Archives for October 2017

Just some thoughts:

Another season is almost upon us….Something I wrote on Nov. 1st of  2014.

Tonight is a very significant date in history, November 1st. Yes, it is in my history and the history of thousands of guys who grew up attending small high schools in the state of Indiana in the 1950s’.
 
If you grew up then and attended one of the many small high schools in the state, you may remember this date. At that time there were a little over 700 high schools in the state and the majority of those schools were small, rural schools that did not have a football program. November 1st was the date the Indiana High School Athletic Association, ISHAA, would allow the basketball season to begin. I can still remember it like it was yesterday.
 
There is a line from an old Statler Brothers song that goes: “If I could just be a part of your memory the rest of your life.” Many happenings from that time, certainly including basketball, would be a part of those memories for me. November 1st, 1959 at 7:45 p.m. on a Friday night was the normal tip-off time for most school’s varsity games. On this November 1st it was the Blackhawk Chieftains vs. the Pimento Peppers. Now, stop laughing! The Chieftains are dressed in their traveling red and black uniforms, and they were led by veterans, Bobby Morse and Oscar Huntwork. (Oscar’s dad was my barber. He cut hair in the back of his small grocery store that the family operated.) The Peppers dressed in their home white with blue and orange trim; my old number was 40! I bet 99 per cent of the guys who played back then can remember their basketball uniform number. Mine, 40 on the home uniform, and 20 on the road.
 
It has been said, probably only by me, that in the late 1950s’ the best thing that could happen to a young Indiana high school boy who played basketball was three things. One, on a Friday night you’ve beaten the local school from a few miles down the road; two, your dad let you have the car for an after game date, and three, that one certain girl,  would go out with you. If all that happened on the same night, the stars were truly aligned perfectly. Well, on that night the stars were aligned perfectly for me; the Peppers won on a last second shot in overtime! Yours truly scored 17 points, and yes I also fouled out. It was the start of my last year in high school, my last basketball season. I would like to say it was the beginning of a very winning season, but it was not. All four years of my being a Pepper, victory did not come often. By the way, for those of us who lived during that time, basketball wasn’t our only memory from those Friday nights, but a very significant one.
 
 Last year on one of my basketball junkets back to Indiana, I attended an Indiana State University basketball game and ran into Oscar Huntwork. Neither he nor I looked nearly as intimidating as we once did, or thought we did, on that particular November night back in 1960.
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November 1, 2014
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

“Every relationship has a rhythm. Some develop tentatively, speed up, and then slow down to a drag.         Others start off at a frantic pace before quickly running out of steam. There are relationships that                                 maintain an even rhythm for decades. And then there are those that are       
                                                  always losing the beat and falling out of sync.” 

                                           Mirriam Johnson (Jessi Colter)–An Outlaw and a Lady​

Should give one pause.

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October 2, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson  

  Just some thoughts:                                                    

A story I was privileged to hear.

He came there often. Often, being most mornings. They opened at 6 a.m. Chances are he had been up an hour or better before they opened. The waitress more times than not seeing him coming would pour his coffee and take it to the place where he would generally sit. The coffee always, strong and black, no sugar. He called it cowboy coffee. 

Sometimes he sat with a group of the locals, sometimes he just sat by himself. He was a widower, his wife had been dead for three or four years. They had been married fifty-six years and they had been high school sweethearts in this small community where he still lived.

One of the things that had caught the attention of the waitresses and others was how sometimes he would just sit and kinda stare out the windows of the restaurant.  He kinda seemed to drift off. But the thing that seemed to stay the most with those who frequent the restaurant was a practice he had. No one ever ask him about it as in some ways he was a very private man. They did not want to appear noisy as some small town folks might appear. 

The practice? Often he would sit down, take a drink of his coffee then reach for his back pocket and pull out his billfold.  From his billfold he would take a piece of paper and appear to read.  The  paper was kinda crumbled, appeared to be old and a corner of the paper was missing, torn off. He would look at the paper for a short time then fold it up and place it back in his billfold. He did not do this everyday but often enough it caught the curiosity of others.

