Archives for July 2017

Just some thoughts:

Today I was driving in one of my old cars  (’55 Thunderbird)  out on the back roads of Williams County. I had spent a bit sittin’ on an old church pew in front of Puckett’s grocery in Leipers Fork.

I like driving the back roads in middle Tennessee. You get to see a lot of things. You can pass what once was an old gas station. Now in shambles. Or you can stop at an old gas station, tin roof, benches out front, maybe an old dog laying in the way, get a cold drink–once called and still is by some southern folks “a bottle of pop.” You see old Coca-Cola or Red Man chewing tobacco signs nailed to an old barn. The author Paul Therous calls these viewing, “road candy.” I get that. Yea road candy, the sites and sounds of the back roads.   

..As I left the old grocery store I slipped in an old Lefty Frizzell cd…and he shared these lines with me:
 
                                                                            “Once, I thought I loved just you and
                                                                                       I though you loved me too  
                                                   But just look what thoughts will do, for today you say we’re through”
 

Hum…just look what thoughts can do…sometimes they can cause one a bit of trouble and pain. Sometimes ones thoughts can just run away with them.

                                                                                       “Once I thought you loved me too.” 
 
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April 22, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

​​Just some thoughts:

Vestal was Vestal Goodman of the Happy Goodman Family.
 
Now you ask “whose’s Vestal and the Happy Goodman Family?”

​Well in the late 1950s’ until the mid 70s’ or a bit later they one of the premier southern gospel singers, entertainers. Much of their time they were based out of  Kentucky as a three piece trio, Howard playing piano, Rusty and Vestal along with Howard singing. For many early years they sang in just about any place they could find that would welcome them. 
 
Today I visited the cemetery where my good friend Mike is buried. Now what does that have to do with Vestal and the boys. I will explain more a bit later.
 
I had to smile as I left the cemetery this afternoon  and remembered a memory of Mike and I. In fact I more than smiled, I laughed. In the late 1950s’ say 58′-59′ Mike and I once took dates to a southern gospel singing night. Can you believe that. 
 
Every year at the local county (Vigo)  fair where the two of us grew up they would always have a gospel singing night. And yes they would fill the stands. On this night three groups would be appearing, The Statesmen, The Blackwood Brothers and The Happy Goodman’s.
 
The morning of the show date my friend (Cohort) in passing the local golf course saw the bus for The Statesmen quartet parked at the course. Being the inquisitive person he was (and he was) he pulls into the parking lot of the course, gets out of his car and ends up meeting two of the members of the group. As Mike starts to leave one of the members of the group tells him, “tonight you come to gate  such and such and we will have tickets and seats for you at tonight’s show.” (I need four– my buddy and I will bring dates for the show. -That was my friend–never bashful)
 
Now he calls me and says “Cohort I got four tickets to the singin’ tonight let’s finds us some dates. That night a few minutes before the show Mike and I along with our dates show up at this gate. From there we are escorted to our seats. Four seats front row right in front of the stage had been reserved for us.
 
Now part two. Closing the show that night was the Happy Goodman Family. Vestal was always featured in the group. One thing for sure the group had eaten well. I don’t think gospel singing paid big money but it surely was enough to feed them well. Or maybe they had attended too many “all day singins’ and dinner on the grounds”  I even remember the song they closed the show with, “I Wouldn’t Take Nothin’ For My Journey Now.” She had made her way into that closing song  with the group doing their always show stopper “The Old Gospel Ship.” (Before that it had been “If It Wasn’t For The Light House.”)
 
Now can you imagine later that night when your date comes home, mom is waiting up, “Honey where did boys take you?  “Oh, they took us to a gospel music show.” Now surely that should get one some points with the dates mothers.  At least strike their curiosity. You think?
 
I saw Vestal near the last time she performed. That would have been around 2002.  She was featured on one of the Gather’s gospel packaged shows. The lights in the large arena were lowered, almost completely out, a voice comes on, “And now ladies and gentleman we give to you the queen of southern gospel” a spot light focused to one of the openings leading into the stage, the band hits the lead into the song….and with the customary handkerchief in hand, long dress flowing and a big smile comes Vestal. The audience rises to its feet giving her a grand welcome. It was a classic entry. Vestal passed away 2003.
 
How ironic of the following. Today when I left my good friend’s grave just to the left of where he is buried, say a hundred yards or less is a large tombstone that is there to mark a family buried site. On the large stone are the words “The Happy Goodman Family.” Yes there is buried Howard and Vestal.
 
