Hey, We’re Going to See Don Williams in Concert

4 Oct

Don Williams is playing at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on Sunday night. I am super pumped. Necole is not very excited. She is going because I want to go, and I appreciate her doing that.

Don Williams is a great singer and, in my mind, is the epitome of country cool. He has had a bunch of hits and also co-starred in a Burt Reynolds movie filmed in and around Nashville. That would be the all time classic W.W and the Dixie Dance Kings.Dixie Dance

Spending time with Burt must have been enjoyable because Don mentioned him in a song.

In the early days of this blog, I put together a post about my favorite Don WIlliams song. It is roughly written and doesn’t include any pictures, but, in honor of the upcoming concert, I decided to link it. I hope you read it, and, if you do, I hope you enjoy it.

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I Didn’t Intend To Write a Post About Trees

2 Oct

During this late afternoon, I rode with my stepdaughter as she drove the Gator. For those who don’t know, this is a Gator.Gator

She is 11 years old and loves to drive. In fact, she asks for a golf cart every time a birthday or Christmas comes around. She’s a good driver and watching her smile is the best thing about riding with her. I rode with my nephews when they were kids, and taking a spin with her brings to mind all of those fun times.

The Gator belongs to my parents, so we took off from their house. Then, we went into a neighborhood behind their farm. The neighborhood is filled mostly with older people who have been living there for decades. It has large lawns that are neatly kept, and, as we drove, I noticed a few people in their yards.

One man was on his mower. His next door neighbor was checking his driveway that had just been paved. A lady was watering her plants, and another lady was on her way to do the same thing. At another house, a brother and sister, who were probably visiting their grandparents, were playing basketball. I waved at them all, and a few of them waved back.

The people were interesting, but I noticed something else when we went into another part of the neighborhood. In one yard, a large tree stood. It was perfectly shaped, and the yard around it was perfectly kept. Obviously, the people who own the land around the tree take great care of it and noticing this made me begin to wonder. Did they plant the tree, or was it there when the house was built? Have they lived there long enough to watch it grow to its current majesty? Have they helped it along?

I began to think about a tree in the yard where I grew up. There was a notch in it that fascinated me. It had this strange shape and stuck out far enough that I could almost use it as a seat. When we played backyard football, that tree served as the goal line. Making it to the tree meant I had scored a touchdown. The notch that I tried to sit on is now over my head. The tree grew along with me and stood watch over my family.

It saw me ride a minibike as a kid and drive a car when I turned 16. It saw my dad walk up and down the driveway to get his mobility back after a stroke. It watched my mom work in the yard. It guarded my brother as he and his friends played basketball in the driveway. Heck, it watched my dad hit free throw after free throw as he beat me at H-O-R-S-E. I guess you could say that the tree and the other trees in the yard witnessed our family history.

Trees are like that. They have stood as sentinels over the events of our past. My parents now live on a site that used to be a hotel. When I walk through their yard, I wonder about all of the different things that have taken place under their shade. In the Victorian Era, they saw hotel guests strolling underneath and while other played croquet in their shade. They saw the hotel burn and remained as my parents built their home. They also served as decor for our wedding reception, and I bet that was not the first wedding that took place around them.

I am not sure what made me think of all this, but something hit me while we rode the Gator. People and trees grow old, but the trees last longer than we do. They are there for us, but they are also there for past and future generations. I have never considered myself an environmentalist and do not get overly wrought when I see a load of logs go down the interstate. However, when the trees that I have grown up with go away something in me goes away as well. I bet the people we past by this afternoon feel the same way.

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Country Music Reincarnated

1 Oct

The Highwaymen came up on my iPod. That was an 80s country super group consisting of Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. In the 80s, each of them were legends. Now, they are icons. When they first recorded together, there wasn’t a name for the group. Then, “The Highwayman“, one of their first songs, went to Number One.The Highwaymen

That was the song that came up on my iPod. I hadn’t heard it in a while, but the words were still familiar enough for me to remember. As the song played and I sang along, I began to think about its subject matter – reincarnation. Then, I realized that there was once another hit country song about a reincarnation-like theme. That was “El Paso City” by Marty Robbins. It went to Number One in the 70s.El Paso City

These were two songs by major artists that tackled a controversial subject matter. Did the listeners who turned them into hits realize what they were about? If yes, then did they even care? These questions went through my mind along with another one. Would these songs make it to the radio in today’s market?

