Last Week was a disaster 5 wins 5 losses.

The season total is now 69 good picks to 21 bad picks on speaktherights.com

This week is not as grand as last week when it comes to exciting match-ups.

Here goes:

Duke will beat Pitt…though it is at Pitt, Duke is the team here.

East Carolina will beat Temple…This should be over by the middle of the third quarter, if is goes that far.  Coach Ruffin has the Pirate ship steered in the right direction.

Iowa will beat Northwestern…This Iowa team has let me down.  I won’t be shocked of they get beat by the Wildcats.

Michigan will beat Indiana….You want to pick the Hoosiers.  Then…the natural order of things kicks in.  I still remember Michigan scoring at the end to dash the Lee Corso-led hopes of a victory in the Big House…it didn’t happen 35 years ago and it won’t happen this weekend.  Though by season’s end the Big House will be cleaning house….the Hoosiers are still fair game on the diet.

TCU will beat WVU…Remember the old adage the first one to 70 will win?  Might be true here.  Might not.

Missouri will beat Kentucky….In another old saying “they are a year away”…that is where UK is with MIzzou in Columbia.

Ole Miss will beat Auburn….Home game and the Rebs will rebound from the implosion that was LSU 2014.

Notre Dame will beat Navy….They have done so regularly.

UCLA will beat Arizona…No one seems to be talking much about the Arizona rise with the two major state schools doing well this year.  UCLA will win at home…as long as they don’t come out in those hideous black helmets and jerseys.  If I went to the Rose bowl to find UCLA in black hats and black shirts instead of gold hats and blues shirts, I think I would puke.

Arizona State will beat Utah…One Arizona team will come through.

Marshall is off this week.

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

It feels awkward sitting here looking at the World Series being played without my Dad in the room to talk about game.  My Dad and I always watched the World Series together.  The Kansas City Royals just scored in the the bottom of the second and the score is now 2-0 in favor of the Royals who are down 3 games to 2 in the best of seven series over the San Francisco Giants.

Dad and I did not always agree on what team should win…but we still had a good time watching playoff baseball.

I wonder, as I watch this,  if a young lad sometimes known as “Bunt Boy” in Amherst, New Hampshire is watching the game with his Dad…one of my friends.  They took me to see the Boston Red Sox this past summer.  I’m still coming to grips with the fact that I actually did see THEE Citgo gas sign beyond the left-center field wall of Fenway Park.  I wrote about this visit in one of my earliest posts on speaktherights.com.

I have always had a soft spot for the Royals.  Well, at least since 1979 I have had a soft spot.

Oops.  Blooper to right center falls fair and two more runs score.  Royals 4 Giants 0.

In 1979 I played for the Royals in the Brownstown Little League circuit.  I was eleven years old.  Looking back, I knew more about baseball now than I do now.  I must have.  How else could I have been the starting first baseman hitting #6 in the batting order?

There is a great deal of eye candy/junk in my home office.  I have book shelves that are very deep.  They hold many books…and they hold many artifacts…treasures…some junk.  One thing I am most proud of is the 1979 Brownstown Little League Champs trophy that sits in front of a framed picture of that team that appeared in the July 4th edition of The Brownstown Banner.  The photo was taken early in the season.  We won the the championship in the latter part of the month.

For me, it was a case of win the championship and move on without having a chance to enjoy it much with your teammates.

What do I mean?

Well…during the course of this summer baseball season my family moved from Brownstown, Indiana to Harrison County, Indiana.  My mother was wrapping up her job in Seymour where she worked as a registered nurse in a doctor’s office.  She would drive a very long way to work…some 60 miles…for only a few days.  When she did, she dropped me off at Mike Warren’s house.  Mike and I were both on the Royals.  His parents, Leroy and Sarah, were kind to me.  They treated me like their own.  I had known them a very long time.

That 1979 Royals team I was a part of did not lose a game.  We won them all.  As soon as our championship was over, I was in another county looking at my trophy without ever having the benefit of reliving the season with the ones I played through it with.  I still miss that.  But…of all the mementos I have on the shelves in my office, I look fondly upon that trophy.  We earned it.  This was before soccer moms imparted the need to give every participant a trophy thinking they were doing someone a favor.  We…The Royals…were the only ones to receive a 1979 Brownstown Little League Trophy…as it should be.

