Archives for May 2019

Just some thoughts:

You ever do something and you’re not sure why?

Maybe a silly question as  I would probably answer that question with “yes, lots of times.”

On one of my trips back home to Indiana I went to visit the home of Ernie Pyle. It is out near a very small rural community called Dana in Vermilion County in western Indiana. The day I was there practically no one else was. It was kinda cold, windy Indiana day. Walking around I remembered something Andy Rooney(who had served in the Army with Pyle)  had once said of Pyle, how he paid attention to things others did not noticed. Andy Rooney said something that I thought was interesting about Pyle.

“He made his own stories with little things others of us hardly or never noticed.”

“Ernie never offered any opinion about who was winning or losing the war. He just told little  stories about the men fighting it.”

Andy Rooney–60 Years of Wisdom and Wit–Andrew Rooney

To me there is something really special about people who pay attention to “little things,” to details, to things others never notice or even think about.

It was said of Pyle that he was so good, so well respected at what he did, that his reputation enhanced the reputation of all other correspondences.

Not sure why I went, maybe sometimes one just feels a debt of thanks, a note of acknowledgement. Maybe that’s why I went.

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May 31, 2019

Keep on,

Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

Might always be good to check and see who is in town. Maybe even who is there and where one is having  dinner tonight?

In March probably just six or seven weeks before Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, were killed they were in Terre Haute, Indiana.

“Ready for another break, they drove to Terre Haute, Indiana, but there was trouble on the way.”

“During the week the gang spent in Terre Haute, they bought new clothes and felt safe enough to eat meals in restaurants.”

“In early March, Clyde and Bonnie took Henry back to Bienville, Louisiana Parish, probably traveling there directly from Terre Haute.”

Go Down Together–The True, Untold Story of Bonnie & Clyde–Jeff Guinn

Bonnie and Clyde were killed just outside of Sailes, Louisiana on May 23, 1934.

Sometimes history can come close to home. In 1934 my dad would have been 24 years old, my mother 22  and my grandfather 46 all living in that area. I can understand my grandfather talking about such events in a first hand way.

Any suggestion where we go, what restaurant we eat at tonight?

=============================================May 14, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted May 31, 2019

Just some thoughts:

One of the most important people in my day yesterday was a tow truck driver. Today a mechanic.

Yesterday as I was backing out of my drive (my wife and I had a dinner date in Nashville) I did such, then tried to shift my car (Chrysler convertible)  from reverse into drive and bingo, it would not go. The linkage on the transmission broke. I only learn that later.

There we sat, my wife and I in the middle of the street in front of our house. The car would not move. It was now locked in transmission that would not change. One of my neighbors came out of his house, another turning the corner now blocked by my car came to help. We tried pushing the car, rocking the car to try and move it to the curb. No go.

We then got on the phone and called for a tow truck. Luckily he arrived in not too long a time. He pulled up in a truck that sounded like judgement day. Driver hops out, blue work pants (couple sizes too big) steel toed shoes and a shirt with his name above the pocket. You’ve seen this before. We all have.

He then finds a number of chains crawls under the car and  puts them in places where I would have had no idea. Then he operated some levers on the side of his truck and pulls the car on to the bed of the truck. Off he goes taken my wounded vehicle to the garage and my mechanic where I have taken all my cars for the past seventeen years living here.

Early this morning as I sat by myself drinking my coffee I thought about those two people. A tow truck driver and a mechanic. How often do we stop and think about what we call the “Blue Collar” people?  You know the one “who doesn’t  have a college education,” or appear a bit different than many in our circle of people.

You know sometimes the most  important people in one’s day might be the people that we give the least thought. Much of the world operates on the skills and goodness of the blue collar person, woman or man.

You know the one with their name just above the pocket on their shirt.

They are deserving of our respect.

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May 20, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted May 30, 2019

Just some thoughts:

Tonight as I pulled out of our drive-way I headed to Sonic.

Hey tonight is 5 for 5 hamburgers for 5 bucks. Our oldest grandson, Seth and I used to go every week on that special night. We would drive my old Corvette and we would eat all 5 between us. Driving there tonight I will slip in an old Nat King Cole cd.

