Airways Junior High School Passes In to History

I just learned that my junior high school in Memphis, Tennessee is closing and it will be taken over by a charter school. That means it will never carry the name Airways Junior High School ever again. It gives one pause when things that you loved are disappearing. People, places and things change constantly and we lose those that we love, but I never thought that the places that I loved as I grew up would disappear.

The little house that I grew up in and the streets all around my home were bought by the Memphis Airport Authority and all the homes were demolished. Absolutely nothing of the home that I grew up in exists and I have come to terms with that. The school that we went to in our neighborhood is no longer Airways Junior High School but was changed to Airways Middle School many years ago. I could live with that.  Now it's going to be a charter school and will no longer carry the name Airways. Now that is just inconceivable to me.

The first day that all of us entered our brand new school in 1969 for the first time to start the journey of the next three years of our lives was a challenge, to say the least. It was something different we had never experienced before. We were all the biggest bunch of misfits you had ever seen in your life. We were uncoordinated, uncouth, and a bunch of children without a clue of what awaited us in this new school of ours. Most of our teachers were young and it was their first permanent assignments. I'd be willing to bet that they had no idea what was in store for them either.

I think I was much like all of the students that went to this brand-new school that was built for us. I was bound and determined to be a major part of its history. I just never knew that I would outlast the history of our school. I knew that I didn't have the talent on the baseball field to be a star player, but I was 6 foot tall and 175 pounds in the seventh grade, so I knew that I could be a top football player in junior high school. No one, absolutely no one was ever going to cheat me out of being a starting player on that first football team at Airways. I never worked so hard in my entire life. I did everything that was asked of me by my coaches and their staff and I always tried to give them even more than what they asked for. We butted heads sometimes about some of the stupidest things but I respected and loved these men that I called coaches, Coach Winters, Coach Ramsey and Coach Bacon I would have walked across hot coals for these men and I still would. God bless them and keep them and give them the highest rewards in heaven because they deserved it for making men from little boys.

Every teacher that I had and even those I didn't have seemed to care about us. I truly don't think that they were there just for a paycheck. None of them ever gave me that impression. I even had some teachers that took extra time with me when I needed it. I never had teachers after I left Airways that ever did that. It's not that I think the teachers today don't care as much as they did. It's just that I think they were just as bound and determined to make something of this school just as we were bound and determined to make something of it ourselves. It takes both the students and the faculty with the backing of the parents to make a school work and without these three elements working side-by-side any school is bound to fail. We had the three elements, we had a great group of teachers and an eager student body and parents that were determined to make Airways Junior High School a great school for their children.

I started a Facebook page so that we, the alumni, of Airways Junior High School could reunite and talk amongst each other about the days when we were young and beautiful, back when the teachers were just as eager to learn as they were to teach us the wonders of the world, life, math and sciences. I dedicated the Facebook page to those of us, both students and faculty, that are no longer with us because we love them and miss them.

I found out that it's not the places that make the difference and is not necessarily that the people that you loved are still by your side, it is that the memories and love are embedded in your soul. If I only do one thing in my life, I wish it would be that I impress upon people that it is the memories of some of the most important things in life and that the people that made those memories made us who we are. The history that we made is only as great as the friends that walked beside us through our journey of growth and understanding. It is actually amazing that we all became friends because we were all so different, our loves and our passions were as different as night and day. I honestly think that that made us stronger and bound us together as a group.

Our school had all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of races and we didn't care. We were taught not to care about what we were. We were taught to care about who we were. For that I am thankful.

So when I tell you that I loved the group of kids that I went to school with at Airways Junior High School I mean it. They were not only my friends, I grew up with them as if they were my family. Their parents were my parents and we all respected each other and each other's parents as if they were our own family. We did things for each other. Our parents did things for us and all of the kids in our neighborhood. My parents and my friends parents all worked hard to make money so that our junior high school would have things that we needed that were not going to be supplied by the Board of Education.