My wife and I also have burial plots not far from where my good friend is buried. By the way none of this cemetery stuff, where Goodman burial is, was planned. It just turned out that way. 
Hey, who know maybe some day my friend and I will sing with Howard and Vestal.
 
After all we once took our dates to see them perform, they had front row seats saved for us. I bet not many teenage boys can say that.
 
You know I said I miss Vestal.  I miss my friend……much more.
 
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July 29 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:                          

A favorite song of mine is something Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings wrote and recorded together. I have always been partial to story songs. Lyrics that tell the listener something, not just repeated words. Some of the best teaching of elementary lessons has come from songs. 

The song “The Night Hank Williams Came to Town,” tells of what excitement might have gone through a community on the night the legendary country music star Hank came to town.

                     “I drove on out to Grapevine and picked old Mavis up
                         we crossed that county line for one quick round.”  

That song got me to thinking. Recently when my wife and I were in Cody, Wyoming we visited the Buffalo Bill museum. It is quite a place. I would highly recommend one visit if close to that area of the country. Cody is a  town that  Buffalo Bill is credited with founding. I really liked Cody.

Prior to our trip I had done some reading of Larry McMurty’s book on the life of Bill Cody. To say the least he was quite a character. For example when five or  six different women  show up at your funeral all claiming their special affection and yours in return, that makes for interesting personal history. His coffin would be buried and sealed in cement as there were threats of stealing his body and buried somewhere else. 

I wonder what it was like on May 17th, 1886 in my hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana. For you see that was the day that Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show  came to town. So I did some researched with my hometown library  in Terre Haute. 

Cody himself  had appeared previously in Terre  Haute, Indiana  first on October 9, 1873 at the Terre Haute Opry House. On this date Wild Bill Hickok also appeared with both of them staying at the Terre Haute House on Wabash Avenue. Just Cody, again appeared in Terre Haute  in 1877, twice in 1879 and 1881, and once in 1882. Cody’s Wild West show was known the world over as the show had appeared in Europe from 1887 to 1893. In 1885 the Wild West show set record attendance at the World Exposition in Chicago.

The Wild West Show traveled by train using twenty-six cars with two hundred and forty performers and a  payroll of nearly seven hundred people. It was no small time operation it truly was amazing to see. When the Wild West show first appeared in Terre Haute crowds lined the streets for the 10 A.M. parade and over 12,000 tickets were sold for the afternoon performance.  

                                       “It was said of Bill Cody, Buffalo Bill that he was arguably 
                                           the most famous American in the twentieth century.” 

                                                                               Larry McMurty

The last line in the Williams song says “It ain’t often Hank Williams comes to town.” Well it ain’t often  that the most famous American and his Wild West Show comes to Terre Haute, Indiana.

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June 15, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:                           

My wife tried to blow some smoke by me today. 

I was out in our garage messin’ with one of my old cars when she came out.

She opens the door, steps in the garage and says to me, “You remember that really good job you did in putting up those shelves in the pantry?” I looked at her, paused a short moment and then started laughing. Then she started laughing.

When we both stopped laughing I ask her, “How long did it take you to think up that approach?” “Now lets see how can I say this to him without him huffin’ and puffin’ about some home repair job?” “OK, I got it.” “Pay him a compliment, that’ll do it.”  In answer to my question about how long did it take her to think that one up, “Oh, not long, I thought it might work.”

What she was getting at she was wanting some more shelves put up and she was trying to introduce the thought of me doing such. You see I get shaky, nervous when the talk comes about regarding hammers, screwdrivers, drills and punching holes in walls, etc. The very thought of such work  makes me get shaker than a dog about to walk into a vets office. You  see I give home repairs, handyman doin’s and fix it up a very bad reputation. Our ten year old grandson probably is more adept, skilled at doing things around the house like putting up shelves, etc. than I am. 

But I did like her approach. “You remember that really good job you did?” I will give my wife credit, she did try to be creatively in asking. Hum…wonder where I last laid my hammer.

Nope haven’t started on that  job. It will take me some time to build up the courage. And how long is it they say that one can live on a compliment? 

You know sometimes how one is approached can have quite an influence on the outcome of a matter. 
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July 8, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. Every time I buy flowers for my wife and I try to do so often, I am reminded of this lady I met one morning after buying flowers. I have messed up more than once in my life but I also try to get my wife flowers for no particular reason other I know she likes them and I like to do things for her that she likes. Plain and simple….yes I did get her roses yesterday. Below is something I wrote seven years.

LA
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​Just some thoughts:

Today as I was walking out of the Fresh Market in Brentwood, Tennessee I was only a few feet into the parking lot when I saw a lady approaching me.I had gone into the store to buy a dozen roses for my wife. No particular reason, no anniversary, just some flowers for her.

