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Janie Albright (Blank)

Oh, Dan, I am so sorry to hear about Kathy! Had she been ill? That is so sad. My thoughts and prayers are with you and the family. 

David Mitchell

Fun reading gang!

Been trying to keep up my reading here, but a bit pre-occupied with our local golf tournament - The Heritage - you know, the one with the lighhouse behind the 18th green. The one that hardly anybody watches (except Frank) because it comes the week after the Masters. Tonight I drove Jim Nance, twice (Mr. smooth voice - CBS sports). What an interesting and nice guy! Seriously! He actually asked me tonight if I could be his driver tomorrow morning but I was not on that schedule. 

I second Tim's comment - there's gold in them thar hills, ifin y'all wood jist write it dayown.  Loved all the stories, especailly Fred's. (but I thought it was "Readin' - Ritin' - and the Road to Columbus")

Imagine what we might learn if Keith Groff would chime in about his many world-wide teaching experiences - including 2 Fullbright Scholarships (Brazil and Egypt), and his founding and becoming the first Dean of the new College of Arts & Sciences at Franklin Univ. after he moved back home . Or Father Mike DeTemple could share some of his grade-school world travels with the famous Columbus Boys Choir. Or Susan (Galbreath) Pryor's schooling in Switzerland. Or Mike Boulware telling us a bit about Kentucky football. Or Goose - how about your year at the Air Force Acadamy? And Sister Margorie Davis must have a novel or two from her days ministering to the prostitutes and drug addicts down on Times Square in NYC. -- or now in Haiti?  And Tim is still holding back on the one about that "BMW in a garage in Saudi Arabia". C'mon man, I can't stand the wait! Just let me know ahead of time when that one is comin' - I'll want to get my popcorn ready ahead of time.

Or Kevin Cull or Al Judy recalling a little of what they went through in Southeast Asia. 

And John,  Yes, I too have always been worried about your utter lack of skills - REALLY! -- you poor slacker you!  I can't tell you the hours of sleep I have lost worrying over your backward ways and your slow grasp of the academic. But the class should all see your little set of magic boxes and hear about what they do. I still tell people about that night (40+ years ago?) when you came to our apt. in "Married Student Housing" at the Univ. of Denver and showed Mary and I your little device on our, (ahem), "dining table". 

Fred Clem

When I visit my niece in Asheville NC, the shortest, most direct route (not necessarily the fastest) is driving straight south on US 23.  About 160 miles of the trip runs through eastern Kentucky. 

Numerous country music singers hail from towns on or near the road.  The state has designated it as the "Country Music Highway".  Among the notables are Loretta Lynn, The Judds, Chrystal Gayle, Chris Stapleton, Dwight Yoakam, Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless and Billy Ray Cyrus.  Signage has been placed designating each star's hometown.

http://www.countrymusichighway.com/map.html

James Hamilton, M. D.

Fred Clem

Dan,

I'm so sorry to hear of Kathleen's death.  I met her several times after her husband became music director at St. Brendan.  I remember the sorrow she and Pete  experienced when their son Terry died suddenly at such a young age.  May she rest in eternal peace.

Fred

John Jackson

Dan, Carol and I send our deepest sympathies to you on the news of Kathleen’s death.  It’s been many years since I’ve seen her but I remember her pretty much as a force of nature. And who could forget that laugh?

Frank Ganley

Dan how sorry i was to hear of Kathy’s passing. He laugh was unmistakeable , her smile and wit will be missed. To continue on the musical theme , i started learning guitar playing as a freshman and the only music nooks i had were old piano books. Listening to the new wcol,sixteen tons and before he made sausage jimmy dean sang big john and roger miller with king of the road. At that time i wasnt aware of country music or that these guys were country music sings. Tennessee ernie was one of my favorites who recorded many songs written by merle travis. I practiced and got pretty good at travis picking. I am no chet adkins but i can hold my own. I ve to nashville many times. Golfing, music, food , it is a favorite of mine to visit. The great thing about country music is it is simple chord progressions but the there is bluegrass and those boys are the virtosos of guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddles. I tried bajo but i had to memorize a whole different set of chords so i traded it in on a six string banjo, lol it sounds like a banjo but plays like a guitar. The last time in nashville i heard no rock but bands were everywhere. My favorite was a country band in a waffle house where they sang mornin as we entered

David Mitchell

Dan,

So sorry for your family's loss. I must have missed your post late last night.