They even continued working for Airways Junior High School after we had left so that the kids in our neighborhood would still be able to have the things that they never had when they went to school. That's what made Airways Junior High School in our neighborhood work back in the days when we were growing up in the Charjean, Bethel Grove and Cherokee neighborhoods that united into one group when we all walked through that door for the first time at Airways Junior High School. I always felt like our neighborhoods had become one under the flag of Airways Junior High School.

What has happened to my television?

               What has happened to my television?

I know a lot of you watch reality TV.  So if you are a huge fan and love reality TV, this is not going to be for you. I have never liked reality TV from its inception. If they were after making the world a better place, they would never show reality TV because, in their reality, people are petty, vindictive, sneaky and just dishonest. These people should be ashamed to be a member of the human race when such shows as the housewives of whatever city they're showing tonight display some of the worst behavior in the world. They treat their partner like they are just a commodity. The cast members are overbearing and hateful to everyone around them and especially their spouses. I'm sure that some of you even let your children watch this kind of reality show but what kind of message does this send to these little boys and little girls? Is bad behavior what you want your children to think is normal.

There are shows where they have prospective brides or grooms that are looking to marry someone and there's either a harem of men or women trying to make the bachelor or bachelorette pick them. I have to say that that concept doesn't sound that bad, but when you see what these men and women will do to try and get the attention of the opposite sex, and what they will say and do to each other, it’s disgusting. Not only do they improperly seduce the person that they're trying to woo, but they lie, scheme and cheat to get their way to the top of the list. I guess that's why most marriages in this country end in divorce because, I'm here to tell you, that's not how it's done. The families that they pick to show in reality television are not from reality. The “Kardoofusses” are a disgrace to womanhood. Talk about women using their men to get where they want to be in life.

Don't get me wrong, it's alright to marry and partner with someone in life to get where you as a team want to be, that's fantastic. On the other hand, when your greatest achievement in life is picking a pair of shoes or seeing how much of your rather large backside you can show on television without it being censored, it is absolutely not being a partner in any marriage anywhere I've ever heard of. The way these women talk to their men is atrocious and the men's response to the women is no better. This applies to their so called friends as well. I don't think we should go back to Father Knows Best by any means, but don't you think reality shows should really have a little reality in them. Is this what you want your children to see.

Now there were recently 10 people killed in the crash of two helicopters in a French reality show called Dropped where they would drop the contestants in the middle of the worst surroundings in the world and see what it took for them to get back to civilization. Now I just want to ask you, is that scenario not asking for disaster to happen and do you think that your entertainment should be based on how dangerous it can be made for someone else. Shows such as Survived stupidity, the Amazing Rat Race and any of these other shows put people in various scenarios that could go horribly wrong and eventually will. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said," it's remarkable that production companies can use ultra-advanced technology to produce spectacular entertainment but too often they won't spend the modest amounts of money necessary to make sure their workers are not injured or killed on the job." Injuries and fatalities went down for a while in TV and movie production but recently injuries and fatalities have gone up again and it's been blamed on reality and situation shows such as these.  

I cannot stand to watch shows that pit people against each other to win enormous amounts of money and encourage them to do whatever it takes to win the game, however deceitful, malicious and wrong it may be. That is disgusting television, not reality television. It used to be we taught our children and ourselves and everyone we could teach that it's not whether you win or lose its how you play the game. This was preached to us when we played sports when I was a kid back in the 60’s and then as I got into high school, I could see it changing at the college levels where everything depended on whether you won that game or not. I don't know about you, but I don't want to teach my sons and daughters and grandchildren to do whatever it takes to win. It's not right and it's not ethical. I will give you a for instance.

There is a reality show where people travel throughout the world and they are paired off in two’s. One of the pairs accidentally left some money and some of their property lying around and another pair found it, and I want to make this part perfectly clear. The group that found the money and property knew exactly whose it was and they kept it and did not return it to the pair that had lost it. In any court in the world, if you take something knowing that it belongs to someone else, it is theft. I have never seen an apology or punishment shown or written anywhere from the pair that stole the money and property. I could go on and on about that one but it seemed to me that they should have been brought up on criminal charges whether it was only a TV show or not. They are now and for evermore criminals.

