February 12, 2011

I was a few months old when the nation recognized the 10 year anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I had just turned 50 when airplanes were used as missiles that hit the World Trade Center towers in New York City at the Pentagon in Washington. Another plane took the lives of innocent Americans in a field in Pennsylvania. September 11, 2001 is a day we should never forget. Do you recall how united this country seemed to be after the cowardly attack? Do you remember we all had Old Glory flying everywhere. Patriotic messages and red, white, and blue were on bumper stickers and yard signs. It seemed that Americans had unified unlike anytime since World War II. It is just me or did we just let it fade from memory. Am I the only one still angry that extremists killed thousands of our fellow Americans that day? It will be interesting how the 10 year anniversary is noted this September. Watching the turmoil in Egypt has officially quenched my desire to see the Pyramids and the Nile River. I doubt I'll ever see Cairo, Egypt. I may see the one in south Georgia or maybe the one in southern Illinois. I have this uneasy feeling that we have let our guard down and we are vulnerable to attack again. Let's just hope that folks with Homeland Security are not asleep at the switch. It is amazing that there are so many people unaware that America has given tens of billions of dollars away to some nations that have citizens that want to kill us just because we don't share their beliefs. Seems like some in Washington D. C. apologize to others around the world for us being still a land of abundance in spite of a bad recession that touched every family in this country. Are you tired of how many in the electronic media paint us as the "bad guys?" It is sickening to me how divided we are and how there seems to be a lack of pride and concern for our country. It is just an opinion. I could be wrong. Last weekend was a great one. I ran into David Parker at the grocery store. One of the first garage bands I played in, David played bass. I hadn't seen David in the better part of 40 years. Later that day while at Wal Mart I chatted with Ralph Hughes. I hadn't seen Ralph in at least 25 years. The Hughes family lived about where my house sits now on what was previously Stone Street. Ralph, Sonny, Mary Beth, Keith and their mother Dorothy were great neighbors. Keith and I played football in the yard when we were about 8 or 9 and older brother Ralph and Timmy Cole would toughen us up by throwing mattresses at us or we'd serve as tackling dummies for them. If we cried or bled we were reminded that we could not make the Baltimore Colt's squad if we were crybabies. Ralph and Sonny Hughes had a collie that walked on 3 legs named "Sparky" but most of the time they called him Art Donovan in homage to the Brooklyn native who played for the Colts. You may have seen Art Donovan in the pre-game of last Sunday's Super Bowl. I enjoyed the patriotic pre-game ceremony and the commercials as much as I did the game. I'm still trying to figure out how Christina Aguilera forget some of the lyrics to the "Star Spangled Banner." I learned about the game I love most from the Hughes boys. Mary Beth Hughes always had the latest records of the day. Del Shannon's "Runaway", "Handy Man" by Jimmy Jones and the Marcels'1961 hit "Blue Moon" still play in my mind from hearing them on Mary Beth's record player back in the day. The Hughes household was blessed with a great cook, Dorothy Hughes made hand cut french fries cooked in peanut oil. She baked up a slice of heaven with her melt in your mouth cat head biscuits. Mrs. Hughes worked for many years sewing at one of the plants in Bremen. She listened to me my very first day on the radio hosting a Sunday morning Southern Gospel music program on WPID in Piedmont. Dorothy Hughes loved the Florida Boys, the Statesmen, the Stamps, and the Happy Goodman Family. Dorothy Hughes, my mother, my grandmother and Jacksonville State classmate Randy Owen heard me that first day on the air almost 40 years ago. I talked to Randy of super group Alabama last Sunday about the 40 years we have known each other. The older I get, the more I treasure the friendships that were forged as a boy growing up here. Come to think of it the kids I grew up in the class of 1969 at dear old Tally High all turn 60 this year. As Mickey Mantle once said, "If I had known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."