Saturday, March 01, 2008

Hey y'all:

I spent the afternoon with "Major General" Jack Warner
touring his museum.http://www.warnermuseum.org/quicktour1.htm
That man is a force of nature & I certainly hope someone will film him in action with his red laser pointer and also with him seated on a standard television studio set with a black background while showing him superb images of the thousands of works of art he owns.

"Gosh, I told the guy, ' The first four things I bought from you only cost me $20,000. How can you THINK of charging me half a million for only one now!'
He says,'Jack, that was 40 years ago.' "

The DHS Seniors EARLY SIXTIES
are planning a reunion at the barn at Landmark Park on November 22.
AS FAR AS WE KNOW THIS IS THE FRIST MULTI-YEAR DHS REUNION.
Contact me & I'll shoot you all the details.

I got some requests for the link to the DHS CLASS OF '67 REUNION.
Let me go find it.
I cannot for the life of me find that link so somebody please send me the link for the DHS CLASS OF '67 REUNION.

Allen Jackson's playing Bryant-Denny before A-day so if any uv ya got any pull wid Allen,
check in wid me.
We need Allen to do us a favor.

image courtesy of http://www.ripete.com/

Ripete Records
is the name of the game when it comes to the soundtrack to our senior year of 1967-68.
Please check this cat out.
All I hear is that he's too legit to quit.
http://www.ripete.com/



Courtesy of the Dothan High Class of '68 website
http://classof68.myevent.com/

A Perspective:
Intended to be Humorous but Became Much too Serious
by Sharman Burson Ramsey


“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens


It was a crisp fall Friday night at RIP HUGHES Stadium. The lights shone brightly on the emerald gridiron. I stood behind my megaphone at attention while a local minister prayed over the PA system. Rodney and Bradley Dennis, band leaders, directed the band to stand. The band began to play the “Star Spangled Banner” and Miss Essie Mae Smitherman’s voice rang out over the sound system into the cool clear night. While we all stood, the band continued playing and we sang the Alma Mater. I remember thinking, “Remember this. This is one perfect moment.” My heart filled. I looked up at the crowds and then up at the sky and whispered, “Thank you, God.”

At the same time, half a world away, a young American evaded the Viet Cong and the glaring sun in a rice paddy in Vietnam. Around him, weapons blazed, bombs exploded and friends were blown apart. The young man put his head in his hands and cried out in despair, “Oh, my God.”

On the CBS evening news, violent images blazed into our living rooms nightly on our color television sets. Walter Cronkite cited body counts.

The guys in our class turned 18 and signed up for the draft. Fifty-eight thousand American lives were lost out in a war most Americans did not understand why we were fighting.

Forty years later, Katie Couric on the CBS nightly news shows a young American half a world away evading Alkaida operatives in the blazing sun in a desert in Iraq in a war most Americans do not understand why we are fighting. Nearly four thousand have died. Some of those young men and now women are our sons and daughters. Oh, dear God.


And the beat goes on.


We were sheltered in a class that remained white and the only drugs we knew about were nicotine and alcohol. They were used mainly by guys that wore black leather jackets. Girls that “did it” with guys did not brag about it but feared the consequences…pregnancy and early marriage…ostracism. Contraceptives were not handed out…or discussed…in school. And abortions were illegal, back street, and dangerous.

Essie Mae Smitherman told us in our Biology class that the developing embryo mimics the evolutionary process in its development. “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” in the developing fetus, she said. Using that reasoning, it’s just tissue, not a real human…yet… Four years later abortion was legalized with Roe v. Wade.


Technology is fast changing our perspective on abortion. When one can see into the womb and see an embryo avoid a probe or get a 3 D ultrasound of the fetus sucking its thumb, we can relate to this as another human being. As Schweitzer put it…”Life that wants to live.”


And the beat goes on.


Our high school years were a time of awakening.

That first day of my sophomore year, I walked down the hall of Dothan High School behind two pair of the broadest shoulders I had ever seen. I surmised Young Junior must grow bigger guys than Girard. I mentioned this to my mother and she said they must be corn fed. Hmm. Those shoulders belonged to Woody Garner and Dennis Ray Clark. They took up the entire width of the corridor. Indeed, until that point I don’t think I ever noticed guys shoulders. But these were truly memorable, even today forty years later.

And then there was Milton Carter with his bone-melting blue eyes who surveyed the world in a Cool Hand Luke sort of way and strode with a James Dean swagger. Yet, his twin brother, Myron with eyes very nearly as blue drew you in with a Mel Gibson William Wallace type of confidence and a megawatt smile. Here was a leader of men. One to lead an army of Scots.

My best friend Karen Jackson and I watched basketball with intensity. We decided we preferred basketball over football because of the tight shorts the guys wore. Mike Brown and Sammy Smith wore those shorts the best, we decided. Karen married Sammy right out of college. Mike we merely appreciated from afar. Twenty years and one male midlife crisis later her marriage became a statistic in the 50% of marriages that end in divorce.

Elsie Allen typecast me as a vestal virgin in the Latin Club fashion show. Fortunately, I met a guy with compelling dimples and an evil sense of humor who believed it was easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. I married him. We’re still married.

Perhaps there is a deeper message here. Dimples and a sense of humor remain when the tight buns are gone.

The Pill brought with it something called sexual liberation. Unbound by potential unwanted pregnancies sex became recreational and people began having “relationships” unburdened by commitment. Sex roles blurred. Sexual diseases became an epidemic. What started out as a quest for the real meaning of life, “Make love, not War,” got lost in experimentation and wound up in a loneliness and alienation that has led to a lost “War on Drugs.” All because liberty became license during our generation.


Drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain.


September 1965, the first day of my high school career, my vigorous, tall, handsome, well-respected father drove my across-the-street neighbor Skip Miskell and me to the front door of the high school. He smiled encouragingly at me as I stepped out of the car, knowing my anxiety. His brown eyes warmed as he said to me, “Daddy loves you, baby.” And then he drove off to see an office full of patients.

Today he sits in the home he built nearly sixty years ago thinking it is a motor court and the house across the street is a honky tonk with a stable behind it. Women in red bathing suits parade across Mark Andrews’ roof (once Excel Watson’s roof) next door. At least it is entertaining to a man with macular degeneration who has lost his ability to take those medical tests he continued for years after retiring or drive the Cadillac that sits outside the window where he can see it. He begs to “go home.” Yet he knows me and misses me when I am not there to visit him. His eyes warm when he sees me and he smiles a gap tooth smile because his bridges no longer fit and he is too weak to go to a dentist. And no one makes house calls to the doctor who delivered three babies the night he married…in their homes.

He and my mother continue to live for each other. Whenever I leave, he says, “Daddy loves you, baby,” and I feel guilty. He gave me so much and I give so little and yet he still loves me.

This is a sandwich time of life. The joys of children and grandchildren compete with the guilt over not spending more time with aging parents. And much of the time you spend is mainly spent listening to them complain about how you never come to see them. I catch myself listening to myself wondering if I do the same thing to my own children.

I have decided to “get a life”…outside of my children so that I will not be SO dependent upon them when I am the age of my parents. Yet I get such joy out of just hearing their voice on the telephone I know the dependency will be there regardless of how determined I am. We are so vulnerable to those we love.


And the beat goes on.


When remembering that crisp night and the football game, I also remember wishing I was Miss Essie Mae Smitherman getting to sing the “Star Spangled Banner” over the microphone at Rip Hughes Stadium for a Friday night football game.

Those years were the best of times. Yet they were the also the worst of times. I enjoy remembering them. I do not want to repeat them.

This is the best time of life.

I may yet get to sing the “Star Spangled Banner” at a DHS football game.


The beat goes on.

La, di, da, di, di. La, di, da, di, dah.


Buddy Henry & One of His Mules

Furtrader,

B.Buie and J.R. Cobb were on Platt’s Show this morning. I missed the majority of it.You can call WDHN Channel 18,334-793-1818 (Production) or ask Buie who might get you a copy.

Bud

Bud:

Yeah, I talked to Buie & he said Charlie Platt had been after him for a long time to get J.R. and him on the program to sing some songs.

He SAYS he's gonna copy it & send it to me.

