Every picture tells a story

Pic one below:

Who is the most intelligent person you ever met? Not just read about or saw on tv, but actually “met” in person.

I would personally go for the man pictured below. One Joseph Marler. His knowledge was encyclopedic. Ask him anything and he could tell you quite a bit about it, often in story form (making it all the more memorable for the listener), which is precisely what he is doing with the children in our care here on a hike deep in the woods.

Joseph and I were odd birds of a feather; both of us being lifetime male elementary school teachers, each dedicating our lives to children to a profession consisting of about 90-95% females.

Joseph was not only the smartest human I ever knew, but ranks right up there with the most humble as well. Those two qualities may not often blend together in one soul, but they surely did in Joseph Marler.

Pic two below:

Each summer, before the next school year began, I’d often go to my principal and say something like, “Please load my class up with all your attention deficit hyperactive kids, those labeled as learning disabled, your emotionally disturbed, and your toughest behavior problems.” Of course, most of those who fit such categories were boys.

My principals never gave them all to me, and for good reason. The best classes have a true heterogenous “mix” of children. I needed some “straight A gals” in my class too. And those gals needed to learn how to deal with personalities and learning styles different than their own.

It all worked so well, I must say, with such an eclectic melange of children.

In this pic, however, I obviously do have all boys with me. Their faces tell the story better than my words ever could.

Energized. Eager. Rowdy. Respectful. Boys.

Pic three below:

In this pic is one of the most famous athletes the world has ever known - and certainly one of the most beloved.

My son is in the foreground, grinning like a possum. He had just shook the hand of the man in red, none other than Arnold Palmer.

My friend Jim McGlothlin had invited three of the greatest golfers who ever lived - Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player - to come play a round of golf for the public at his club, the Olde Farm in Bristol. The purpose was to raise money for the Mount Mission School in Grundy VA. I know it looks like a typo but I seem to recall maybe around 50 million dollars was raised for the school.

Arnold was 80 at the time. David said his grip was as strong as a young man’s.

Better than that, he made my son feel “right at home”, as you can tell by the grin.

Pic four below:

Looks like a couple people may have lost their ass.

I had always heard of losing one’s ass, but I had not seen it happen in person until I came across these two in a pasture while on a hike near Bristol.

Do you know where your ass is, dear reader? Is it lost out in a field somewhere? I’d venture that your ass is comfortably sitting down somewhere while you read these words.

Pic five below:

I proudly designed the shirt myself - the one pictured below.

I sold thousands of them from a booth I set up each year during the Rhythm and Roots Festival in Bristol. All the proceeds went to benefit children’s causes in Bristol.

The thing I remember most about those times is when a Frenchman (yes, I could tell by his accent) came up to me and said, “Please, I want to buy one of your shirts. I have traveled every continent but one and visited countless cultures all over the world. But your town, your town of Bristol, may well be the friendliest place I have ever been.”

Pic six below:

Bud Phillips was widely renowned (and deservedly so) as “Bristol’s historian.”

Before he passed a few years back, Bud would call me up every few months and invite me to come walk around with him at East Hill Cemetery. “Just to walk and talk together”, he told me.

Well, I figure I might have gotten in about one word out of every ten spoken between us, but it was worth it. Bud liked to talk. And I liked to listen to him talk. So I notched it up as a good walk every time.

Pic seven below:

We still don’t quite know exactly how humans can read. It seems almost magical at times.

No wonder there are so many reading “disabilities” inherent among such a large portion of us. Not every human, even among the brightest of us, will learn to read well.

But art and music? Well, now, we could do those for tens of thousands of years on end before the first written word ever came to be.

No wonder we all love art and music so much. Whether we can read well or not, art and music are both so much a part of who we are.