Well he died. You know all folks are gonna. So many restaurant folks had wondered what it was over these past few years that he had been reading. What was it that he seemed to always have with him? At his funeral the minister shared this long lost secret that many in this community had wondered about. 

This old gentleman that had now passed had been a part of this community, with the exception of the time he went to college and served in the military, he had been a part of that community all his life. He had been a teacher, a coach, an administrator in the local school system all his life. He had guided athletic teams to some great seasons and a few not so great. He had lived through the difficult years as an administrator, especially during school consolidations. He had seen the changes in education and the attitudes change toward discipline and respect. 

What was it that he so often pulled from his pocket and read? A letter. The letter was from three former students who had also played on his athletic teams. It was a letter of remembrance. A letter saying thank you for all he had done for each of them. Interesting it was sent during a period of time of school consolidation in which he had been under a great deal of criticism, “heat” from some in the community. Often he returned to those words of kindness and remembrance by three of his former players.

You know it’s one thing to think good things about someone, even better when that person is told good things from another. I think its even better when words of encouragement are written down and sent, given to someone. A spoken word can carry one for days, weeks even months. But a written word of encouragement can carry one a lifetime. When its’ written it is much easier for one to return to and read again…and again. 

Who among us does not need such encouragement. 

       “A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success”
                                                                     (Unknown)
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September 2, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson                           

Just some thoughts:
​
Our opinions of people tend to alter slowly over the years and, if we don’t update our relationship by talking to them, become untrue.
                                                                  Andy Rooney

And often how we think others think about a matter don’t change cause  time is not taken to ask:    
         “How one once thought, how does that compare with how they now think?”

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August 4, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson                                             

Just some thoughts:
 
If you like good music…late night…mellow…mood music…do yourself a favor and buy yourself a cd of Anita Kerr and the Anita Kerr singers.
 
Anita Kerr (October 13, 1927-) is an American singer, composer, arranger, conductor, pianist and many other things associated with in my opinion good music.   
 
She probably best known for her group The Anita Kerr Singers. For me with maybe the exception of the group The Four Freshmen she had the best harmony of any of the singing groups. With the exception of the group The Jordanaries her group did more back-up work than probably any other group in Los Angles and Nashville. At one time if you recorded in Nashville those would be the two group most asked for in the recording studios.
 
As I sit here late tonight in my home office they are playing in the background…a great way to end a day…chances are you may have to wander through an old record shop to find their music but its worth the wandering….great rendition of the Floyd Cramer classic “Last Date” or maybe the most commercially successful recording for the group “Forever.”  
Good nite….
 
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August 22, 2016
Keep on,
Larry Adamson 

Just some thoughts:

              “It’s just human nature…we all need someone to kiss us goodbye.”

                                                  Marcie–Peanuts

Marcie, I think you’ve pretty  well said it all.

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August 29, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Preference: My wife and I just recently returned from a trip to Frankfort, Indiana. Sadly we had gone back there to attend the memorial service a very good friend, Gary Kersey. While there sitting in the back of the church was Doctor Frank Beardsley. The picture you see here with this writing is of me and Dr. Beardsley. What a treat it was for us to again see him. Yes, I shared with him this story.  Thank you, Doctor Beardsley we will forever be grateful. 

LA
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Just some thoughts:                                    

Recently my wife and I met up with some good friends from by-gone days. John and Connie Milholland and their families. Their two daughters, husbands and their children. They were in Nashville celebrating Connie’s birthday. Hey I’m a gentleman, I’m telling how many.

In 1972 John was the head basketball coach at Frankfort high school in Frankfort, Indiana. The Hot Dogs. yes, that’s their name. I had started my teaching and coaching career in 1964 at the junior high school in Frankfort but had since moved on from there in 1967. At the time of his call in 1972 I was teaching and coaching in Rockville, Indiana. John called asking me if I would return to Frankfort as his assistant. I was flattered, one, that he knew who I was and two, that he would consider me for such a position with him. After some discussion we accepted his offer.