At the the time I was five years old. It is one of the earliest and most vivid memories I think I have from an early age.. We were living south on highway 41 in what our family called the Ray Woods place. (Ray Woods local undertaker in Farmersburg, IN owned the house)

Earlier in the evening my parents and I had been to visit my dad’s parents. They lived what then seemed like a long way from us but was only a few miles south and a bit north and west of Shelburn, IN. You went highway 41 and at Bert and Finn’s truck stop you turned west and went about 3 miles on this old gravel road to my grandparent’s little small farm.

Now the memory. Why I don’t know, but for some reason that evening coming home I was riding with my uncle and Aunt Mertie in their Studebaker car. I was sitting in the front seat (no seat belts) between the two of them. It was winter, the heater had the car so warm and cozy. (Cozy now there is a word a woman might use.) The car had what I though were the pretties dash lights I had ever seen in a car. Green and they seemed to illuminate the whole car. And on the car radio (all lit up in green) came this voice singing:

L is or the way you look at me/ O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary/ E is even more than anyone that you adore

Love is all that I can give to you/ Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it/ Take my heart and please don’t break it
Love was made for me and you

Love is all that I can give to you/ Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it/ Take my heart and please don’t break it
Love was made for me and you/ Love was made for me and you
Love was made for me and you

Writer (s) Milt Gabler, Bert Kaempfert

Who would have thought that seventy-two years later— tonight I would once again be listening to Nat King Cole sing L-O-V-E ……as I drove my recently acquired 1947 Studebaker. You know one is very lucky when they get to re-live old memories.

Marty Robbins once sang, “Old Memories Never Die.” Truly they don’t, the special ones.

By the way there are a few other old memories I would also like to re-live.

You?

P.S. The car in the picture is the one I got this past week.

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May 18, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted May 29, 2019

Just some thoughts:

At one time I followed NASCAR racing pretty closely. There are not too many NASCAR tracks that I have not been to.  Off hand such places as Charlotte, Martinsville, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Dover (The Monster Mile), New Hampshire, Arizona  and of course a few times to the races in Daytona. (In fact was once put in a car and rode a few laps with one of the drivers, Wally Dallenbach, just an hour or so prior to the race one year at Dover.–that’s another story for another time.)

I was standing outside an airplane hanger in New Hampshire waiting for a helicopter to take me to the track for the race that day in New Hampshire. Would only be about a 15 minute ride by helicopter compared about an hour by car.

That is where I met the old Washington Redskins football coach Joe Gibbs. He along with one of his drivers, Mark Martin as they both were also waiting for the ride.  Gibbs had left football and now was a NASCAR cup car owner. The helicopter for Gibbs arrived and as there was an extra seat he invited me to ride with them rather than wait for a another ride. He could not have been nicer. In fact when we landed he gave me his card and told me if I wanted  to show this to the man at of the garage  doors and this would let me into a church service for the drivers and owners before the race. Which I did. Most interesting.

I had always liked Gibbs and had somewhat followed his career from his early days as a player to the head coach of the Washington Redskins. In his book Game Plan for Life he tells an interesting story.

During his days as coach of the Redskins he had flown into Washington D.C. He hailed a cab with instructions to take him to the stadium where the Redskins played. About five minutes into the ride the cab driver in his broken English said to Gibbs, “You…you football coach, you coach the Redskins.” Gibbs thinking “Hey this guy recognizes me, the old coach.” Ten seconds had not passed when the cab driver looks at Gibbs and says: “You need to throw deep more.”

Chances are pretty good that in your lifetime you will run into someone (s) who thinks they know more about your job and in many cases think they could do it better than you are doing. Chances are good that someone will tell you: “You need to throw deep more.” You can be the coach that wins three Super Bowls and still a cab driver tells you what you need to do.

Same in most lives, someone can always tell you how to do what you do better. It’s not uncommon in life to find folks who think they could do a better job at what you are doing than you.

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April 21, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted May  28, 2019

Just some thoughts:

I have followed music all my life. All kinds and forms of music.

One form I was raised on was gospel, especially southern gospel quartet music.  My dad sang in a gospel group and as a small boy I was put to sleep at many an all night gospel singing. I also know what the expression “All day singin’ dinner on the grounds” means.

Only if you have closely followed gospel music would you recognize such names as The Blackwood Brothers, The Statesmen, The Dixie Echoes, The Florida Boys, The Chuck Wagon Gang, I could go on and on.

He was serving in the army based in Columbia, South Carolina but also was a member of his family’s gospel group. A group called The LeFevres. Again only if you followed that style of music would you even come close to knowing about this group. His family had a show to do in Memphis,Tennessee on a Sunday afternoon. To make that show he would hitchhike from Columbia, SC to Memphis . Earlier that week he had written a song. Backstage that afternoon before going on stage he shared the song with his family hoping they would perform it that afternoon. That afternoon they performed the song and it was well received by the audience.

But unbeknownst to the young man who had written and sung the song that afternoon standing off stage/ in the wings listening to them sing was a young man who lived in Memphis and also loved gospel music. Something he often did, showing up at gospel music shows.

The following week this young man who had been standing in the wings, standing just off stage was so taken with the song that he had heard that past Sunday that he went into a Nashville recording studio and recorded that very song. The writer of the song was Myron LeFevre (The song–“Without  Him I Can Do Nothing.”)

The fella that had been standing off stage listening to them sing, and so taken with the newly written song, oh that was Elvis Presley. The song appeared in his first gospel album. The story goes that Elvis also gave much of the recording royalties from that recording to the young song writer.

You know one never knows who might be standing off stage.

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May 5, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

May 27, 2019

Just some thoughts:

Most would say they were as different as day and night.

Hank was an agnostic trending toward atheist. Grew up in Nebraska. He had been raised in what folks would have said was a Christian influence but was no longer of that mind set. Jimmy said to be religious, a church goer from the Midwest. Hank a liberal Democrat, Jimmy a serious conservative Republican. One a Dover, one a Hawk.

Hank, he had relationship issues. He had five wives and very difficult issues with his children. On the other hand Jimmy was married to the same woman for nearly fifty years and children that adored him. Hank would be described as one who was always wound tightly. Jimmy always seemed comfortable whether at work or just life in general. Hank had few friends, Jimmy even with the public came to be thought of as a family friend. Hank would be described as an intellectual and a perfectionist, Jimmy he didn’t read much and rarely lost his temper.

But for nearly the fifty years they had known each other they remained the best of friends. When Hank was dying everyday Jimmy would leave his house and visit his friend up the hill. Often bring flowers in one hand and vegetables in the other. Just sitting by his friends side.

“Through all the vicissitudes of the world, through career ups and downs, through their mutual jettisoning of their careers to go to war and the difficulties adjustment that came after, they had stayed close.”
Hank & Jimmy–Scott Eyman

Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart two people who never drew lines in the sand. They never put conditions on their friendship. Generally when you don’t you can have a lasting friendship.

They valued their friendship above demanding the other see things their way. Maybe a lesson for not just their millions of fans but for all of us.

They never drew lines in the sand.

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April 18, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

May 25, 2019

Just some thoughts:

When I was a kid my dad had this one mechanic he always took his cars to.

Respectfully  this mechanic, Colley, was always referred to as a “shade tree” mechanic. On occasion Colley would not be available and dad would take his car to another mechanic. One of the things I always noticed even as a kid when my dad would say Colley worked on his cars, regardless of who the other garage man was they would always speak so respectful of Colley. “Oh John, Colley is the best.” “If Colley can’t fix it it can’t be fixed.”Almost always praise came to Colley from others who worked, made their living doing the same thing he did, working on cars.

Sadly this week Hondo died. Hondo was John Havelicek. One time college and professional basketball player, member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. He suffered from Parkinson’s and died at age 79.

“For ten years, John Havlicek was toughest opponent in one of the biggest rivalries in the league. Night after night, he was the  epitome of constant motion. He only needed half a step to beat me, which he usually did. He was the quintessential Celtic–unselfish and loyal.”

Quote from former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley and two-time NBA champion with the New York Knicks. Well said Mr. Bradley, well said.

I have always felt the best compliment a person could receive was one that came from one’s peers. The person or persons who also was trying to do what you did regardless of the task. Whether it was a teacher, carpenter, flight attendant, mechanic or ball player. Someone from the same work  taking note of what another did and often setting that one as the standard.

Interesting stat on Havlicek. He ranks third in all time scoring with the his team the  Boston Celtics and in the top four and five in other team categories but never ranked first in any one category. That’s called a team player. I always felt he was more interested in his teams accomplishment that he was his own personal statistics or recognition.

A rare quality in this day and age in just about any profession.

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April 28, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted May 25, 2-19

Just some thoughts:

It has been said that most everyone has a day–at least one day– in their life that will be like no other in their lifetime.

I first saw Tiger Woods in 1991 as he was playing in the USGA Jr. Amateur Championship. In fact he would win that year and also the next two years 1992 and 1993. He would be the only one in the history of the event to be a three time winner.

“He may live long, he may do much, but he can never exceed what he does on this day.”
Edmund Burke

As I sat in my comfortable living room chair, glass of ice tea close at hand watching the final day of the 2019 Master’s ….I think Edmund Burke’s line might apply to Tiger Woods on this day, Sunday April 14, 2019.

Tiger may have won four previous Master titles….

“He may live long, he may do much, but he can never exceed what he does on this day.”

You know if we are honest most all of us…has had a special good..                                                    “Day like no other.”

Or at least I hope so.

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April 15, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

May 23, 2019

Just some thoughts:

This morning as I sat alone over a cup of coffee at my coffee place I read a small by-line that read:

“Fifty-five years ago today Mario Andretti competed in his first Indy car race.”

That was April 19th, 1964, my senior year in college.

Over the years I have often associated Andretti with my wife and I. The second date I had with my wife was on an August afternoon in Terre Haute, Indiana, 1962.  I took her to the spirit car races at the fame half-mile dirt track knows as the Action Track.

The night before (our first date) we had gone to the show at the Indiana theater saw the movie “The Music Man.”  Meredith Wilson’s famous play-movie, and then the spirit car races. I have no idea how many races I have been to in my lifetime. Many and many at the half-mile dirt track there in my home area.

Somewhere stuffed in an old envelope, shoe box etc is a picture of Barbara and Mario taken on that hot August afternoon.  Back then at the end of the races the pits would be open to the public. Most always following the races I would walk into the pits and meet, talk with the various drivers. You could do that. There would be  Foyt, Jones, Hurtubise, Bobby/ Al Unser and  Jud Larson.  Drivers often would be sitting near their cars having a cool drink. In fact if you got to the races early, as I often did, you might even help some of the drivers unload their spirit car off their trailers. I certainly did such on more than one occasion

On this date as Barb and I walked the pits I spotted Andretti. This was his first time to run at Terre Haute. He had established a reputation for himself running the eastern tracks and now he was coming into the big time of USAC. He was standing at the back of an old beat up pick-up truck that had a trailer hitched to it. Standing next to him was his brother Alto.
I said to Barb, “Come over here I’m gonna get a picture of this guy. If he doesn’t get himself hurt or killed in this crazy spirit car racin’ he could ended up being one of the best ever.”

So I merely walked up to him and asked if I could take his picture along with my date. No problem. So very quickly the two of them stood at the back of this old truck and I snapped their picture. Just a few feet away sat his old sprint car, robin egg blue number 83 the Gapco special. He and his brother Aldo were about to push it back on the trailer and head out for another race at who knows where.

Hey I sure had a lot of class back in those days didn’t I. One night at the theater seeing a movie from a Broadway play  and the next afternoon at the sprint car races. Oh yeah, I had a lot of class.

You know sometimes in life pictures are taken and little thought is given to what later might be the significance of them some day.  That’s the way with a lot of things about life, we don’t always know the significance of what is happening at the time. Only years later do we come to recognize the importance.

As the line from a country music Jack Clements song once said:

“Whose in that picture with you? Oh, just someone I used to know.”

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April 19, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted May 23, 2019