It appeared there was a slight grin on her face.I would judge the lady to be about my age; neatly dressed, hair done, fashionable clothes. She had the appearance of having money. When she was just a few feet from me, she spoke. “Well, now what have we got here…what  have you gone and done?” She took me by surprise, and before I could answer she stopped me and said, “I’m only kidding, anytime I see a man walking out of a store carrying flowers, especially roses, I have this urge to ask them what they did wrong.” I smiled and told her, “Well, over time I have messed up more than my share, but I’ve also tried to have a learning curve, and at times I buy my wife flowers for no particular reason.” “Well they are pretty, and I bet she will enjoy them.” Over the years I have tried with some regularity to buy my wife flowers.

As I got in the car and drove away, I looked at the flowers lying on the seat of my car and I thought, “There are a lot of things I wish I had done earlier on in my life. That also goes for in my marriage.” Things I wish I had learned about feelings, explainable and those not so easily explained  feelings. I wish I had just paid more attention. So if you’re reading this, learn from my slowness and whatever it is, it’s never too late to make changes.

“What have you done now?” In the future I hope that statement will be said with excitement rather than disappointment.
​
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May 5, 2010
Keep on,
Larry Adamson 

This Tuesday  July 25th, 2017 is our wedding anniversary. Fifty-two years, we were married in Terre Haute, Indiana on July 25, 1965. Below is something I wrote in 2009. As our anniversary nears I am reminded of  this older gentleman I met early one morning on my way to play golf. The memory of him and what he shared with me has stayed with me. I remember he told me he and Mary had been married fifty-five years and he was still seeing about her.
 
                   “I come here most mornings to get coffee and then help the folks get her up.”

Just some thoughts:
 
It’s been said, “Better to see a lesson than to tell one.” For some reason, on that particular morning, I did not stop at my usual coffee place. That day, I headed in the opposite direction- south on Highway 65.
 
I noticed him sitting there as I got out of my car and started walking toward the door of the store and restaurant. He was sitting on the porch with coffee in hand. His John Deere hat, half cocked on his head, gave me cause to smile. I had seen that scene hundreds of times going into the small- town courthouse square with my grandparents many years previous. As I got closer, he spoke, “Mornin,” he said. I returned his, “Morning.”
 
When I came out of the store with my coffee, I paused a moment to take in the beauty of the early Tennessee morning. “How you doin’ this morning?” I heard someone say. It had to be him speaking to me as there was no one else around. “Me, oh I’m doing just fine.” I then asked him, “You mind if I sit down with you?” He replied, “Why no, I would like that.” I asked him if he came here often. “Yea I do, bout every morning. I’m an old retired farmer, and I still get up early- just always been my ways.” I asked him if he lived around here. “Yes I do, live bout two miles from here,” and he pointed, “out near Cox Creek.” I guess he figured I knew where that was. I didn’t, cause as some folks would say about me, “he’s not from around these parts.”
 
We exchanged further small talk and then he said, “My wife is in the nursing home just down the road, and I come here most mornings to get coffee and then go help the folks there get her up.” I learned his name was Thurman and his wife of 55 years was Mary. “I sure hated to put her in there, but I just couldn’t take care of her no longer by myself and so had to do such.  She has Alzheimer’s and for the most part doesn’t know me. Why, the other day she ask one of the ladies there who I was. Can you believe that?”
 
Shortly after that, he finished his coffee and cigarette. “Larry, spect I best be goin, bout time they will be gettin her up.” As he got up, he reached for my hand and shook it hard, told me it had been nice talking to me then said, “You have a good time playin that golf.” I watched him slowly make his way to his pick-up truck- old, beat up looking thing, maybe an early 70s model Ford. I noticed in the seat of the truck a dog was waiting for him.
 
As he drove off, I thought, there are folks out there everyday who are fighting some tough battles and me, I’m blessed. I think I may have just seen one of the best definitions of the word “love,” I had ever seen. The rest of the day I couldn’t get Thurman and Mary off my mind. That afternoon on the way home from playing golf, (twenty-seven holes), I stopped and bought my wife a dozen red roses. She still remembers who I am.

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May 20, 2009
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

In the movie “Rocky” there is a classic line. Well there are a number of classic lines. 
 
In the movie Rocky’s manager Mickey (Burgess Meredith) ask him about his relationship with his girlfriend Adrian. Mickey says, “Why do you like that girl, she’s not particularly pretty, what do you see in her?”  
Rocky comes back with a classic statement:
                                               “I got gaps, she got gaps, she fills my gaps.”
 
