MEADOWLARK
“I try not to live that way anymore.”
For the past ten years I have had the good fortune to work as a volunteer at Vince Gill’s celebrity golf tournament that he sponsors here in Nashville. This year was the twenty-first year for it. Over the years I have been involved with transportation, getting folks to various locations, airport, golf course, hotel, etc. Once I was even called upon to take a celebrity’s dental plate that he broke while playing to the dentist.
In years past I have transported the likes of Charlie “Kiss An Angel Good Morning” Pride, The Gatlin boys, Mac Davis, and this year the legendary Harlem Globetrotter, Meadowlark Lemon.What a treat, he was. I picked him up at the airport and was taking him to the hotel when he saw two books on the floor of our vehicle. Both books were about the story of Meadowlark’s life. “Have you read those books?” he asked. “Yes, I have,” I answered. “Well, I would like you to know that what is written in those books is true, but I would also like you to know that while it was true then, I don’t live that way anymore.” I smiled and said, “Okay.”
I thought that was an interesting statement; and I appreciated the fact that in those books there were things said and descriptions given about the way he once lived, but it was important for him to tell me he doesn’t live that way anymore. You know, if the truth be told, I wonder what might be written about us and our past; and in turn, we would want people to know that, “We don’t live and act that way anymore.”
Meadowlark was a true gentleman. A man who has been in ninety plus countries, played in more basketball games than any man alive and has more stories than Mark Twain could have ever told and yet he still wanted me to know something more about him.
One who wanted this stranger to know who he was today:
"I don't live like that anymore."
June 18, 2013
Keep on,
Larry Adamson