It should never in anyone's lifetime be alright to betray, connive, steel or hurt anyone to win a game, especially one that's being broadcast on television for everyone to see in prime time, including kids. I know you're thinking, well, not everything has to be for children and I do agree with you, but the thing that I want to impress on you is that kids are watching this sort of stuff. Women do not have to act like, well excuse me I hate this word but I can't think of a better word to use (and I have already cleaned it up), harletts, to get their way in this world. Men do not have to treat their women poorly either and they do not have to cheat on their spouses. You don't have to lie and steal to get your way in this world and unfortunately the shows are teaching just that.

I am not a prude, I do know that these things go on and they're done every day, but why must we subject ourselves to this and call it entertainment. Is a life worth the entertainment value that the shows give you, is it worth teaching young girls to act like the women in these shows, is it really good values to put winning first before anything else. If the producers of these shows think that I am too harsh then why did they publicize the fact that this couple that stole the money was not punished nor were the people that lied or cheated? In other reality shows people were also not punished because of evil acts that they were the perpetrators of. If you say well that's what makes it fun then I want to ask you what has happened to your values. I remember when I watched television when someone stole something from someone else they were brought to justice. On today's TV landscape, if you steal something for somebody, you're rewarded and they say you were thinking out-of-the-box. Seems to me you had your fingers in someone else's box where they shouldn't have been. I hear so many times people say let's put God back in our government. I say before we put God back in our government. Let's put God back in our lives and demand that these types of shows cease and desist with immoral and unconscionable acts. Seems to me when someone should be voted off the island, it would be because they had cheated and connived and went behind each other's backs. I know a lot of you will dislike what I have written, but I can't help how I feel and I feel that the shows are tearing down the moral conscience and compass of our country.

If Andy Griffith had done something wrong and little Opie Taylor confronted his dad about it, he was man enough to admit he had done wrong and would make it right. In today's TV, it would have been accepted because the end result justified the means. God help us when our favorite shows on television have no morality at all. What is the world of entertainment coming to.

Love is all you need

I saw a movie a little over a year ago that just blew me away. This movie tells a story of an older generation giving up their country, because the cost of living was too great there and they had no other choice. It also involves the dreams of a young man wanting to start a hotel and his dreams of sharing his world and happiness with those that were in the last quarter of their lives. The collision of cultures was hilariously heartwarming and the love of life in one's Golden years gives one hope that the world has not forsaken the treasures of old age. 

Today I went to see the sequel of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and I have never been a huge fan of badly made sequels and this movie is definitely not a badly made sequel, as a matter of fact, it is probably one of the best I have seen lately. This time the movie is not a clash of cultures, but a clash of generations, one generation trying to leave a legacy of knowledge to the younger generation and the younger generation trying it's best to start a life of its own. Too many times movies are made with nothing but special-effects artists writing the story without any regard for the deeper story of the human experience. I know the stories that I have read may sound like they are about one thing or another but when you pull them down to their basics, they are always about the human condition and our striving for happiness. Almost every story written is about the one thing that we as humans need more than anything else - love. If you want to boil down anything in this world to its basic properties it will contain love. I believe that our Creator put in us the need for love and companionship for a reason. I believe that stories like this hold our interest not because they're about another land or time or witchcraft or fighter pilots or no matter what the story really is all about, its underlying message is that we are human and we love and need to be loved. I am and always have been a romantic.

There are myriad loves in this world to be had and we start with the first one, the love of our mother and as we grow we find love from every corner of our life, from friends and relatives, in the people that we choose to share life with, to the one that we have chosen to be that special one to grow old with. Growing old with grace, dignity and love is what this movie and its sequel were all about. So if you haven't seen The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel you need to and, once you have, you definitely need to see the sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I give it my personal recommendation. Thank you my friends for listening.