GRANNY

Carrie, my dear wife, and I stopped by to see Granny this evening.  Her sister, Lula Hodge, is here to visit her.  Aunt Lula and her two children, Nick Hodge and Lula Candler, brought her up from Shreveport, Louisiana to visit Granny.  As I mentioned in my last post, Granny is ailing.  Her prognosis is not good.  As I walked out the door leaving Granny and her sister, it hit me.  This was the last time I was going to see these two sisters in the same room together.  I shed a few tears.

Thanks to all of you asking about and praying for my Granny and my family.

I’ll leave you with a picture of me and my Granny last Christmas…along with my photo-bombing brother-in-law.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

I appreciated my time last night, Saturday night.  Though my college football picks this weekend were of the epic-loser proportion (5 winners and 5 losers), I still had fun watching football yesterday and last night.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I spent some time with my grandmother last night.  A former Louisiana resident, I have no doubt she wanted Louisiana State to beat my beloved Ole Miss in Baton Rouge.  Granny was diplomatic.  She has always been good at being diplomatic…well…at least about a few things.  Anyway, there we were watching the Tigers beat the Rebels 10 to 7.

While we are never given a solid on how many Saturday nights we are going to get to spend with each other, I paid close attention to the time we spent with Granny last night.  You see, earlier in the day there were a couple of ladies from an entity called Hosparus .  These are wonderful folks that help a person when they have been told they have an illness they are likely not going to recover from.  They are probably going to die soon.  Such is the case with my grandmother, Coralyn Floreta Johnson.  Granny is 89.

Granny, as I said in an earlier post, has had some blood issues.  Platelets. Hemoglobin. White Count.  Lack of production when being stuck for a sample is something I witnessed while she was in the hospital for a few days.

Ultimately, Granny was told she has leukemia.  It was no shock to any of us.  It did, however, bring a source of gravity in play that was not there the five minutes before we got some sort of “official word”…whatever that means.

What it means to me is that Granny is not going to get better.  She is going to get worse.  I pray she does not have a difficult time with the physical aspects of her illness.  I can tell you her heart’s vitality is still strong.  One of the great things I can say about Granny is that she hasn’t grown old.  She has gotten older.  She still acts like a kid at heart.  I am so thankful for that and I hope to hang onto some of those traits myself, if I can.

I’ll give you a prime example:

On Friday evening Carrie and I were visiting Granny at the hospital.  In the hospital room we were watching a college football game between the University of Cincinnati and South Florida.

There was Granny.  She was being tended to by a nursing assistant.  This young lady had a monitor on Grannny’s finger, a blood pressure cuff around Granny’s arm, and a thermometer in Granny’s mouth as she was trying to listen to Granny’s lungs and heart.  All this time Granny was trying to look around the nursing assistant so she could see the ballgame.  When Gunner Kiel, the quarterback of Cincinnati,  took off for the end zone on long run, Granny took she thermometer out of her mouth long enough to declare to me, “He’s gone Danny!”

Pardon me for saying…but it just doesn’t get much better than that, given where we were and why we were there.

I am most grateful to Gunner Kiel for taking off for the end zone.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

The last place I want to see my Grandma is in a hospital.  I saw her there tonight.  Granny has trouble with her blood.  Hemoglobin…platelets…white counts….they are all over the board.  But…let me say this: Granny is an inspiration.  She is as tough as nails.  She has every opportunity to say woe is me as she is hooked up to 3 ivs and getting stuck like a pin cushion on a regular basis.

When she was told she was going to get a two bag transfusion tonight, she said she’d pass the time getting the transfusion by watching Peyton Manning and the Broncos play the San Diego Chargers.  She was quick to remind me that Peyton has had some trouble with the Chargers over the years.

Granny is 89.  She told a nurses aid tonight she is “Sweet 16”.  She is amazing.

Granny also watches college football.

Here are this weeks speaktherights.com College Football Picks:

Wisconsin will beat Maryland:  I make this pick because I am still mad at Maryland for beating Iowa last week.

Minnesota will beat Illinois…Not a very big stretch here.  I am just trying to give the Big Ten a little speaktherights time.

Virginia will beat North Carolina…This could easily blow up in my face.  North Carolina is under an academic cloud that is not good.  Perhaps they will take it out on the football field.

UCLA will beat Colorado….The UCLAs are ready to visit the thin air of Boulder and enjoy some fall weather and give the Buffaloes a butt kicking while they are in the Rockies.

Marshall will beat Florida Atlantic…I know…I know…the Herd’s schedule is weak.  They can’t help it!  They will put up some big numbers on a beautiful fall day in Huntington.

Michigan State will beat Michigan…This is an anomaly of a game.  Two in-state rivals that are not the biggest of rivals.  The big game every year is Ohio State vs. Michigan.

Mississippi State will beat Kentucky…but look out for the Wildcats.  If the Cow-bellers think UK will be a push-over, they may get pushed a bit.  State will have to protect the ball.

Oklahoma State will beat West Virginia…It is played in Stillwater.  Enough said.

Ole Miss will beat LSU…A night game in Death Valley is a true test for any LSU opponent. This ole Miss team is up for the challenge.  Hotty Toddy!

Alabama will beat Tennessee…I will be rooting for the Vols.  Please make a note of this, my New Hampshire friends.  I know  you deferred one week and rooted for my Rebels over the Vols.  God Bless You!  I hope Rocky Top is played often on Saturday.  While you are at it, grab a little Pumpkin Coffee for me.

South Carolina will beat Auburn…No…I am not kidding.  Sooner or later the Ball Coach and his bunch are going to come through for us.  They are due.

The season record thus far is: 64 good picks 16 bad picks.

I did not consult Granny on my picks.  We’d be debating until midnight.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

The colors of autumn are in full force this week.  The third week of October is my favorite week of the year. I always look forward to it.  Not sure why…there is just something I trust about it.

So many great things are going on this time of the year.  Football season is going strong and what a good one we are enjoying thus far.  The Mississippi college teams alone will make this a year to remember.

There is also the great phenomena that is Halloween and people going to “nightmares’ and ‘haunted houses” and “fear farms” and I don’t know what all.  Personally, I think that stuff is a bunch of hooey.  I never did get the whole lets have fun being scared thing.  Horror movies made me laugh…what I could manage to get through.  I thought Freddie Kruger was a weenie.  I just never bought in enough to be scared by a movie.

Did I have some movies that I enjoyed that were of a scary nature?  Yes.  They weren’t the Nightmares on Elm Street or the Friday the 13th saga.  As corny as it may sound, I liked the film version…may have even been made for tv…of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.  I thought that was a pretty cool movie.  I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw it.  It must not be very popular.  Everything but Salem’s Lot is on television.

I also enjoyed the third Exorcist movie…but I doubt I would look at it again.

As a kid I did the trick or treat thing.  I had costumes that I have forgotten totally.  I went to a few parties when I was a kid.  The classic bobbing for apples…is that even allowed these days?  We carved pumpkins.  Spit pumpkin seeds.  We ate a great deal of candy.  And of course, we played hide and go seek.  We did all this at the Baptist Church I was a member of when I was a kid growing up in Brownstown, Indiana.

Some churches and other groups have made it their priority to denounce Halloween.  I get what they are saying.  I respect their beliefs.  I just wish they were as interested in helping people understand the evils of drunk driving instead.  How we let so many people behind the wheel of autos when they have had more than a snoot full is beyond me.  Priorities and targets.  Halloween is not a moving target.

It was Halloween week thirty years ago.  My buddies Mick and Marc and I were rolling down Highway 62 west of Corydon.  We were just cruising around…buying some time before some youthful indiscretions that were to follow.

We were riding in Marc’s blue Ford pick-up.  I had an awful habit of chewing Big Red gum when I wasn’t chewing Levi Garrett.  Marc asked for a piece of gum and I handed it to him.  Mind you, he was driving.  As he was removing the gum from the wrapper he crossed the center line a couple of times.  Just then he looked in his rear-view mirror and asked if that was an LTD behind us.  Police officers were driving Ford LTDs in this day and age.  Mick told him he didn’t think so.  About that time…red lights were flashing like crazy behind us.  I was sixteen at the time.  So was Mick.  Marc was 17.

Marc rolled his eyes and started digging for this registration and his driver’s license.

The officer asked why he was crossing the center line.  He shined his government issue flashlight solidly in the face of each of us one at a time.  He then asked the obligatory question:

“Have you boys been drinking?”

“Yes, officer” I said.  I then reached down to the truck’s floor board and produced a half gallon of milk.  “Two percent, sir.  You want a swig?”

I thought Marc was going to faint.  We were sharing a jug of milk along with a large bag of powdered doughnuts.

The officer let Marc go with a warning.  The three of us were really just glad he did not look under the tarp that was covering enough toilet paper to supply the state of Wyoming for three days.  We had some work to do that night.  I can report we were successful.

Right now I wish I was in New Hampshire at a Dunkin Donuts drinking some Pumpkin Coffee.  For whatever reason it just tastes better there.