For a couple of reasons, I think the answer is no.

In the past decade, mainstream country music has attached itself to right-wing conservatism. That means that a great deal of its target audience is of the Christian faith, and, obviously, reincarnation does not fit within that belief. However, I would think that Christians also listened to country music in the 70s and 80s and probably bought the records by The Highwaymen and Marty Robbins. What is different now? Has there been an awakening of religion in the past decade? Were country music listeners in the 70s and 80s less religious than today? No matter the answers, country labels are scared to test the waters.

There is another reason these songs would not make it on today’s radio. They are not about pickup trucks; John Deere tractors; girls in sundresses; drinking beer on a back road; or anything else that is stereotypically country or southern. Obviously, these songs sell, but they all sound the same and are sung by people who sound just as similar. By the way, they kind of look alike, too.

The older songs are about deep, if controversial, subjects written by talented tunesmiths who were able to take such a subject and make an entertaining song that is also thought-provoking. They were also sung by talented artists who did not have to cover themselves in pyrotechnics and voice enhancements. Marty Robbins and The Highwaymen may not have all been great singers, but they were great artists.

Today, labels are afraid to push someone who does not fit the formula of looks and sound that form a cookie cutter industry. If that had been the case in the past decades, then Marty Robbins, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash would have never gotten into the front door. Now that I write that, they almost didn’t, and that would have been a shame.

That’s it for my critique of the evolution of country music. Now, on to the next part of this post.

I do not believe in reincarnation. It always seemed silly to me to think that our souls jump from generation to generation. On top of that, people who claim to be reincarnated always say that they used to be someone famous or adventurous. I have never seen someone on television who claimed to have been some guy who dug ditches for a living.

With that in mind, I did a little Google experiment. If reincarnation were true, then it would make sense that a soul would jump as quickly as possible. I Googled my birthday to see who died on that day and started a fake reincarnation chain. Here it is:

In the last life, I was Upton Sinclair. That’s a pretty famous person.

Before that, I could have been Henry James Montague, a British actor.

Then, it gets back to America with Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism

Another jump across the pond brings me to Pehr Osbeck, a Swedish explorer.

It’s Sir Christopher Wren. Hey, he’s pretty smart.

That brings me to Kutsuki Mototsuna, a Japanese samurai commander.

Pope Paul III pops up. It’s good to be pope.

Johannes Gutenberg! Man, this list is filled with some influential people.

Here comes Acamapichtli, Aztec ruler. Things might have been different if he was around when Hernan Cortes showed up.

That’s as far as the chain goes. There’s no way of knowing what happened before that. Google went into overload. I suppose it’s a good place to stop this critique of country music and reincarnation.

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Random Crap

29 Sep

There is an in-depth post running through my mind, but I haven’t decided when I am going to put in on the screen. Besides, it’s getting late, and it’s one of those posts that will take a while. Instead, here is a bunch of random crap.

Today, I sent out a Tweet that was supposed to be a text. How stupid is that? Something like that could lead to all kinds of problems. Luckily, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just embarrassing.

The other day, someone searched for “porn gasoline pics” and found their way to this blog. It makes me wonder what this person is into. Doing kinky stuff is one thing, but entering gasoline into the equation is another thing entirely. Being the curious sort that I am, I did an image search to see what this person was looking for. I think they were disappointed because this is what emerged.Gas Red

I have this color-coded way of balancing the checkbook, and Necole thinks it’s weird.

Before I could write this, I had to figure out what was wrong with the wireless hookup. That meant texting my nephew, who was probably hanging out at his frat house. Through texting, we got it fixed. Good thing that I didn’t Tweet it by mistake.

There is a can of WD-40 on my desk, and I don’t know why. Perhaps the guy who searched for “porn gasoline pics” could do something with it.

There’s a book on my shelf called Badasses of the Old West. How can you beat a title like that?

I also have a picture of Monument Valley in my office. The valley can also be seen in the banner at the top of this page. I wish I could always watch the setting sun there.

A car just passed by the house. Do you ever drive through a neighborhood and wonder about the people who live there? Are they happy? Are they sad? Do they look up gasoline porn?

That’s all that I am going to write. Now, I am going to look up the checking account so I can do some coloring.