David Mitchell

I think somebody mentioned Jim Reeves (a few posts back, but I can't find it now). Jim Reeves sang "Put Your Sweet Lipps a Little Closer to the Phone". Wow! He ranks right up there with George Jones and Hank Williams!

(I remember thinking it was ",,,, a little closer to the Foam"  I thought it was some sort of drinking song.

Michael McLeod

Dan:

So sorry about your sister.

If she was as much fun as you are I am sorry I did not get to know her.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Appalachia: Honky Tonk Heroes, Hillbillies and High Society

Like much of America Appalachia had it's poor, rich and in-betweens. But they often congregated together. Doc Pickens was of the more well-to-do class but to meet him on the street you wouldn't know it.

One evening, after office hours were completed, Doc said we (his wife, himself and I) are going out tonight to listen to some good music. "Dress down.", he said.

He drove us all to this fairly large honky tonk somewhere along the Ohio River. Inside was a large crowd of locals and on an elevated platform (not really a stage) was a Wurlitzer Organ with a single organist singing country music without any other accompaniment. No drums, no guitars, no bass, not even a fiddle. After about two songs I was addicted. I wish I could remember his name because he was excellent. With a repertoire of George Jones, Ray Price, Hank Williams, Charley Pride, Doc's favorite, Jim Reeves and others, he mesmerized us for hours. That is when I really became a fan of country music. I don't think I ever - before or after - heard any non-church songs sung that well with the only instrument employed being an organ. My only regret is that I did not buy one of his albums.

The drinks were not fancy and a lot of beer was being served, but Doc was a screwdriver man and that became my drink of choice for the month.

After we got back to Doc's office/home I jumped in my Falcon and headed back to my hospital/motel room. Driving along the dark, unlit serpentiginous road on a high cliff above the Ohio River I was reminded of a coroner's case that Doc had told me he had the month before I arrived. A car had driven off the cliff and disappeared into the muddy waters of the river below. Many thought it would turn out to be a DUI incident. The following day the vehicle was pulled out of the water revealing a broken windshield with the deceased driver impaled to his seat by a the antlers of a mature buck deer. Case closed.

As I navigated that same curvy stretch of dark road I must have crossed the centerline at times, probably trying to stay away from the cliff edge. Soon the red lights in in my rear view mirror and the siren announced that I was being pulled over by a deputy sheriff. I think I had had only one screwdriver and I knew that I was not impaired but I fully expected to be soon walking a heel-toe line test. The officer informed me of my offense and I told him I was unfamiliar with the road and was trying to avoid the edge. He asked where I was coming from and I mentioned that I was returning to the hospital from Dr. Pickens office. "Oh, you are working with Dr. Pickens? Well, drive carefully and have a nice evening." Doc was a big man in a small town.

I did not expect that a coroner in such a place as Meigs County would have many cases but the ones that I saw with Doc were definetly memorable. At about 1 AM one night we were called to the scene of a shanty which had burned to the ground. The story we were given by the officers was that a guy had met this girl and the two had shacked-up in the shanty off some deserted road. Drinking and smoking were also involved. She awoke to some smoke but he was apparenty out cold. Not having any phone in the place she ran to the nearest house, some distance away. By the time the fire department and officers arrived the shanty was nothing but ashes. And so was he. Doc poked around the ashes and found one piece of intact skin, about less than a square foot in area. "No bullet holes, no knife wounds. Death by smoke inhalation and fire". Case closed. CSI was not big in those days and, to be honest, Doc was probably right. Cost effective, seat of the pants forensic pathology.

That's enough for now. More next time.

Jim

Lawrence Foster

Dan,  Sorry to hear about your sister Kathy passing.  Here is a memory of her that you may not know.  Back in spring 1975 I met up with when she was running a pre-Cana marriage class that Peggy and I attended.  Since I was teaching in Centerville and Peggy was in grad school at OSU we were able to do a weekend program from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon instead of the once-a-week classes for 6 weeks as was more typical then.  Kathy was a very good and fun leader of that group.  She must have done a good job becasue Peggy and I are still married!  And if I remember correctly your brother John was involved also.  Good memory of her and she made a positive contibution to my life.         

Michael McLeod

Hey Mark.

(shrugs)

That's what reporters do.

Ha just kidding. Been asking questions for decades now and rarely have to answer them, but it is fun to deconstruct what happens when I write a story. So hopefully this will answer all your questions. Much of what is true about this particular story applies to pretty much every other in depth piece I do.

It starts with a "holy crap -- I did not know that - and I bet nobody else does, either."

When that thought comes to my head I know I have stumbled onto a good story.

I knew immediately that a black person interested in composing classical music in the first half of the 20th century would have to be a very unique individual and would make a good story. So when I heard about this concert I jumped on it, pitched it to the magazine, and they loved it.

Then I interviewed the conductor whose idea it was - he is here in Orlando. And apart from hearing why he decided to do the concert, I hit paydirt when, out of the blue, sitting in his office at the liberal arts college where I teach, he showed me his collection of famous composer signatures. I held my breath and crossed my fingers and asked if he had the signatures of the three black composers in the concert. When he said that he did I knew I had a valuable element for the story - a little thing that would say a lot. All good stories revolve around nuggets like that. It's gold to a journalist. I had found one chunk. Then I went looking for more. Research is so damn easy in the age of the Internet. I spend years poking through microfilm in musty libraries, back in the day. Now I sit home, poke a button, start with wikepedia, and bam - found the background material about all three composers and chose one of them as the most interesting. Then I struck gold when I tracked down his daughter and granddaugher and did telephone interviews with them about the crap William Grant Still went through. Was interesting to discover he had spent some time in Ohio - he even worked in columbus for a spell, though I left that out of the story. 

Once I had done all the research I realized the spine of the story would be the looking-glass experience of these guys -- all three being musical geniuses, all three treated like crap because that 's what we did, as a rule, to black people back in the day. (If you ever get a chance to see the documentary I am Not Your Negro, by the way, I think you would find it enlightening. Also check out James Baldwin's debate with William Buckley in I think 1965 - it is on YouTube).

Anyway once I did the research, which took me a couple of weeks, I started writing (and as I write I still keep researching as I go along). Just figuring out where to begin and where to end and what to put in between takes a lot of time and banging of the head against my roll top desk. At some point I always have the thought that I just can't do it. And somehow I almost always pull it out of the fire -- usually right after having that thought. In constructing the story I try to have beginning that draws people in and suggests what the story will be about, and you do that with - once again - the little thing that says a lot. Show, don't tell. When was the first time you heard that phrase? I have been living by it, making my living based on it, for dang near half a century now. In this case the show was the granddaughters observation that Gershwin may have "borrowed" a key musical passage from her grandfather. And after all these years she is still pissed about it. Can't say I blame her. But that theft - and I am a big Gershwin fan and I don't think it was that horrible and maybe even not a conscious thing on his part - anyway that anger, and that theft, epitomized the whole story I was about to tell. So it made the perfect beginning to the tale. And you hope, by the time people take that opening in, they are hooked on the tale you have to tell and will stick with you till the fat lady sings.

There you go, bro. Hope it answers all those questions you had for me.

My next story is a profile of Anderson Cooper, but it will be politically oriented so not sure I will post it here. 

Sheila McCarthy (Gardner)

Mike: I really enjoyed your account to Mark about how you developed that wonderful magazine story you created. Sounds awfully familiar after my nearly 50 years as a journalist. And, a note to Dr. Jim's  #2981 Tales From Appalachia, I wrote plenty of "New Med Student in Town" AND "Sheriff Gets Second Phone" stories during my career as a small-town newspaper editor and reporter. Would not trade it for the world... Thanks for the memories....