“She fills my gaps.”  Wow.
 
How lucky can one be in life…….. if they have someone “who fills their gaps.” 
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December 2, 2016
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:
                                                       
 
                                       “Don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.”
 
Yes, I think if we all are honest we probably have allowed our “wheels”– thoughts, our voices to do more to us than what one might realize.”
 
                      “You know we may win and we may lose but we will never be here again.”
 
As I drove into this east Arizona town I thought of the lyrics to this Eagles song….you can probably tell me where I was….
 
Yes sadly there are some places we may never be again…I can think of a few I would again like to be…
 
You? 
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June 5, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

I just recently got back from 5 days in Indiana. Good friends, golf and county fairs. I wrote the following sometime back but it certainly fits with my feels of being in Indiana recently.

LA
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Just some thoughts:
 
I thought happiness was “Lubbock, Texas in My Rear View Mirror.”
 
I was driving Mac Davis one morning to a golf course. He was the one who wrote and recorded that song, so I asked him about it. He smiled and said, “Well probably most all of us, at one time or another, has that thought about their growin’ up place.” “What about you?” He asked. I smiled and said “Yes.”
 
Country music singer Mel Tillis said something to the effect, “The first eighteen years of our lives we are workin’ to get away from there, and then we spend the last years of our lives tryin’ to get back there.” There is some truth in that statement.
 
In Tom Brokaw’s book, A Long Way from Home, he describes how he had some of those feelings. In 1962 he left his home state of South Dakota determined to find a faster paced life and get beyond what he called the rhythms of small towns and rural culture.
 
                     “I thought that the influences of the people, the land, and the time during my
                      first twenty-two years of life were part of the past. But gradually I came to
                 know how much they meant to my future and so I have returned often as part
​                                                       of a long pilgrimage of renewal.”
 
Personally I left my home area of Indiana a bit later than Brokaw left his South Dakota roots. After graduating college I stayed in my home state of Indiana for about thirteen years. After that we moved to Tennessee for three years and then we spent the last twenty-four years before retirement living in New Jersey, about thirty miles from the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, New York City. Now we have been in the greater Nashville nearly 15 years. I have also carried some of those feelings Brokaw describes in his book.
 
                              “I don’t want to move back, but in a way I never want to leave.
                                                     I am nourished by every visit.”
 
                                                 (Tom Brokaw: A Long Way from Home)
 
True, I don’t want to move back, but in some ways I have never left.
 
You?
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June 21, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson 

This past Sunday, the Sunday Morning show had a feature on Willie Nelson. You gotta love Willie. Eighty four years old and still going. One of his new songs on his latest cd is “I Woke Up This Morning and Still Not Dead.” A few days ago my wife and I along good friends Roy and Linda Steele found ourselves in the little town where Willie and his sister grew up, Abbott, Texas. For me it was a treat to see. In that little town Willie also has bought the old Methodist church to save it from being torn down. There is a bit of seriousness for me when I think “What are we gonna do when Willie’s gone?”
​Scroll on down…you think Willie might have once upon a time climbed that water tower?

LA

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Just some thoughts:

                           What are we gonna do when Willie’s gone?
                       There won’t be no one left to sing our songs
                       Ole Hank, Lefty, Merle, George and Johnny
                                              Their all gone
                            There be no one left to sing our songs

The picture you see here is the current day water tower in Abbott, Texas. 

Recently we found ourselves pulling off a Texas interstate and driving a mile or so to Abbott, Abbott is Willie Nelson’s hometown. Abbott is where Willie and his sister Bobbie  grew up raised by their dad’s parents, Willie and Bobbie grandparent’s.

As I stood looking at the water tower I thought to myself, “I bet  in Willie’ s time he climbed that water tower. Maybe even put his initials there.” Willie is eighty-four years old. No one lives forever. 

“Austin is cool. Colorado is high and mighty. The California coast is something to behold. The world is filled with spots of great natural beauty. And even though no one in their right mind would put Abbott in that class, I’d never be in my right mind if I hadn’t been raised right in Abbott.”
                                                              Willie Nelson–It’s A Long Story My Life 

“Unlike many famous people who left their hometowns and never looked back, Willie felt Abbott was always the home of his heart. It was where he was born, where Daddy and Mama Nelson raised him, and where he wrote his first poems and songs. He would come back many times to play concerts there, or maybe just dominoes; to visit old friends; and to reconnect with the land  and the memories.”
                                                                            Kinky Friedman 

With a bit of seriousness as I got back in my car from the picture taking I had that thought. ” What are we going to do when Willie’s gone?
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June 18, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson