1965-2015
Few pictures of the past...
Happy 50th Anniversary Barbara! 1965-2015 Few pictures of the past...
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Just some thoughts: WHAT A DAY YESTERDAY WAS I'd just stopped by Publix supermarket. A couple days previous I had stopped by and made arrangements with the bakery to prepare a cake for me. A cake, chocolate, Barb's favorite. I think chocolate must be a favorite of most all women. That's been my experience. It would be a 50th wedding anniversary cake. I was picking it up as the plans were for the next evening Barb and I along with another couple to have dinner out and then come back to our house for desert and coffee. Just as I sat the cake down in the passenger's seat and turned the ignition on in the car an Alan Jackson song came on from the car cd player. I had been playing his music. I smiled and thought how appropriate. Here I am picking up a cake for our 50th wedding anniversary and the timing of this song. "What A Day Yesterday Was" Looking through these old photographs Don't they bring good memories back Some of them make us laugh And some make us cry I'm glad we've kept all of these souvenirs Look at how happy we were Pictures don't lie Here's one of us with you calm and cool But look at me acting a fool And here's one of us on the ferris wheel At the fair Hey, haven't we had some fun The best may be yet to come We may have a hundred years Still left to share But.... If forever should end today And there's no tomorrow for us What a day yesterday was Let's close this book of photograph And let's turn out the lights And love the moment As if it were the last And... If forever should end today And there's no tomorrow for us What a day yesterday was Yes what a "day" yesterday it has been...what a fifty years. Thank you Barbara.
July 25, 1965--July 25, 2015 July 22. 2015 Keep on, Larry Adamson Below is something I wrote when our youngest granddaughter started school. She now will be in the 4th grade when school begins this year. LA Just Some Thoughts:
This week saw our five-year- old granddaughter, Delaney, attending her first day of kindergarten. Needless to say, her mother, father and, yes, grandparents all wondered what this first day of a new world would be like for this child. The first day of school was finally over and Delaney arrived home. Her mother asked her a series of questions about her day. She related very little to her mother, but she did say, “This little girl came up to me and said she didn’t have anyone to play with, so I played with her.” Hum, no questions on the part of the children, like, before they can go further with the business of playing with someone I must ask, “Are you a Democrat or Republican? What is your position on?, do you go to church? If so, where? What do you think about global warming, the Tea Party, President Obama, former President Bush? In what neighborhood do you live? Did your parents go to college, your parents are from where? Where do you buy your clothes?” She said, “We just played.” Guess all those question of “Whether I can play with your or not,” come later, like when we “grow up.” It’s interesting how we draw lines in the sand regarding who we might associate with. To our five-year-old grandchild and yours it's pretty simple, isn’t it?” “She didn’t have anyone to play with, so I played with her.” Simple as that. Guess all those questions about gauging whether or not I can play with you were not so important; oh, that comes later, when we grow up and become adults. August 19, 2011 Keep on, Larry Adamson Just some thoughts: HOW FULL IS YOUR BUCKET? Only from a child… When our six year old grandson, Jake, arrived home from school recently his mother asked him, "Jake, how was school today? Anything in particular happen?" He shrugged his shoulders and responded with a ‘not much’ indication. Earlier in the day his first grade teacher had called his mother and said, "We just wanted to make you aware and give you a heads up that Jake has had a hard day at school today.” His teacher told our daughter that during small circle reading time it seems that all Jake wanted to do was be a chicken, yes a chicken; but I am not completely sure how that all played itself out. I understand there was some clucking, but I don't think there were any eggs laid, although being a chicken will generally get you some attention. He also had some chicken clucking issues in another class setting the same day. Now a bit of background information is needed here to further explain what Jake did about his difficult day. In an effort to combat bullying issues that seem to be happening in many schools today, his teacher had been reading a book to her class called "How Full is Your Bucket?". The premise of the book is that how we behave and relate to others has a profound effect on every aspect of their lives and ours. The book uses the metaphor of a bucket above each persons head with a dipper, and each day we are either using a dipper to fill their bucket with good things or we’re using the dipper to empty their bucket. In talking further with Jake about his behavior on this day, our daughter told him she thought his teachers deserved an apology from him. Didn't he agree? He did. With that, the little guy got some paper and a pencil, and without any words of instruction from his mother, he sat down at the kitchen table and penned the following note to his teacher. The note read exactly as follows:
