Just some thoughts:

“I’m surprised you had the nerve to come in this mornin’, after  the beatin’ you all took.”

One of my favorite book’s and movies is Larry McMurtry’s, “The Last Picture Show.”

From the first time I saw the movie heard Hank Williams music open many of the scenes I was hooked. So much so that years later I made it a point to drive to Archer City, Texas, the home of McMurty, and spend much of the day there in that small community.

“I’m surprised you had the nerve to come in” is what the owner of the pool hall, Sam, said to Sonny the morning after his high school football team lost a game. Crowell ,the visiting team tromped Thalia 28 to 6 the night before.

Took me back to my high school days in Indiana. I went to a very small very rural high school, less that 80 in all four grades. In all my four years of playing on the basketball team we never had a winning record. We lost more games each years than we won. That can do things to a young boys imagine.

I can remember how I hated on a Saturday morning after a game to stop by the post office, garage or Gunn’s grocery. “Well I see you did it again last night.” Years later I would often have a similar experiences during my high school coaching days. One of the places I often hated to go during my high school coaching days was the local barber shop. In the late 1950s’ most every barber shop had a frustrated basketball coach, if not the barber himself.

“Four years of playing for Thalia had insured him to defeat, and so far as he was concerned the Quarterback Club had been foolishly optimistic.”
Quote: Sonny–guard on the team

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March 13, 2020
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

Recently I ask four young people who was Harry Truman. Now these were college kids, one told me, one was not sure and two did not know.

Harry Truman was once President of the United States. Vice-President under Franklin Roosevelt and then elected president in 1948. To say the least he was a character.

Recently I was in a library just outside of Washington, D.C. We were visiting our oldest daughter who lives there and would be attending our grandson’s high school graduation  from high school. Often when I am some place and have time to kill I will seek out a coffee shop and then the local library. On this day the library was having a book sale. I couldn’t resist and so I bought a book I had read previously but hey it was worth a buck. The book, Plain Speaking.  Is an oral biography of Harry S. Truman by Merle Miller. Personally I think maybe the best book on Truman. If I was still teaching high school history I would  have parts of the book required reading or at least “hey you want some extra credit–read these chapters.”

1. “When you do a thing, even if it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world watching you, and act accordingly.”

2.”There’s nothing new in human nature. The only thing that changes are the names we give things.”

3.”If you aspire to the highest  place it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third.”

4.”Often two smart men never agree on what happened, they think they both are telling the truth. Somebody with authority has to make them understand that their viewpoint and the other viewpoint can be brought together and an agreement can be reached.”

5.”Trouble begins when you start taking your friends for granted and start buying your enemies.”

6.”Some men are greedier than others, and they get to thinking they are the power rather than the instrument of power.”

7.”There is considerable difference in what people write about themselves and what is written about them.”

8. “You can dress a man up in a fancy suit and give him a fancy accent, and a lot of people seem to think he has to be telling the truth, but I never did.”

9.”Very few people are going to give you large sums of money and don’t expect to get something in return.”

10.”One of the reason to read history, to teach history is to learn and make use from it.”

11.”Any President that’s any good at all makes enemies, a lot of enemies,”

12.”Ego is a great deflector of aim.”

13.”Hindsight only tells you what did happened. It never tells you what did not happen and what might have occurred if you had taken action you did not take.”

14.”Newspapermen, and they’re all a bunch of lazy cusses, once one of them writes something, the others rewrite it and rewrite it, and they keep right on doing it without ever stopping to find out if the first fellow was telling the truth or not.” (Appears Mr. Truman had his issues with media)

15.”If you can win an election without attacking the people who’ve helped you it’s not worth winning.”

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June 11, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

“The moment you are born your death is foretold by your newly minted  cells as your mother holds you up, then hands you to your father, who gently tickles the stomach where the cancer will one day form, studies the eyes where melanoma’s dark signature is already written along the optic nerve, touches the back where the liver will one day house the cirrhosis, feel the bloodstream that will sweeten itself into diabetes, admires the shape of the head where the brain will fall to the ax-handle of stroke, or listens to your heart, which, exhausted by the fearful ways and humiliations and indecencies of life, will explode in your chest like a light going out in the world. Death lives in each one of us and begins in countdown on our birthdays and makes it rough entrance at the last hour and perfect time.”

Pat Conroy–South of Broad

Pat, while I agree with the process, I have some grievances with those last two words—“perfect time.”

I have lived long enough that I have seen what I consider some really bad timing.=========================================
April 29, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

ALWAYS REMEMBER

“I wouldn’t think much of a man that tried to deny the people and the town where he grew up. You must always keep in mind who you are and where you come from. A man that can’t do that at all times is in trouble where I’m concerned. I wouldn’t have anything to do with him.”

Harry S. Truman

“All the me in me is in a little Missouri village halfway around the world.”

Mark Twain

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June 15, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted July 13, 2019

Just some thoughts:

It was early one damp, rainy summer morning as I pulled from our drive-way in my old ’65 Corvette, I slipped in an old cassette. I was headed to my coffee place and then to play golf. I smiled as the first song that came on was the classic Dale and Grace hit declaring that “I’m Leavin’ It Up To You.”

I’d like to have all the quarters I dropped into a juke box when that song became a hit. It was early 1960s’ and I was in college. Dale Houston and Grace Broussard recorded this song on a small label out of Louisiana and it went to number one. In fact sadly it was number one on the charts the very week that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Back then when I might have been listening to the lyrics to that song, I had no idea that forty-two years later I would be standing back stage at a Cajun festival in Gonzales, Louisiana talking with Grace Broussard for a few minutes before she went on stage to perform. She would close her show with that song.

The song asks a classic question that probably has been asked thousands of times, “What is gonna happen to this relationship?”

“I’m Leavin’ It Up To You”

I’m leavin’ it all up to you-ooh-ooh
You decide what you’re gonna do
Now do you want my love or are we through?
That’s why I’m leavin’ it up to you
You decide what you’re gonna do
Now do you want my love or are we through?
I’ve got my heart in my hand/ I don’t understand
Baby what, what have I done wrong?
You know, I worship the ground that you walk
That’s why I’m leavin’ it up to you
You decide what you’re gonna do or are we through?

(Don F. Harris – Dewey Terry)

It was relevant then and all times previous.  Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you felt like what you wanted that decision lay in the hands of someone else? It can make one make one miserable. Right?

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May 15, 2009
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Just some thoughts:

On his ninetieth birthday Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was asked how he figured he’d done all he’d done, been a Supreme Court Justice and a solider in the Civil War and all of that. “What’s the secret of your success,” ask this newspaper man.

“Young man, the secret of my success is that I learned something at a very early age. Very early age. I discovered that I’m not God.”

 Oliver Wendell Holmes

Hum….

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June 14, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted July 4, 2019

Just some thoughts:

Some would have described Andy Rooney as that, a curmudgeon.

 “A bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person.”

Personally I think that might be a bit harsh description of Rooney. Yes, somewhat fitting but not sure about all the description. I miss Rooney. Miss him on the television show “Sixty- Minutes” and his writings.

 

I am of the opinion that at times we all need a bit of some difficult and cantankerous people in our lives and in our society. I think often they give us a bit of perspective about life and ourselves that other wise might not come to us.

Just ten of Mr. Rooney’s thoughts:

1.The process by which each of us acquires a reputation isn’t independent of our character. It almost always depend more on the decisions we make than of chance occurrences.

2.A good teacher hands out more encouragement that pupils deserve as a matter of teaching technique.

3.Our opinions of people tend to alter slowly over the years and, if we don’t update our relationships by talking to them, become untrue.

4.You see so many things in life we have done badly that life can be depressing unless you look for some of the things we’ve done well.

5.Good ideas are overrated. The world is full of people with good ideas and short on people who rake a leaf.

6. We’re all torn between the desire for privacy and the fear of loneliness.

7.Most of us are so engrossed in whatever it is we do with our days that we fail to consider what anyone else is doing with theirs.

8.It  probably would never occur to anyone who never played that even second stringers love the game.

9.All men are not created equal but should be treated as though they were under the law.

10. Always realize you could be wrong.

I miss Andy Rooney. Sometimes we just need folks “who tell it like it is.” No we don’t need a world full of such folks, but a few and hearing their words occasionally is ok.

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May 26, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Poste June 3rd, 2019

Just some thoughts:

“And you best also know when to fold them.”

I immediately recognized him as he walked into my coffee place. As he passed by my table I said, “You gotta know when to hold them and know when to fold them.” He did a quick glance at me and said, “I’ll get my coffee and be right back.”

As he approached my table, I said, “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille, with four hungry kids and crop in the field. I’ve had some good times, been through some bad times, but this time your hurtin’ won’t heal.” This was my meeting with the two time Grammy award winner, Country Hall of Fame songwriter, Don Schlitz.

We talked for some time, and he could not have been more humble and kinder with my questioning of his writing. In fact, he took out a song he said he had just written a week or so earlier and wanted me to look at the words and asked me what I thought. “What me, look at your writing?” “Well, anyone quoting my lyrics to me first thing over morning coffee, yes, I’d like them to take a look.”

When Kenny Rogers spoke at Schlitz’s induction into the Song Writers Hall of Fame said: “He is brilliant, unpredictable, compassionate and wise.” Schlitz told me that Rogers now asks for a first look at anything he writes.

Some years ago I had the good fortune to meet and spend some time backstage with Rogers before one of his performances. At that time he was riding the wave of success with the classic song Schlitz had penned, “The Gambler.”

