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Golf As Life and Vice Versa
It is very simply the greatest test in sports. To play it well and treat it with the respect it deserves is synonymous with life. Now, a lot of you may wonder how this could ever relate to the rearing of …
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Miranda
These “blogs” are all variations on the same general theme. Raising teenagers and the ups and downs associated with it. Last Saturday night my confidence in young people was reinforced. You see, I went to the Masonic Lodge Theatre in New Bern to hear a … -
Average!?
I have always loved a good saying. Sometimes a story to illustrate a point is appropriate. Sometimes a “sayin” can cut right to the quick. My Uncle Clifton Mills used to love to quote Shakespeare….not really (in fact a lot of people are tickled right now) but I did think he …
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Thursdays with Ama and Apa
Last night John and Drew and I went to my parents (possessive, no apostrophe needed) home as we have practically every Thursday for over 5 years. There is always delicious food and good conversation. It is always an interesting evening …
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Competition is good….
Competition is what keeps us sharp. It is inherent in Americans. Competition is the fabric of American life. Good competition can carry you to heights you would not normally reach or even aspire to. My kids have been talking about this subject lately relating to football practice.Seeing the boys interests in football has made a flood of memories come pouring into my mind. Never is competition more intense than when it is one on one and colored by deep friendship. I experienced such a situation starting in about the first grade. My counterpart in this duo was a boy named John Edwards. This John Edwards was a boy and is now a man of strong integrity and character. We seemed to compete at everything. Many factors lent to this ongoing tete a tete. For instance, we were about the same size (he was a little bigger), I was a tad faster. We loved to play ball better than eating. We went to a small school so we played every sport. We picked teams for running around the playground in the first grade with no particular direction (Forrest Gump? nah) . Ball was our common denominator, our magnet toward each other. All through school I measured my success directly with John. He probably didn’t pay as much attention to me. Many times I came up short, but not always. This only made me work harder and want it more. He was a special kid, great student and very popular. The girls loved him. More than anything, he was my friend.
We spent many nights together growing up. My parents liked John very much and I think his parents liked me. I would ride a banana bike almost 8 miles out to Catherine’s Lake from my house in Richlands to visit him starting at the age of about 9 . That shows how times have changed. Some things we did back then are unimaginable now. We had it so much better than today’s kids, believe it or not.
Through Little League and Jr. High and then High School the competition between us never really let up. He was a great baseball player and I loved it just as much as he did. We both played point guard in basketball and quarterback in football. Ah…football, nothing like Friday nights or Thursday nights during our undefeated season together on the RHS jayvee team of our sophomore year, for that matter. John also played running back and linebacker and place kicked as well. I held the ball and “we” seldom missed. I always thought that John and our great running back Zeb Vernon should have been moved up to Varsity but am glad they weren’t. They were both great athletes. I know some of you think I may as well be writing about Mars so I’ll get to the point that you can relate to. You see, John and I were very lucky. Here’s what you guys and girls can learn that are going through a similar situation.
