Three new books for Gaffney High School

   Last Friday was Gaffney High School Homecoming. I hope to be the guest speaker for seven minutes at the Traditional two hour long assembly 2021 my class 50th but that's three years away.

     I called to leave a message for Tommy Martin but he was in the office early. Turns out he is of the class of 63 five years after his oldest sister, a classmate of Libby Harrill Mitchell, a Furman grad who became LT gov of Maine and ran for Governor.

    She would be a great speaker also but this was her year.

    Tommy has a younger sister Kathy who went to Furman, GHS 68. So Tommy tells me it's a family reunion for them as they cover the fifths. 

   Was also a big day for Limestone which used to be a mile from my house. When they got a good surface on their tennis courts I spent a lot of time there hitting the wall. Limestone looking at a new ten million dollar library by 2020. Tommy said they visited the impressive complex at Young Harris as they were envisioning.

   Rahul Mehra was back in town, the College of Charleston grad of Distinction. His father taught Biology at Limestone, something of a legend if not an icon.
 
     Rahul is doing well in Tampa but can't pay for the new library all by himself. Help him out if you can.

      But back to Gaffney High. Had a delightful conversation with Karen Mabry Denton, GHS 94 or so and GHS Libraria.  She is Barry Denton's daughter in law. She said she's good, Rahul and I don't even have to make a pledge, to get my suggested books.

    1. Jill Lepore new history of America. A Thousand pages with a spotlight on James Madison's slave Billy, and later the Birch Society marinated Phyliss Schlafly, a Jezebel with great influence who worked in the shadows with Pressler and Patterson and the residues of the White Citizens Councils in the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

    2. Joe Crespino's Strom Thurmond's America. I recommend it as does David Shi, a friend of Gaffney's Jackie Queen from their football days at Furman and former chair of the History Department at Davidson.

    3.  Frye Galliard's Hard Rain. See my blog review about three posts down. Frye himself read it and liked it. I call Joe Kennedy's DC office yesterday and told them of Frye's affection for Bobby, Joe's grandfather and the Gaffney connection through Marian Wright Edelman. They're gonna read my blog too, possibly Joe himself. But more importantly I think Frye a shoe in for the reference shelves in Joe Jr's DC office.

   Bill Moyers was right when he sent me a note in 88 that said People like me make a difference; because I do.

     As I hope to tell the third generation at GHS in 21: Remember Flight, Because the Bird is Mortal.