Archives for August 2018

Just some thoughts:

“Are you the owner of this place?”

That is what I heard a lady say this morning as I stepped away from the cashier at my coffee place. By the tone of her voice I thought, “I’m sure glad I’m not the owner or the manager, neither one.”

The party answered the lady telling her he was not the owner but he was the manager and could he help her in some way. “Yes you can, you need to tell your people to put more cream cheese on these bagels. This is awful. Also, cream cheese should be spread evenly and at least one inch thick all over a bagel. One inch thick” And she said this in “no certain terms.” Wow.

The manager was very nice to her he did say, “We instruct our help to put two scoops of cream cheese on all our bagels but if you would like more I will certain see that you get such.”

As I stepped away and went to a table to sit down I thought to myself:

“Lady are you kidding me? You must be a piece of work.”  This early in the morning and you are complaining about cream cheese on a bagel and that it is not thick enough nor spread evenly.

You ever wanted to say to someone, “Why don’t you go walk the halls of a local hospital, or visit a rehab center, or a nursing home, or..or…” I’m sorry but I don’t have a lot of patience with folks complaining about “How their cream cheese appears on their bagel.”

You ever stop and think about the things man/ we complain about?

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July 10, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 30,2018

Just some thoughts:

“I bet there were people in Bible days walking
around complaining about kids today.”

Roger Sterling–“Mad Men”

Probably so Roger, probably so.

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March 16, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 29, 2018

Just some thoughts:

Diversion—-An instance of turning something aside from it course.

Recently my wife and I spent some time in Oxford, Mississippi at  Rowan Oak the former home of the famous writer, William Faulkner.

As you read about Faulkner’s life it seems from early on he wanted to be a writer. But as is the case with life he ran into a lot of diversions. Sometimes he even had trouble finding directions for his life period.There was about a three year period in which Faulkner was certainly diverted and anything but happy with this diversion.

In 1921 Oxford had a population  a bit over 2,000 and Faulkner was appointed to run the local post office.

“As might be expected, Faulkner was more a nuisance than a help at the post office, hardly worth the salary of fifteen hundred dollars per annum.”

“It was amazing that under his trusteeship any mail ever actually got delivered, said those that knew him.”

“The long and short of it remains that Faulkner was an incompetent postmaster and that he used his time in socialize with friends, who often gathered there to play cards, sip whiskey and to write his own stories.”

One Matchless Time–A Life of William Faulkner–Jay Parini

But if you really think about it most everyone has had “diversions” in life. Today we often hear the word “career.” I hear young college kids use that word and I smile to myself. Most often before there is a career there will come divisions.

I asked a young lady that waited on me the other day in a restaurant, “What brought you to Nashville?” “Oh, I’m a songwriter but I need a job to help pay the bills.” I didn’t tell her that I have been told there are over 17,000 songwriters in Nashville.

When our son Jay graduated college there was no “career” discussion. Taking a line from the old rock-n’-roll group The Silhouettes–the word was, “Get a Job.” Likewise when our oldest grandson graduated the line was repeated, “Get a Job.”

Careers—–young people most often careers come after a number of diversions. At least you and William Faulkner can say you had something in common.

(Picture of LA with statue of William Faulkner–at City Hall–Oxford, Mississippi)

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July 23, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 27, 2018

Just some thoughts::

“I think sometimes if we are not careful we can tell ourselves that the only history of importance is what’s happened in our lifetime.”
Larry Adamson

During my nearly twenty-five years on staff at the United States Golf Association it was my good fortune to attend the Master’s many times, twenty-one I think to be exact. I would go each year at the first of the week and be given credentials that would then give me access to the player’s locker room, dining area, etc.

The USGA was concerned that an exempt player would not file an entry before the deadline. It would be my responsibility to contact any exempt player participating in the Master’s that year, who had not filed an entry and make sure they were aware of their responsibility to file.

While at the Master’s I had made this friendship, acquaintances with a well known gentleman who had played in the Master’s (in fact won it on one occasion) and had played the tour for a number of years.

I remember one afternoon sitting on the porch with him and hearing him talk of the Master’s and its history. Now this would have been in the early 1980s’.  I remember him saying that he felt the most memorable (other than his win) Masters ever was  probably 1954 as that was the last year that Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan, all three competed in the Masters. I remember thinking hum 1954 well I was only twelve years old then, did not know a thing about such an event and hey that was a long time ago, how could it be that significant?

In 2001, forty-seven years later, Herb Wind, famous golf writer, said of the 1954 Masters, “If a single golf tournament ever had a more magical week I simply can’t name it.”

You know if we aren’t careful one can measure history, what we think is important only by what we have experienced. Not so,

Thus the need for the teaching, the writing, the telling of history and past events. Every generation needs to be told, to hear and acquainted with the past.

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April 13, 2018
Keep on,

Larry Adamson

Posted August 27, 2018

Just some thoughts:                                                

Just some thoughts:

Last year about this time my wife and I were in Cody, Wyoming. I really liked it there. In fact I would like to go live there for about a month or so.

During the time we were there it was rodeo time. In fact the rodeo there lasted pretty much the whole month. Thirty nights of buckin’ and bustin’. And these are real cowboys, nothing plastic about any of them.

While I was standing in back of some of the chutes talking to one of the rodeo clowns I overheard a cowboy being interviewed by the local press.  I liked something I heard him say near the interview:

“You never wish anything bad on the other guy. You just hope you do a little better.”

