The Garden of Agony Gethsemani

     According to one of the earliest accounts from a Pilgrim of Bordeaux around 333 AD there were as many as three churches that had claimed and built their churches, walls and fences around the Garden of Gethsemani (or Gethsemane). The Aramaic language tells us the translation of Gethsemani  is  ”press oil” and I also think it may be wrong to call it a garden. I think, most likely, it was an Olive orchard with an oil press for the olives.  The Garden of Gethsemani was said to be located near or at the foot of the Mount of Olives. These three sites are well within walking distance of each other and, more than likely, in my mind, were all part and parcel of the same olive orchard at one time.  This site in Jerusalem was said to be the meeting or gathering place of Jesus and His disciples. It was a place of refuge for Christ and His disciples. 

      It seems to me that we tend to return to the places that we enjoyed and felt safe with our family’s as we grow older. I wonder if this was a place that Jesus had enjoyed in His earlier life with His family and that’s why He returned to the Garden of Gethsemani to refresh His mind and spirit and help His disciples to refresh themselves in mind and spirit.  The Garden of Gethsemani was said to be a place of prayer and nourishment for our Lord and His disciples.  Unfortunately it was also the place were Judas betrayed Christ and gave Him up to the Roman soldiers as it’s known as the Agony of Christ. It is nearby where the Holy Mother was laid to rest. 

       When one walks through Jerusalem, one gets the feeling of history, mystery and sadness, even though I’ve always been one to celebrate the facts of Christianity, walking the Via Dolorosa gives one pause and a feeling of sadness for it was our Savior’s last walk to His crucifixion, even though the stations of the cross may have been added to give pilgrims or tourists a reason to stay in the marketplace and purchase the vendors wares. It is still a Holy walk

that every Christian should make in their life.  You must remember the burden which Christ would’ve walked with knowing He was about to die and carrying the object of his demise, a heavy wooden cross, any distance would be horrifying to any one of us.  It is astonishing how close all of the Holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem really are.  I always thought they would be great distances from each other but the area is not as large as any small modern city and, as a matter fact, it’s probably smaller by quite a bit.  The site of Jesus’ crucifixion and His burial and resurrection locations are probably less distance than a football field apart or, at least, it seemed that way to me as we walked all of this in what seemed to be less than a couple of hours. We then drove to Bethlehem just a few miles away on the same day with no problem.  It is one of the few places in our travels that I would give anything to return to one day.  I am sure that all three of the locations that are now claimed by the three different

denominations, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and  the Roman Catholic Church are, in fact, all on the same site that the apostles described as the Garden of Gethsemani.

The Real Thing ?

You’ve seen it and I know you have.  It’s right on the boxes, new and improved, better taste, these are just some of the ways that advertisers want to let you know that their products have changed for the better.  OK, do they really think we’re that stupid.  Take a closer look at the box. Is it smaller, is it larger, most likely not larger.  This is just some of the ways that companies in their advertisers think they can pull the wool over our eyes.  New and improved usually means less of the product or new look same great taste.  That’s always malarkey, yes I used the “m“ word.  What they’re usually doing is taking out the more expensive ingredients and putting in lower cost, lower quality ingredients.  Take, for instance,

 the great cola fiasco of 1984, where one of our favorite products changed the name to “new” cola.  They told us that we Americans wanted sweeter tasting cola than the original formula which had never been changed.  What B.S.  What they were really up to was changing the original formula to a less costly formula at a time that their profits were through the roof. So I ask you, why in the world, when you’re at the top of your game, would you want to change your strategy or in this case your formula.  I can describe it in two words - corporate greed.  As if the high “muckity muck Potentates” that run the cola company weren’t already making salaries so high, they would be able to feed most of the starving people in the world for at least two years, they wanted more.  I’m sorry, some of you may disagree with me, but those kinds of salaries are immoral, and then they want to gouge us for every penny we have to enjoy their products. I guess you’re wondering what started Keith on this rampage against these companies and their advertisers.  Well, I’m gonna tell you and here’s how it goes.

I went into my neighborhood grocery store and I wanted to get a package of my favorite cookies, Pecan Sandies. I’ve loved them since I was a little kid. That’s right, the ones that were baked in a hollow tree.  Well, to my amazement on the package, in bold writing, as if it was exploding off the package, were the words that said new look, same great taste.  The first thing that ran through my head was “OK, let’s hope they haven’t ruined the best tasting cookie out there. So against my better judgment, I bought a package, opened it up and I noticed one thing, the cookies were smaller in diameter and thinner than they used to be.  Again, against my better judgment, I tasted one. Well, let me tell you this, they’re not even close to the same great taste, there not even the same taste at all. They taste more like a plain old batter sugar cookie than a true shortbread cookie.  What have these little guys in this hollow tree been up to. I’ll tell you what they’ve been up to, putting the shaft to us, the ones that have enjoyed their cookies since we were children.  They think that this wording on their package is going to bamboozle us and brain wash us into thinking that these are the same cookies we’ve enjoyed for these many years.  I used to think that those little guys and that hollow tree where the greatest bakers in the world.  Now, all I can think of is are they stupid or do they really think that we couldn’t see and taste the difference.  They haven’t done a thing that would make me want to buy their cookies anymore.  They taste like the least expensive cookies that you can get at the discount store that are no name brand cookies and there’s nothing special about them anymore.  So, what makes them think that I’m going to pay a premium price for an inferior lousy tasting cookie.  I learned their song by heart when I was a kid because I love Pecan Sandies so much but to all you little executives at that hollow tree cookie company, I know it may not matter much in the long run.  I have no reason to ever buy your cookies again and until you learn that you can’t fool your customers, I

won’t buy your cookies anymore.  Oh, and that reminds me about hot dogs. I’m old enough to remember when they put real meat in a hot dog. If you buy anything but an all beef hot dog, it tastes like this morning’s cereal that you’ve left and gotten soggy.  Even the premium hot dogs that run at almost $6.00 a pack now taste more like cereal than the hot dogs I had when I was a kid.  I guess old Oscar just can’t afford to buy meat to put in his hot dogs anymore because he has to pay the mortgage on his mansion, his yachts, and alimony to his four or five wives.  Someday I hope the American public is smart enough to demand that the ingredients in our food products stay pure and honest. if they’re going to reduce the size of a cookie, they need to tell the consumer that fact. If they are going to change the ingredients to make it less expensive to make, that also needs to be disclosed.  We demand as Americans not to be deceived by corporations and their advertisers and that when a product states that it’s new and improved, it should be proven than that the product has been improved.  In other words if you’re buying a stain remover and it doesn’t work any better or worse than it did before, they should not be allowed to put on the face of the package new and improved.  Sorry y’all, just had to get this off my chest.

Casper The Friendly Ghost And Me

I remember one Christmas when I was about four years old and I got a talking Casper doll. The head was of the cartoon caricature of Casper The Friendly Ghost and it was made of plastic. The body was a towel stuffed and sown in the shape of his body and a had a hood to cover his head, to hide the speaker in the back of his head, where the record player like device was activated by pulling a string. I had begged my parents to get it for me. The reason was that my greatest fear and nightmares I had as a child was being alone and having no friends. Casper wanted to have a friend too, so I needed him and he needed me.  Being that he was five years older, my brother wanted nothing to do with me and didn’t have much in common with me. I now had a friend to share my adventures with. I know it sounds sappy that I had a doll to help me conquer my

fears. The reoccurring nightmares were horrifying; my parents would drive off, leaving me running after them screaming for them to come back. Casper was my security so if that ever happened, I would not be alone. I wore my first Casper completely out so my mother got me another one, along with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, to keep me safe from the nightmares. It worked well but the fear of being alone followed me all of my life. My loving wife is now my rock that keeps the fear away.

My older brother, as older brothers do, would tease me about the dolls and I had

curly hair so his friends would pick on me, as well, about looking like a girl and playing with dolls. I guess that I made up for it by being a rough little terror. That only isolated me even more and didn't help me make friends very well. No one could understand the trauma that a young boy being teased in that manner could inflict. I do. It was traumatic. I never knew that I had a lot of friends. You see, I tried so hard not to think about it all my life till now. I am so sorry that I missed that feeling of being liked by a lot of people like my friends at Airways, but I guess it was my defense mechanism trying to protect myself. I did try as hard as I could to make friends and not to show anyone that I was vulnerable. I may have over compensated at times and I wouldn't have wanted anyone to think badly of me, but I fear that I did and I guess I still do. Sorry!

I had started watching reruns of the Mickey Mouse Club with Spin and Marty on ABC. It was about two young boys that were from two completely different life styles and the troubles they went through, till they became best friends. When my parents saw how much I enjoyed the show, they decided to send me to a young boys dude ranch summer camp nearby. My brother, in his older brother wisdom, told me the only reason that mom and dad were sending me to a dude ranch for boys summer camp was to get rid of me. Oh my goodness, my nightmare had returned and in real life, so I went to my mother crying "are you trying to get rid of me by sending me to summer camp". She said “there’s no way now that I will send you to camp and you must never think that I would ever want to get rid of you”. I have my brother to thank for never going to camp and also to thank him for finding out that my parents would never want to get rid of me. I have learned to like myself and I have come to understand myself. My loneliness is sometimes a blessing and I understand that now but, as I have said before, it is still and I guess it always will be my greatest fear.      

I know that some of you have had your own projects here lately and I’ve read 

about them and prayed for all of you when you’ve had difficulties with those projects.  I guess it’s about time I told you about my wife and my lifelong dream. My wife being of German descent loved to see the German alpine log cabins when they would visit her parents’ homeland.  She always had, in the back of mind, the desire to live in a log home.  I had also helped my uncle build a log cabin at Enid Dam near Water Valley, Mississippi and fell in love with the thought of living in a log home.  There was a time after my mother had died that I was homesick. I was missing my family and friends and it was a 17 to 18 hour trip back to Memphis. Even on a long weekend, this was getting to be excruciating. My wife in her wisdom could see how much I was hurting and we were ready to move and couldn’t find a place that we liked in Oakville, Ontario where we lived at that time.  We had a little 1100 square foot home that was two stories and had a garage.  I dearly loved that little home with all my heart, but we felt like we were out growing it and the economy was getting

bad in Canada. We made the decision to pick up and move to Tennessee to be nearer both our families as it was halfway in between both, well OK, maybe a little closer to Memphis.  We sold our house in Canada and went on the hunt for a place in North Carolina, but there were absolutely no jobs to be had at that time in North Carolina so over the mountain we went to East Tennessee.  On our first trip we didn’t find anything we liked, but on our second trip I found three that I liked but my wife did not like any of them, so we were headed back to the expressway to get back to Canada. I was disappointed but on our way we found this corner lot in Kodak near Highway 70, yes the same 70 that runs through Memphis, better known as Summer

Avenue, and it was also better known as Thunder Road where, during prohibition, moonshiners would transport their white lightning in hopped up hot rod jalopies from Cocke County, to the rest of Tennessee.  I liked the area because it had a great history, it was in Sevier County, home of Dolly Parton and Tennessee’s first governor John Sevier and where the Cherokee Indians signed the Dumplin Valley Treaty that started the Trail of Tears right here in Kodak.  It is a mountainous area to say the least and “too rocky by far” as the song says.  We had enough savings from our house in Canada to build this house, so we thought.  I don’t really know if we were taken advantage of or if it was just our stupidity but, when you build on rocks, it’s not an easy proposition.  As always, there were cost overruns and we had to make compromises on our dream.  Let me explain some of the experiences we had building our dream home.

I knew we would probably have to make some compromises to live in the Great Smoky Mountains but I knew it would, sooner or later, be worth it.  We moved in with a friend of Ursula’s parents and that was alright for a short period of time but the drive from North Carolina to Kodak was just too long. Some very nice people that Ursula was working with let us move in with them for short period of time and we were kind of like a badminton birdie going from one place to another with all of these very kind and generous people.  Both Ursula and I put a lot of hard work into it.  I was involved in over 99% of the work, doing all of the electrical and plumbing myself with the help of a very special friend named Mike that I met through the hotel my wife worked for.  The type of log home we built is called an Appalachian log home. It uses a square log with dovetails with an opening between each layer of logs that you would, in the old days, have put mud and thatch between the logs.  That would not be very practical today because of electrical and plumbing that needed to run in between these logs and also through them.  So in our modern times you would put a piece of spline board on one side then insulate it and put another piece of spline board on the opposite side.  After securing the spline board you would have to use mastic, or what they call chinking, to make it look like it was rough concrete.  Now we had gotten to the point that we were out staying our welcome with every  wonderful person that would have us, so we needed to get into this house. I was

working day and night to at least get the outer spline board on all of the logs and the doors and windows in so that we could lock it up and go to Canada for Christmas. The truth of the matter was, we had all materials that we needed but we were almost completely out of money.  There was so little or none set aside for such extravagances as a Christmas tree. It was the night before we were to leave to go to Canada and I only had the upper floors spline boards in but even the first floor was too high for anyone to reach without attracting attention and I don’t believe anyone could have gotten through the small crack between each log.  I had to make a run before Ursula and I could go to bed that night and pick up a plumbing part so that I could shut the water off and not be afraid of it freezing.  I went to a hardware store to pick up the part and, somehow or another, a wonderful man that worked there asked me if I needed a Christmas tree and I told him I could not afford one. He told me it didn’t matter, he was going to give it to me for free anyway.  The generosity of that man has never left me. How he knew that my wife and I had no money for such a thing as a Christmas tree I will never know.  I tied the