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Those Oldies But Baddies

25 Sep

I picked up another magazine. This one was put out by the good people at Globe and is called Shocking Secrets of America’s Favorite TV Shows of the 50s and 60s. Short title. I figured it would be filled with juicy tidbits about the television stars of yesteryear, but it was actually filled with stuff that I already knew. For example, Andy Griffith was difficult to work with. As an ardent fan of his show, I knew that. Heck, he even wore a cast in a few episodes after he put his fist through a wall.

I found out that one actor on Gunsmoke walked with a fake limp while another one had to hide a real limp. Of course, everyone knows that Dennis Weaver was faking it as Chester, but I had no idea that James Arness couldn’t walk that well.

I also found out that three of the Cartwright’s wore hair pieces, and the other one wore stacked shoes. Bonanza will never be viewed the same.

Anyway, I thought that I would share some other “secrets” of the oldies. I’ll narrow it down to the shows that I have seen more than once.

The Honeymooners – A lot of drinking went on. Hey, it was Jackie Gleason. He liked a good time.

You Bet Your Life – Here’s a shocker. Groucho Marx liked women as well as the Secret Word.

I Love Lucy – Fred and Ethel hated each other.

The Munsters – In real life, Herman Munster went to Harvard.

The Addams Family – Uncle Fester was married to Betty Grable. Think about that for a second. This guy…Uncle Fester

was married to this woman.Betty Grable

My Little Margie – I had to watch these reruns because it was my mom’s favorite show. It turns out that Margie liked the sauce.

Davy Crockett – Walt Disney wouldn’t let Fess Parker play a role in The Searchers. This is one that I actually found interesting.

Gunsmoke – Here is where a scandal really hits. While everyone was waiting for Miss Kitty to hook up with Matt, she was hooking up with Doc behind the scenes.Gunsmoke

Have Gun, Will Travel – Paladin was one of television’s coolest characters, and Richard Boone was pretty cool, too. Unfortunately, that cool lifestyle of drinking killed him.

The Andy Griffith Show – This is one thing that I didn’t know about my favorite show. It was pre-empted by the debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

Hogan’s Heroes – Everybody knows about Bob Crane.

The Monkees – Charles Manson auditioned to be a Monkee.

There is a lot more, but you’ll have to buy the magazine for that. It’s the least I could do for the good people at Globe.

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The Luck of the Night Rain

21 Sep

It rained last night. Usually, that is a great time to sleep and is even better if it is thundering. I didn’t sleep, though. I listened to the rain. Necole was sleeping next to me. That was the best part. I could hear her breathe and feel her when she shifted in her sleep.Night Rain

While lying there, I started to think. That’s one of the things I am prone to do at that time of night. In fact, that’s when I do my best thinking. I wonder how I would do teaching a class that late. My mind ran through all kinds of things, but it settled on the idea of how lucky I am.

I am lucky to have Necole as my wife and Isabella as my step-daughter. I never thought I would have a family, and, now, I have one.

I am lucky to have been raised in a good family and to have joined another one. I love them all.

I am lucky to have great friends who are fun to be around and would do anything to help me.

I am lucky to have the opportunity to travel and see things that others may never get the chance to see. I have been to all of the states, and I wish everyone could do the same thing. It’s hard to understand this country of ours if you haven’t seen it all. Every place is different.

I am lucky to have been a teacher for the past 12 years. Hearing a student say that they never liked History until my class is a great feeling. A lot of the students have gone on to be teachers, and I hope they have forgotten the times when I told them the wrong thing.

I am lucky to have grown up in Lebanon. It receives many complaints, but it is a good place to raise a family. Like other towns, it is filled with mostly good people.

I am lucky to be named after my father. As a kid, I hated having his first name. Now, I am honored to be named after someone who everyone admires so much.

I am lucky that I have not had any major health issues. Knowing people who have battled health problems, this is truly something to be thankful for.

That’s a lot of luck, and, at no point, will I ever forget how lucky I am.

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I Hope the Buggles Were Wrong…

20 Sep

When they sang “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Why? This week, I appeared on WANT 98.9, the station that plays Real Country.WANT

Before anyone gets worried, I did not sing. Instead, I was a guest on Coleman & Company, a talk show where local people are interviewed. This time, it should have been called Larry & Company because my good friend was hosting while Coleman is on vacation. You have read about Larry before.