Speaking the rights…

Oh…by the way…I am picking the Royals in 6 games to win the World Series.

Football picks tomorrow.

Danny Johnson

Good to be back.  I think this is longest hiatus I have endured since I started this in July.

I have had my reasons.  For the past few days my hands have been occupied by either the steering wheel or my guitar.  Spent Saturday and Sunday on the road.  Spent Sunday evening and Monday prepping for a visit to the recording studio.  Alfresco’s Place Recording Studio was in good form this evening.  Jefferson Carpenter and I did it again.  It was three demos…just me and the guitar and Jefferson recording what came out.  We were both fairly pleased.  Jefferson is the greatest music man I know.

This is not a bad time.

There are times when one must concentrate.

There are other times that don’t require as much concentration.

My trusty Seagull.

This is where Jefferson does his wonderful work.

Bad picture…sorry Jefferson.  Sometimes I take pictures the way I play guitar.

We had a great time putting three songs down.  The lyrics of one of them is on a post here somewhere.  I wrote it early in the year.  A second song we did was written a few weeks ago.  The third song we did was written last Thursday to be beat of the ocean.  My guitar waves are a little choppier than the ones that inspired the song; I am still happy with the result.  It is a bit of a different sound and tempo than I usually bring with a song.

I will premier these songs for my dear wife, Carrie, after I finish here.  She inspired a great deal of the lyrics.  She always inspires the music.  She is the one that got me playing this stuff in the first place.  I can’t thank her enough.  I met Jefferson and Tim Krekel and Jim Baugher and Barry King and John Burgard and John Hayes and Jeff Guernsey and Rod Wurtele and all the ones I am leaving out here thanks to my dear Carrie.

This past Saturday night, Carrie and I attended a concert by Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues.  He was playing in a shoe box…an elegant shoe box.  When I think about the outdoor barns and larger indoor arenas I have seen the Moodies play in over the years,  that is what I felt like I was in…a shoe box.  The Newberry Opera House (built in 1882) in Newberry, South Carolina seats about 430 people.  Carrie and I were there.

Justin sang songs from his new solo album and some obscure Moodies songs and a Blue Jays tune…and the obligatory Moodies songs like Nights in White Satin, Your Wildest Dreams, and I Know You’re Out There Somewhere.

Justin was joined onstage by Julie Ragains, a regular Moody Blues backer on the road, and a young English fellow named Mike Dawes.  Dawes opened the show.  If you Youtube…look him up.  What he can do with a guitar is phenomenal.

As I drove home this evening, I thought about the premier of Justin’s and fellow band mate John Lodge’s duo album called Blue Jays.  The album playback party was at Radio City Music Hall in 1975.  They had 2800 people there by invitation only to listen to the music.  The guys didn’t even play a thing.  I laughed to myself as I was thinking I probably couldn’t get 28 people that would want to listen to my 3 new tunes…and that is just fine.  I enjoy them nonetheless.

I also enjoy football.

My picks last week did not go as well as they did the week before.  I picked 7 winners and 3 losers this past weekend.  The season total for the speaktherights.com College Football picks stands at 64 winners and 16 losers.   Iowa  was my biggest disappointment.  I figured they would beat Maryland.  Notre Dame should have won.  They got hosed a bit with that penalty in the end zone there at the end.  Had a flag not been thrown, nothing would have been made of it.  Florida State had the option to have a better defensive scheme.  I also missed the Baylor-West Virginia game.  Thanks a great deal, Baylor…now the ozone layer is suffering even more thanks to all the couch burning that went on in Morgantown after the Mountain-people finished their shine and took to torching!

I just heard Mr. Spurgeon say it:  “Be Nice!”

Hey, Mr. Spurgeon, I’m just speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Sad does not begin to address how I feel that the College Football season is already half over.  I cant’t believe it.

Though I am in North Carolina as I type these words, I kind of feel like I am in Indiana.  Most of the folks around here are already looking forward to basketball season.  The UNC football team is not doing well.  NC State is on a downward slide.  Duke is doing well but they still love their basketball off the charts.  You think you are in the south when you visit North Carolina…but you’re not. Talk radio is looking to bouncing balls.  Like the folks in Indiana, I feel sorry for these people too.

Last week was kind.  Ten games picked…ten winners.  I doubt we run into that again.  Simply put we are 57 winners picked and 13 losers picked so far this college football season.  If I may, let me impart that I do not bet on college football…or any sport for that matter.  I think betting is a waste of money.  The day I am more interested in the point spread than whether or not my team wins, you will know that I started smoking crack.  It just ain’t going to happen!  My regard for the game and the effort that goes into one includes much more respect than I can write about.