Christmas tree to the top of my Bronco II with his help and drove to the construction site that we were now living in with no heat, no water and no spline boards in the area in which we had to live.  I dug through boxes until I found our Christmas tree stand. It was getting late and Ursula would be home from work soon. We had no time to decorate the tree and we had to go to bed so that we could make our trip to Canada and back before she had to go to work in just a few short days.  When she came in the door, I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the living room where our very first Christmas gift, a tree, was standing in the middle of all our unfinished, freezing cold living room in our dream home.  I told her of the generosity of the man at the hardware store and she and I stood looking at that Christmas tree

bawling like too little babies.  We were graced by the kindness of others to get this far.  They will probably never ever know what they mean to us.  I could never even begin to thank them enough, but in one way I have tried my best to help anyone that needs a helping hand to be there and help them.  The only way we could keep warm that night was to put numerous blankets on our bed and pull it as close to the fireplace as was safe to do.  That December was one of the coldest that I could ever remember and the wind just howled through the openings between the logs but my wife never complained. She would help me any and every way she could, she even did too much at times but we only had each other to depend on most of the time.  It was a long haul from a wooded corner lot to this wonderful log house we have today. Yes, it was a struggle and, yes, I shed blood, sweat and tears and unfortunately lost a little of my religion building this home.  My wife Ursula did things that she probably never thought she would ever do in her entire life, if she even knew what those things were back before we did them.  My daughter says I don’t praise my wife enough and she is right. I see the spirit of the early pioneer women in her when she’s trying to move a boulde

r that weighs twice her weight and is four times her size, doing everything possible she knows how to move that huge rock, but with my help and us working together, we have literally moved a mountain.  There are so many other stories of building this house that it would take me years to tell you all of those stories.  The one thing I would like everyone to understand is, my wife

and I built this house and officially moved in without heat or running water, nor did we have the carpeting in or the bathrooms or kitchen finished,  but it was livable and we both loved it and still do today, even though we’re getting to the point that it’s hard for us to keep up with the weeds and the maintenance on this log house. We had talked about selling everything and moving to Germany but, truthfully, I don’t know if I could part with this house. It’s worth more than money to me to remember my wife picking up a log and trying to bring it to me. I don’t mean to make light of her accomplishments on this house. I could not have finished it without her help and her love. You

truly know you’ve found the right partner when they are struggling as hard and working as hard as you are to get the job finished. The memory of that Christmas tree still makes us both cry to this very day. It seems that the saddest of memories can still bring tears of joy.

I don't know if any of you feel the same way about Airways as I do.In the time just before Airways, the city proposed a school to be built next to Charjean Park where an abandoned apple orchard stood. The neighborhoods around Charjean Bethel Grove and Cherokee were all a buzz with two camps, ones for the school and some against. My parents were for the school and some of their friends were against it. I couldn't understand what was so wrong with the city building us a school so we wouldn't have to go all the way to Fairview. I would have been proud to have been a Trojan, my brother went there and he was a star athlete and was great at everything. I was always being reminded of that fact. You see it was hard for me to live up to what he had accomplished. I wasn't him and I didn't have his skills, but I knew that someday I would find my way and this new school, Airways could help me find it. I don't know how it was at Bethel Grove or Cherokee, but at Charjean we had out buildings like you saw in POW camps in the movies for the over flow from the seventh and eighth grade students. I know they would have loved to have been in the new school as soon as possible. I was going to be honored with being one of the first students to go from seventh grade through the 9th grade at Airways. There wouldn't be any teachers that knew my brother and I

could make my own way. I went by it every day while it was being built from the first stake in the ground to the last brick and I couldn't wait. I knew it would be something special, something to be proud of. This school was state of the art compared to any school in Memphis Tn. at that time. It had air conditioning and an auditorium that most high schools would have died for. We also had a band room that was built for a band, an industrial arts shop that would have been good enough for commercial use. The intercom system was wired into the whole building and was two way. The sports complex was the best I had ever seen. Everything in this great big new school was so nice and it was ours. We were blessed beyond anything I could have imagined. I was so scared the first day of school. Would it be all I had hoped for and would the teachers like me, would I have friends there. What would I do if I didn't make any friends. We had already been practicing football for

about two weeks before school started and that helped me with my anxieties of the new adventures I was about to embark on. I was so proud of what we had, what we were privileged to have. Yes, I was proud of the building as well as everything we had in our new school. That wasn't all. There was so much more, the teachers, the people that worked the cafeteria and the custodians and my class mates. Maybe it was the magic of the times we were making together, or was it our community and our love for each other that made it so magical. The great friendships we had and, yes Ronnie Fields, the fights we had as well. I wish I knew what the thing was that made it so magical. I would bottle it and make it available to every child so they could have what we had. I know most of you are like me and will carry the memories of Airways and your time there to your last breath.

Graced at Graceland

I know that most of you don’t know or haven’t seen my wife Ursula

, so I thought I would show you some pictures and tell you what she means to me. I know that it made be boring to some of you, so that’s why I’m posting it on my time line so that you can ignore it, if you wish. Yes, this is the lady that took me away from Memphis. The only thing I regret about leaving Memphis was the fact that I left all my friends behind and losing touch with them. I can remember the first time I saw her. I was standing up the hill behind the guardhouse next to the driveway at Graceland. I was talking to Harold Lloyd, Elvis’s third cousin and security guard at the Gates of Graceland, when she and her friend walked by me. She had dark short curly hair at that time and the prettiest eyes that I’d ever seen. They’re actually two different colors. I was enchanted and I’ve been that way ever since. We talked on the telephone for the next two years and saw each other as often as we could. I remember driving up one time to Mississauga, Ontario, and staying at a little hotel just off the 427 that was a mind blowing experience for a young man from Memphis, Tennessee. Toronto, Ontario would probably be like a mixture of Washington, DC and New York City and I had never been outside of the southern U.S. at that time. There are all nationalities; British, German, Polish, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and any nationality you can think of. I had never experienced such an exotic blend of languages in my life. At the first restaurant we went out

to, we sat down at you could hear them all. It was a totally different culture that the U.S. We’re known as a melting pot rather than a cultural mosaic of nationalities and languages. Everyone there seemed to be in their own little worlds and in Toronto, Ontario, Canada there were sections of the city that had their specific ethnic groupings much like China Town in San Francisco. I also had never experienced one lady that was so gracious and concerned about me. She was attentive to my every need and I must say she still is. It’s almost like she thinks of me before herself. I try to do that for her but I am a man of course, so I don’t always match what she does for me. She had let her hair go straight and longer by this time and she was even more beautiful than the day we had met. She took me out to a multitude of restaurants and we went to Niagara Falls. She introduced me to her world as if she was saying would you like to live here. I wasn’t quite thinking about that yet at that time but I had let someone else leave once before and didn’t follow, so I guess I was trying to figure out if I could make it in this strange and wonderful new world. We were becoming friends, we enjoyed each other’s company to the utmost. I knew there was something special there, something that I craved was being fulfilled by her. It was strange for me not to feel lonely. Around her I felt peace