Dear Ms. Howell I'm sorry for being silly and goofing off. And I am sorry for dipping from your bucket. From Jake Hum... I wonder how many times in life our being "silly and goofing off" has dipped from another's bucket, but sadly we never bothered about a note. May 6, 2015 Keep on, Larry Adamson Just some thoughts: It was a beautiful early summer morning as I pulled the cover off my old Corvette and backed out of our garage; one of those mornings when God and man had left the earth to nature and the animals. My coffee shop opens at five thirty a.m. and that was where I was headed. As I drove from my neighborhood I slipped in a Willie Nelson cassette. Yes, I’m still using cassettes. As I drove along the lyrics to his first song began to sink in. In a way it is a love song, “To all the girls I’ve loved before who traveled in and out my door.” Do you ever think about the important girls in your life? As I drove along the song made of think of all the “girls” who have been a part of my life. Now before you jump to conclusions I’m not just talking about girl friends, although they should have their just due, but maybe another time. I thought about a lady who came out onto her back porch and called out to her niece and two nephews, “Popsicles, popsicles are ready.” Whatever we were doing the three of us stopped and ran to the porch for popsicles. Earlier in the day she made kool-aid and poured it into a small tray to put in the “ice box” for freezing; now they were ready. I thought about another aunt who often took her two small children along with me, her nephew, to Oakley’s Drug Store after church. She let the three of us sit on stools at the counter and she let us order cherry and chocolate cokes. On some Sunday’s she would give each of us money to purchase a small gift. I still remember a very small plastic red and yellow Captain Video car she once bought for me. I thought about another lady who was like an older sister / mother type to me during my teenage and college years. Those college years were not easy for me and she had no way of knowing how her words helped me. There were numerous times I sat at their kitchen table and she and her husband gave me counsel whether it was sought or not. Generally it was she. I remember she once said to me, “You’re problem is you are lookin’ for a girl with grandma’s morals and Marilyn Monroe’s looks.” I also remember her husband’s quip about her statement, “Sounds like a pretty good combination to me.” This Sunday is Mother’s day, a time set aside to especially honor our mothers, our wives and also our mother-in-laws. I cannot imagine what my life would be like had it not been for my mother and my wife. And our daughters and granddaughters probably don’t have a clue the influence they also have upon us. “To all the girls I’ve loved before Who traveled in and out my door I’m glad they came along I dedicate this song To all the girls I’ve loved before" Most of us have a number of women who have played a vital role in our lives and some of them are still doing so today. A prayer of thanks might be in order for “all the girls we have loved” as sometimes we fail to properly express our love and gratitude as we should have more often.
Who are the special girls in your life? May 5, 2015 Keep on, Larry Adamson Just some thoughts: Back Home Again In Indiana I sure wish such. It has been a long time since I've played anything by Les Paul and Mary Ford. So I slipped in a cd of their's and a very appropriate song for the time and the mood of this evening came on. The song was "Back Home Again In Indiana." The second song to play only further accented my thoughts; it was the 1940's hit "Sentimental Journey." "Gonna take a sentimental journey, gonna set my heart at ease, Gonna take a sentimental journey to re-new old memories." You see, tonight my mind is back in Indiana, and yes, I am thinking of old memories. Earlier today my good friend of over sixty years, Mike Chumley, passed away here in Franklin. Home, in a sense, was Indiana for both Mike and me. Both of us physically returned there for visits, but we very, very often returned there mentally reminiscing about old times. Maybe a part of both of us still remains there. Mike and I first met when the two of us were about ten years old. Our families both attended the same church in our home town in Terre Haute, Indiana. When Mike and I were fifteen years old we spent a week together in a tent at church camp; yes, in a tent. For those of you who knew Mike can you imagine a week in a tent with him? From that week forward our friendship grew and has continued to this very day. Mike always called me "Cohort." I can not remember him referring to me by my given name. That prompted me to look up the word Cohort. Webster defines "Cohort" as "A group of people supporting the same thing or the same person." Quite fitting as over the years I always felt his support and friendship. C.S. Lewis once said "Of all the means to ensure happiness through the whole of one's life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends." Over the years Mike brought a lot of happiness to those of us who knew him. While tonight I am sad, just the mention of his name will forever make me smile. I guess when you're a kid you are always thinking forward, but when you strike a certain age you sometimes think backwards. Well, over the years Mike and I did a lot of both. This past January my wife and I were going to be in Florida for a few weeks and I would not see or visit Mike on a regular basis as I usually did, so I wrote him a letter. Even though I would be away from him I wanted him to know that I was thinking of him and missing our sit-down visits. In the letter I told him I would find it hard to call anyone my very best friend, as I have been so fortunate to have so many good friends over the years. But I did tell him that I had never had a better friend than him. "Eternal Friendships" No friend we love can ever die; The outward form but disappears. I know that all my friends are nigh Whenever I am moved to tears, And when my strength and hope are gone, The friends, no more, that once I knew Return to cheer and urge me on Just as they always used to do They whisper to me in the dark Kind words of counsel and of cheer; When hope has flickered to a spark I feel their gentle spirits near, And oh, because of them I strive With all the strength that I can call To keep their friendship still alive And be worthy of them all. Death does not end our friendship true; We all are debtors to the dead; There, wait on everything we do The splendid souls who've gone ahead. To them I hold that we are bound By double pledges to be fine, Who once has had a friend has found The link between mortal and divine. Our friend, my friend, Cohort, you will be greatly missed.
March 25, 2015 Keep on, Larry Adamson |
About Larry
Larry Adamson was raised in Indiana. After teaching and coaching for several years he worked as Director of Championships at the United States Golf Association in NJ. He's retired, living just outside Nashville,TN. He blogs about his favorite things: sports, music, old cars, and the good ole days. Click on the about page for more information. Archives
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