Squid quo Prose

    TS Eliot said the distinction between prose and poetry is obscure. So is Donald Trump when it comes to quid pro quo and other matters especially when Sean Hannity and now Lindsay Graham get a holt of it.

     It would all be so Fbombed hysterical (Road to Perdition when the oldest son goes up to see Connor) but the country is at stake and Richard Shelby the Senior Senator from Alabama and others aren't doing the party of Lincoln and Judge Frank Johnson honors these days.

    In the coming days I may be even more specific with references to Ga Senator Isaacson and soon the be lecturer at Mercer, Nathan Deal, a product of the CBF congregation of FBC Gainesville Ga. Isaacson like Jimmy Carter is a long time Sunday School teacher, with Isaacson of the Methodist Persuasion.

    I hope all the progressive Baptist efforts in and around Atlanta could bring Chet Edwards in From his Baylor lectureship to have a public conversation with Nathan Deal about what it means to a Baptist in politics and leadership in this Trump moment. And do it before mid April 2020

   Deal's lectures at Mercer will be a waste of time if not informed by Princeton's Wuthnow's Rough Country on how Texas Baptists fundamentalists shaped the modern Republican Party; and Meacham on the Soul of America where he compares the Trump of Franklin Graham and Falwell Jr to eight of the worst demagogues of American History.

    In the last couple weeks Ive been reading John Barton's New History of the Bible. Diarmaid Macculloch as a great blurb you can read at your local Barnes and Noble.

    You remember the Bible, not Adrian Rogers, Falwell Jr or Franklin Graham but the one with the Johanine comma most likely written 1200 years after Abraham and Adam and Eve. The One St Anthony's in Florence SC don't understand, but I'm hoping St. Francis in Tuscaloosa and Nick Saban do.

    Cause it's gonna take somebody like Nick Saban and even Jeremy Pruett or somebody who understands the English Language like maybe the Honors Program at Bama to help Shelby et al  (Lindsay Graham may be a lost cause) in this Trump Moment or By God we're all headed straight to Hell.

    In a Handbasket or Squid quo Prose.

    Also see Jon Meacham on the Soul of America.

    Here is the comment I made on St Francis wall and shared with Furman University about thirty minutes ago.

       Looks like you have a diverse student Body. I wonder if your views on DACA and Trump's rhetoric are as exclusive as your views on abortion. Would you serve Communion to Trump or his wife were they to visit. The way the Fox News/Trump wing of the GOP uses the wedge issue of abortion is comparable to the way George Wallace and Strom Thurmond used Race in the 60s. Read Joe Crespino's book Strom Thurmond's America and have your honors history classes read as well. Google Stansell, Holy War, New Republic, concluding paragraphs on how the Politics of abortion in America by the Trump strategic base is chocked full of "mendacity".. My father was a Baptist minister in Gaffney, but I'm convinced Pope Francis would not vote for Donald Trump were he an America citizen, and if Pope Francis was the priest in Florence South Carolina he would have something to say about Trump's views on immigration were his parish to garner national headlines.

   

Move over Robbie Coker, Sand Rock's John Blackwell new Big Dawg in NE Bama Holiday Hoops Tourneys

  Couple Christmases ago Robbie Coker of Jeremy Pruett's Plainview HS had a state chapmpion 2a HS from inside the Atlanta  Loop come to Sand Mtn Alabama for a holiday tourney. Robbie was later to use a homeschooled 3 point artist and the grandson of a Tinker fellow recruited from nearby Jackson County to win the state championship in Alabama 3 A.

   It was the year for Heather Mayes girls of Plainview but she is in Guntersville now as the result of some interesting school politics.

   But I digress. I was there to see the Blue boys go well into the fourth quarter before the Atlanta all black team won the game. In fact I shouted out it's over with about four minutes to go as I left the front row of the opposing section. I sat beside the father of the Coach from Atlanta and it was an enjoyable memorable occasion.

   But the three point specialist is gone, the Tinker boy whose grandfather played at Auburn against Pistol Pete Mararich of LSU himself and held him to 27 according to local legend and John Blackwell is now on the scene at Sand Rock.

     Blackwell is a graduate of Collinsville HS where my Mother graduated in 1940 and Blackwell's sister Pam in 91.  John finished in 87 with Wayne Dowdy who possibly coulda made a Tinker/Coker squad. JB is at Sand Rock now where he has an impressive lineup of 9th and tenth graders one who may play major college or the Socon. Their product Wormy Norris Grandson  by way of Albertville played at Bama for five years.

    But John has gotten one of the top five HS  teams in the nation to come to his tourney the week before Christmas coming up. Games will be played in Centre Alabama at the satellite campus of Gadsden State.