At that time we had two children, Jill, born in October, of 1966 while we were in Frankfort the first time. Dr. Beardsley was the doctor who delivered her. In March of 1970 our second child, a boy, Jay, was delivered in Terre Haute, Indiana while I was teaching and coaching at Rockville, Indiana.

Not too long after we had returned to Frankfort I got a call one afternoon from Dr.Beardsley saying he wanted to see me in his office. The caller told me, “Don’t be alarmed, but he wants to see you as soon as you get to his office.” When I got to his office I was taken to a room where my wife and Dr.Beardsley were. Now some background information is now needed. 

In 1970 just a day after we had gone home from the hospital with our son, Jay, my  wife had complications from that delivery. In fact she started hemorrhaging. Upon calling the doctor his words were, “I will meet you at the hospital, get there as fast as you can.” Living in Rockville we were about twenty miles from the hospital. To say it was a quick trip is saying it mildly. At the time I had a 1969 Dodge Charger and on that drive to the hospital I would have rival the best of NASCAR. All turned out fine, my wife stayed in the hospital a few days and then came home.

Now sitting in Dr.Beardsley’s office I had a slight idea of the reason I was there. “Larry,  your wife expresses the desire to have another child that’s why I called you here.” Looking at the doctor, I said something like, “Doc, no way. She told you what happened on the last delivery, hasn’t she.?” He confirmed she had. “Well, no way.” To make a long story much shorter he went on to talk with me and assured me that things would be ok for another delivery.

On the day I sat with my wife in Dr.Beardsley’s office I told him, “Doc, if this were any other person talking to me about this, I would still say no, but I believe in you this much.” On September 30, 1974 our third child, Jennifer was delivered by Dr.Beardsley at the hospital in Frankfort, Indiana.  

On the evening we had met with the Milholland’s one of the last things I  had said to John, learning that Dr.Beardsley was still living in Frankfort, “Please tell Doc we ask about him and we said hello, we owe him much.”

A couple days after being with the Milhollands that night for dinner here in Nashville Jennifer pulled in our drive-way, two little ones jump out of the car and come running to the porch where I was sitting with my glass of ice tea.  As Jennifer got out of the car and started her walk toward the porch I had the thought, “Without Dr. Beardsley right now none of this would be happening.”

You know, probably within the lives of all of us there are those  out there that are deserving of a “Thank you from each of us.”   

How about you, is there someone maybe from your past  who is deserving of a thank you?

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September 30, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

“Sunrise is the time to feel that you will be able to find out how to help somebody close to you who you think needs help even if he doesn’t think so. At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”
                                                     A River Runs Through–​-Norman Maclean
True. 

This is a line spoken from the book A River Run Through by Norman  Maclean. While Maclean relates that line to his love of fly fishing I relate that line to golf. Some of my best memories are and will always be riding with Tom Meeks  and the times I would go with him very early of a morning to cut the holes for the US Open. When the sun was just rising and the course still belonged to nature, not man. You could hear the sounds of animals, maybe water rushing and realizing that in a few hours thousands of people would now occupy this quite lovely space.

I will agree that a sunrise can be luminous…… but  it does not always give one all the answers to questions from the night before. Some questions linger long into the light of day. 

Or even longer.

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August 9, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:                                          

                   “I fear the day that technology will take on our humanity….
                        the world will be populated by a generation of idiots.” 

                                                     Albert Einstein

I think one might say to Albert, “Albert we believe you, we’re now seeing it in too many places.”

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September 19, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson  

Just some thoughts:

You know… that some days the best part of your day…. is gonna be that early morning cup of coffee. It will go downhill from there. 

That was my thought early this a.m. as I sat doing that–as it says “Just some thoughts.”

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August 24, 2017
Keep on,
Larry Adamson