I do enjoy picking the winners.

Baylor will beat West Virginia…As a Marshall fan, you enjoy games like this.  You enjoy watching big brother get taken to the wood shed.  Baylor should score many points.

Duke will beat Virginia…Duke will have six wins and one defeat after Saturday.  They will be bowl-eligible for the third consecutive year…a first in school history.  The Wahoos have improved a great deal.  Duke’s home-field advantage is minimal.  Doesn’t matter.  The Dukies have a football mentality that says it is us against the world of college football.  They would be right.

Michigan State will beat Indiana… I have heard word that Indiana wants to fill in the open end of their stadium and make Memorial Stadium a “bowl”.  If you can’t get to bowl game, you might as well make your own.  How disturbing this is.  Nate the Great went down with injury…might buy Coach Wilson another season.

Alabama beats Texas A&M…Good for Nick Saban showing a little passion at the press conference this week.  I agree with him.  Style points in the SEC are predicated on one thing…did you score more than your opponent?  The Tide will come back stronger than they have been all season.

UCLA beats Cal…The PAC 12 is having a tough time.  No marquee left there.  UCLA still has a chance to make noise in January if they win out and get some help.

Ole Miss beats Tennessee… Rocky Top will have to settle on being played in between commercial breaks.  The Vols won’t score much.  The Rebels are in a great place.  Their rival Cowbellers are a couple places ahead of them in the polls and they won’t take focus off the field or the accelerator until the end of the Egg Bowl.

Notre Dame beats Florida State…For the sake of college football the Irish need to beat the Seminoles (hope I didn’t offend anyone).  If FSU loses, perhaps some of their off the field woes will be focused just there…off the field.  I am sick of listening to excuses for a player that should know better…or Johnny Manziel may say he is just a kid and will make some mistakes.

LSU will beat Kentucky…  Tiger Mike will claw and the Wildcats will paw then run home to Lexington.  Kentucky is much improved.  They are not ready to go to LSU and make that statement just yet.  Win a couple more and go to a bowl game.  We all know it could be much worse.

Iowa beats Maryland…Why does he care about the Hawkeyes?  I still have a soft spot for Coach Hayden Fry.  I like the way Coach Kirk Ferentz does business.  His buy-out alone has saved his job thus far.  With that said…I still think the Hawkeyes are a good team and will play for the Big Ten Championship.

Marshall beats Florida International…the Herd is ranked for the first time in 12 years.  They will keep pouring it on too in hopes of making a big bowl in January or December 31st.  When Rakeem Cato throws a touchdown pass this weekend, it will be a record 39 games in a row in which he has done so.  Oh…and their run game is pretty awesome too.  See Devon Johnson tote the mail a few times.

Happy Watching this Saturday.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

As Carrie and I have been taking in the North Carolina shore, we have not been alone.  We actually made the trip with a new friend of ours.  His name is Carl and he had been having a great time.

Here is Carl admiring the sunrise.

Carl enjoying his breakfast.

Carl reading the morning paper.

Carl keeping up with his media.

Carl getting some sun.

Carl examining the shells he collected.

Carl says to tell you hello.

I think he too speaks the rights.

Danny Johnson

My dear wife, Carrie, and I are enjoying a few days away from the normal day to day we are fortunate enough to be a part of… back home again in Indiana.  We are in North Carolina.  Not far from Wilmington…north of Wilmington…on the coast.

Every time I think about Wilmington, North Carolina, I can’t help but think about the Andy Griffith  episode when Gomer Pyle was joining the Marines.  Camp LeJeune, an enormous Marine Base, is just up the road from where we are.  In the episode, Andy told Gomer he would drive him to the Marine base the next day because he said he had some business to attend to in Wilmington.  I doubt Andy had anyone to see in Wilmington.  He was just going there to take care of Gomer.

Ironically enough, Carrie and I walked past the Courthouse that is shown as the primary building Andy Griffith did his legal practicing on his later show Matlock.  Though Matlock was set in Atlanta, they did their filming of the show…at least a great deal of it… here in the Wilmington area.  That show is not alone.

A new show set to premier next spring on ABC called Secrets and Lies was filming this week down by the Battleship Wilmington along the Cape Fear River.  The carnival set is just for the show…explain that to an eight year-old.

The next picture shows the Battleship Wilmington next to it.

A great many television shows are filmed here, as well as movies.