   IMG out of Bradenton Floriday, the same concoction that produced Derrick Henry who I saw with the Titans a couple years ago, Saban's Heisman trophy dude ( one of em); IMG is flying into Cherokee Co Alabama and staying at Chestnut Bay resort on Weis Lake about two miles down Lookout Mtn from Bill Glenn's Mtn Grill Restaurant. If they eat there I would think Bill owes me at least three equivalent of ten dollar outings.

    Google IMG up. They are impressive and travel nationally. Site says they will also play in Charlotte and Farragut HS of Knoxville this year.

    Blackwell is excited as he deserves to be. He texted IMG Coach Clapper  said will be the first time his team has played in Bama. Teams are coming in from Kentucky as well and Tuscaloosa Central from SabanTown. The Collinsville Panthers are in with our tenth grader Cordell Worthy, the grandson of NBA and UNC Lakers legend James Worthy. I saw James play in 77 and calls have been made hoping the Legend himself may make an appearance.

   IF JB builds on this hopefully my Gaffney Indians can come in a few years. The Indians who were a threepeat in SC in the largest division, and produced LJ Peak, the Georgetown star who just missed the Celtics by three playes; if Gaffney has one of those teams and JB can set them up at Chestnut bay and Bill Glenn's well who knows where this NE Bama roundball is going.

    I hear Solomon Stanton and Sol Simpson may go over for a game. Haven't heard about Wayne Dowdy but wouldn't be surprised to see him and Neal Thrash there as well.

    Pam Blackwell should be keeping the books when the Rock takes the floor.....Kirby Deboard left the building.

My last parade

     Weekend of October 4 Momma's hometown of Collinsville Alabama celebrated 100 years of High School football, the oldest continuing program in the state as I understand it.

    Momma graduated in 1940. She played Tuba.

    I've lived here for 30 years and this was my first parade as a participant. I donned a tiger cap from Wal mart and a grey shirt and some "paws" and was the caged Section Lion with a Collinsville Panther master keeping me in lion for the route.

    The crowd seemed to love it given my reputation as a sometime character about town. It was 96 degrees and taxing in the after effect but was worth it when we took the right downtown traffic light onto mainstreet.

    When we got back to the school it took about an hour in the AC of the newly renovated cafeteria before I regained equilibrium. And I honestly didn't quite get there till half way through the annual chicken and dressin meal with slaw and greenbeans and good conversation with David Hernandez circa class of 2012 and Casey Mattox brother Kyle of the class of 97 who returned from Asheville, NC. Our table was later graced by the legend Edgar Padilla of 2012 who now owns the Sideline Bar in Tuscaloosa and his girlfriend from DC an impressive social work major. Her grandparents are from Bremen Ga. home of the Sewell Pants factory.

      My finest parade was when I left Gaffney in 78, the inaugural Peach Festival parade with Star Wars William Shatner, and Strom Thurmond himself. I blogged it up somewhere so come back to this and I will try to find the link.

     9th Grade Mr. Howard arranged for the Gaffney Band to go to Bradenton Florida. We marched in that parade that included a walk across what seemed to be a mile long bridge where we played for the fishes. Honestly I think the entire route was about five miles.

    Over the years was in many parades with the Gaffney High School Band. We went to Woodruff once on an out of towner, but until we integrated we were always upstaged by Granard High School, the school of color in Cherokee County SC.

     I got to thinking my first parade was the Christmas parade of 66. Roy P Byars the principal of Gaffney Jr High called us in the office and told us we had been selected. I think Joe Mac Clary was honored too and I was proud and called Momma thinking we were to ride on a float for promise of character and leadership or something. But what it was they needed some clowns or some mascots for Stevenson Ford of something so nobody knew who we were, covered top to bottom with a headset and the target of spitwads from Limestone Presbyterian Church for a good mile down Gaffney's Main Street to the end past the Pool Hall just shy of the RR track in Front of Gaffney Manufacturing where we got out of the mess, exhausted hoping some family member had a clue where we were and would be along shortly to take us home to supper.

      Randy Newman had a great song in the late 70. Will link the lyrics soon but one was "Oh Momma, that's the life for me.....And here come the clowns, the  bumper cars,, listen to those engines roar, doing tricks for the children."

    Jolly Coppers on parade. I used to love this song in my late 20s; little early in life then for nostalgia but it came back strong in memory Saturday morning. I think the chicken n dressin helped me sleep well

       https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/randynewman/jollycoppersonparade.html

   But at age 66, 96 degrees, I think I've been in my last one.