His hair is white and he had a pacemaker placed in his chest in May, but he’s still the strongest man I know. Or, as he told me during an argument we had a few years ago, “I can still take you out.” He was right when he said it and he still can.
Dad has been a diesel mechanic since he was 17, though he sold heavy equipment in Missouri for a few years in the mid-1970s. He has retired a couple of times in recent years. He closed his shop at Sweet Home about 10 years ago, but he continued to rent out his services as a shop foreman for others.
Then he tried retirement again a couple of years ago, but he kept getting offers from old customers to “just come by and help out.” When the doctor strongly suggested early this year that some dizzy spells he had while driving indicated that he needed a pacemaker to help his heart, Dad resisted for a while — he thought it might keep him from working. But a third round of dizziness convinced him the device was necessary, so he had to done.
In the process of “taking it easy” during recovery, Dad has increased his interest in auctions. He used to look for equipment and various tools by attending estate sales and similar events. Early this year he sold off his service truck and some of his tools at an auction, but came home with a new pickup and other tools. Now he helps a man who puts on auctions get ready for them.
When he’s at home, he spends his time in his workshop, on a riding lawn mower or out back “checking the garden.” He’s also learning to make stained glass.
Mom may have realized by now that he’s not really going to retire. Or maybe she just keeps giving him a list of things to do so he will keep working. He would have no idea what to do with himself if he had to just sit in his recliner.
As a former hacker-style golfer, I can honestly say that I enjoy watching golf on television. Those who haven’t played are usually the ones who say they are bored by watching “idiots chasing around a little white ball.”
I don’t watch a lot of golf — mostly the majors, with more emphasis on the Masters and U.S. Open.
Sunday’s telecast of the final round of the Masters at Augusta, Ga., was not as dramatic on a shot-by-shot basis as some have been in the past, but it certainly had plenty of human emotion on display.
Early in the week, attention was placed mostly on Tiger Woods’ return after a self-imposed five-month absence because of his infidelity to his wife and the ensuing line of mistresses who seemed to emerge from every shadow.
Thursday’s first-round coverage was about Woods and the sentimental favorite of 60-year-old Tom Watson, who was an early clubhouse leader.
Phil Mickelson emerged as a leader and Woods played well enough to stay close through the next two days. Lee Westwood K.J. Choi, Anthony Kim and some others were there, too, so anything could have happened. Primarily, though, it was the “Tiger and Phil Show.”
That combination hasn’t always meant a good result for Mickelson. The conventional memory is that Woods makes a charge and/or Mickelson chokes on a key shot. But Mickelson seems to have changed his outlook since he broke through after an 0-for-42 start in major tournaments.
Throw in Woods’ proving that he has human problems like everyone else and Sunday’s finish had a different feel. I’m not saying that many people wouldn’t have jumped on Woods’ bandwagon if he had won. They would have. But this tournament had a sense of poetic justice to it when we saw 2009 Masters champion Angel Cabrera help Mickelson put on the green jacket.
Whether it was because of Woods’ recent self-inflicted troubles and/or Mickelson’s experiences of comforting his wife, Amy, through her battle with breast cancer, we’ll never know. But there seemed to be a shift in allegiance throughout the tournament. It may have been temporary. Who knows about something like that? Though we all manage to be judgmental at times and we might say somebody “deserves” a particular fate, most of us don’t really mean it. Besides that, it’s not the way it works. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. That is life.
Sometimes, though, events seem to work out the way we believe they should. For just a moment, it makes us feel better when it happens.
My daughter Molly just called to report that she and her boyfriend, John, are on the way to their first Rangers baseball game of the 2010 season. They live in Austin, Texas, and were north of Round Rock when she called.
There is nothing like that feeling of attending your first ballgame of the new season.
John is an avid Mavericks fan, but loves all sports. I told him that I expected more allegiance from him in regard to the Cardinals than I did to my favorite teams in other sports. He replied that the Cardinals were his second favorite major-league team. I told him that I could accept that.
What we have discovered at our house in the past couple of years is that you can enjoy the season of Christmas, both spiritually and secularly, without repeating everything you have done in past years.
That list might include things ranging from getting the entire roofline covered with icicle lights and stringing up every card you receive in the mail to going to every upscale neighborhood for viewing the battle of Christmas decorations and getting homemade cookies baked for every neighbor.
Sometimes we get some of them done and sometimes we don’t, but my wife and I have enjoyed the holidays just as much.
The children are in Texas. We planned to travel south to see them last year, but an illness caused us to postpone the visit until late February. We called it the February Festival and we enjoyed it so much that we are doing the same thing for the 2009-10 holiday season.
With less rushing to see different members of the family, we had time to attend a wonderful Christmas Eve candlelight service at North Little Rock’s First Presbyterian Church. It was a beautiful service, complete with a fourth-generation child being baptized in the sanctuary.
We got some of our cards mailed and others we did not. Some of the ones we received had photographs of friends and family whom we likely see several times a year, but never think to photograph.
One thing I did have an opportunity do for the second year in a row was make a phone call playing the part of Santa Claus on a last-minute check of the naughty-or-nice list to a pair of beautiful neighborhood girls. I don’t remember how the relatively new tradition started, other than from a conversation with a neighborhood mom. The first year only the kindergartner was willing to get on the phone with Santa, but this year, the younger sister — now a toddler — could not wait to get her turn on the phone. She was anxious to tell Santa what she wanted, but his old ears heard “a camera,” when what she wanted was “a camel.”
