Cheat'en & Family Pride

I have not posted for a few days due to the increasing pressure the Obama administration keeps putting on me to come up with something to end these wars and to get the economy straightened out. I finally told the guy that keeps calling from the White House to back off and give me some time to think. During this ‘down time’ from the pressures of the world I went to an All-Star 8 and under basketball tournament that my super gifted and good looking grandson Jackson was participating in. Now Jackson played in a league in Huntsville that actually required proof of age by a birth certificate before playing. His little group of 8 and under buddies played other kids that were 8 and under throughout the winter and Jackson’s group did quite well. They won all of their league games and lost a couple to teams from other leagues in exhibition games early on. At the end of the regular season Jackson and six other kids that looked 8 and under were chosen to an All Star team that would play in a District Tournament in Hartselle. Well we went to the tournament last night and believe me there has not been a beat’in put on one team by another since Samson took the jaw bone of an ass to all those Philistines a long time ago.

I am not about to accuse the team from Meridianville of using kids that were 8 and above, they may just grow big in the north end of Madison County, but I do know that we did not have one kid that shaved or drove a car to the game in Hartselle. The final score was 30 something to 6 and most of our points came on free throws. Half way through the fourth quarter the coach from Meridianville took his first team out and three of them left for work. Our little band of seven fought to the end. These kids were determined even if out manned. My Jackson is a pretty good size 8 year old and built exactly like his other grandfather, Billy Neighbors, who happen to win both the Jacobs and Outland Trophies in his All American days at the University of Alabama under Coach Bryant. In most circles Jackson is considered pretty big for his age. Last night Jackson looked like the little brother to Meridianville’s point guard.

I guess we are lucky that kids don’t take stuff as seriously as we adults. Our kids played their hearts out and never quit. Even Jackson who does not take losing at anything lightly was still disappointed but over it by the time he got back to Huntsville. Only us parents and grandparents are still carrying this injustice into today and writing about it as a form of release. My son, Bubba, even tried to explain to me that the smaller towns like Meridianville do not have enough kids to spread them out like Huntsville and that since they only fielded one team made up of the best in the area while Huntsville was bla-bla-bla and bla. Makes no difference to me. When a kid playing in an 8 and under tournament is hairy legged and drives I don’t like it one bit. Years ago in Haleyville we would have locked them in their dressing room or cut the tires on their bus if something like this happened. Spending the night in a dressing room, or trying to find someone in Haleyville to change a tire after 7:00 pm after a ballgame would make you think twice about cheating next time. I guess in a town like Hartselle where they have all night service stations and even the kids have a cell phone those remedies would not work, but we would have figured out something to break them dogs from sucking eggs.

On a much lighter note I have got to mention the smarter side of my family. I had an aunt, Martha Whitt Hoover, who went off to Kentucky and raised a family of really smart people. Her children, which make them my cousins, are all pretty special and the rest of use them on our resumes and any other time we need to shore up our creditability. Her oldest, Greg, is a graduate of West Point and retired after a career in the Army and teaches in Franklin, Tenn. The service warped him to some extent making him a dye-hard, orange blazer wearing Tennessee fan but actually a pretty good sort of fellow. Her third, Meg is a beautiful and talented mother and businesswoman that ended up in San Antonio, Texas with three boys (real boys). The second son is a doctor in Nashville.

Now this entire family is and will be the subject of several of these offerings in the future but I have got to mention something about Brad, the doctor today. Brad was just chosen Dr. of the Year, by his peers and hospital staff in Nashville. Now my uncle Billy made it to the top of Alabama Power Co. and my uncle James was the mayor of Haleyville when 911 was birthed and we claim he invented it, and his son-in-law Ken is now the mayor of Haleyville, but in my opinion Dr. of the Year in a town like Nashville is about as high and any of us descendants W.W. and Maggie ever got. Way to go Brad, you da’ man!