, I felt as if the rest of the world didn’t matter and I was in heaven. She had given more of herself to me than anyone else had ever done and I’m not talking about her physical self, I’m talking about her feelings, her love, her soul, her friendship, it was all given to me freely. How could I leave, but I had obligations that I had to take care of before I could truly make any decision. I had my daughter to think about back in Memphis, my parents were still a large part of my life at that time and my mother did depend on me. After I had announced to my family what I was contemplating, my mother, who I thought would be the most hurt and not wanting me to leave, pulled me aside and told

me that other countries had strange ways and not to let them change me. My mother was understandably concerned about her baby leaving to go so far away apart from her but she never tried to talk me out of it or tell me how bad a decision this would be as she had once before. I remember after I had asked Ursula to marry me, she came back down to Memphis to meet my family, my brother and his family, my father and mother and my daughter. Now I want to preface this by saying that Ursula looked exactly like she did in the pictures that you’re going to see but, however, my mother pulled me aside and told me that Ursula looked like she could possibly get fat as she grew older and that I was never to tell her that she was fat because if I did my mother would wear me out. I never have told Ursula how to dress or wear her hair or anything negative concerning her looks and I have never and will never call her fat. I have to say thanks to Rick and Sherry who were my closest friends at that time and were so wonderful about helping me out with all of the obligations and understanding what it would take for me to leave them. I knew that this marriage was right and I knew that Ursula was finally the right girl for me. When I got there Ursula had already picked out an apartment for us. It was a split level apartment in a small building in Mississauga, Ontario and it was near the Go train for Ursula to commute into Toronto’s for her job and it was near the auto malls where I found a job as a car salesman. This apartment was small but it was so large in our hearts, it was our first place and

it was perfect for us. She introduced me to foods that I had never had before such as liverwurst and Kielbasa and various German sausages and escargot. I remember a bread that we used to be able to get from the Baltic Bakery and at a deli on Lakeshore Road that had an almost cracker type crust but the most airy like bread in the interior. It was wonderful and we have not been able to find it in the last few years, but the next time we go to Canada I will be on the hunt for this bread. We’ve had many adventures together. We have traveled at least 1/5 of the world together. We’ve visited Africa, the British Isles, Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, Canada and the U.S. The thing that made these travels what they were was her because she has a passion for travel. I share her passion but not as strongly as her. It’s the one thing that she would never want to give up. I have to tell you, the one thing that I would never want to give up is her. We’ve had other strange adventures together, as I’ve told most of you, for I was a huge TV fanatic and I love movies, good ones and bad ones. She started following me to movie and TV conventions. We’ve met everyone from Kay Linaker who, besides her appearance in Charlie Chan and other well known earlier movies, was also the author of “the Blob”, yes the one that most of you saw on Fantastic Features, she wrote it. We’ve met Frankie Thomas who was Tom Corbett Space Cadet on the early television show and co-starred in my

favorite of all times, the 1930’s Nancy Drew movies. He was my first contact with anyone that had known my favorite actress of all time, Bonita Granville. She followed me to other conventions as well where we met other stars. My point is she accommodated my eccentric interests such as aircraft, flying and museums and we’ve been to the world’s greatest museums. I know that these things are not everyone’s cup of tea but she has learned to enjoy these things with and I with her. She has made my world a wondrous journey that I would never have imagined having and can’t imagine not having her in my world.

