Just some thoughts: How did all this happen?
The picture...Fuzzy Zoeller, Arnold Palmer, Larry Adamson, Gary Player & Calvin Peete.)
About nine miles south of Terre Haute, Indiana, traveling Highway 41 you will see a very small sign. One posted on the north and south sides of the highway. It gives the name of the little town where I grew up. Really it isn’t even a town, a small village, I guess.
Most times when I go back home, I will turn off the highway where at one time there had been Deb’s Fillin’ Station and the Hacienda Motel and Restaurant. Neither is there today. I will then drive by the old school and my old home place; both of them are dilapidated. They are in such poor condition that it is embarrassing and hurts to see. I once drove our oldest grandson, who was a teenager at the time, through the area on one of our basketball junkets. He called his mother and asked, “Have you ever seen where Pop Pop grew up?” She had. “Well, Abe Lincoln had a better chance.”
Each time I made that village circle there is a question that keeps coming back to me.”How did I get from here to there, from then to now?” Meaning from those early beginnings, how was I so fortunate to end up doing, seeing, and being what later became of me and my life?
Over the years that question is often repeated in my mind… like when I was
*Standing on the floor of the Roman Coliseum
*Walking the catacombs of ancient Rome
*Brushing my fingers in GI’s initials carved on Hitler’s desk in his Eagles Nest high in the Alps
*Riding in Vince Gill’s tour bus and talking with him about his career
*Hearing “You are having breakfast with me and another fella in the morning.” The other fella
being Jack Nicklaus
*Walking down the first fairway at St. Andrews
*Sitting for hours in the market place in Florence, Italy and just watching
*Drivin’ an old Corvette on all night drives back from some car, rock-n’-roll show
*Walking the ruins of ancient Greece where many Bible characters once walked
*Sitting outside a pizza shop overlooking Lake Como in Italy
*Having access to locker rooms and players at the Master’s (20+ years)
* Standing a few feet away from Little Richard in his rare form
*Standing in the ovens and showers at Dachau
*Walking the beaches at Normandy
*Being the guest of George Steinbrenner and sitting in his box at a Yankee game
*Seeing that Tiger Woods got his US Open credentials and prize money
*Watching the sunrise and sunset numerous times on a Florida beach
*Standing in the gallery in Milan, Italy, looking at The Last Supper
*Standing beneath the Eiffel Tower
*Sitting right next to Ossie Smith in the dugout during a St.Louis Cardinals game
*Walking the markets and seeing the pyramids in Cairo, Egypt
*On a late night dinner cruise on the Nile River (wondering where’s baby Moses)
*Waking with my wife at a bed and breakfast near the ocean in Ireland and Scotland
*Sitting in a Nashville honky tonk and listening to great music
*Standing by the stage many times at a Jerry Lee Lewis or a Chuck Berry show
*Watching the sunset at Pearl Harbor
*Owning numerous old cars - Corvettes and Mustangs
*Standing on the decks of cruise ships at some locations I could not pronounce
*Passing through the Panama Canal and thinking “Are we going to make it?”
*Riding a ski lift through the rain forest of Costa Rica
*Standing and watching Big Ben chime at midnight
*Sitting in numerous theaters / Broadway plays
*Having a midnight dinner in Little Italy, New York City
This list is too numerous, but so many times I have had the thought…how, how? Considering how and where it all started.
“How did I get from then to now?”
January 2, 2014
Keep on,
Larry Adamson