We talked about all kinds of things, but history dominated the time. We discussed Quanah Parker, a famous Comanche, and his mother, who was taken captive by the Comanche. We talked about the pioneers who traveled over the Oregon Trail. We also talked about George Allen, a Cumberland University student who later went on to become a close confidante to Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman. It was an enjoyable experience, and everyone said that I did a good job.

After the interview, I started thinking about the first time I was in that studio. When I was a kid, the radio station held a spelling bee, which was divided by grade level. Each school sent the winners of its grades to compete against the winners at other schools.

There was this one kid that I could never beat. Her name was Melissa, and she was not my favorite person. Every year, I finished second to her first. Finally, we made it to 5th grade, and I won. It was one of those pivotal moments in life that affects everything that will come later. After beating her, I could conquer the world.

That’s when the 5th grade teacher changed the rules and said it would be best 2-out-of-3. It was devastating. Think about a team winning the Super Bowl and being told they have to win it again. With my spelling senses reeling, she crushed me in the next two matches.

I was not happy. My mom was not happy at a completely different level. She confronted the teacher and asked about the change. The teacher’s answer was simple. She thought Melissa would have a better chance of winning on the radio and set it up so she could make it. That was not the answer my mom wanted to hear.

Fast forward a couple of years. I am in 7th grade at a local private school. It is the last grade that takes part in the spelling bee. I breeze through the contest and qualify for the spelling bee on the radio. On a Saturday morning, we pull up to the station and go to the studio, the same studio I was in this week. Kids from the other schools were going to their seats, but I only had my eye on one.

One by one, kids made their way to the microphone to spell a word. Some got through and some didn’t. I only paid attention when she was up there. When she got one right, I knew that I had to get one right. I didn’t care about winning the whole thing. I just wanted to outlast Melissa.

The contest continued until the unthinkable happened. She missed a word. I knew that I had to get the next one right to truly beat her. I got to the microphone. The moderator, which may have been Coleman, gave out the word. I took my time and nailed it. With great satisfaction, I went back to my seat and she slithered out of the room.

I didn’t win the contest, and I don’t remember who did. All I remember is who stayed in the longest, and it wasn’t Melissa. I hope my old 5th grade teacher was listening.

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Trust Your Pants

18 Sep

In the early days of this blog, I wrote a post that I thought was pretty good. It was an early effort, but it was the best thing I had done to that point. At least, I thought it was good. Heck, I even thought it was funny.

Then, I got a comment that blasted me for being mean, unfair and totally over the line. This thing went on for a couple of paragraphs. How could I say something like that? Don’t I have feelings? On and on and on it went.

After a while, I started thinking that maybe it was a little rough and deleted it. That was during the days that I was looking for and needed positive reinforcement. I didn’t need to produce posts that people found to be negative. Today, it wouldn’t bother me, but it bothered me then. Now, I regret that I deleted it. This is my blog, and I am going to write what is in my head. If someone doesn’t like it, then they can leave a comment. Hopefully, it will lead to a good discussion.

So, what was this post about? Politics? Religion? Controversial social issues? No, it was about suspenders, the things that some people wear to hold up their pants.

I saw a guy who was wearing suspenders, but he was also wearing a belt. It seemed weird to me that someone would wear both. Not only that, the suspenders and belt were two different colors. If you are going to wear both, then they should at least match.

Seriously, who wears a belt and suspenders? I wrote several paragraphs about how strange this is and about how someone could think this is a good idea.

Then, I wrote about how it brought to mind a scene from one of my favorite movies, Once Upon a Time in the West. Henry Fonda plays Frank, a notorious gunfighter.Henry Fonda

Frank is talking to a man who has betrayed him in some way. That same man is wearing suspenders and a belt. Frank thinks this is strange and says, “How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can’t even trust his own pants.”

If memory serves, then he proceeded to shoot the belt, the suspenders and, eventually, the man.

Is there a lesson here? Perhaps. In the real world, someone who wears suspenders and a belt is going to be looked at funny. In a Sergio Leone movie, someone who wears suspenders and a belt is going to be shot.