Current shows filmed in the Wilmington area include: Sleepy Hollow, Under the Dome, Revolution, and once upon a time a show called One Tree Hill was filmed here.  Across town yesterday they were also filming a Nicholas Sparks’ film adaptation of “The Choice”.

No one in town blinks an eye if they see production equipment moving about.  What they do see is opportunity and the prospects of jobs for the people in the area.  While I hate to get into something I know little about, it seems there is some political push-pull going on between the Filming Industry and the State Politicians…they are trying to hammer out treaties regarding tax and revenue (if you can believe that).

SHRIMP

One great thing about coming down here is the Carolina Shrimp.  Carrie and I acquired a pound and a half of these fresh critters and she commenced to working her culinary magic.  I am a fortunate man to be in the presence of a great cook.  She could open a restaurant and do quite well anywhere in America…I am convinced.  Many of you whom have eaten her fare understand what I am saying here.

Fried Shrimp and Onion Rings on the way!  The tomatoes are just there for decoration.

We picked this assortment of veggies at the Farmer’s Market just a mile from downtown Raleigh.   I threw them on the grill.  They were very tasty.

I can’t overstate how nice the people are around here.  Carrie and I feel quite at home here.  I suppose that is why we keep coming back.  Admittedly I am a creature of habit.  This place is a good place to be acclimated to.

I wonder why?

We met a friend on the beach when we got here.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Yesterday at Faith Harbor United Methodist Church in Surf City, North Carolina, my dear wife, Carrie, and I enjoyed the service.  The Children’s Sermon was a preview of what Mr. Vaughn was going to share with us, the Parable of the Vineyard Workers.  The lady giving the children’s sermon was doing a good job.  Given there was one little jasper there interrupting her with a comment every third word, I think she performed a miracle.

She conveyed the parable quite well and at one point one of the kids said: “So you get thirty dollars and he gets thirty dollars and I get thirty dollars even though you worked longer”.

The kid made me laugh out loud.

I immediately hearkened back to our youngest son, Cody, and some of the shenanigans he used come up with while taking the English Language to its literal limits.

Don’t ask me how many years ago these incidents were.  I know that the last I will share happened in the Summer of 1996.

As I mentioned, Cody was a literal sort when it came to his interpreting the English Language as a young lad.  The following are such examples:

I was holding down the couch on a Saturday afternoon.  I had one eye on the pillow and one eye on the Atlanta Braves playing…someone.  Cody was in and out of every door to our house at the time…two…with such repetitive speed I wondered how he could be in two places at once.  On one pass through the living room, the baseball announcer made the comment that it would be a good idea to think about stealing home.  Cody looked at me and asked why anyone would want to steal their home?

Cody and I were driving down the road and the radio was tuned to a classic rock radio station.  Nazareth’s “Love Hurts” was blaring through the speakers.  That song has a guitar solo that can still tickle my spine all these years later.  Anyway…Cody looked at me and said, “That song reminds me of you and Mommy….Love Birds.”

I suppose it was a television news story.  A guy on the television was talking about how a Military person was being given a Purple Heart.  Cody stopped in his tracks, looked at me, and asked…”Why would anyone want a purple heart?  They are supposed to be red.”

My all-time favorite Codyism came the Summer of 1996.  Carrie was taking a class at Indiana University in Bloomington that summer.  It was a one week intensive class.  She was at it from 8 AM to 5 PM.  The boys and I were piddling around while she was taking the class.

One day we hit the jack-pot.  IU’s Memorial Stadium has an open door and we had a football.  Jarrett and Cody and I started throwing passes to each other.  Cody soon got tired of the football tossing and he proceeded to run up and down the West Stands of Memorial Stadium…all 109 rows of it.  He would disappear for a minute and you could hear him hoot and holler inside the bowels of the stadium.  In a minute he would reappear and yell at Jarrett and me on the field.

During this time I was showing Jarrett where I saw Rick Leach and Michigan in 1975.  I showed him where Anthony Thompson leaped for a touchdown against Kentucky in 1988.  I showed him where Ray Griffin returned a mammoth interception for Ohio State.  I was in my glory and Jarrett knew it.  We had a great time.

Cody came running back down to the field and he was red-faced and worn out from all the steps he had taken throughout the structure that is Indiana’s Memorial Stadium.

Cody looked at me, caught his breath, spit on the ground, and said something that I will never forget.  Here I was showing Jarrett all these great memories from my childhood and Cody says:

“Man, this would be a great place to play hide and go seek!”

I treasure that day.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson