Saturday, December 29, 2007

Hey y'all:

Looks like I'm never ever gonna get around to telling y'all about
my Christmas story because stuff's happenin' so fast I can't keep up with it.

Folks axe me how many hours I work each week and I tell 'em,
"Ever' g*ddamn one uv 'em!!!!"





CHRISTOPHER

My son Christopher spent the past three days in Dothan. He stayed at Bill's Tues. and Weds. nights but Thursday night he camped out at Buddy's Duck Observation Deck in the swamp on Cowarts Creek. About midnight he heard an owl hooting next to his campsite and was able to see the bird in the bright moonlight. The owl flew off but at about the same time five more owls landed in trees near him and began hooting in a variety of calls.

Christopher said it sounded like the jungle in a damn Tarzan movie.
Each one of the owls had a loud distinctive call & after they yelled at each other for a few minutes they flew off and didn't make a peep the rest of the night.
Christopher said it was one of the most magnificent things he's ever witnessed camping & he's the first kid to ever win the TRIPLE CROWN OF HIGH ADVENTURE in the entire history of the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Some folks see our lifestyle as unusual but I see it as reasonable.

Man, we were reading Havelock Ellis, Aldous Huxley and Bertrand Russell back in high school!

It's like Buie sez:

THERE AIN'T NO BOX!!!!

DARE TO BE GREAT IN 'O8!

This is an excellent link to a time line biography of Coach Bryant.
http://www.redelephants.com/BryantBio.html
Today is the 25th Anniversary of Coach Bryant's Last Game

December 29, 1982 - Coaching in his final game, Paul Bryant and his Crimson Tide beat Illinois 21-15 at the Liberty Bowl played in Memphis, Tenn. Jeremiah Castille, a senior cornerback, is the MVP after intercepting three Illini passes. Craig Turner scores the final TD of the Bryant Era while Peter Kim's PAT is the final point of the legendary coach's career.

Please raise a toast to Coach Bryant this evening in recognition of the 25th anniversary of his last game.

Best,
rr http://daybeardied.com
http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant
http://myspace.com/robertoreg

Robert Robert
myspace.com/Robert6399

Date:

Dec 29, 2007 6:34 AM

Body:

My hat is off to you Coach Bryant...
You were the greatest coach ever...
Not a day goes by that we don't miss you...




Hugh Hugh

myspace.com/dxrxtx

Date:

Dec 29, 2007 7:05 AM

Subject:

RE: Today Is The 25th Anniversary of Coach Bryant's
Last Game

Body:

God Bless You Robert!

The Hawaii-Alabama Connection
http://www.midweek.com/content/columns/keepingscore_article/
the_hawaii_alabama_connection/

The Hawaii-Alabama Connection

Bob Hogue

Bob Hogue
Wednesday - August 30, 2006

Peter Kim at Yummy Korean B-B-Q in Makai Market at Ala Moana
Peter Kim at Yummy Korean B-B-Q in
Makai Market at Ala Moana

When Honolulu restaurateur Peter Kim travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for this Saturday’s Hawaii-Alabama football season opener, he won’t be wearing the green and white of his home state. Nor will he be wearing the crimson and white of his University of Alabama alma mater.

“I’m wearing blue that day,” says Kim, laughing.

Truth be told, Kim - whose family owns Hawaii’s Yummy Barbecue and other popular local restaurants - is a dedicated fan of both schools, but you can’t blame him if his heart is in Alabama. A graduate of Kaiser High School in the late ‘70s, Kim transferred from UH and joined Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide in time to be on the Bear’s last national championship squad at ‘Bama (in 1979).


“He was a great man,” Kim says. “I played in the last game he ever coached (the Liberty Bowl in December 1982). The tradition of Alabama football is so strong. We had practice field visits from (then former) President Ford and phone calls from (then current) President Reagan.”

Kim went on to become an all-star kicker at Alabama and then played briefly in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

More than two decades later, Kim is an extremely successful Honolulu businessman. He was recently listed as one of the country’s top young millionaires, and says he “runs 25 restaurants with our products in 46 stores.”

He’s also very much in touch with his ‘Bama roots.

“I go back every year,” he says. “They really take care of their former players. I run into somebody all the time. Last year, it was Bart Starr.”

But this year’s trip will be extra special.

“I think I’ve been planning this trip for about a year,” he says. “It started with about eight of my friends going until it grew to 27 people in all.”

And it’s become more than just a football game in the days leading up to the gridiron clash.

“We’ve created our own version of the Ryder Cup,” says Kim, an avid golfer who plays to an 8-handicap. “We’re matching up our Hawaii guys against Alabama golfers in a two-day tournament. (Former UH athletic director) Hugh Yoshida is our team captain.”

Kim won’t predict a winner for the golf event, but does promise a whirlwind tour of the university community for his large Hawaii entourage in the five days they’ll be spending in Tuscaloosa.

“We’ll be attending the dedication to their new state of the art athletic facility on Thursday,” he says. “(Alabama officials) believe they now have the best football facility in the nation. I saw part of it last year when I was there and it was amazing. I remember being in the locker room and it didn’t even have that football kind of smell. They had air conditioning and an exhaust fan for every locker.”

Kim also likes to brag about Alabama’s famous Southern hospitality.

“There’s a great deal of similarity between the hospitality of the people in Alabama and the aloha spirit of Hawaii,” Kim says. “When ‘Bama came here twice (winning once and losing once in the past few seasons), all of my Hawaii friends came up and told me ‘these are such great people. They’re all so nice.’ I agree. ‘Bama people are truly passionate about their football, but they are really gentle.”

Kim says he expects his friends in Alabama to throw out the red carpet for Hawaii fans.

His ‘Bama friends are helping him host a big tailgate party on game day, featuring “a Southern barbecue this time,” he says, not Yummy Barbecue.

“The Alabama people have a real affection for Hawaii and are really looking forward to the game,” he says. “It reminds me of the friendly rivalry we used to have between Alabama and Penn State because of the friendship between Coach Bryant and Joe Paterno. I can tell you from personal experience that all rivalries aren’t like that.”

Kim says he’s expecting the Saturday night game (noon Hawaii time) in the brand new 92,000-seat stadium to be just as exciting as the build-up.

“June Jones knows he has a very good team; he’s very high on this team,” the former kicker says. “(Meanwhile), Alabama has a lot of new players and there’s a great deal of pressure on them because of the new season and the new stadium. It should be a great game.”

And Peter Kim, the former Alabama-kicker-turned-Hawaii-millionaire-restaurateur, says he’ll be “loving every minute of it” - whether he truly wears blue or not.

Donnie Donnie

myspace.com/donniemills62

Date:

Dec 29, 2007 10:13 AM

Subject:

RE: Today Is The 25th Anniversary of Coach Bryant's
Last Game

Body:

THE BEST THERE EVER WAS,
THE BEST THERE IS,
THE BEST THERE EVER WILL BE!!
LONG LIVE THE BEAR!!!!

4-ever Stuppa 4-ever St..


myspace.com/drowz1

Date:

29/12/2007

Subject:

RE: Today is the 25th Anniversary of Coach Bryant's
Last Game

Body:

I'll email this.


This last message is from John Earl &,
OMG!!!!,
DOES HE NOT HAVE SOME IMAGES @
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=39008879
BUT HIS POLITICS SUX!!!! (Thank the Lord nobody pays any attention to him)

Here's some of John Earl's marvelous photography:


1969
image courtesy of John Earl http://photographybyearl.net


Dr. Humphry Osmund, the man who coined the word "psychedelic"!
image courtesy of John Earl http://photographybyearl.net


JOHNNY SHINES
image courtesy of John Earl http://photographybyearl.net

Friday, December 28, 2007


Robert & Casper Enjoying Dave & Kathy's Hospitality in St. Andrews (I like Casper because he's friendly & white!)

From Comment
BamaQueen



28 Dec 2007 16:30
The TinMan really did get his heart!!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007


image courtesy of John Earl http://www.photographybyearl.net/

Hey y'all:

Woke up at Buddy & Becky's farm near Cowarts this morning at 3 A.M. and made it to work in Tuscaloosa ON TIME!

I'm about whipped though...

Incredible, fabulous Christmas in Dothan & Panama City Beach...
It was a tonic for my soul, my peak experience so far in '07 &
I sure wanna thank my brother Bill, my sister Becky and all the other terrific people who invited me into their homes & offered me their wonderful hospitality. (there was one time there I spread my arms out like DeCapprio on the bow of the Titanic & THANKED THE LORD
except I wasn't on the bow of a soon to be sinking ship!)

It was so nice to sit in THE living room again (circa 1961)
AT 403 MORTGAGE AVENUE
and admire Bill & Kathryn's Christmas tree while we all watched HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS &
it was so nice to sit down & eat Christmas dinner (fresh rolls, smoked turkey, dressing with giblet gravy, string bean casserole, sweet potato casserole) with Buddy, Becky, my niece Lana, my niece Leslie and her husband Brad.
Congratulations to Leslie for graduation from nurse anesthetist school &
SUPER CONGRATULATIONS TO LESLIE & BRAD who are now expecting their first child.
I can't wait to become a GREAT UNCLE!
(Brad & Leslie live in Memphis NEXT DOOR to the great Willie Mitchell,producer of Al Green!
Willie is gonna get a Grammy in February.Check it out at
http://staxmuseumnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/willie-mitchell-2008-grammys.html

Here are some images from my trip down home.
Mo' details will come later, TATER GATOR...



Buddy Henry TRYING TO FIND OUT
EXACTLY WHAT IT IS
That Cranks His Tractor


Buddy & His Mules


Buddy & His Boykin Spaniels


Looking East Toward The Jetties On Christmas Eve


Panama City Beach From The End of The Jetties On Christmas Eve '07


Sea Lettuce, Green & Red Algae on top of Gooseneck Barnacles at Low Tide on The Jetties


The Gulf of Mexico On Christmas Eve '07


I Discover The Mermaid Covered By Huge Rocks


The Wreck of The Mermaid


Detail of The Mermaid's Hair & The Small of Her Back




WILBUR WALTON JR. & JIMMY DEAN
Hey RR----

Hope you have a Merry CHRISTmas and a great new year and I wish the same for all of your readers, who are our old friends from way back when.
David Adkins and I are planning to go down to the studio at Val-P, Florida, with Wilbur Walton (Wilbur Jr. to me) sometime in January to cut some Wilbur-tunes he wrote and scratch-tracked in the early seventies. Jim Lancaster of Playground Studio has plans I think to release them. Wilbur Jr. still has fans, especially in Europe. This will be a real trip for me, being back in a studio after a zillion years. I am practicing holding my Fender bass to be ready.
As I think you already know, I have been doing advertising (artwork, graphic design, TV and radio production and placement) since getting out of music after Charlie Silva got sick and we quit backing up B. J. Thomas. It never made me rich but at least it gave me the chance to work for myself all these years, which has been nice. But anything gets tiresome after a while, so I am sneaking off to the garage more and more to return to doing some oil paintings.
I've been a rabid fan of The Andy Griffith Show since it came on the air in 1960, so I decided to do some paintings of it. I've done two so far, and prints of them will be available soon at "Mayberry Junction", located on Main Street in Mt. Airy, North Carolina (the real Mayberry). They have a website (google it) but they don't have the prints up just yet. I'll send JPEGS to you in a minute. They'll have them up shortly. I don't know how to do abstract art like Mike does, I just know how to draw and paint what I see, but all art is good art to me if it makes a person feel good seeing it.
I'll try to keep you posted on the progress of the Wilbur Jr. tunes.
Jimmy Dean





Subject: Wrong dog name....not even close!
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:20:36 -0600

The dog made famous on the internet was SKIDBOOT.

And I just googled him and learned that he had to be

euthanized in March 2007.

The videoclip I watched a few years back already had

Skidboot in his old age, but the owner was determined

to take care of him to the end.

I believe you would enjoy these videoclips, but get out

the Kleenex!

BP



BP:

BP:
I watched the video of Skidboot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2BfzUIBy9A

Yeah, you're right about the Kleenex.

I'm forwarding this to Buddy Henry. He's my sister's husband who wrote the obituary for his friend, Herniated Hank.

best,
rr


Here's the link to Buddy's obit for Hank http://robertoreg.blogspot.com/2007_07_15_archive.html

Former SAILCAT guitarist Ronnie Brown was in Publix last weekend & I gave him my card.
I got this email from his sister.

Subject: I'm a stranger but........................................

My brother isn’t. My name is Donna Brown and I am Ronnie Brown’s sister. Someone gave him a card of your and we’ve just looked at your blog. I hoped to find a place to write a note, but couldn’t.

You might mention one day that you heard from Ronnie Brown. He’s in Tuscaloosa .

I’ll check back for him (he doesn’t do computers) and see if anything new comes up.

Thanks for the memories. Do you know of other places where there would info on Ronnie, especially and sites that might have his music on it.

Donna and Ronnie Brown

December 24, 2007


Wednesday, December 26, 2007



DAVIS, RODNEY REEVES, age 54, died February 28, 2007. He was born in Opp, AL to Willard and Josephine Davis who preceded him in death. He lived in Birmingham for the last 32 years. Rodney loved music and was a great guitar player who played at Carnegie Hall and American Bandstand with Sailcat, a local band. He will be missed by his wife, Kate Pope Davis and their three Scotties: Fergus, Buster and Maggie; his sisters, Vivian (Syd) Parrot of Chattanooga, TN and Teresa (Paul) Hartsfield of Childersburg, AL; and his brother, Ken (Linda) Davis of Pelham, AL and his many nieces and nephews. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, March 3rd at 1 p.m. at Johns Ridout's Southside Chapel. The family will be receiving friends from 12 until 1p.m. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Dougal's Fund, Inc. for medical care for Scotties with serious illness. Send c/o Kathleen McGuigan (Andes), PO Box 1085, Fairhope AL 36533 or online contact http://www.welcome.to/dougalsfund


Left to Right are Bill Connell, Court Pickett, Rodney Davis (seated in the middle), Wyker and Ronnie Brown.




Left to Right are Otis Hale, Jerry Rightmer, Johnny Townsend , Jimmy Varley, Roger Johnson and Ed Sanford.

Robert,
The last few years have been a very sad time for some of us old geezers. With the news about Rodney, I've lost nine old musical comrades in that time. Some you know about like Art Schilling, Joe Rudd and Rodney. This morning I got the call that my old friend and bass player for The Sanford/Townsend Band, Jerry Rightmer passed away in a convalescent hospital in Ventura, California. Jerry, like Rodney was one damn sweet guy and they will be missed most assuredly.
I'm enclosing a few photos.

So long old friends. We will meet in that sweet by and by...............
Johnny Townsend





Dear Robert !
THANKS for mentioning these two great Cats...and also my best friend Art Shilling....seems like everybody is buyin' The Farm larely...too many good Cats are leaving us.....

May God bless and keep them all !
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwyker aka SAILCAT
http://www.mfvr.com/


an old post by Wyker on Mighty Field of Vision yahoogroups that's icing on the cake[even though there may be a little bit of confusion 'bout the Candymen]....
About the same time that the Rubber Band was on it's last leg the same thang was happening to The James Gang...the Southern James Gang...which featured Wilbur Walton as their singer...the other members also doubled as The Candymen when they backed up Roy Orbison....most of those cats later formed The Atlanta Rhythm Section...Buddy Buie from Dothan produced both The James Gang and ARS...I used to go to Hotlanta back in the 60's and stay with Buddy and Robert Nix...Nix was the drummer for these groups in those days...and now all of a sudden I just remembered where I lost my first wedding ring...and that was at Nix's apartment..damn I'm firing some old memory cells tonight...amazing how the old human mind can be inspired to recall events in the long lost past .....

Anyway...when the Rubber Band finally snapped and broke up I still had a bunch of gigs lined up to play and no band to do it....the Christmas party session was about to happen and Wilbur Walton was also left with all of the gigs that James Gang had contacted to play....I had known Wilbur for years...when I was in high school I used to go down to Tuscaloosa and attend all of the fraternity rush parties and Wilbur was in college then and he was a member of The Sex Above Everythang Frat...in laymen's' terms that would be The SAE's......anyway Wilbur called me one day and said that he was holding a bunch of James Gang gigs and that he would pay me to put a band together...I think he offered me some pretty good money too...so I told him that I had the same problem...gigs and no band...so the best way to solve the problem was to put one band together to cover ALL the gigs......

One night we were The Rubber Band and maybe the next night we were The James Gang......I played bass and I hired Court Pickett to sing....and Lou Mullenix on drums...and I think Jim Coleman was on keyboards...and Tippy Armstrong played guitar on some of the gigs and Ronnie Brown played guitar...and on some gigs Frank Freidman played a second guitar....Frank was a founding member of THIS SIDE UP....

Court sang lead when we were The Rubber Band...and Wilbur sang lead when we were The James Gang.......this worked out pretty well at first when the gigs were far a apart....and in different towns.....we were all making great money and having a ball doin' it.....except when Wilbur had to do the singin'.....by this time he was a real big drunk...and would not sing until he was totally juiced up...it took us a while to get his M. O. down...he would say the PA was broken and tell us to stall with more instrumentals....we finally figured out what he was up to...and we just played a bunch of freeform jams...remind me to tell the cat tale of how we brain washed a crowd in Auburn with a one chord groove that put the whole place in a trance dance.....

Anyhow......thangs were going fine until about the middle of the Christmas session and we played a gig in Mobile as The Rubber Band....then the next night in the very same building we came in as The James Gang...we got away with it until the third night when we played the same place for a different girls club as The Rubber Band again.......it was really scary to be on the bandstand and to watch people in the crowd whispering to each other...you could read their lips..."Was'nt that the same guy that played with..so and so band.the other night......well.... I don't know how we ever got out of there alive that last night...but we did......I'm sure their was some fast talkin' involved and some fast cars too.....!"

Sunday, December 23, 2007

RR~
First of all, that picture of Hillary looks like she's been rode hard & put up wet!! Oh my, I hope she's not gonna be our president. And that not just based on how she looks...but it does make me understand Bill & his "actions" a lot better now!!
Here's my story bout da Houston County liberry. I moved from Dothan in 1979 to live in Baton Rouge. We returned in 1984 & decided to get our sons liberry cards a couple of years later. I had had one since childhood & thought it was neat. My boys checked out some books & I told the lady at the desk that I had long since lost my card & would she print another for me. She looked in her files & informed me that I had a book that was overdue FROM 1970!!! I do remember checking the book out for our big Senior term paper & I remember returning it. But she was adamant & insisted that I hadn't. I told her to prove it. She went in her little back room, and low & behold, out she walked with the little card with my signature on it from 16 YEARS EARLIER!!! Her snide remark, with a smirk on her face was, "Is this your signature?" I had to admit it, but insisted that I HAD returned the book. She said that it was no longer in print, but that I'd have to pay something like $60.00 for it before I could get my card! I told her to forget it...I wasn't gonna pay for a book no longer in print & if I wanted a liberry book, I'd let one of my sons check it out for me!! Careful with those liberry ladies with the blue hair...they're like Big Brother!
Your story about the typing book was hilarious. I had Dora Helms for typing. All she would do was give us our assignment & leave the classroom to spend the entire hour in the teacher's lounge smoking cigarettes! She'd return right before the bell rang. I liked her alot! I liked A.C. Allen as well...a soft-spoken guy. BUT, his wife, hard-nose Elizabeth taught me Biology & gave me a ZERO for refusing to dissect a frog. Just couldn't do it, man...too gross for me! And to think that 5 years later I'd be working at "The General's Hospital" (as the ninja's called it)...seeing a lot of blood & guts & even assisting on autopsies. Oh how I wish Elizabeth coulda seen me then...
BQ~ http://myspace.com/fiddledeedeeme

F.Y.I.

First Annual Off-Premises Chukker Reunion Party @ THE YELLOWHAMMER on University Boulevard, Saturday
DECEMBER 29
http://www.myspace.com/theyellowhammer