Love dah mule!

best,

Bob


Roberto, got a call late last nite (late last nite) from Dothan's greateast guitarist who is now pianodave@comcast.net DAVID ADKINS! He told me that my ex-attorney, Joel Katz is involved in a major project in Dothan. It seems to be a theme park ala Branson with some heavy weights out of Nashbob, TN!!!!! I'm putting in a call monday to Joel Katz in Atlanta to get the skinny on what's going on in Houston County, Ala.........................................If you know anything, let me know! Alison is playing Austin at Dirty Dog Saloon on March 11th during sxsw week! We booked two Spring Fests dates today...........Batesville, MS.Friday 16......and Osceola Arkansas, Blues/Rock Festival May 17th.......Please spread ther word for us! We love you brother!!! Keep the baby, Faith!!!!! Robert Nix.........................................................


RN:


Yeah, I hear from Piano Dave ever now and then.

I really don't know that much about it. I'll start doing some research. George Jones is involved but he's been promoting real estate around Enterprise for a couple of years now.

Dothan is getting quite a reputation as a retirement community. I'm pretty sure that more people have retired to Dothan from the Panama Canal Zone than to any other place on Earth!.

These hurricanes have pushed everything inland due to insurance and convenience plus Florida property taxes are outrageous. You don't want to have a horse farm anywhere near the coast because of the evacuations.

Give you an idea of stuff happening here, they're about to build 300 more yacht slips at the marina in Demopolis. They'll be for storage and quick evacuation from the coast via the Tombigbee River. Get this- my son Christopher is cleaning up a yacht today that he and his buddies are gonna take down to Orange Beach next month. They're gonna dock it at the Wharf for three days of Widespread Panic concerts. You don't get no better than that when you're nineteen.

I'll do some homework later. I gotta go pick up all the big stuff Lee bought at garage sales this morning. That's my Every Saturday chore.


best,
rr



From The Dothan Eagle
http://www.dothaneagle.com

Country Crossing is a $100 million to $300 million private investment expected to attract a half million visitors and employ up to 2,987 people in direct and indirect jobs in its first year. That is expected to grow to one million visitors and 4,242 jobs by the end of five years.

Country music legend George Jones, spokesperson for Ronnie Gilley Properties, told the approximately 150 people attending the county commission meeting that he is excited to be a part of the project. Jones will be one of several anchor artists, yet to be announced, to perform at Country Crossing at least four times a year.

Nearly a dozen Nashville stars have signed letters of intent for the project with seven others expected soon. Gilley anticipates 40 to 50 entertainment commitments, coming from his ties to Nashville record producer James Stroud and Atlanta attorney Joe Katz, an entertainment law specialist with Greenberg Traurig.


The mother of all tourism projects
is being called Country Crossing but it would, in fact, create a country music resort destination and not merely be a crossroads in Houston County.


County officials unanimously approved a development agreement with Ronnie Gilley Properties of Enterprise on Monday, for the creation of a Branson, Mo.-like resort with big-name entertainment, bingo, and a state-of-the-art amphitheater. The project would include hotels, restaurants, retail shops and themed-stores with ties to various country music stars.

“This is a project that could create a national destination for our county and region,” County Commission Chairman Mark Culver said. “This project only requires our support … and adds to the economic diversity by filling a market niche currently untapped.”


image courtesy of http://www.warnermuseum.org

Friday, February 29, 2008

http://www.gridironbash.com/

B:

Let me know how much you wanna push this because all of these artists could be involved.

best,
rr

Thursday, February 28, 2008


image by Clinton Bevis
The '66 Los Maniceros Banquet


>Hi Robert,
>I don’t know if you remember me. I played in the local area with a number of bands including two stints with Norman at the 1890 club in Dothan. First, do you have any more details about Norman’s passing, arrangements, etc., and can you give me e-mail addresses for Frank Tanton (who I played in some bands with and was also in my wedding). George Cheshire would also be good as I also worked with him. I actually entered the music scene in Dothan in around 1970 working with Mike Griggs and Jerry Keel. We worked out of an old radio station studio downtown over Mike’s Father’s flooring store just down the block from the Houston Hotel. I then went on to work with Jerry Wise in a band called “The Shop” and after that played with several musicians/bands locally and eventually with Norman when The Bubble was the house band at the 1890. Our line up at the time was Norman, me on Keys, Kruschev (remember him?) on guitar, Dickey Burrows on Bass, Wayne Andrews on drums, and a horn section with Joe Buffard and Jeff Crocket (saxophones), and a guy named Freddie on trumpet (sorry, last name eludes me). I would love to contact some of my old friends and pay my sympathies to Pam. Does Richard Burke also ring a bell? Thanks for your reply.

Max Montgomery

Norman Andrews passed away this week.
I have some archives concerning Norman Andrews & THE CONCRETE BUBBLE
posted at ZERO, NORTHWEST FLORIDA http://robertoreg.blogspot.com


Robert

I posted a tune that was on a Concrete Bubble Tape on our MySpace


Best
Lancaster

JL:

I'm pretty sho' you talking about WITCHES BREW.

Muchas, dude.

Everybody in ZERO, NORTHWEST FLORIDA certainly appreciates you promptly attending to your
CIVIC DUTY!

My response to a report that DHS Vice-Principal sexually harassed the girls:

Re: It was the vice principal who was lookin all nasty at me.

Buddy, I'd keep you there too if it was up to me.

S's response:
That would have been hunky dory.
However, when I was 16-18 and a guy who was probably at least 30 was prying me open with his eyes, that was just pervy!


Norman
was a legend in these parts.
Billy Gant was too.

Thanks for sending the message out.

H

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

When my little 6 yr. old barefooted Rebel Son of a Bitch ass showed up at Cloverdale I named my self "Robert"
but the lunchroom ladies called me "Robert Earl" because of my Daddy.

I was Master of Ceremonies at our 6th grade banquet.

I was named Robert after my Uncle Robert Paul

http://home.comcast.net/~leepake/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

f" called me this pm as I was leaving the shop and told me that Billy G. had called with the news that Norman A. had crossed over.

I first met Norman when I was a young turk workin' with my partners in crime at studio four. I never played with him but I spent a lot of time workin' on his projects at the studio.

Clique played before the Bubble at Charlie S'. benefit at the civic center back in the day. After the Bubble I believe Goldsboro came on with the Bubble backing him, could be wrong, but I think Norman did the high and lofty falseto part to "Honey".

We are missing one of ours tonight.

rbiii

Billy Gant just called with the sad news that our old friend and fellow musician, Norman Andrews died last night after a long illness... I don't have any details on funeral arrangements at this time but hopefully I'll know more in the next day or so...

Best Regards,
Frank Tanton

an email from Burke from years ago...

We also need to develop a thread for Norman Andrews and the Concrete Bubble.
Norman should be a wealth of information regarding the correct chronology.
George Cheshire and Lamar Alley need to be contacted also.
We should also profile this period with Doc Greenfield's Club Capri and
Lounge in the Baptist Bottom.
His venue during this period was almost home
to Ike and Tina Turner, the BarKays,
Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson,
Clarence Carter, Otis Redding, Percy Sledge
that list goes on and on. I
think Little Lois, Lois Johnson, I think, of Little Lois and the Capri's
still lives here.
She did backing vocals on my recordings with Clique in
75. Jay Scott from Dothan also needs citing for his work with Alicia
Bridges (I like the Night Life), Beeverteeth and Clique
during this period.
He was a great saxaphonist and Latin Percissionist.
I just got off the phone with Mitch Goodson. He is going to drop by the
shop and I'll get Frank Tanton, Doug and David Morris, David Adkins and
Jimmy Dean's brother Robert Dean
, who booked all of us during this period,
over and if we can hold it in the road long enough we'll try to get some
straight info, well, we'll have straight info until a wheel runs off. Mitch
has been disabled for some time now but brought up his working for three
different owners at the Old Dutch. His parents would take him to work there
when he was fifteen.
He said Lamar Spence of the Impacts helped him get in,
The Impacts, there's a flash from the past. Mitch also had two recordings
make the Billboard Top 100.
We also need to see if WBAM archived any of the Big Bam Shows during this
Period. I know Larry Coe played several concerts there as did all the
aforementioned pickers with the exception of moi.
Later...
rbiii

FROM KENNETH GRIFFITH:


After I left Beaver Teeth, I played with almost every band in Dothan: Norman Andrews and the Concrete Bubble, Wilbur Walton, Jr. and Blackhawk (we played one summer at the Hang Out in PC), Strawdawg, MG and the Capers. In my mid-twenties I went off to school at Auburn to study agronomy and have never played professionally again, though I still play and try to keep up my chops.