Sometimes even Santa can be thrown a curve.
What we have discovered, though, is that it seems to be easier to get the new year off to a good start when you are easing into January from a more deliberate speed, rather than rushing up to Jan. 1, trying to slow down.
Happy New Year. I hope yours is off to a good start.
It started with a wonderful candlelight service on Christmas Eve at First Presbyterian Church in North Little Rock. We thank all of the members for their graciousness in sharing their special service with us. It was their first service back in their sanctuary after nearly two years, thanks to a generous donation from a contractor who donated and installed a new HVAC system.
On Christmas, Nancy and I went to my folks’ house, where we spent part of the day with them and my brother, Pat, who lives in Carrollton, Texas. He arrived safely after a tough drive, running from the threat of snow in the Dallas area and through a series of closed roads because of flooding here in Arkansas.
My younger brother, Andy, who is a Memphis paramedic-firefighter, is scheduled to come down Saturday.
On Christmas night, we spoke by phone with our children, who live in Texas.
Verizon Arena in North Little Rock announced its latest concert Monday — Billy Joel and Elton John will headline together Nov. 28 in what they’re calling the “Face 2 Face” tour.
Sounds good; I like them both, but with Christmas coming, I doubt I can afford the tickets this time around.
Did stumble across some music I am intrigued by, though — Brock McGuire, a four-man/person group that plays traditional Irish music.
The members will be at Studio Joe, 600 Autumn in Little Rock, at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26. That’s just northwest of Barnes & Noble in west Little Rock. Cover charge is $15.
Nancy and I spent a cool but calm weekend at the lake. (Our dog, Daisy, a Lhasa apso we keep cut short, also came along.) The leaves are starting to change colors and Ouachita is up to its upper banks. No TV, no Internet. Beautiful.
It was almost a blast from the past — we listened to the Arkansas-Florida football game Saturday afternoon on the radio, via a sports station at 96.3 FM out of Fort Smith, then switched to the American League Championship Series between the Angels and the Yankees on XM Satellite Radio. We worked in a DVD of “Friday Night Lights,” the movie, in between.
It was nice. We didn’t get involved in the “blame the referees” stuff about the Razorbacks game because we couldn’t see if they were bad calls or not. The radio announcers (Chuck Barrett and Keith Jackson) said there were some bad calls, but both of those guys DO work for the University of Arkansas, so what do you expect?
I know that the Razorbacks were much-improved over previous games this year, yet they had three chances to score from inside the Gators 40-yard line in the third quarter and managed only three points. So, yes, we scared the top-ranked Gators, but we had chances to win and didn’t — we lost 23-20. That’s it. Whine all you want, but if you want to be Hog-crazy, worry about the Ole Miss game.
The rest of us will get on with our lives or continue to watch the baseball playoffs — football doesn’t really start until the World Series is over. That’s what matters to me, after my family.
Meanwhile, it’s back to work in the midst of some wonderful fall weather.
Charity Grace Campbell was at the Stephens Media office in Little Rock today with her mother, Priscilla Campbell, to attend the baby shower for Emmy Buffalo, new daughter of Mark and Linda Buffalo.
Priscilla is our reporter at the Lonoke Democrat. Her husband and Grace’s dad is Nathan Campbell, who does HV/AC work in Lonoke County.
Grace, who will acquire a nickname from me at some point, was born Aug. 20 at Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock, a month before doctors expected her. She weighed just under three pounds at birth. She is now a healthy-but-tiny five pounds.
After gifts were opened and the eating of cake commenced, several of us drifted back into the newsroom. When Priscilla wondered if cake was still available, I told her I would hold Grace while she went back to the conference room to eat.
My childrren are 27, 24 and soon to be 22, so I’m not exactly in practice at the baby cradling thing. But who can resist a tiny miracle?
We started out by letting her snuggle into a comfortable position — she fits entirely on my lower left arm when I bend it at the elbow. First, it was the gentle rocking full-body rotation from left to right. When that got old for her or I got tired, we went to the old standby: walking the floor. We made several laps around the editorial department and the news bureau and that did the trick. Gracie was out like a light.
Mama had to ask for her back.
Oh, that nickname? I am leaning toward Maizy, short for Amazing Grace.
Hal Smith is a Barling, Ark., native who played six years (1955-60) with the St. Louis Cardinals and was a three-time All-Star.
Mr. Smith, now 78, will appear at the Butler Center’s Legacies & Lunch program today (Oct. 7) at noon in the Darragh Room at the Central Arkansas Library System’s Main Library on Rock Street in downtown Little Rock. Appearing with him will be Billy D. Higgins, author of “The Barling Darling: Hal Smith in American Baseball.”
The program is free, but participants are asked to bring their own sack lunch.
Mike Dougherty is managing editor of Stephens Media’s Central Arkansas Newspapers, which includes The North Little Rock Times, Maumelle Monitor, Sherwood Voice, Jacksonville Patriot, Cabot Star-Herald, Lonoke Democrat and Carlisle Independent.
He is a baseball fanatic and loves reading, writing, movies and music, especially John Fogerty and the blues.