Rogers was equally kind as Schlitz was on this morning. In fact, Rogers invited me to play his private golf course. Later on one of my trips back from the Master’s in Augusta to New Jersey, I stopped just outside of Albany, Georgia, where Rogers was living at the time. Along with the tournament director from the Georgia State Golf Association, I played his course. Rogers personally designed every hole; it was his private sanctuary, very private. We, along with Roger’s dog, were the only two playing on the course that day.

Don Schlitz often plays a songwriter’s venue, the Bluebird, here on the west side of Nashville. He does a nine p.m. show that he calls, “Dollar night with Don.” If you ever have the opportunity to go, do so. I can assure you, you will get more than your money’s worth.

Oh by the way, one of the greatest song lines ever written was penned by Schlitz and sung by Rogers. The line:

“The best you can hope for is to die in your sleep”

Pretty hard to argue with that line.

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January 15, 2018
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted June 29, 2019

Just some thoughts:

I think far too often we fail to acknowledge our appreciation. I know in my lifetime I have.

I grew up in the late 1950s’. A time of great radio and great radio personalities. Most every station of any size in any town had people on the radio that became popular with a faithful listening audience.

In my hometown station WBOW (On the Banks of the Wabash) was such. Certain disc jockeys as they were called were popular. Most  kids knew what time they came on the air, recognized their theme song. I could list various stations and radio personalities. Some where along the line radio changed. In my opinion today we have too much talk radio. I vote bring more music, less talk.

Two current day local exceptions here in the Nashville area are Eddie Stubbs and Jeff Pogue. Both of them have shows on the world famous WSM 650 on your dial here in Nashville. Not only do they play music but they provide stories about the music, history of the song, who wrote it, how it came about,etc.

Stubbs has one night in particular that I try not to miss. He calls it “Way Back Wednesday.” Where he goes back years into music and gives information regarding the song, maybe what was happening in country at the time. Sometimes maybe even an interview with someone about the history of that music. I like the show so much that even if I cannot listen live I tape his five hour show and listen to it in my car during the week. Pogue does something similar with a show called, “That Week in Music.”

Recently my wife and I were having dinner in downtown Nashville. After dinner we were going to a music show at the Ryman just a couple blocks from where we were eating. I look over at a  table not far from where we are sitting and there sits Eddie Subbs. He is having dinner by himself. We were finished eating and about to leave. The left part of my brain said, “No don’t say anything, he’s eating, don’t bother him. that might be thought rude of you. The right part of my brain said “Yea go tell him how much you appreciate his show.”

“Excuse me Mr. Stubbs I’m sorry to bother you especially as you are having dinner but my wife and I are just leaving and I wanted to come over and tell you how much I enjoy you on the radio. I especially enjoy your “Way Back Wednesday” show.” With that Mr. Stubbs stood up extended his hand and said, “Why thank you, you really don’t know how much I appreciate that. You sit at that mike night in and night out, you know or you think folks are listening but when someone makes the effort to tell you that really makes me feel good.” With that I again thanked him and we left. I’m glad I ignored  the left and listen to the right side of my brain.

Suggestion. If you see something  good and you like it, if possible, make your feelings known to the source. That’s true with whatever it might be, if its good and you like it say so. It may help that good and what you appreciate to continue.

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April 24, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson

Posted June 29, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just some thoughts:

Often my wife will send me to the store. Grocery type place, from the local Publix’s, Kroger, Walmart or Sam’s Club. I am not the most adept shopper and  noted for a lack of patience. Someone once said of me that when patience was passed out I had already left the room.

I look at my list and I’m still lacking one thing. Well actually two things, A jug of sweet tea and a jug of un-sweet tea. Now the hunt begins. I make more laps around the place than a rookie taking his driver’s test at Indianapolis. Can’t find it. Nope not there. All the time the words of my wife keep rolling thru my head, “slow down, now look.”

Finally I give up and ask a fella working there. He looks at me like I have asked some question that would appear on Jeopardy. He doesn’t know. Now I see a young lady behind a counter and so I go and, “Mama can you tell me where the tea is?” “Sure, well let me just take you it might be easier if I show you than tell you, it’s kinda confusing.” Hearing that word confusing made me feel a bit better. (Would you tell my wife that?)

She walks to a larger freezer, pulls two jugs from the freezer and places them in my cart. “Young lady, what’s your name,” I ask.  “Dee Ann,” she replies. “Well Dee Ann thank you for taking your time to show me.” “Oh no problem, no problem at all.”

You know  its really  nice when you don’t know something and someone will take the time to help you, to “teach” you, show you rather than look at you like you are stupid. By the way that is true for a lot of things in life that we do not know.

Not knowing does not make one stupid, Sometimes we all just don’t know where the “tea” is. It’s nice to be shown rather than shouted at.

Again Dee Ann thank you.
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May 26, 2019
Keep on,
Larry Adamson