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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

New Best friends in Alabama

     If you hang out in the right places you never know with whom you'll strike up a conversation. Over the years within a couple miles of my home Ive become acquainted with Brett Morgen--7 Emmy nominations Monday night for Nat Geo's Jane and he gave a speech, Casey Mattox of the Koch Foundation, Wayne Clanton who witnessed the 1957 fight against Sand Rock in the Old Gym, Billy Ferguson who reffed Charles Barkley's HS all star game, All American Raymond Weaver and his daughter Susan. And coming through town before I was born were Hank Williams and in 1931 when Momma was seven, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

    Yesterday at Jacks, Exit 205 on 59 I strike up a conversation while Fox News is on the Big Screen and come to find out I'm talking to the daughter and grand daughter of University of Alabama President Sayers of the 60s. We exchange info and I have some new best friends. I told them about Frye Galliard's new Book Hard Rain, Marie Griffith's Moral Combat, some insights on Frank Johnson and a good Kenny Stabler Story.

    Next time they come through, hopefully on a Thursday, I think they are a certainty for Martha's history museum downtown across from the Cricket Theatre.

     Next fall, if things play out favorably, maybe they can come back up to here Brett Morgen talk about his adventure in Collinsville in 92 in the renovated Cricket Theatre.


     Six Months ago and once since struck up a conversation with a truck driver who has come back home to Ringgold Georgia just up the road. He was in LA in the 60s and drove for a wealthy man who was good friend of Sharon Tate. Said she was as down home as she could be, not a hint of pretension, and more beautiful in person than on screen.

    Talk to people. Most have a good story to tell.

     Robert Grainier and Kootenai Bob. Get to know them in Denis Johnson's Train Dreams.

Friday, September 07, 2018

"There's a White Boat Coming Up the River"

   You know the line from Neil Young's Powder Finger, you better call John cause it don't look like they're here to Deliver, the Mail.   Well this one's about gun control, the murder of the Woodlawn QB in his bed, Danny Ford's nephew Craig and my letter published in the Cherokee County, Centre, Alabama Herald Sept 5.

    Collinsvillians can get a copy for 75 cents at the Dollar General across from the Pig.

     I threw the kitchen sink best I could. And I called the Governor's Office, the Riley Inst at Furman, Duke grad Bradley Byrnes office and Meet the Press not to mention Nick Saban's St Francis Catholic Church.

   The Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale was on the Birch talk show station WYDE couple days ago to talk about the Woodlawn Shooting. He is a graduate of Woodlawn where he played football for Rick Burgess Father. The school got some national fame in the movies a couple years ago cause their arch rival and them in 74 or so produced the biggest gate in Bama, maybe national High School history. The two outstanding opponents in that game both went on to play for Bear Bryant and won a National Championship.

   Woodlawn is just a few miles from Birmingham Southern College which house the offices of the Bishop for North Alabama Methodists. Just a few years ago that was Will Willimon. I'm gonna do my damndest to get Willimon to read this blog, and his alma mater Wofford in Trey Gowdy's Spartanburg South Carolina.

    Even the Mighty Casey Mattox of the Koch Foundation.

    The point is let's get Bama's Honors program in this conversation with Craig Ford and Rick Burgess..


   Here is my letter:  

       
The Editors
Letters for Publication
Cherokee Herald

    I was disappointed in Craig Ford's recent opinion piece in the Cherokee Herald. I was expecting better from the Son of a legendary administrator at Gadsden State and nephew of Danny Ford, a Coach of the National Champions in 81 at Clemson and a legend with Bear Bryant at Bama.

    And with Ford's ties to Westbrook Christian and what passes for the best of Christian discernment in the region; well it came across as a little too smarmy  sucking up to the leadership of the National Rifle Association.

    I may blog at some length about this but the bottom line is I hope Ford's mediocre takeaways from the gun violence in public schools is not shared by the likes of Glenn Browder, Rick Bragg or JSU's Hardy Jackson. If the good people of Cherokee County, Ford's state legislative district and the Bama US House 3rd Congressional District wanted answers, were serious about saving future children's lives in the region and beyond, they would long time ago had the likes of Moms Demand Action, Adam Lankford and Sterling Harring  to the County.

    I have to believe the Cherokee County Republican Party, and leadership at FBC and FUMC Centre could make it happen.

   Adam Lankford is a national expert on profiling Mass Shooters. He teaches at U Bama.  Sterling Harring, a Vanderbilt Trauma Doctor spoke nationally earlier this year testifying his family went back three generations in Arkansas membership in the NRA. But when he saw bodies of children come in his trauma unit from the school shooting in Benton Ky he was physically nauseated and quit his membership.

    Google New Yorker on NRA and the Politics of Fear. Read my friend and fellow Baptist preacher's son Charles Marsh on the Evil of the Gun Lobby at religion and politics.

     Craig Ford is begging the question for political expediency. We and his family deserve better.


    Stephen M. Fox
    
   Collinsville Al