Somethings just come back in a hurry.  They don’t mean to.  They just do.  Usually when that happens, I think it is time for that precious thought or memory to come back.  To know you were changed and look back, if you are fortunate enough, to see how good fortune and blessedness turned out over the years.  I have many of these moments.  I hope we all do.

It was twenty-eight years ago today.  I can show you the very spot in the Sears show stockroom at the Greentree Mall.  It was 8ishAM.  I was stocking shoes.  Using a broom stick with a shelf on it to move sizes and brand up lines of vertical shelves.  It was a maze of a place at times.  Judging what would fit and how so was an education all its own.  Problem solving.  As I listened to the radio that morning I discovered I had a problem.  I had a real problem.  Thankfully I was where I was when I was.  The Moody Blues were to play a concert at the Timberwolf Ampitheatre at Kings Island  outside Cincinnati on August 18, 1988.  I had tickets to the show.  I had plans.  We were going to have a good time.  Her name was Elizabeth.  She was going to the show with me.  All that changed when a radio DJ informed the listening world that The Moody Blues show at Timberwolf had a change of date.  The day?  Today!  And I had no clue until I heard it.

My work shift ended at 3:30 PM.  I made a few calls and found my dear friend and fellow rock and roll aficionado (Beatles fan), the great Virgil Ragland, interested in going.  We made the show.  We had a good time.  What was supposed to be a nice day spent with a young lady as we rode roller coasters and ate cotton candy and I impressed her with my ability to throw a football at the carnival games (something I would seriously accomplish in 1991 with a different young lady I took to see The Moodies….when I took a five step drop and threw a football through a hole that had no clearance and got quite the ovation).  Instead, I think Virg and I rode the swings and ate a hot dog before it was time to head to the show.  We didn’t even make it to the Eiffel Tower.  Still, I thank Virg for cruising over to Kings Island that hot July evening.

All these years later I do have great memories of that day.  I have greater memories of that song.  It was my second Moody Blues concert.  Little did I know that in 2016 I would be talking about hearing one of their favorite showstoppers, “I Know You’re Out The Somewhere” make its concert debut 28 years ago.  But that is how it has turned out.  It was the first show of the tour supporting a new album Sur La Mer.    The week it came out my mother and I were on the road traveling to Shreveport, Louisiana to tend to an ill relative.  We played that song on a new cassette tape all night long  until it nearly snapped in two.  It is still Mom’s favorite Moodies’ song.

Looking back I say that change of concert date was a blessing.  My dear wife, Carrie, is my Moody Blues concert partner and we are not finished yet…I don’t think.  It turned out just as it was supposed to.  Thank God.

This is a special, optimistic song.  It has grown over the years.  From a song for those yearned for, to a song for those missed, a song for those out there somewhere, and a song I start to sing when I am looking for Carrie at the grocery store.

Thank you, Justin Hayward.  You have given me a masterpiece that I will never tire of listening to.  How do I know?  It would have happened by now!

Speaking the I know you’re out there somewhere rights…

Danny Johnson

Wow it is hot outside the door in my little piece of Southern Indiana.  Yesterday it was over 90.  Where wasn’t it?  And humidity?  This morning it was 88% and all the windows in the house were fogged up. My heart goes out to anyone without air conditioning.  I remember those days when I was a kid. I know it got hot then too.  But it sure does not feel like it ever got THIS hot.

Star Trek.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I went to see the third installation of the new Star Trek incarnation.  What is this Mark V or VI?  I don’t know.  I really did not pay any attention to the ones that came on television with Captain Picard.  I think they were Star Trekkers?  Anyway, this new bunch playing the crew of the USS Enterprise are very entertaining to watch.  I know that this stuff is not everyone’s cup of tea.  I respect that.  I also know that while I was never much enamored with the old William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy Star Trek…the original one…I do like this new movie bunch.  Speaking of television and space, I enjoyed that old Gil Gerard show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.  I also enjoyed the small screen offering that was Battlestar Galactica.  The guy that played the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, Ray Bolger, was a guest star on that show in 1979, I think it was.  He would have been 75 at the time.

Carrie and I did not like this new Star Trek movie.  We both like the characters.  The story was a little shallow compared to the other two new ones.  The action of the movie was set in darkness a great deal of the time.  That might be great for someone whose played video games looking at something one can barely see.  I have never done that. Things did pick the last twenty minutes and all was not lost.  I won’t tell you what happened.

I do know that the actor that plays Chekov , Anton Yelchin, was killed in June due to a freak accident that had to do with an auto’s inability to stay in park.  That was sad.  He seems like such a bright spot on the screen.  It is hard not to believe he was a great chap in life as well.

A NOD TO LEWIS GRIZZARD

One thing the readers of Lewis Grizzard, the former Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist appreciated was the fact that he just put things out there.  Lewis had health issues.  He died at the age of 47 in 1994.  It is hard for me to fathom that Lewis has been gone so long.  Like him or not, he was the genuine article.   When he struggled with his health, he wrote about it.  He was blogging before blogging became blogging.

There is a history of back ailments in my family.  My mother’s side of the family is full of a number of folks reaching back with their right hand to rub on a side here or a piece there. My mother is dealing with this mightily as I write these words.  She, on occasion, wears a brace and has been given a list of ailments that are back related.  So, yes, I had an injury thirty-some years ago.  I know what the family history is.  One day, I too will get my news that the back is not what it should be.  I am 48 years old.  That news should come to me in say 10 or 12 years.  Wrong.  This week I had a conversation with a doctor about degenerative discs and arthritis and how fusing discs with surgery is probably not a good option.  Heck, I don’t remember what all was said.  So there you go.  New habits need to be made.  Sitting positions need to be decided upon.  Though I don’t carry around nearly as much poundage as I did ten years ago, I will be making a concerted effort to “lighten the load” as they say.  No fun, but I know I can do it.

Whatever comes,  we still need to press onward.  I may be holding my back…but I won’t hold too much back…I will still…speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

There is a guy outside my house working on a satellite dish receiver.  I am getting what they call in the Satellite TV business an “upgrade”.  I may not get anything today the way the wind is whipping up with a threat of bad weather out there.  It ain’t worth it, my friend!  Get in here now.  Unless you’re just about finished with the outdoors part and hurry up!

For years and years my dear wife, Carrie, and I have been looking at a big old box of a television that just refuses to play out.  If I get as much quality life out of the new TV we just bought, I will be shocked and delighted.  Right now I just hope I don’t get shocked by lightning.  I got struck once before, you know.

The cabinet that held our land-locked smallish to today’s standards of a television set is gone. Well, it is dismantled waiting in the garage to be picked up.  With its demise came the opportunity to get a larger television for the room I look at football games when I am sitting on the couch and not sitting in the floor doing sit-ups during commercials like I did when I was a much younger man with a much smaller gut.  I remember having sit-ups contests with a friend of mine.  We’d call each other after every one half hour during prime time commercials…back when we had four TV stations and one television oddity that played Big Bird, Mr. Rogers, and documentaries by folks that sounded like they were doing either promotional work or auditioning for NPR.  PBS has come a long way, baby.

As the sky gets darker and the threat of a storm is still with us, if not getting stronger, I still have not heard from the young man whom drove up in a blue and white van filled with stuff that will.. or so they say, enhance my football on television watching experience. The television I recently procured looks like a drive-in movie screen compared to the postage stamp of a picture we once had in there.  I watched Manning brothers win four Super Bowls on that postage stamp.  How can I get rid of it?  Well, I watched the second half of those games on the postage stamp after watching the first halves over at my folks’ house on a TV bigger than my postage stamp.  I still have not gotten rid of that TV…yet.

I hope the fella outside working in my TV infrastructure is still hanging in there.  He is still working.  I think.  If he would have been struck by lightning I am sure he would of hollered.  Maybe I should check.  I just heard some furious thunder to the west.

Never mind.  He’s okay.  I hear him using a drill out there.  Sounds like he is hustling.  Sounds like he is changing tires in the pits at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  It is forevermore dark out there.  I would take a picture…but then you would look at it and criticize me for not going out and telling the boy to get in the house.  Hey, he is a professional.  Let the man do his work.  While he does, I think I might head to the storm shelter.  Its looking worse all the time.

Gotta go and think about speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

I was not raised to be calculatedly critical of others.  If someone does me wrong, I need to chose a careful path.  I was never good at knee-jerk reactions.  Many a “jerk” came out of exactly that.  Turning the other cheek and letting things go in one ear and out the other are abilities that I have been blessed with.  Some might interpret that sort of action as being “uncaring”, a mistake in the world of getting a facebook timed reaction.

Here I am trying to make the best of a good situation.  That too is contradictory happenstance.

I am looking at the Atlantic Ocean along the North Carolina Coast.  This is my favorite place to be in the entire world.  I doubt a delicately fried piece of flounder could be as good anywhere else on the planet.  Here I am next to my dear wife, Carrie.  She is reading a cooking magazine in between glances and gazes at an ever-changing sky in front of us.  Yesterday evening we were blessed with the sight of a herd of dolphins bobbing up and down in the water in front of us.  One little fella even decided to jump out of the water to show off for us.  It is easy to care when things are going as good as that.