“It is a scenario that plays out at rodeos all over the country. When a cowboy is beaten by one of his pals, he seldom sulks, and when a cowboy wins, he makes a point never to rub it in. One saddle bronc rider who spent an entire season neck-and-neck for the world title with his traveling partner says, ‘You never wish anything bad on the other guy. You just hope you do a little better.’
Rodeo in America–Wayne S. Wooden & Cavin Enringer

Well now there’s a novel idea to competition. I like that attitude.

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May 1, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 25, 2018

Just some thoughts:

I find it interesting how some can take what would appear a handicap and turn it into an asset.

He was born not too far from where I lived and grew up. I often heard of him but never really paid much attention. He had a funny nickname. While some called him Brownie, some Mort and some called him Three Fingers Brown.

As a young man he suffered two separate farm accidents to his right hand. One was when he was feeding material into a farm’s feed chopper and got his hand caught in the chopper. With that accident he lost three fingers and then later he fell and broke several finger bones that were never set properly.

As a young man he had a fondness for baseball but hey who can play that game, he was damaged goods. In 1898 he was playing on a semipro team as a third baseman. His team’s pitcher failed to show and his manager put him in to pitch. Very quickly it was noticed he could do something with the spin of that baseball that made it very hard to hit. “It didn’t only curve, it curves and dropped at the same time.”

Well he went on to play in the majors as his most productive years were 1904 to 1912 with the Chicago Cubs. How good was he? Get these stats:

*He won 20 or more games 6 times
*Was part of two World Series championships
*Finished his major league career with a 239-130 record
*1375 strikeouts
*2.06 lifetime ERA (Third best ERA in Major Leage history among those in Hall of Fame)

Following his retirement from the majors he returned to his home in Terre Haute, Indiana where he continued to pitch in minor leagues and exhibition games. If fact he last pitched three innings at the age of 51. I was told by locals that for twenty-five years after he left baseball he ran a filling station in Terre Haute that served as a town gathering place.

He died in 1948 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Upon the trips my son and I would make to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown I would always make it a point to find and read his plaque.

Isn’t it interesting how some people just learn how to do more with less. Ole Three Fingers Mordecai Brown certainly did.

“Hey he can’t pitch, he’s only got three fingers.”

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July 3, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 24, 2018

Just some thoughts:

     “I’m sixty-seven years older than you

how do you know what I want?”

A favorite movie of mine is “On Golden Pond.” Some great lines in that movie. One of the reoccurring themes in that movie is family relationships.

I love the line Henry Fonda says to his young grandson as they are preparing to go fishing. The grandson feels like he has  just been “dumped” with his grandparents, not really wanted.  “I might just take off and go up to Pureto Rico or Wyoming”  The older generation I came from would say the kid “feels like he was being passed from pillar to post.” The boy says to his grandparents, “I know I’m really not wanted here.”

Forda listens to the boy and then throws a fishing vest to him and says, “I’m sixty-seven years older than you…how do you know what I want?”

I like that line…”How do you know what I want?” I think far too often in life we do that very thing to others. We look at a situation, a matter and we just figure out in our mind or we just assume what someone else is thinking or wants. Dangerous. I’d rather not have someone else figuring out for me what I want.

You know maybe a good thing to do is ask questions of another rather than make some statement about what you think they are thinking. As Fonda said, “How do you know what I’m thinking?”

Just ask rather than tell.

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May 29, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 23, 2018

Just some thoughts:

Once I was sitting with a group and the talk turned to what I would call a discussion of serious matters. Matters such as death, illness, break-ups, broken relationships, etc when a person ask me:

“Do you think a person remembers the
last thing we ever said to them?”

First the question caused me to smile and then I got to thinking.

Personally I don’t know what people do or do not remember. But I do know there are some last things I said to some I hope they remember.

I guess we’ll never know and just have to leave it at that.

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March 2, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 22, 2018

Just some thoughts:

Civility–Formal politeness and courtesy in behavior and speech.

Living out East for nearly twenty-five years I saw a number of college basketball games while living there. It would have been in the mid 80s’ that I saw my first college game at Princeton University. Now I am not a prude but I was a bit taken back at the first game I attended there as to the behavior of the crowd, especially the student body.

Having grown up in Indiana I have seen a lot of basketball and seen rivalries etc. I have seen crowds get loud and into a game but I had never seen signs like students  at those games were holding up. Four letter language to the other team. Then during the game chants from the students in four letter wording. One had no problem hearing or understanding what they were saying.

I was reminded of something the late  Coach Dean Smith, one time basketball coach at the University of North Carolina, did during a game at his school. During the course of a  home game Smith’s school student body became upset about a call. They started a chant bull———-. It happened a second time. Immediately Coach Smith got up from the bench motioned to the officials to stop the game. He then went to the scorer’s bench, took control of the PA system and said to the students, ” Not here, no not here, stop that chant.” They did.

Roots. Sometimes I think it is good for us individually and as a country to give some thought to what came before us. In people and in practices.

It is said George Washington had fifty rules for civility. They can be summed up in the following:

*Shew Nothing to your Friend that may affright him.
*Do not laugh too loud or too much at any Publick Spectacle.
*Use no Reproachful language against any one neither Curse or Revile.
*Do not express Joy before one sick or in pain for that contrary Passion will aggravate his Misery.
*Strive not with your Superiors in argument, but always Submit your Judgement to others with Modesty.

Taken from Against the Grain—Bill Courtney

Society could certainly use some of ole George’s fifty rules today.

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July 27,2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted August 21, 2018