Old Fashion Rules for a Date

Being that I am a man and haven’t anything but my memories of the time when I was starting out my relationships with girls to go by, I feel that my thoughts are still relevant to young relationships of today. These are my observations of my youth and my experiences as a young man. If you are just starting to consider relationships with the opposite sex, you’re about to start one of the most magical periods in your life. Let me warn you, there will be ups and downs, there will be great joy and great sorrow. By pursuing these relationships you will have your heart broken more than once, so try not to wear your feelings on your sleeve. Now contrary to what young girls think, boys do not in any way take subtle hints, let me repeat that, because this is very important, if you like a boy and you want to let him know that you like, you’re hinting at that fact will not, I repeat, will not let him know. I don’t know what it is about men and boys in general but we do not understand when a girl is trying to get us to understand something without saying it. No, don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t run up to the boy and bare your heart and soul and say I’m in love with you, because most likely you’ll get your heart broken. You must remember that when it comes to relationships boys are far less mature because they don’t have the responsibilities of what a relationship can mean like a girl does. You also must remember that it’s much easier to get your heart broken when you’re asking someone you like on a date. The fear of rejection in young boys is a very strong emotion, so be patient with him. It may take him a while to dig up the courage. Remember he’s just as much afraid of having his feelings hurt as much as you are, but boys are not expected to show their feelings in public like girls are allowed to do. If you want a boy to like you, you have to do several things. Before I give you a strategy that always worked on me, let me make perfectly clear that if the boy is not into you or doesn’t like you for some reason or another, this or anything else will not make him like you, but you might make a lifelong friend. First thing you need to do is to make a point of every time you see him, say hello. You don’t have to make long conversations, just in passing, say good morning or whatever time it is. The second thing is complement him when he has done something that you like. Once more, I want to tell you, don’t gush over him just say something like I’m so glad you made the honor roll and leave it at that. If he starts to talk to you and wants to hold a conversation then, by all means, talk to him but don’t stumble all over yourself. He’s just a boy and you’re just a girl. Talk about the things that he likes and you like as well. Also, don’t go hunting him down or spy on him and report back to your friends. You will see him often enough to have the chance to say hello without becoming a nuisance. On the other hand, if he is attempting to find you don’t run away but, for the first while, keep your conversation short and pleasant and go about your business. If these things work and he asks you out, by all means, no matter how you actually feel, make some excuse for him to give you a little time before you give him an answer, like I have ask my parents. Yes, I’m saying keep him waiting. Anticipation is the spice of life, however, you must get back to him in an appropriate time frame. Don’t make him wait until the last second before your planned date. You must also remember that you as a girl are in complete control of the situation when a boy asks you out. So if its not the boy that you wanted to go out with and you really don’t like the young man that has asked you out, do not ever hurt that young man’s feelings for two reasons. The first reason is if you get the reputation of being mean to boys no one will ever ask you out. The second reason is any pain you give to another person will come back to you a hundredfold. I believe that you will be treated the same as you treat others, so always try to be kind. Now I mention the fact that the young girl has more responsibilities and considerations when it comes to relationships than boys do, so let me talk briefly about that. The first thing is you should always consider your parents and their rules governing your behavior when it comes to dating boys. I know that you think that they are imposing arbitrary old fashioned rules on you, the modern girl, and that things are different in today’s age and you are partially right. The thing that you have to remember is that as long as there have been boys and girls, all the way back to Adam and Eve, the same rules have applied and the reason for this is that young people haven’t yet made the mistakes that will teach them why they have these rules and responsibilities to follow. Your faith or your church is also something that you should consider when thinking of start date. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some religions that are much stricter than others when it comes to young people dating and I personally don’t agree with them all, but you are the one that must choose your faith and, by all means, follow it. You should never arbitrarily, because of someone else’s thinking, abandon any of the rules of your faith. Now having said that, if you are in the position of a boy having asked you out and you are worried whether or not he will kiss you, you may be unsure of how to handle it. Personally, I believe that kissing is one of the sweetest and nicest ways to show someone you care but it can be taken too far on the first date. If you are really worried about if he’s going to kiss you or how to handle whether or not you want him to kiss you, here is some advice. Let me explain what I mean by how he’s going to kiss you and whether or not to let him, as we said when we were kids, French kiss you. If you have just now considered this, I personally think that this would be going too far on the first date. I would say to keep your teeth together and not allow that to happen and if this discourages the boy from ever asking you out again then so be it. He was not really into you. Like I was trying to say, one of the greatest sources on how to handle this is your mother. She had to go through this particular thing exactly like you’re having to but there is a right way and wrong way to approach this with your mother. You can go right up to her and say “what if Billy is going to try to French kiss me. You must remember all of us older people are shocked very easily, so approach her by telling her you want her advice because you’re scared of what might happen on your first date and you don’t know how to react and you don’t want to make a bad impression. Remember, just keep the conversation low key for your mother by telling her that you would never do anything against her wishes or your faith. I’m sure her advice will be much better than you expect. One thing I do want to warn you against is asking your father. Fathers, much like their younger counterparts, would probably not have the best advice. I don’t mean that fathers would not have your best interests at heart, it’s just that you are their little girl and it’s too early for them to even think about sharing your affection and it would probably be the wrong thing to do. One thing I do want to tell you is that relationships should grow and they should probably grow slowly if they are to amount to anything, so this leaves something for both of you to learn together for later. Now I know that I’m sounding like you’re going to have to put a lot of hard work into even your first relationship and that’s exactly what I’m saying. Nothing worthwhile in this world comes to you easily. Unfortunately the girl has more to consider in every relationship she will ever have and more responsibility, this is because of Mother Nature, societal pressures, and peer to peer relationships and your faith. Let’s face it, boys are just hap hazard when it comes to taking care of things at this age. As I said before, boys’ emotional maturity is pretty well nonexistent at this time in their lives. This is caused by hormonal changes that young boys are experiencing and don’t have to live with the consequences that you as a young lady might have to. I’m not going to go over those types of responsibilities as that is the job of your parent’s, church and health professionals. Please, even in these early stages of your relationship development, you must not be afraid to speak to those that have your best interests at heart. Part of having relationships is learning what to do and what not to do. The worst thing you can do if you want to have a relationship is to sit back and do nothing, but remember, doing too much can chase someone away. If you’re walking through the hall and you see Billy, say hello, and if he made a touchdown in last night’s game with that rival school, congratulate him and make the conversation short unless he wishes to talk to you more. Being young once myself, I know and I understand that this is hard to do but you must make yourself available for him to get to know you, but not force yourself on him. If you say nothing at all to him ever, he will never notice you. If you find out that he doesn’t like you as a potential girlfriend, the possibilities are huge that he will be your friend. When I was in junior high school one of my greatest best friends was a girl and, no, she was not my girlfriend as the nomenclature states, she was just my best friend. I want you to take something into consideration and that is that more of the earliest friendships last forever, where most of the boyfriend and girlfriend relationships don’t last. I have seen occasions where friendships have grown into more loving relationships after both a boy and girl grow up a little. So if you value this person, make sure you keep them as a friend. Who knows, maybe someday you will be more than friends. You should also never try to be something you’re not so. If you’re a little more of a tomboy then a girly girl, be that way. If you wear glasses, wear your glasses and, by all means, if you have curly hair, don’t straighten it because you think they would like you different than you really are. That never works. The other person must like you for who you really are. I will assure you that there is someone out there that will cherish your true beauty as it really is. I know from my experiences as a young man that there were some girls that my friends didn’t think were beautiful but I did. I have stated many times that our differences are what makes each one of us so special. What you would consider your shortcomings, someone else might think they are your greatest attributes. I know when you look in the mirror and see your face, you see every single flaw. Let me give you some advice that I never knew how to take till now and I want you listen carefully to this because it is the truth. No one but no one sees the same thing that you do. What you see looking back at you in the mirror is beautiful and no matter what you think, there’s more than one other person out there that thinks it too. So don’t take another second thinking about what you need to change about your looks because if you do that certain someone that was meant for you may not give you that second look. There might even be someone that has looked at you from afar and was scared to death to say anything to you, but if you will follow this one rule, when you change classes say hello to as many people as humanly possible and always use their first names in your greeting. Now that’s my idea of how to get that first date. Oh yes, before I close, remember, you don’t know everything about dating and the young man that has asked out won’t know everything either and both of you are scared to death. So just relax and enjoy your date.

