School Chum Memories

1/6/2019

My old friend, John, turns 76 today. He catches up with me every January 6th. I have no idea how I remember his birthday each year, I don’t remember most of those I’m supposed to. John and I were friends from his first grade on (he was a year behind me, probably cause his birthday is in January.) After about the 3rd grade, at the start of the school year, John would tell me who his girl friend was. Then, he’d change girlfriends after or as soon as his sensibilities were tormented, somehow. As we got older, I don’t know if we ever argued, maybe, but I can’t remember one. My Junior year (his Sophomore) we were the starting guards on the varsity basketball team. And so, we were the next year, also. So, for countless practices and 43 games we were side by side. 

John’s family were farmers, both cash crop and dairy. Both the years we were on the varsity together, John had to milk the cows (35-40) in the evenings. In order for him to make it back to the school to go to “away” games on the team bus, several times I’d go home with him after school and help him milk. We got quite good at knowing how to do what and when, sort of like being on the basketball floor, except for the smell. But it was a good lesson in a coordinating workforce. Of course, neither of us knew that at the time, we were just trying to make the bus at the school.

The “coordination workforce” made us get better on the b-ball court. The first year, I made a lot of passing mistakes, John took several bad shots. The next year, neither of us had those problems. The difference: we won most of our games. He once made something like 21 or 23 free throws in a game. but, mostly the two of us fed to Martin and Daryl to shoot—they could score. I asked John a while back if we had had the 3 point shot, would he have led the state in scoring. He immediately said, “Hell, no! But Daryl would have!” He’s probably right.

I still see him once a year, hope that continues for a while. He’s the same guy. (Wonder if he’d say that about me.) He’s just as irascible as he ever was, perhaps add cynical to that. Like me, he came from and was the last of a large family. I may think of another story or two.

I had an old song on my mind earlier, it went away, another came to mind:”Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You”—Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard both recorded hits of it. That first song must have had something similar in rhyme or style—strange to me how many songs are in my mind, stranger still they pop in and fade quickly. I don’t listen to much music and haven’t for many years. Strange thing, the mind.

There is just about the same amount of study and preparation needed for the things I hope to get done this year as there was 6 days ago. In other words, I haven’t spent the week studying anything I intended to or needed to learn. Hoping for a better week coming up. It will be better in one sense: I’ve studied some for the re-start of the Monday night bible class. That and listening to two good messages this morning should kick-start the week! I praise the Lord for good bible teachers who have no fear in laying out what they see in Scripture. Hope you’ve got a great place to attend or a place to teach. 

Thanks for reading, the Elder