Michael McLeod

Where did you work, Shiela?

My first job was police reporter at the Middletown Ohio Journal.

I made $135 a week - ten bucks extra because I had a master's degree.

David Mitchell

Sheila,

C'mon girl, tell 'em about your newspaper (and where it is) and about your award a few years back - (If you haven't already.)

Sorry to "out" you but it's pretty cool and the class should know about it.

David Mitchell

Weird timing:

Two nights ago when first I drove CBS announcer Jim Nance I had this wonderful conversation -  then it changed abruptly to bad news just as we were arriving at his destination on Hilton Head. His wife was texting him that there was extremely bad news about Barbara Bush's health. I guess Jim and his (very) young wife are almost family to the senior Bush's. And just now I see on USA TODAY headlines that she is indeed in dangerous condition. All politics aside, I always thought she stood head and shoulders over all the many First Ladies of our time. An incredibly humble woman.

(p.s. He called our office and asked specifiacally for me to be his driver again last night. He has to be one of the most engaging people I have ever met. He let me take a selfie and said okay to me sending it to Tony Romo -whom I have also driven - with a prank message about all the "riff-raff" I have to drive around Hilton Head. Romo and I text one another about once a year and he actually remembers me. My brief time with him in the car a couple years ago was also quite interesting - another super nice guy!) 

Joseph D. McCarthy

Recently came across the following "Slide Show" nostaglia.  I remember most, but really miss one for their "Clam Rolls".

     https://safeshare.tv/x/FEDEwZHZXu

Sheila McCarthy (Gardner)

Mike and Dave: I started out at the Lorain (Ohio) Journal (also $135 weekly) -- religion editor (!), assistant state editor, covered Vermilion and assistant Arts and Entertainment editor; Spent eight years with Associated Press which took me from Columbus to Newark, NJ and NYC (in personnel); jumped on the Mommy track in 1980 and ended up in Gardnerville, NV where I am today. Edited and wrote for the Gardnerville Record-Courier for more than 30 years, retiring in 2014. That period included stints at the Reno Gazette-Journal and Nevada Appeal in Carson City... I work part-time for the county now doing records checks and making copies, an ideal retirement job...

David Mitchell

C'mon Sheila, let 'em hear the best part of it.

David Mitchell

And Joe,

What fun! I knew it was complete when I saw Davy Crocket. And remember those atomic bomb attack excercises under our desks?  "Duck and Cover"

Mark Schweickart

Mike -- Thanks for the deconstruction of your writng process. I hope you didn't mind taking the time to share that. Very engaging, just as your writing always is.

Joe -- thanks for the link to the blast-from-the-past 50's video. Unlike Dave, however, I must say I have no memory of ever doing "duck and cover" drills, even though I know it was supposedly a staple of our 50's  childhood. Could some of the other St. Michael alums with better memories than mine chime in on this. That means you, Jodelle--did we do those drills?  I think my two favorite images in this collection are: the old clip on roller skates and the transistor radio.

Jodelle Sims

Mark, I know "duck and cover" from my teaching days, but I have no recollection of ever doing these drills at St. Michaels.  Thanks for thinking I have a good memory!  

David Mitchell

Okay Sheila,

You're either being humble, shy, or stubborn. I'll make it easy for you. Let's do a fill in the blanks excercise. You know how those work. You only did a few thousand of them in grade school.  C'mon, I think this is pretty darn cool - let the rest of the class know.

BEGIN HERE:

As the Editor of the Gardenerville (Nevada) "Record-Courier", you once received the award for being the "Small Town --------- ------ -- --- ----" 

Now please just fill in the blanks so the rest of the class can see it. (even if I haven't got the right number of blanks - you're the one who can spell, not me)

Timothy Lavelle

Joe, thanks for finding that 50s video; I stayed to watch the following 60s and 70s ones too. I am still very unclear how the 50s & 60s actually morphed into the 70s but I feel we all can simply blame the BeeGees and John Travolta. Every guy alive wanted to be able to strut down the street like disco music was playing for everyone to strut to. Good-bye peace, flowers and beads; hello Booty!