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A Guide to Finding Interesting Places and Meeting Interesting People in Oregon

17 Sep

I went to Oregon to watch a football game, but I am not going to write about it. Sitting through it was enough, and I have no plans to relive it. Instead, I am going to write about the day before the game, back when Tennessee fans still had their innocence.

Friday started out simple enough. We ate at IHOP, and that is always a good way to the day to begin. After that, we drove to the stadium to see what was going on. Turns out, there was a lot going on. The Oregon cheerleaders and dance team were practicing. People were shopping for souvenirs in the bookstore. The Oregon football players were warming up.

As we walk around, a man toting a box came up to welcome us to town, and he introduced himself as the Director of Football Operations. That’s a pretty big job in an athletic department. However, that wasn’t all. In addition, he serves as the director of Peyton Manning’s quarterback camp. Mentioning Peyton’s name is always a good way to endear yourself to Tennessee fans.

Next, we drove over to the basketball arena. You see, Elliot went on the trip, and he is a huge Oregon fan. He really wanted to see the inside of the basketball arena. We went from door to door, and everything was locked. However, I learned a long time ago that there always an unlocked door. We found it, and he got a great picture of the interior of the arena.

After this episode of trespassing, we took a short drive to the coast and the town of Florence. We didn’t really see the ocean, but we had a nice drive over. Florence is a river town and has a history of a fishing-based economy.Oregon 001

Today. Florence has a tourist-based economy with shopping and restaurants. We ate at Mo’s, which sits on the river and has a nice overlook. It was pretty cool to watch seals playing in the water.

However, that wasn’t as cool as who we met while in Florence. Larry started talking to a man who introduced himself as Don Essig. That didn’t mean anything to a Tennessee fan, so he explained that he was the public address announcer at the Oregon football games. Apparently, he invented the phrase, “It never rains in Autzen Stadium!” The next day, we learned that the entire crowd says it with him. Anyway, Larry replied that he is the public address announcer for the Lebanon Blue Devils, our high school team. Don was impressed an informed Larry that there is a national organization of announcers.

The Voice of the Oregon Ducks and the Voice of the Lebanon Blue Devils

The Voice of the Oregon Ducks and the Voice of the Lebanon Blue Devils

We figured that we had topped out in Florence and headed back to town. We drove around for a while and made our way to the downtown area. Elliot and I walked around. I know that doesn’t sound exciting, but when you hear a homeless man yelling up ahead things get exciting. It got even more exciting when he told a woman to do something anatomical with a goat. Oh, I also saw a sign for an upcoming concert by Five Finger Death Punch.

Yeah, that was probably enough for downtown, so we went back to the stadium. Remember when I said that there is always an unlocked door. Well, a door opened up for us. A worker was going into the stadium, and Elliot asked if he could go in. Larry and I quickly followed, and we all found ourselves standing in the middle of the field. I was in the end zone more than the Tennessee football team.

That’s about it for our day. Well, there was one other thing. We went to dinner at a local brewery, and our waitress was a professional bodybuilder. She looked like she could have kicked everybody’s asses. It’s a good thing she didn’t because we were going to have enough of that the next day.

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Oregon or Bust!

11 Sep

In and around the 1840s, thousands of people packed up their lives and their belongings to seek the Promised Land. That Promised Land was Oregon, and the Oregon Trail was the method for getting there. This involved hooking on to a wagon train in Missouri and following guides across the Great Plains and over the Rocky Mountains. It was a perilous journey, but one that they felt would lead to great reward.Oregon Trail

Along the way, they suffered from dysentery. They lost people and possessions while fording rivers. They watched as oxen died of exhaustion. They had wagon wheels break on mountain passes. They dumped valued items to lessen the weight of their load.

Many people made it to Oregon to establish new lives. However, many are also buried along the trail, left behind with pianos, chests and other pieces of furniture. It was truly a difficult and amazing migration.

Tomorrow, I leave for Oregon. However, I will not be taking the route the Marcus and Narcissa Whitman followed. I will be flying in a plane and will get there in a few hours. This is not my first trip to Oregon, but it will be the first time that I have had time to look around. It will be interesting to see the land that so many felt was important enough to risk their lives for.

I will also be going to a football game between the University of Oregon and the University of Tennessee. It will be a short trip but an interesting one. That means my next post will be about my migration to Oregon. I can’t speak for my cohorts, but, hopefully, I won’t get dysentery.

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