It is easy to care when things are going our way…when the practice of caring is not relentless…when the circumstances before us are calm and, well, just plain nice.  What we would give to have that on more days than not.

Even in the face of an ocean of peace and calm like we see in front of us this morning, there is always the possibility of troubled waters on the horizon.  There are times the skies will look grey and ominous.  Just ask Carl.

On Sunday, the Rev. Duke Lackey of Faith Harbor United Methodist Church in Surf City reminded us of the story of the Good Samaritan.  Duke’s sermon was titled “Do This”.  Do as the Good Samaritan did.  Help the helpless.  Do as Keshia Thomas did in Ann Arbor, Michigan twenty years ago when a KKK rally was happening.  The protesters turned violent toward one of the Klanpersons.  Keisha Thomas, a young black lady, came to his aid.  She threw herself over the white man and told those inflicting punishment upon him to stop, declaring… “You can’t beat goodness into a person.”  Do as our military members will do for us like no one else we know.  Do like Duke Lackey and say the right things that are led by God’s word.  Do this.

I wish I knew why two black guys were shot by police officers.  I wish I knew how a girl could sit next to a dying man and be that calm while recording video of the situation.  And I wish I knew why she would do that.  I wish I knew I was right when I looked back on news footage of 1968, the year I first saw the light of day, and was so sure and glad we had come far enough not to “do that again”.  I am afraid of what the upcoming National Political Conventions will bring.  I wish I knew why so many people hate each other for no other reason than the color of their skin.

In teaching I often use a personal example of how problems between black folks and white folks can show themselves.  I tell students that they are being affected by fear of something they don’t know anything about.  Fear and ignorance is the truest recipe of racism.  And, yes, it works both ways.  White v. Black and Black v. White.  And yes, that is a damn shame.  I end my speaks to students with this sentiment:  In my life I have been called names, kicked, pushed, made fun of, punched, shot at, and had my heart broken…all at the hands of folks that were white and not black.

I wish I didn’t see one step up and forty-eight years back.  Makes my time on this earth so far a little less meaningful.  But…I must get over that and press onward.  I need to get the negative out of my system in cathartic ways like this one.  I suppose that is one reason why I do press onward, I do look for a better day, I do try to do something about it, and I do…

Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

I got word recently that my Aunt Nell and Uncle Bob will not be hosting our annual Hines Family Reunion this year.  A sister and brother-in-law to my Mother, they have been playing hosts to the family reunion the last fifty years.  Not this year.  Circumstances beyond our control have presented themselves.  It was a great run.  My Mother’s oldest sister, Authula,  turns 90 soon.  As I said,  it has been a great run.

I spoke to my Aunt Barbara last night for the first time in a while.  She told me she has recently lost two of her buddies Ruth and Carolyn to illness.  Cancer is the worst word I know.

On Saturday I thought about my Aunt Nell and Uncle Bob.  Their spirit was on display and it is every year around 4th of July time.  Our friends Tim and Michelle, not New Hampshire Michelle, but Marengo Michelle, play host to many folks as we have a great time celebrating our country’s Independence and celebrating each other’s company.

Tim and Michelle gladly invite us to their home.  They open their doors and say “Y’all come on in…”  It is that spirit and heart of invitation that automatically makes this a special time for those of us fortunate enough to be there.  We talk and we laugh…and we laugh some more.

Good folks.

Good food.

Even the rain could not dampen the good times we had.

Here Bob thinks about just how bad the Tennessee Vols will beat Alabama this football season.

Fireworks.

Tim and Michelle put us on a hill with a house that looks like it is waiting to be discovered by Southern Living.

Michelle, Michelle, and my dear wife, Carrie.

I am delighted these three have remained friends.  Gives me places to go in the summer!

This is like a reunion for families and friends and we just have a good time. Thank you Brother Tim and Michelle.  I will  not be so kind when Ole Miss beats Bama for the third year in a row in a few months.

Three years ago Carrie and I made it down to Mississippi for the Hines Family Reunion.  The size of this family has been the subject of past posts.  My mother had 16 brothers and sisters.

Little did I know it would be the last time I would hold forth with my cousin Harold Finnegan.  He is in the red shirt having speaks with me.  Harold was a Vietnam War Veteran.  He graduated from Ole Miss.  He lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  He was 68.  Did I say how the word Cancer is a dirty word?  I meant it.  His Mother, my Aunt Jewel, was a fine lady.  His Daddy, Frances, was one of the most interesting characters Mississippi has ever known.  That is saying something.

One more photo from that day just because I can.  Me and my cousin Doyle Crout.

Take care of each other….and when you need to…

Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson