Picture This - speaktherights.com

Someone is paying attention, I found out. They asked if I would comment further on some of the pictures I have put on speaktherights.com over the years.

Here’s the thing. I keep moving. I don’t stop and look around a great deal. I wish I did that just a little more. I was much better at that skill when I was 17 than at almost 52. Responsibility to blame? I don’t think so. Things change. Photographs don’t change. That is part of their appeal I think. When I stop and look at the catalog of photos on this page I look around and wonder how it happened.

No great order here. But I will acquiesce and throw some meaningful photos on here.

At the top of the list is this photo of my dear wife, Carrie, and my Uncle Stanley Chambers. Stanley is gone now. I miss him. He and I could relate like few I know. I got Stanley. And he got me. This was taken in Forest, Mississippi during a Hines Family Reunion. My mother’s family was from W.E. and Levi Jane Hines. Seventeen young’uns for those of you keeping score at home. Stanley was married to Aunt Reat, my mom’s sister.

Me pensively looking over The Moody Blues display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I did not think either of us would ever get there.

My Mom and Dad at a Moody Blues concert at The Louisville Palace in March of 2016.

Behind us was the fictional Hill Street Station from Hill Street Blues. We walked through a COLD Chicago day to get to this place. Still my favorite TV show of all time.

I don’t think I have a better football story than the one I can tell about taking my Dad to The Rose Bowl to see the UCLA play USC. When we walked into that stadium it was the most surreal experience I had since placing the last punctuation mark on a 74000 word story I finished writing in 2007.

The first picture I ever posted on speaktherights.com. Who could blame me? I didn’t know what I was getting into to. But did I ever have a great start!!!!

I miss this guy. Luther was our pup for fourteen years. He gave it up in 2010. I still miss him so. This photo was taken about a week before he died. He looks tired. He did not look so tired when he planted him near the walnut tree in the back yard. I mean that.

I kicked, Samonhead held, and Pete snapped it…in this order. I love these guys.

Me and Carrie at a Train concert in Kingsport, TN. Were we really that young?

The closest I ever got to a hole in one.

The last time Jarrett and Cody and I went fishing together. Proud of these boys!

My Dad and I saw the last Notre Dame game played on grass on ND Stadium. The coldest I have ever been at a game. It snowed. Dad had the time of his life. I thought I was going to die until I ate a whole pizza at the hotel afterward.

I started speaktherights.com in July of 2014. Four months later we lost my Granny. I chronicled her illness and it was a cathartic thing for me. She was amazing.

There is only one place to KISS THE BRICKS…Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With my Uncle Roger at a family reunion. He too taught English. We are both still learning, I suppose.

Carrie and me atop the Empire State Building.

At the reflecting pools where the Twin Towers fell. I don’t know that I have ever looked at a photo more. She was there for someone I am sure.

My key to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on more than one occasion, Mr. Adam Disque and the 4th grade Medora Elem. class.

The NHHS girls on the podium at Banker’s Life in 2016.

Making music with Jeff Carpenter has been one of the thrills of my life.

John Elway thanking me for sending him football cards of his Dad when Jack Elway coached in the World League. It was the right thing to do.

Barry Hall and my Dad a week before they tore down Blevins Memorial Stadium as we knew it.

Humbled to be in this barn where Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville chewed the fat in Pittsfield, Mass.

The last Moody Blues concert we attended at The Ryman Auditorium. No better place to end it.

Honored that Ben Waynescott presented me his road jersey for Senior Night.

Robert Becker, curator of Rock and Roll on 96.3 WJAA in Seymour, Indiana. The best in the business.

Where The Miracle on Ice took place In Lake Placid 1980. I need to go back and make sure I was really there.

Walking across The Brooklyn Bridge.

Carrie and me hanging with our friend Julie Ragins before a music gig she was playing and singing in at Kent, Ohio. I am still hoping to write a duet good enough to talk her into singing with me.

Dining with Cody and Jarrett and Sarah in Florida.

No Pier Pressure under the Santa Monica Pier.

Carrie and me in an empty Rose Bowl where I was 2 for 2 kicking just beyond extra point territory in Brooks. Look at the new field. I was not about to put on my kicking shoe, though I had it with me.