Rockin

Okay, I'm bringing this to y’all and y'all can tell me if I'm crazy, and if I'm making this up. I'll start by telling you that every time I do a search for this particular genre of music,

no matter what program, radio station, internet search engine I go to, I get something stupid that doesn't sound anything like what I'm asking for. I grew up in a time that there were at least four or five different genres of music being played on the top 40 stations at any given time.

I had two specific favorite genres of music that I truly loved. The first one was flower power music, of course I could be wrong, it could only be in my brain, but I swear I understood this music came from people like Donovan, Arlo Guthrie, Sonny and Cher and groups like the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Mamas and Papas, the Byrds, and many others. In my mind I can remember it being war protest music, some folk rock and mixed into it some psychedelic music and it came from a specific time in the 60’s. Please don't tell me that I'm crazy. I know this genre of music existed in my time, I'm sure of it.

Then from that flower power music there came a renaissance of folk music in the form of folk rock that not only started in the 60’s but lasted on into the 70’s. I put searches in for these genres of music in Slacker, Pandora, Jango and other streaming music services and it comes back with some of the strangest stuff imaginable that had nothing to do with the 60’s. I think it's because most of these music streaming and music search engines are done by young people that have no clue what any other kind of music besides rap, hip-hop and all of that crap is. So if you search for anything that was done before 2010 you're just basically out of luck. The radio stations of today play a total of 20 different songs and from one day to the next they're playing the same exact things over and over again.

I know if you had a radio station you could play every hit song from 1956 up until 1999 and you would not have to play the same song again till next year. There are so many songs that were in the top 10 that were great pieces of music. Why are we not hearing this on the radio stations today? I personally think payola has taken over the music industry of today. I remembered a time when you could turn the radio on and feel happy with what was being played for a whole day. Now I turn the radio on and I turn it back off or I turn it to NPR or I turn it to a news station.  I can't get over how these kids of today are listening to songs that sound exactly the same as every other song that's recorded today.  No one today has their own sound, all the artists sound exactly the same and the reason is because most of them cannot sing and you can tell who they are by how much echo is being produced so that you can't hear their mistakes.

I did recently though have an extremely pleasant surprise when Lady Gaga actually sang a medley from the Sound of Music and she did an extremely good and almost flawless performance. Lady Gaga (and I certainly hope that wasn't the name that her parents gave her) was overwhelmed with the standing ovation she got and she deserved. I think a lot of what is going on today is that the artists are afraid of the criticisms that would come their way if they miss a note in a live performance and that is wrong, because it is sometimes the flaws that are in our voice and in the things that we do that makes us pleasantly different.

This reminds me of the time when they were making the Canadian version of We Are the World called “Tears Are Not Enough” by Northern Lights and it came time for Neil Young to sing his solo part. After he did so and he was asked to do it over again because he was flat, he simply replied “that's my sound man”. I laughed so hard because I knew that, that was what made Neil Young so special was his particular sound.

I am a music lover and I love to hear someone that can sing, sing, but if you're going to recite poetry like the beatniks did back in the coffee shops in the 50’s, don't dare call it rock 'n roll and don't expect me to honor your achievements in the rock 'n roll Hall of Fame, because it ain't rock. Some of the things that they have to say are poignant and very well written, but for it to be a song in my opinion, you have to sing it not speak it. I'm sure I'm like everyone else.

I like good poetry, but I am also like the Beatles when they were asked about their poetry, Paul McCartney comically replied “I ain’t writ no poetry”, and I'm sure that was because they were songwriters and they sang the words that they had written for their music. I can listen to opera, classical music, gospel music, blues and soul music, not to mention other genres of music. Why is it I can't find my favorite types of music, folk rock and flower power music anywhere anymore, or did the music really die?

All of these young people that have never heard the great lyrics and music of our day have no idea how great music can really be or what they’ve missed by being born too late. The streaming stations need to hire a couple of old hippies to program their music for those of us that still love it, even in our late fifties, sixties and so on. I’m available. Call me.