Now about the first date itself, absolutely no darkened movie theaters and my suggestion is that you do not double date. Yes parents, that’s not a good idea. There should be more than four kids! The reason I say more than four is that they will be the same ages you are and will be just as inexperienced, so for the enjoyment of every one, it should be an amusement park or a daytime ballgame or something where there will be a crowd of young people. This is to prevent any unnecessary anxieties of either the girl or the boy and keep them safe and they will just have fun and that’s what dating really should be all about at your age. Once the girl has decided that the young man’s manners and actions are of a young gentleman, then maybe a double date to the movies might be appropriate. In saying that, you, the young girl, has to make that decision. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take your parents into consideration when making that decision but I’m sure you haven’t told your parents everything about how the young man has acted toward you even though you should tell them. If you don’t think the relationship is ready or his actions have been a little more than you care for, you make the right decision. I live in the south and here we put our women on a pedestal, so to speak, but the reason we do this is that they demand that kind of respect and, no matter where you live, you should at this time in your life demand complete respect and your relationship will grow if he really likes you. A lot of times, boys don’t have a clue what to say or how to say it, so don’t wear your feelings on your sleeve, There will be some times when he’s not willing to do the same thing you want to do. These are the times that you both should be with your other friends, at your age you should have a healthy relationship with your girlfriends and still do things with him just as he as well should do things with all of his male companions. It’s very important to have these friends in your life at your age. I want to caution you, picking one over the other can be tricky. They all have their time and place and you must learn how to juggle them without hurting each other’s feelings. Let me give you an example; if your boyfriend is about to win an award at a banquet, but your girlfriends want you to go to the mall that evening, of course, you should go to your boyfriend’s banquet with him. I know that was a super obvious example but I think you get my point. You must weigh the importance of the occasion of both your girlfriends and the boy that you like, to see which one is more important to those people that are in your life, and this not to say that you shouldn’t consider your important events either, which makes it even harder at your age to consider three things at once. So just consider your parents, they’re juggling their relationship with each other and their children, their jobs, their responsibility to the community, and their friends just to mention a few things. They learn how to manage a well-rounded life and what things should be put on hold for more important things at a particular time, just like you’re doing right now. Don’t think you’re the only one in this sinking ship you call your life. I don’t want you to worry. no one’s going to let you drowned. You will get all the help you need, so don’t worry. Speaking of worry, that’s the one thing you don’t need to do. What you do need to do is learn how to cope with boys and your new relationship with them and embarking on these relationships with strange creatures they call boys. I know you’ve heard about a book with the title Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Well that’s kind of the way boys feel about girls as well. You didn’t come with an instruction Manual and all of the boys out there are still learning how to speak, let alone, speak to a girl. Remember, only a few short years ago they had just learned to walk. So give them a break and try to be understanding but remember, you as the girl, must stay in control of the situation. If at any time you feel uncomfortable, let it be known, and if the boy doesn’t listen to you leave the situation immediately. You’ll find nine times out of ten, if he’s a boy worth keeping, he will immediately apologize and whatever made you uncomfortable will stop and never happen again. I don’t mean that you should by any means be mean or spiteful, but it’s up to you to keep the relationship at the level that you feel comfortable with. Never let the relationship go beyond a point that you’re not willing to go, just because you’re afraid of losing the relationship. Most of the time when two young people who are not mature enough, go to a higher level of a relationship before they’re ready to do so, it’s usually over shortly thereafter. I’m not trying to scare you, I’m just trying to give you some tried and true advice. I was a young man once myself. I have tried my best to take the relationships I had to higher levels than I was capable of handling. Luckily for me, all of the girls that I dated were young ladies and no matter what a boy tries to tell you, he will love and respect you more for making the proper decision than anything else. Before you do anything, when you think you’re ready for whatever level you’re at to go to the next level, talk it over with someone that’s understanding but mature in their thinking. Your mother may be as good a source to bounce your thoughts off of as anyone. Remember, you can’t just tell her by blurting out what you want to do, but give her some credit. She was in your place at one time too. Tell her you want the truth and most likely she will give you a true opinion of what she thinks before she tells you what you have to do. I know that there are some things in relationships that you think you cannot tell you mother about, and if that is the case, go to an older sister or cousin, and consider their advice. Keeping your faith in mind with any decision you might make concerning a relationship, is absolutely the best source for a young lady to consider. I hope that my thoughts will give you a bit of knowledge you need to start you on your way to the crazy experiences that come along with dating for the first time and growing up.

I have loved old movies and movies in general my entire life.  It started when I was still in school at Charjean Elementary and I discovered WREC Channel 3 in Memphis, Tennessee had a program called “The Early Movie” and it was filled with all of those old fantastic black and white movies from the thirties and forties. No one but TCM shows these kind of movies today.

My favorites, of course, were the mysteries of Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, The Thin Man, Mr. Moto and Nancy Drew, among others, but I watched and loved all types of these movies from dramas, to comedies, detectives, adventures and  horror.  I always said when I grew up that I would have a library full of these old movies and especially the complete libraries of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and all 44 of the Charlie Chan movies. I kept my promise to myself. I have them all and so many more.  Now with Internet streaming, it almost seems unnecessary but I’m from a generation that had to depend on the whims of network executives or TV station programmers to get my favorite movies. So you see that owning these favorites is my personal back up if any of these streaming stations go out of business or they decide to go to some other type of entertainment.  I also have loved a multitude of television shows over the years because I grew up in the era of the birth of television.  I was born in 1956 so I

have seen such shows as the Milton Berle Show, the Jack Benny Show, the Bob Hope Show, the Colgate Comedy Hour with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis all the way up to things like today’s BBC’s “Sherlock”.  I have loved these shows and the stars that made them as long as I can remember.  It was only natural that my wife and I started going to movie and TV conventions.  I have been to more of them than I can remember and collected more autographs than will fit on my study walls. I have several prized possessions, among them, my Bonita Granville autographs with her picture, my Bonita Granville and Frankie Thomas autographs and picture from the movie The Angels Wash Their Faces. There are also my Key Luke and Roland Winters autographs, and my two autographs from Annette Funicello and Roberta Shore. Even though there are many more that I love, those are my favorites because they are the stars whose movies I love the most.  I have seen others such as Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce but have never been able to spend the kind of money

that it would take to own them.  I also have Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Lillian Gish’s autographs. They started in the silent era around 1912 and worked in Hollywood up until the late 80’s.  My wife and I have been all over the South and some northern states and California to all kinds of conventions to collect these autographs and souvenirs.  We also have gone to various Disneyana Conventions in hopes of snagging some elusive autographs. 

I remember one convention in particular. It was a “Quantum Leap” Convention and my wife was crazy about Scott Bakula’s TV show about a scientist that was leaping in time. It also co-starred Dean Stockwell.  This particular convention was

in Indianapolis, Indiana and they had several guest stars appearing.  I didn’t think that it was going to appeal to me very much even though I like Quantum Leap. I didn’t really know any of the guest stars and I was sure that the merchandise would be limited because it was only about one TV show.  They had finished with the first part of the convention and were showing some videos and one of those was “Halloween The Happy Haunting of America” by Daniel Roebuck. I couldn’t say if I was familiar with Dan’s work at that time but I became familiar with it, but I will tell you that piece of the story later.  I sat down and started watching the video presentation of “Halloween The Happy Haunting of America”. I was the

only one in the theater watching it and enjoying it thoroughly. I was about ¼ way into it when a lady came in and asked me if I’d mind much if they turned it off because no one seemed to be interested in it.  I agreed under protest but it was the best thing about that convention for me. I also think I was the only man there other than the guest stars. Later on, they were signing autographs and I met John D’ Aquino and the star and producer of “Halloween The Happy Haunting of America”, Daniel Roebuck. I asked him about the video tape and could I purchase a copy. He replied that it was available online and I did purchase it.  Dan seemed to be fascinated with my hat. He asked me if he could see it and I agreed and handed him the hat. He asked me where I had gotten all of these pins.  I told him I had gotten them all over the

United States and that I was always on the lookout for Disney related hat pins.  We kept on talking about both our love for all things Disney and I told him that I was going to a upcoming Disneyana convention at Walt Disney World at the Contemporary Resort Hotel and Convention Center and I gave him the dates and we left saying that we might see each other there. Believe it or not, as fate would

have it, we did. We were walking back towards the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom and low and behold, there was Dan and his family. We had not pre-arranged this meeting. I have called Dan and lifelong friend ever since. 

I have also met two people that co-starred in Charlie Chan movies at other movie memorabilia conventions. We met Kay Linaker and Mark Lawrence, both of whom appeared in several Charlie Chan movies.  Kay Linaker, besides her appearances in Charlie Chan and other well known earlier movies, was also the author of 1958’s “The Blob”, yes, the one that most of you saw on Fantastic Features with Sivad, she wrote it. I want to tell you about one more meeting. It was a star who played with my favorite actress in my favorite movie detective series “Nancy Drew”. He played Nancy’s boyfriend Ted in the movies and he also

played with a group of kids along with Bonita Granville (Nancy Drew) that were known as the “Eastside Kids” AKA the “Bowery Boys” AKA the “Dead End Kids” that were one of my favorites as well.  Frankie Thomas, who was “Tom Corbett - Space Cadet” on the early television series and also starred, while still a teenager, in the 1930’s Nancy Drew movies, was my first contact with anyone that had actually known my favorite actress of all time, Bonita Granville.

We met many other old time movie stars at various conventions around the country, including Ann Rutherford, Tommy Kirk, Haley Mills, Stella Stevens, Will Hutchens, Lash Larue, Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody (yes, the real live puppet),

Irish McCalla, Alan Young, Harry Carey, Jr., Noel Neill, William Smith, Ann Robinson, Johnny Crawford, Dickie Jones, Sarah Karloff (Boris’s daughter), Debbie Reynolds, Tim Considine and David Stollery, Ann Lockhart, Dirk Benedict,  Richard Hatch, Walter Koenig, William Shallert, Bernie Kopell, Julie Parrish, Yvonne Craig, Dawn Wells, Ronnie Shell, Scott Bakula, Ruth Buzzie, Barbara Luna, Dennis Cole, Kim Darby, Billy Mumy, John Rhys Davies, Elvira (Cassandra), Olivia Hussey, Hugh O’Brien, Joseph Campanella, Jon Provost, Dick Durock, David Carradine, Dean Stockwell, Adam West, Kathy Garver, just to name a few. We’ve lost tract, quite honestly. If you will look these names up online, you will recognize them for their roles in so many different movies or TV shows.

There were probably three other people that I met that meant as much to me as anyone else. One was Roberta Shore who played Annette Funicello’s arch rival in the Mickey Mouse Club serial “Annette”.  Unlike her character on the show, she was one of the sweetest people we’ve ever met. I was also privileged to be able

to meet Haley Mills, my favorite Disney live action star. Meeting her was such a thrill that I brought her a dozen pink roses. She was extremely nice and gave us on extra signed autographed picture. How sweet of her to do that.  It was a huge thrill to meet them all. 

We also have gone to several Star Trek conventions and have collected numerous autographs of the stars from Star Trek, Enterprise, and Star Trek The Next Generation.  A lot of the older movie conventions are no longer being held because, unfortunately, a lot of the old stars are no longer here, not to mention that some of the people that were putting the conventions on are no longer here.  I’m afraid that these conventions are about to end. Most of the people my and younger are no longer interested these types of conventions.  The people that were going to conventions are a few years older than I am.  I can remember rummaging through old lobby cards looking for that prized possession and talking to the other guys that were doing the same as I was and most of them had to be about 10 years or more

older than me. They were good people and we all had a lot in common. Sometimes we would sit and talk about the old movies for hours.  We would also want to talk to the stars that we had come to see for hours but their time was limited and that was not always possible. I remember speaking to Ann Rutherford and she told me that she was the maid of honor at the Bonita Granville’s wedding and was friends with her up until her death in 1988. As I was trying to talk to her about Bonita, a vendor came up to her and was trying to get her to sign a bunch of autographs so he could sell them, so I gracefully left to allow her to do her business and never got the chance to hear any of her recollections of Bonita which saddens me greatly.  The stars were so grateful and so generous with their time. I remember Roberta Shore introduced us to her husband, like we were long lost friends that had just been reunited. I couldn’t believe it and she was probably the sweetest and nicest lady we met up to that time. All of these wonderful stars that once shined so brightly in Hollywood will

eventually be dimmed as so many others of their craft have left us far too soon . I haven’t been to a movie convention since last year in Tunica, MS, that Tim Considine and David Stollery from Mickey Mouse Clubs serial “Spin and Marty” were at. I keep looking to see if any of the conventions I love are still being held. Hopefully, that will not be the last one that I will be able to attend. I enjoyed the company of other people that loved the movies of an earlier time as I do. I believe that today’s stars “ain’t got nothin” on the movie stars of days gone by. They had faces.

I want to tell you about my best friend I ever had. The one I went to Airways Junior High School with. We were like Mutt and Jeff she and I. I always thought I loved her and as it turns out I always did and always will. You see she was the little sister I always wished I had. There was no pretense between us like there would have been with lovers. We didn’t have to keep up a phony appearance to impress one another, because we knew each other like we were brother and sister she and I. We could talk about anything and we did. I remember one partly cloudy day after lunch and before classes our little group would lay in the grass and talk about the strangest things. We would try and find familiar shapes in the clouds and laugh out loud when we had found something strange she and I. I don’t know what happened. I can't even guess what or why. It may have been that we had started dating other people she and I. As you do and you know how that can put a strain on friendships especially one like she and I. I’ve always kept her very near to my heart for she was my buddy, my Pal. I will never forget her quirky smile. I always think of her every day for a while. I can’t help it, she was always there when I needed her smile. She never seemed to cramp my style and I hope she remembers me as fondly as I do her. I’ve not seen her for over 30 years. I want to send her this special thank you and wish her well for the memories of She and I. You are the greatest friend this young boy ever had, Sheila