JL:

Like everything else in America, we decided that changing the name of CUBA, ALABAMA would improve the scene but nothing is different.

We just out here up in amongst the world discussing what seems important at the time.

When you "google" a title that might be on CUBA/ZERO, ALABAMA/WEST FLORIDA, just put the word robertoreg behind it and you'll find out most of what we have here.

Good to hear from you. I'm saving my comp time. I plan to go to Dothan on Thursday, April 26, and then come to VP for the Playground Reunion on Saturday, April 28 for SATURDAY IN THE PARK http://www.heritage-museum.org/SIP2007.htm
and if I'm sober enough, I'm heading to I-10 before sundown to crash on Dauphin Island. Otherwise, I'll smell the curry powder and spend my money at the PATEL MOTEL!

Sunday, April 29, is my 57TH birthday. I got some other people interested in the festivities in VP so keep us in the loop.

I'm shooting this out to former NORMAN ANDREWS & THE CONCRETE BUBBLE alumni & ASSOCIATES so we should get some feedback about WITCHES BREW.

Know nothing about CUDZUE from Pensacola.

Let me hear from ya.

Best,
RR http://myspace.com/robertoreg



Here's some mo' Wiregrass Rock History courtesy of Hanke[DHS '66]

Subject :
Dothan bands part 2

Hi,
I don't want to bother you too much but I thought I'd try to clear up a couple of things. David Tedder was the one who died in a traffic accident. He was the drummer with the Offbeats and also Norman Andrews and the Concrete Bubble.
In 1972, Billy Gant, George Cheshire, Roan Campbell and I released a record on the Shelby Singleton label called "Hard Times".
It actually made it into the top 100 for a very short period of time. We played a few shows (state fairs etc.) before we all went our separate ways.

Bill Hanke

The Concrete Bubble
The Crawford Report

Published Tuesday, March 21, 2006
by Bill Crawford, GBAHB Executive Director

The Concrete Bubble
by: 2006 GBAHB Executive Vice President, Bill Crawford

A long time ago and in another life, I was a young second lieutenant in the United States Army going through flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. I was young, single and full of adventure. Sometimes my friends and I would be out and about in search of female companionship. It seemed that every nightclub in the vicinity of Fort Rucker featured a band called “Norman Andrews and the Concrete Bubble.” I thought of the name of that band the other day as I was watching a program on TV talking about the real estate bubble that supposedly exists in the United States. The news reporters talk about real estate prices that have escalated at a huge and unrealistic rate. This false price increase is the supposed “bubble” that they say will “pop” at any moment, which would cause a radical downshift in prices and create financial ruin for homeowners, builders, real estate professionals and others. Well, guess what they won’t tell you? That may be the case in some parts of the country, but it is not so in our area.

Michael Carliner, Economist for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB,) defines a bubble as, “1. Large purchases by speculators hoping to flip properties often even before construction is completed, 2. Land accounting for a high share of the total cost of the house, and 3. Supply constraints such as severe growth controls producing bidding frenzies.” Carliner analyzed the data regarding Alabama and concluded, “Although there are probably stories of big gains on some Alabama homes, it has not had the symptoms of a possible housing bubble....” Additionally, Dr. Leonard Zumpano of the University of Alabama recently noted when asked about a real estate bubble in Alabama, “there is not going to be a big balloon bursting.” In other words, there is no real estate bubble in our area.

Our area’s economy is also booming. You read stories daily of new jobs coming to our area, low unemployment, growth, development, new shopping centers being constructed, and many other things. These events don’t just occur through happenstance. Rather, growth is happening because investors know something the news media doesn’t like to report. Things are going quite well in the Greater Birmingham area. Sadly, it is hard to sell advertisements with good news, so the media continues to report the bad. They make nationwide trends appear to be the case in the entire country even when it just ain’t so.

You can buy a new home now. Money is plentiful; there are many ways to finance a new home purchase. Gone are the days of a required 10 percent down payment. Mortgages can still be found at rates below 6% with even lower rates on 15 year mortgages. Financing options are greater now than at any time for homebuyers. There has really never been a better time for anyone to go out and buy a new home; somebody simply has to get them off of the fence and show them the light.

There are, granted, a few locations in our area where home sales are a bit slower than they should be right now. These locations have more than six months of inventory on the ground in price ranges beginning at over $250,000. Without doubt, you should closely monitor areas where you are planning to build and see what is already there. Hopefully, the upcoming Spring Home Tour will provide a shot in the arm in locations where sales have been slow, and can assist in the movement of some housing stock.

In conclusion, let your customers know that there is no real estate bubble in our area that is about to pop. If anything, our bubble is a “Concrete Bubble.”


Subject:
Re: Jim Hodges' Reminiscenses Of His Uncle John & Aunt Lena Plus Tanton Pitch...
To:
robertoreg2003@yahoo.com

Roberto----
Well, we all got lucky when Frank Tanton jumped into this mix. He remembers stuff that I am totally fogged out on about Dothan music. Larry Coe could also offer a lots of info. I remember Frank as a very talented musician and one of the nicest guys I ever met, and am happy to still know him today. I went to high school with his older brother, who we all considered to be a genius. The Morris boys were so good I sometimes got embarrassed to act like a musician around them, and who can forget Norman Andrews! Me and John Rainey used to worm into the joints out on the Strip (Napier Field Road in the late fifties and early sixties) to hear him do his thing way before I was old enough to do that. Does anybody remember Obie Lee? He shouldn't be forgotten. I think his last name was Daughtry. And Lamar Alley is like kinfolk to me; he and my brother Robert are very close.
Roll on, Roberto---this stuff brings back a lots of memories of the Dothan music scene, which are worth remembering.
Jimmy Dean

P.S. Wonder if we can get Rondy Husto.......er.........Rodney Justo, to recall when he played the Farm Center at a Buie concert when I was still in high school and he jumped off the stage ( a flatbed trailer) and incited the audience to dance when the local police decided to enforce a no dancing ordinance at concerts. I think Jimmy Clanton's brother Ike was booked at that concert as a Mystery Guest. Buddy Buie can also clear that up.

THE OLD HEADS FROM DOTHAN KEEP GETTIN' IT TOGETHER!!!!

Hi, Robert,

You probably don't know me but I played with several bands
in the 70s and 80s (lead guitar) with folks from Dothan....
Lamar Alley, Larry Coe, Larry Holmes, Jerry Stenson, Billy Gant,
Bill Hanke, Roan Campbell.... just to mention a few.
Most of the bands I was with were road bands and
didn't spend much time working in Dothan.

One of the first local clubs I worked at was the Oasis
on highway 84, with Roger Dye and Frankie Davis.
Norman Andrews was working just down the road at another club...
can't recall the name....old age I guess!
The other local club I played was the Flamingo on 231 south,
later to become Cowboy's.
Robert Dean sent me your address....
said you talked about many of my old friends.

I was up at Bill (Willie) Akridge's Farewell Party a few weeks ago. Really great to see some of the old gang! Please add me to your mail list. I live inTallahassee, now, and work for the State of Florida.

Have a great day.
George Cheshire



& now on to DOTHAN BANDS!
From: "Bill Hanke"
Subject: Dothan bands
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 10:12:20 -0400
Hi,
The Plantation club was out hiway 84. The It'l do club was in Geneva Alabama. A big fight broke out one night when we were playing there and the place was set on fire and burnt to the ground. Don's lounge was in the Northside Mall.
The Ranch was about a mile from the Flamingo club, on the same road.
Another place was the Alibi Inn. Thats where Norman Andrews and the Offbeats played for several years.It was about a mile from the Oasis. I saw the Webs play several times at the Oasis.
Bill Hanke

Monday, February 25, 2008

Hey Roberto---
I could recommend the Beaugators.
http://www.myspace.com/thebeaugators
They are friends of mine and are great musicians.
I have to wonder if the name comes from our name for our Girard High School principal, Bogator McNiel.
JD

Hey y'all:

Whut wuz the frist thang on my mind?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah! Not the shooting!
that'll wait till later...

I feel our old Cloverdale buddy William Wheatley
told it ALL
when he wrote this:

I have made myself a solemn promise never to miss another reunion. The memories are so wonderful, and my memories of high school so refreshed, alive and warm, that keeping in touch with my classmates has become very important to me. It all came together for us because of the late Dan Smith, who twisted arms, charmed and cajoled us all to make the 40th reunion. The spirit he created in all of us has taken on a life of its own now. Attending the reunions gave me an understanding of how important Dothan High School and my old friends from my class were in those formative years called high school. Those years did more to make me who I am today than anything else in my life (except possibly military service). I am indeed sad that the Class of '61 seems not to have retained the feeling of closeness that keeps me coming back to the reunions.



Last Tuesday, Feb. 19,
my property manager said,"I rented a house in Kaulton to a bunch of thugs & they're slingin' dope."

"How do you know they're slingin'"

"Concerned citizens. The only thing that came back on the woman's criminal check was DRIVING WITHOUT INSURANCE."

"She's like Fagin from Oliver Twist."

"Huh?"

"She uses her children to commit her crimes."

"Should I call Narcotics?"

"Naw, let Nature takes it's course."

Friday morning, February 22,
Phone rang off the hook all morning but I wasn't answering it.

Karen, our property manager, came in right on time at 7:30 & she as soon as she got to her desk, she answered the phone.

Shooting in Kaulton. Evict the tenants. Lee's taking a nap but wake him up to sign the notice.

8 A.M. I'm in the 'Hood knockin' on doors and consoling my friends in the neighborhood.
I told 'em, "Get some of you kinfolks to buy the damn thing & you won't have to worry about this happening!"

Anywayzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Fagin, uh, I mean, Mama Kong-
show up & honk her horn and nobody come out.
She got out of her car & pulled the eviction notice off the door where I'd duct taped it.

"What's this!"

"That's an eviction notice," I said.

"What fo'!"

"According to the police report you violated your lease!"

"You already got the police report?"

"Yeah, the Chief faxed it to us."

No further discussion.

There's so much I would love to say but I'm in no shape for it.

PLEASE LISTEN TO OLDIES RADIO & YOU'LL GET THE VIBE!
http://www.tropicalglen.com/

Early this morning I went into this house to tune it up for a Section 8 inspection that were scheduled fo'
TODAY...
(dat a little late but it beeze dat a way sometime...)

There was Tuscaloosa City Truck parked in the driveway when I walked up the door.
Big Whiskey Chief Bone-In-The-Nose
was sitting on the couch in the den right in front of the BIG SCREEN TV ruling the roost.

I went to work.

They ended up calling me WHITE.

I said,"I'm not going to respond to your rascist terms!"

"What you talkin' about?"

"I'm light-skinned.
My Mamma & Daddy had me check Negro or Black on every form I've ever filled out in my life & for almost 58 years I've been a BLACK MAN IN ALABAMA & if everybody did what I did we'd all be Black
& pretty soon & we probably be getting U.N. Aid."

BIG WHISKEY CHIEF BONE IN THE NOSE
(who was driving a city truck) sez, "This country ain't never done nothing for the Negro."

I said,"Well I've been working in Section 8 housing for 9 years and every tenant who I ever worked for whose rent was paid by the government was dark-skinned."

BIG WHISKEY CHIEF BONE IN THE NOSE shut up & I left to get a part.

When I returned to the tenant's house the City truck was gone and nothing was mentioned of the incident & these are some naturally smart-assed people so that's what you call VICTORY!.

& if I wadn't just a mere little SPECK OF A
human being I'd clap my hands three times & BIG WHISKEY CHIEF & HIS ENTIRE CITY/COUNTY/STATE/FEDERAL/U.N.
YARD would be where they belong!

Oh yeah,

If you rilly wanna get your battries recharged, go to the B'ham Museum of Art
http://www.artsbma.org/

I looked at art from all over the world but with an Alabama connection for over two hours & a bunch of it was from the Mediterranean where my Daddy served in WWII.

I'm gonna document all the stuff from Catch 22 just for my son Christopher http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=178172075


Oh, HELL,
I gotta tell this story.
We got this kid,
well he's not a kid-hell, he's pushing 40 & he's a Human Wreck!
He shows up at POSSUM DEN LODGE # 2
on University Boulevard at about 4 P.M.
& the S.O.B. proceeds to eat up all my potato chips, bananas, grapes, crackers, tortilla chips, nuts-
Today the S.O.B. ate two thirds of a day old Apple Strudel Puff Pastry from Publix we picked up from Temporary Emergency Services this morning and it was meant for the girls who open up the YMCA tomorrow morning.

The cat has absolutely no shame.

I said today, "He gets the GUMPTION AWARD FO' 'O8!!!!"

best,
rr



Hey Reg,
If your class wants an evening with the four piece Beaugators it's $1,000.00
http://www.myspace.com/thebeaugators
http://www.myspace.com/beaugator39



the Frank n' Dick two piece is $500.00.
http://www.myspace.com/thebopcats



This is just off the top of my somewhat ethanoled remaining grey matter:
Van Morrison, Domino, Into the Mystic, Wild Night, Crazy Love
Young Rascals, Groovin', Good Lovin, A Beautiful Morning
James Taylor, Fire and Rain, How Sweet It Is, Up On the Roof (Drifters)
The Drifters, Under the Boardwalk
Otis Redding, Dock Of the Bay
Righteous Brothers, Loving Feeling
Classics Four, Spooky
Clarence Carter, Slip Away
Creedence, Suzy Q, Born On The Bayou, Green River
Roy Orbison, Blue Bayou
Buffalo Springfield, For What It's Worth
Stones, Honky Tonk Woman
Marvin Gaye, I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Temptations, Ain't Too Proud To Beg
Lou Rawls, Your Good Thing Is About To End




Claire:

There's another guy who graduated in '68 who knows about our music but he graduated from Waycross which also happened to be an Atlantic Coastline Railroad town like Dothan & it's on 84.

Anywayzzz Greg lives in Atlanta now & he has a website called http://heybabydays.com

His whole business ought to be high school reunions.

Go to Greg's website & check it out.
I don't want to offer to send you a bootleg of Greg's CD from his book
THE HEEEY BABY DAYS OF BEACH MUSIC but I have just put you on to the cat who knows how we can reclaim our generation's music legally.

Greg's patient wife, Nora Marion,
has written a Broadway-type musical based on the book that's over 3 hours long. The story is about this wild ass Gulf Coast/Atlantic Coast girl who works all the bands and her name is Charlena as in OHHHHH, CHARLENA!

{playing OH CHARLENA used to get you locked up in Mexico.
Mexican cats from our generation who played rock'n roll got locked up.
Mexico BANNED rock'n roll just like Cuba!}

BEST,
RR

You'll like both these cats.

Feel free to ask them for help in planning our DHS Seniors '68 40th Reunion the last week in July.

best,
rr

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Check out this juke box link sent to us courtesy of Ray Hutto & I think Sharmon sent it earlier...
http://www.tropicalglen.com/YR-1968.html

Hey Robert----
That sounds like fun, but I couldn't make it happen. But-----if I could, I would see Wilbur (the James Gang) singing, David Adkins (Beaverteeth) on lead guitar and keyboard, Larry Coe (the second Webs) on rhythm guitar, Sidney White (of the high school band I was in with Larry Coe--The Strangers) on drums, me on bass, and any other singers enough from that time and this area to make up an evening, since Wilbur wouldn't sing that long. David doesn't fit the time frame but he is the best musician I have ever worked with.
It would take some money. David and I just went to a studio in Florida to back up Wilbur on four tunes he plans to release soon, so he and Wilbur both are still in the music business and neither of them fit the time frame you refer to. The others of us I mentioned still plug away at day jobs, and gas and lodging would be a consideration. The fun factor would work for Larry, Sydney and me, and Wilbur might see it as an opportunity to push his new songs, but David would likely have to cancel a weekend of work to do it. Anyway, as much fun as this would be for me, I couldn't be the one to talk anybody else into doing it.
Danny Kennedy of my class (64) was our singer in the Strangers, and is still a great singer.

That's one thought.

And of course if you could dynamite my friend Buddy Buie and his wonderful wife Gloria off Lake Eufaula when the fish aren't biting, that would be fantastic.

Your best contact for our class would be Angela Saad here in Dothan, to get the class of 64 into this idea. Our class is likely going to have another reunion in 09, if our past record holds, so this would pre-empt or otherwise get crosswise with that.

Jimmy Dean