great lines said during the show.  One of the best lines was said at the end of the movie by Ben the teenager who had just graduated high school:
 
            “If I knew things would no longer be I would have tried to remember them better.”           
                                           
 
Who among us has not felt that way about some matter?
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January 21, 2016
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

This morning  early (6 A.M)  as I sat in a booth by myself at my coffee place I watched as two men stood up . They shook hands and as they prepared to leave I heard one of the men say to the other:
 
                                                         “You’re always a pleasure to see
                                                            and even more so to be with.” 
From the man’s  tone one could tell it was not a passing statement. It was said with great sincerity.  
 
As I sat and watched the two go out the door, separate and walk to their cars I thought what a nice thing to have said of you.
 
                                                 “A pleasure to see— even more to be with”
 
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April 7, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson                

​Just some thoughts:

Recently I read a book that in some ways left me more sad than glad.
 
True, it did have a good ending, but the journey was often sad. The book is “Pistol: The Life of Peter Maravich.” Most of you are too young to remember him. Plain and simple, he was one of a kind and well ahead of his time. He has been voted one of the fifty greatest players in the history of all basketball. That says it all.
 
The book is about Pete, his life, and his growing up years with his father. For most of Pete’s life his father, Press, was his coach. From the earliest beginnings of Pete’s life, his father had him marked to be a basketball player, not just any player, but the greatest ever. One of the saddest statements I found in the book comes after a game in which Pete had played and his team lost. Pete would often go off to be completely alone for long periods of time and often weeping for hours on end and walking home alone.
 
The author said it this way, “Press had never devised a drill for his son to deal with defeat. Pete took all defeats personal and hard.” I thought how sad it is that he never taught his son how to deal with loss. It makes no difference who we are, prince or pauper, sooner or later in life we are gonna lose at something.
 
            “All the shots won’t go in the basket, and all of us will experience walking home alone.”
 
 Losing and dealing with defeat and adversity is a lesson we all need to learn and be taught, generally the sooner the better.
 
By the way, I saw Pete play on a few occasions. He was something special.
 
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March 18, 2011
Keep on,
Larry Adamson 

​Just some thoughts:
 
                                                    UMPIRES & REFEREES
 
What could possibly possess someone to want to be a sports official, say a baseball umpire or a basketball referee? Or anyone who officiates at a sporting event? Well in a minute I will tell you why.
 
Three of my good friends Tom Meeks, Roy Steele and Mark Masariu were sports officials. Tom basketball and football, Mark baseball, basketball, football, Roy baseball and volleyball. Tom and Mark in Indiana for many years and Roy in Texas. Not the easiest places in which to put on a stripped shirt or a chest protector.  In fact that is how I first met Tom Meeks as he was officiating a basketball game at a school where I was coaching. Story for another time. 
 
Why would any of these three leave a comfortable warm home thirty-forty plus times a year. In Indiana that could often be  on a cold, rainy, sleet, snowy  evening with temperatures  near zero or below.  Then they drive a long distant in terrible conditions arriving at a distant location and dress in cramp quarters. For the next couple hours they run up and down a floor in an overheated gym along with having their ancestry question by many who have no conception of the game let alone the rules. 

Tom often was paid a grand sum of $35 to officiate not one but two basketball games, the JV game and then the varsity game.  The school’s AD told him “You can bring someone with you to work the JV game but you will have to pay him out of that $35.” I guess one of the fringe benefits might be the free hot dog and coke one might and I said might get at halftime. Maybe even a free bag of popcorn as they leave for the evening. Note: One of the highlights might be if the band was having a chili supper,after the game was over one could grab a cup of coffee and a piece of homemade pie. The evening not a total bust.
 
This thinking about sports officials was prompted as recently I sat in the afternoon sun at a minor league baseball game here in Nashville. The Nashville Sounds are a Triple AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. I often go to a game, I could just sit, watch and let the world roll by. But I got to thinking about the guys in blue that afternoon, the baseball umpires. The beginning salary for a minor league umpire is $1800-1900 a month. If a umpire makes it to the highest level in minor league ball that is Triple AAA his top salary would be $3500 a month. The minimum salary for a major league umpire is $90,000.The minimum salary for a major league baseball player is around $500,000 a year.
 
In John Feinstein’s new book, Where Nobody Knows Your Name, he speaks of thirty year old Mark Lollo. In 2013 Lollo began his eleventh year as a minor league umpire. He began his career much as a player does starting in lower leagues and making his way up to where this would be his fourth season in Triple  AAA baseball. That is one league away from the majors. Lollo’s salary was $3200 a month along with his $48 a day-per-diem he received. He was responsible for all of his  expenses he incurred doing his job. In his eleven years he had been off only two weeks at the birth of his son and two days to attend the funeral of a close relative. 
 
Why, why would my friends Mark, Tom, Roy along Mark Lollo go through what would often appear to many people as “it’s not worth it”?  Major reason is not only do players, coaches and fans love a particular sport but how else can you explain why an official does what they do, one reason, because they also love the game as much as anyone else.
 
The next time you are inclined to think the official is “blind, lame, stupid and or feeble” you might cut him just a bit of slack he sure aint gettin’ rich doin’ it. So stayed seated and think twice before you shout out something to the folks officiating the game.
=============================================================August, 23, 2016
Keep on,
Larry Adamson