I know I haven’t written much about the Airways Junior High football team.  My memory of most of the things that happened with all of my friends that were on our team happened off the field.  I just seemed to zone out and think of nothing but my assignment when I was on the field.  I do remember, however, one particular incident and the reason I remember it is I hear so much on the news today about head injuries and concussions with professional football players. I truly believe I

suffered a concussion but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s get back to the story from the beginning. I believe it had to have been our first year in the new school building on Ketchum beside Charjean Park where the old apple orchard used to stand.  All of us boys were so excited to try out for our school’s football team and we were going to be the ones to start the tradition and I’m positive the girls felt exactly


the same way about becoming cheerleaders. I only wish that there had been some type of counterbalance in sports for the girls like there is today.  I know I’m getting off track so back to the story.  We all had to have our physicals, you know, the old turn your head and cough and blood tests and eye tests and so on.  Then we were all given practice uniforms and went outside for our first formal practice. Oh my goodness, it was the roughest two hours of my life. I had tried all summer long to get into shape and I wasn’t.  I think I just need to say that again because I was so badly out of shape compared to what I needed to be and I’m here to tell you that was a fact, but somehow I made it thro

ugh all of the running, rolling and everything the coaches put us through to get us into shape.  Now we started doing drills to see who had the moxie to do the tasks that it would take to play football.  We had to push a two man sled from a down and set position. The coach would blow the whistle and two players in full pads and helmet would strike out at a sled with pads on each side for each player and push it until the coach blew the whistle again. I was always teamed up with or against Tony Boston and it looked like he was always a little ahead of me, so about halfway through the practice I decided to dig in and give it everything I had no matter how much it hurt because I was going to be on this team.  We came to one particular drill where we had to make two lines between a row of tires on either side of us with a space between us where the coach was standing, one line on his right and one line on his left and we were about 4 feet away from the coach on each side.  The players stood facing each other and the coach stood dead center in the middle on the outside of the rows of tires. He would toss the ball in the middle and it was the player’s job to get the ball so you would have to block off the opponent and this was one of those times that Tony Boston was across from me but we were three or four players back. I was noticing that most of the players were trying to block the other player combatant off before they went for the ball, leaving the ball wide open for

anyone going after it first.  To my recollection Tony must have figure this out too because we both went all out head first toward the ball.  Now let me tell you this before I tell you any more, Tony was as aggressive and as tough as any of the players out there and it was a difficult job for me to keep up, let alone surpass him, but I felt I had to if I was going to earn a position on this brand new football squad for our brand new, beautiful, state of the art junior high school.  Now back to our story, Tony and I were eagerly awaiting our chance when Coach Winters threw the ball into the center. He hesitated before blowing his whistle and the ball rolled closer to Tony and he was on the ball before I could have been but I bowed my head and with everything I could muster, and I also believe a little help from the prayer I had just said, and bang our helmets hit and I felt the ball come loose from Tony’s grip and I fell on top of it.  Some of it was luck and again I believe some of it was divine intervention because you see, I could not see. There was a blue white blinding light and I was blind but I knew I could not release that ball. I held onto it no matter how much Tony struggled to get the ball. Coach Winters was screeming with delight. I don’t know if anyone else heard the noise when our helmets hit but it sounded like a shotgun going off to me.  I got up and staggered back toward the area that I thought I had come from but one of the players turned me around to the other direction. I was going wrong way. I still couldn’t see but I said nothing. It would have meant I was weak and couldn’t

take it and I’ll be hanged if I was going to let anyone know that.  I attempted to stay along the line of the tires till I could not feel them anymore and turn and walked until I bumped into someone. I can still hear Coach Winters exclaiming “now that’s how it’s done”.  I could see the blue light becoming a haze and I could see shadows now and Coach Winters blew the whistle and said “that’s it boys, to the locker room and everyone has to take a shower before he can leave”.  By the time I got to the back door and started down the steps to the football locker room I had regained of my sight and felt somehow less dizzy now and I proceeded to take my shower and walked the short distance to my tiny little house in my tiny little life. I remember it must have been two weeks before school started that all this had transpired because by the time school had been in session for about a week or two, we had an assembly in our state of the art auditorium. Our coaches were announcing the names of the lucky boys that we’re going to start the tradition of sports at our brand new school that most of us felt had been built just for us.  Coach Winters and Coach Ramsey took turns announcing the names. I’m not sure if they did it by backfield, defensive line, offensive line or what they were calling after they called my name as a starting offensive lineman and a defensive guard. I don’t remember anything else.  I remember going back to my homeroom and a couple of my real good friends congratulated me, just like in the scene in Harry Potter where Hermione and Ron congratulate Harry and tell him that no one ever his age is picked for the team, let alone being a starting player.  I have to tell you, every time I see that scene it takes me back to my friends and that seventh grade class congratulating me and telling me it was unheard of for a seventh grader to be on the starting team.  Even my teacher said she was proud of me. That year was not our greatest year in football but we were just learning. We had no idea what to expect or even how to play the game to win.  I remember the humiliation I felt when we lost.  We came back to practice the next day and Coach Winters and Coach Ramsey told us to forget it, that we were going to have to work harder and give more of ourselves if we wanted to be winners and they asked us “are you

winners” and we screened “yes”, he screamed back,  and he screemed back “you sound like little girls,  are you winners” and we screened even louder “yes”. He screamed “I can’t hear you” and I think every one of us darn near hurt ourselves trying to scream even louder  “yes”. “OK, go out there and give me all you’ve got for this practice”.  I know that everyone did give their all because it meant everything to us, absolutely everything.  The year went by and I think we still didn’t do much better.  The next year was the start of a whole new season and we were ready. We came out and played like we had everything to lose and we thought that we did. We wanted a winning tradition for our school.  I personally wanted to make my classmates proud of me. I thought this finally is how I’m going to fit in.  This is my chance to get the friends I felt I never really had.  We worked harder and longer with more determination than I’ve ever seen a group of kids have and the coaches felt it to.  The coaches knew something was different, something was better and we had the chance to make a difference and win.  We had won all but one game, the one game that would make the difference with us winning our division. We lost! Some of the kids at Airways were mean to us even though we had won all the other games. They were completely horrible to us, now that I think about it, it may have only been a few kids but, the thing that I remember the most, was someone saying to us “I knew you couldn’t do it. It couldn’t last”. There were similar things said to us but we had no way of redeeming ourselves. It was our last game but the team that beat us still had to play one more game and, if they lost, we would still win our division and, by divine providence, they lost. The next day of school was joyous for everyone but we still knew we had lost. Coach Winters called us all together before the presentation of the trophy and noticed that we were all hanging our heads low and I think someone even said “we don’t deserve this trophy”.  Coach

Winters turned his back to us. When he turned around he told us that “it could be at any given time we could’ve won or lost that game over and over again no matter how many times you would have played it”. We had “met a team that was as good as we were and there was no shame in losing when you’ve given it your all, but you have won and you should be proud of that fact. I don’t want to see anyone hanging their heads down and feeling sorry for themselves” and that he was proud of us and would always be proud of us. He passed around a football for all of us to sign.  That football still stands proudly in the trophy case at Airways Junior High School  for all that pass through its halls to see and I for one am proud of that accomplishment that everyone of us made at Airways Junior High School.  The first time in my life I had won something and I’m not talking about awards.

For the first time I was proud of myself.  I had done it, gone through more pain and sacrifice than any other time in my life at that time and, for once, I came out on top. I have to say, anyone who attended Airways Junior High School at that time, no matter what they did or didn’t do, whether they played sports are not,
if they were in the band, the glee club, if they were cheerleaders, if they were just students trying to pass their classes, to me they will always be the best there is in my book.  Airways and the friends that I made there are the best thing that ever happened to me.  Thank you all for being a part of those wonderful years.