I was sitting at my wife’s grandparent’s kitchen table on October 31st in the year 1996 watching the local news.   On this day, I got the news.  Bill Mallory had been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers Football Team.  I likened it to the day the football music died….again.

A day before my 11th birthday on March 17, 1979, my Dad came home, walked into our living room at 204 South Jackson Street in Brownstown and sat on the couch. He told me he had been relieved of his coaching duties at Brownstown Central High School where he had been the head football coach for nine years after three years of being an assistant.  The football music died.  Fortunately, the band struck up again and we were at North Harrison High School the next season.

Those were tough days for me.  I didn’t want to leave Brownstown when I was a kid, but in retrospect I think it was a good thing.  Have you met my wife?  When Coach Mallory was no longer the coach of the Hoosiers I knew we were in for a long cold winter.

Saturday at Indiana University’s Memorial Stadium Carrie and I attended a Celebration of Life in honor of Coach Bill Mallory.  He died on May 25, 2018.  The music didn’t die this time…but there was a sad tune playing for sure.  Sad, but optimistic.  Pride was in the air.  It was a product of doing things the right way.  It was a product of doing things The Mallory Way.  This way produced Mallory Men from Miami of Ohio, Colorado, Northern Illinois, and Indiana University.  They were all accounted for Saturday on a hot day in Memorial Stadium.

I shook Coach Mallory’s hand when I was in high school.  We were visiting practice and one of his graduate assistants, Gil Speer, introduced me and my Dad to him.  My Dad was Gil’s coach in high school 1974-1977.  He said some complimentary things to my Dad with regard to Gil.  Gil is still coaching.  In addition to working at Zionsville High School leading a very successful business program, Gil coaches defensive backs at Franklin College.

At a young age I knew Indiana had stuck in their thumb and pulled out a plumb when they hired Coach Bill Mallory.  I saw a few practices.  He saw everything on the field.  He was one of those.  The ball carrier was taking it up the gut and he saw that and how the receiver wide to the opposite side did not sell the play and got reminded of it even though the play was for big yards.  Success was an every play, all time thing for Coach Mallory.

So here we were in Memorial Stadium nearly twenty-two years since Coach Mallory led his team out of the tunnel.  The last game he coached at Memorial Stadium was November 16, 1996 against Ohio State.  I was not there.  My dear wife, and new bride of eight months, and I were in Oxford watching the Ole Miss Rebels host the LSU Tigers with Aunt Barbara.  The Rebs kicked off early.  They got handled by the boys from the Red Stick.  As we hurdled down I-55 back to Jackson after the game I, for fun, tuned into 970 WAVG the Louisville radio station that covered the Hoosiers at the time.  Miraculously, the game came in.  WAVG is not a powerful station. We listened to IU and Ohio State on our drive back to Jackson.  IU lost 27-17.

Twenty-two years later.  Don Fischer, the Voice of the Hoosiers, said it best.  In the 36 football seasons before Coach Mallory got to Bloomington in 1984, the Hoosiers had five winning seasons.   In the seasons since Coach Mallory was the head coach in 1996, Indiana has had one winning season.

In his 13 years as head coach, Coach Mallory had seven winning regular seasons.  The 1986, his third team, finished 6-6 after a losing to Florida State in the All-America Bowl.  I watched that one playing cards at Mick Rutherford’s parents house.

Anthony Thompson, the greatest Hoosier of them all, spoke and gave a prayer.

IU players and Indiana State University players were in attendance.  Curt Mallory, Coach’s youngest son in the head coach at ISU.

There have been many changes to Memorial Stadium since Coach Mallory led his teams here.

Neither end zone was filled in when Coach Mallory was leading the team.  Had he not led when he did, they wouldn’t be completing this work.

On the aisle between section 111 and 11 I sat with my Mom and Dad for many a wonderful Indiana University Football games.  I cherish those times.  The rides up to the game.  The fellowship.  The good crowds.  Keith Jackson and Bob Griese were in The House for the Ohio State game in 1988.  That was the greatest game of them all.  Indiana beat Ohio State 41-7.  That is not a typo.  The Hoosiers have not bested the Buckeyes since.  But they will.

I agree with Don Fischer.  Coach Tom Allen, the current Indiana University coach, will lead the Hoosiers to better days.  As I sat and watched the 2017 Rose Bowl, I wrote Coach Allen a letter of encouragement and belief.  I hope he got it.

One of Coach Allen’s assistant coaches, Mark Hagen, a Mallory Man and IU linebacker 1987-1991, was the last speaker we listened to Saturday.  He spoke of IU beating Ohio State in 1987 and how OSU coach Earl Bruce called it “The darkest day in OSU football history.”  Coach Mallory took that as slap in the face.  Wait til they get to our house next year was the sentiment.  Hagen told the story like it happened yesterday.  For many of us, it still feels that way.  IU 41-7 over Ohio State in 1988.  I know this is a restatement.  It is that special.

So special I brought my ticket stub from that game to Coach Mallory’s Celebration of Life.

I handed this ticket stub to good hands Saturday.  It is a moment I will cherish and celebrate in honor of all of the Mallory Men.

Speaking the Hoosier Football Rights…

Danny Johnson

Gads.  It has been a long while since I tapped keys on this page.  I think it has been too long.  I have no doubt others might disagree.

This past Sunday the North Harrison High School Class of 2018 celebrated Commencement in the gym.  The place was packed.  It should have been.  These were great students and they deserved to be recognized.  I wish I could mention each one of them here.  I will, however, share with you a photo of my niece, Katie, walking to the stage to accept her diploma.  It was a very proud moment.  To know that her mother in 1984, me in 1986, her Uncle Darrell in 2001…I think, and now her in 2018.  All of my kinfolk graduated from schools in Mississippi or Louisiana.  So I think that is kind of neat.

Congrats and God Bless to all the Graduates!

Last week we lost the greatest football coach Indiana University has ever known.  Bill Mallory died after complications following a fall he took.  Tragic.  So very tragic.  I saw Coach Mallory a few years ago before an IU game.  He was 80 and he looked like he could kick my ass.  I think he could have.  That is also why he is the greatest IU football coach of all time.  He could still kick my ass!  Hired in 1984, Coach Mallory’s first IU team was 0-11.  I was a junior in high school.  By 1986 he had the Hoosiers in a Bowl Game for the first time since 1979.  He won Big Ten Coach of Year honors in 1986 and 1987 at INDIANA!  That is respect folks!  He took the Hoosiers to 6 of the 11 bowl games in school history.  He won two of three bowl wins in IU history. Of course IU in their infinite wisdom fired the man.  IU has not had a history of good coaching decisions.  There is not enough room here for me to give Coach Mallory the credit he deserves.

Bill Mallory Field @ Memorial Stadium is the only answer for that.

This past high school baseball season I had the chance to be Public Address Announcer for NHHS Cougar games.  It was a blast.  Thanks goes to Athletic Director Hal Pearson for letting me do it!  The team had a winning season and I congratulate them.  Coach Cody Johnson and his staff did a great job.

This past fall I wrote a piece or two about the NHHS Football team.  Brett Rudolph was a guy on the football team I featured in some of my writing.  Brett was the NHHS catcher this past year, as he was last year.  He is so gifted behind the plate.

In 1978 as a Brownstown Little League player, I played EVERY position in the field that year.  I played all the infield positions.  I played all the outfield positions.  I pitched (one game) and I caught a few games when I had to.  Looking back, I am thankful I can say that now at age 50.  At age 10, I was not so sure.

One of the things catchers do is follow the play down the first base line to catch up with any errant throws to first base.  The catcher reacts to the hit, runs down the base line and make sure the throws to first are true and if they are not, he finds the ball and makes the decision as to what to do with it.  The following sequence was taken in the first round of the sectional at Silver Creek…otherwise known as Sewer Creek.

The batter about to hit the ball.

Brett runs toward first.

Brett hustles his butt off to get down the line.  Don’t ever think a catcher just squats behind the plate all day!  Brett showed us how it is supposed to be done…again.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Not long ago today I worked up a sweat doing 40 minutes on the elliptical and a couple miles on the stationary bike.

These days not much can get me away from watching Moody Blues concert videos while I exercise.  I tried to start Hill Street Blues over again and that didn’t work.  It will, eventually.  I tried watching John Steed and Emma Peel again.  The English Avengers.  You may not know them.  You should.  They couldn’t do it for me.  I am still watching The Moody Blues.  It is a slow fade for me.  Knowing I won’t see The Moody Blues again.  That is odd.  The calendar has had a Moodies date on it more often than not since 1986.

Something captured my attention today and gave me a shiver up the spine that I rarely even get whilst watching The Moodies.  The fast nine qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  There is not another place like it.  I have seen concerts at Red Rocks, the Ryman Auditorium, and the Tanglewood Shed.  I have seen football games at Ole Miss, Neylan Stadium in Knoxville, and The Rose Bowl.  You could place all of these places inside the four turns of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  It is a special place.

I wouldn’t know this if it were not for Adam Disque.

Living in Harrison County, a Southern Indiana county that is along the Ohio River and much closer to Kentucky than it is Indianapolis, we get our news from Louisville, of course.  We don’t gravitate to the north.  Most of my travels to Indianapolis the last twenty  years have been primarily for two things…to see The Moody Blues sing and watch Peyton Manning play football.

Adam Disque changed all of that for me.  He invited me to go on a field trip with the 4th grade class from Medora Elementary School some years ago.  I went.  I went back with them.  I went back with them again.  One time I took my dear wife, Carrie.  Looking back, it means the world to me to say I ate lunch with  4th graders under the Pagoda at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Thank you, Adam.

Not that I did not have an appreciation for the Indianapolis 500 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The race and place are hallowed ground for me.  I know it better than any other sporting event, except the Super Bowl.  It has been a tradition in my family to watch this race.  I can go back to remember when we listened to it on the radio live and watched the replay of the race later that night on ABC.  Was it delayed to us because we, living in Brownstown, were considered to be in the Indy TV market?  I don’t know.

But I do know I watched A.J. Foyt win in 1977 late that Sunday night after we had listened to the race sitting in lawn chairs in the front yard.

Today I watched Ed Carpenter, an Indy native, win the pole position for this year’s race.  I hope he wins.

One day I hope to get to the race.  Schedules and timing have not been kind of late.  But that is okay.  Listening to those cars go around that track is one of the most distinctive audible memories I have.  Carrie and I went to qualifications a few years ago. It is amazing.

Here are some memorable photos from IMS.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I on the Medora Elem. field trip.

My hero, Adam Disque, and his 4th grade class.  Without them, I would not know all I do today about the I-5!.  I am forever grateful.

The car that won the first race in 1911.  Ray Harroun was the winner.

Learning about the cars.

Iconic.

Yes, I did kiss the yard of bricks and I am glad I did!  A.J. Foyt and Pancho Carter and Mario Andretti drove cars on that space.  Wow.

I am proud to say I took this picture.  The most coveted yard in all of racing.

Thank you, Adam.

One of Gordon Johncock’s winning cars.

Speaking the Indy 500 Rights…

Danny Johnson

When folks talk to me about personal taste in music, book authors, sports, and travel spots I am quick to point out that we can’t love it all.  My personal testimony that I bring up in this realm is that I just plain don’t like strawberry ice cream.  I love strawberries.  They are a part of my youth.  So is Jay C brand Neapolitan my Mom bought at the Jay C in Brownstown when I was a kid and I wouldn’t put a spoon in that strawberry section on the left unless my life depended on it.  It has worked out so far.

On this past Saturday night, my dear wife, Carrie, and I were in St. Louis to see a music concert featuring the group Train and Daryl Hall and John Oates.

In this photo, Hall and Oates are joined by Pat Monahan of Train as they sing the song they wrote and recorded called Philly Forget Me Not.  It is a catchy tune.

Before the concert, I told Carrie when I think about Hall and Oates the first thing that comes to mind is being in the basement of the house I grew up in on Jackson Street in Brownstown.  I sat on an old couch in the unfinished basement we had.  There was a silver JC Penney mono radio that sat on the freezer bringing in 1010 WCSI in Columbus.  There I heard Casey Kasem introduce Hall and Oates hit Rich Girl on American Top Forty in 1977.  It is still palpable in my memory.  And before Daryl Hall and John Oates took the stage, on a screen was a barrage of likenesses of old 45s representing the hits they have had.  And the first voice to be heard before they took the stage was old recorded footage of Casey Kasem on AT 40.  I smiled.  It was nice.  I had it.

The concert was at the Scottrade Center.  There were at least 12,000 folk there.  The upper deck of the place was covered.  Not far from the venue is the old Union Station railroad terminal.  I thought that was fitting as Train took the stage.

The beach balls always come out during Save Me San Francisco.

As usual Train was great.  It is a high energy show that is one song after another and they go quick.  They don’t take time to listen to the applause.  They start singing another one.

Drops of Jupiter brought a tear to my eye as I knew it would.  I explained that in the last post.  To me Train brings a similar vibe to the show like that I get from The Moody Blues.  It is positive.  It is optimistic.  It is upbeat.  It is meaningful and full of love. Drops of Jupiter is Train’s Nights in White Satin.  I am so glad my dear Carrie said you need to give this group a listen.

I think they are great.

When they left the stage that is where the show’s greatness ended for me.

I appreciate Hall and Oates. Their longevity and staying power in a business that is quick to give up on artists who started after 1995 is noted.   And I don’t regret seeing them and staying to hear them.  Their backdrop effects were the best of ANY concert I have ever seen.  That was special.  Hearing songs I heard on the radio all my life is a cool thing too.  But I never bought a Hall and Oates record.  I have quite the music shelf.  Hall and Oates aren’t to be found.  No offense guys.  I don’t eat strawberry ice cream either.

Hall and Oates leaving the stage.

In the Moody Blues irony department, I have a ticket stub that says Hall and Oates were to open for The Moody Blues at Timberwolf Amphitheater at Kings Island in 1991.  They did not.  A band called Neverland did.  Like their name, I never heard from them again. So, 27 years later I finally catch up with Hall and Oates.

And I am glad Train was there.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

St. Louis.

Many thoughts and images come to mind when I hear the name St. Louis.

I think first about the St. Louis Cardinals.  No, not the ones playing on the west coast right now during baseball season which has allowed us for much better hotel rates near the Scottrade Center and downtown St. Louis with those Cardinals out of town.

I still think about the St. Louis Cardinals playing football in the old Busch Stadium that was a part of cookie-cutter stadium history.  Round and used for football and baseball for a time.  Jim Hart is still the quarterback.  Jim Otis and Terry Metcalf still run the ball.  J.V. Cain and Jackie Smith play tight end.  Pat Tilley and Ike Harris and Mel Gray are receivers.  Conrad Dobler and Dan Dierdorf play on the O-Line.  Jim Bakken is still kicking straight-on.  I better stop…my apologies to Roger Wherli.

How pathetic is that?  Forty years ago, that is how!

Thank God for music.  Tonight my dear wife, Carrie, and I are walking over to the Scottrade Center to take in a concert by Hall and Oates…and more importantly, for us, the group Train.  Their song Drops of Jupiter is an acquired taste.  For a long time I, like many, thought the song was overplayed.  I did not like it.  When it came on the radio I turned it in a hurry.  In 2013 Carrie and I saw Train live at Virginia Beach on a whim.  We were in the neighborhood and she was studying furiously for an exam she was about to take.  I thought she needed a break.  I looked at Ticketmaster and scored some sweet seats for a price that seems archaic now.  Anyway, that night I heard Drops of Jupiter for the first time like I needed to.  That in large part, is why we are here.  That and many other good songs too.  To share this with Carrie is priceless.

St. Louis?  Dred Scott.  Unreal slave gets his freedom story.  I never tire of hearing the result even though it is hard to take.  Still is a story that so shows the resilience of the spirit and the showcases a time that is hard to fathom.

Scott eventually got his freedom.

Below, this was on a building here in town.

Where did that go?

Lincoln had the house divided thing right, you know.

You looked around lately?  Wow.

St. Louis…

I think about Fred G. Sanford on Sanford and Son.  He used to talk about growing up in St. Louis.  “Back in St. Louis…” he would say.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I have been fortunate enough to travel many places.  St. Louis has not been a place we have frequented.  Music brought us to town in September of 2015 to hear Justin Hayward play in a hall that seats about 700.  Tonight there will be that many folks standing in line to use the bathroom at any given time.  NHL Hockey Arenas are big places.

That’s the Spirit!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

And down the stretch they come!

Those are some famous words if you know anything about the Kentucky Derby.  I am not sure if those words are still uttered in a flutter.  I don’t think I have heard them in a few years.

If it were a football announcer, I would know.  It is horse racing.  I don’t know.  I can get to Churchill Downs in 45 minutes from my driveway and I have never been to the Derby Museum.  In my environ we are inundated with Derby-Fest activities and news and stuff leading up to the fastest two minutes in sports.  I have nothing against the Kentucky Derby.  I have been to Churchill Downs twice.  I plan to go with colleagues and friends, and my dear wife, Carrie, on June 7th.  I am looking forward to it.

Being in Southern Indiana…I am in one of those counites that is separated from Kentucky by the Ohio River…we get our news via the media of Louisville.  We are not greatly in tune with Indiana comparatively.  It is the nature of where you live.

I am picking Magnum Moon to win the 2018 Kentucky Derby to be run in a couple of hours.  Right now I am on the back porch by my lonesome and if the rain at Churchill is like what is falling here, I feel for the folks coming in from all over the country to show off their Derby fashions…they will be under ponchos in many cases.

This past Tuesday evening I sang at a County Hymn Sing service being hosted by Unity Chapel United Methodist Church.  I sang two songs.  One of them I wrote and the other I co-wrote.  I did not write the words to the second one.  I wrote the music.  That is a first for me.  I chronicled this happening of events here a little while ago.  My collaborator, Jackie Gayheart, was in attendance and I was fortunate enough to call her out and tell the folks there about how the song was written.

When I saw Jackie after it was over I conveyed the moment reminded me of a line from a movie I had first seen thirty years ago.  The movie was “Broadcast News”.  The quote was “What do you do when real life exceeds your dreams?”  The response was, “You keep it to yourself.”  But that is what I was feeling Tuesday evening.  I’d say it was a good evening for both Jackie and myself.

Tonight on HBO The Moody Blues will be part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction show that was taped on April 14th.  The night of the event, The Moody Blues played four songs and closed the show.  They were the final act.

Through the power of television, Bon Jovi is going to be the last featured artist and The Moodies will have three of the four songs they played that night on the broadcast.  What else would you expect from a place that kept them out for twenty-five years.

Justin Hayward on the Moody Blues: “I imagine now it’s coming to the end.”

That is a quote from Justin Hayward’s website.  I heard him say this in a BBC Radio 2 interview this week. The Moodies have a handful of shows at one venue this fall in Vegas. I told you here before, the concert Carrie and I saw in Nashville at the Ryman last July would be the last Moody Blues concert we attend.  It was the perfect place to leave it.  Great venue.  Great performance.  Days of Future Passed in its entirety live. Great fans.  The Moodies are going to go out the way they came in and that is riding the wave of Days of Future Passed that gave us Nights in White Satin.  I have enjoyed it.

Thankfully, I won’t have to suffer through Bon Jovi’s rambling tonight before The Moodies play…so that slight is a good thing after all.

Will we see Justin Hayward live in a solo show again one day?  I think so.  As he says, if the flesh is willing he will still be at it.

Me, I am back to writing a few songs myself and finding what adventures I can find up and down the neck of the old six string.  It is a glorious journey.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

I once read, while I was a junior in high school, that a highbrow is someone who looks at a piece of sausage and thinks of Picasso.  Wow.

Well, I looked at a piece of steak I was cooking Wednesday and thought about a teacher and a class and a student that said a few things I will never forget.  If I could only remember the student’s name.  I could find him these days.  I know I could.  I don’t, however, remember his name.  It was a college speech class…pardon me…Public Speaking class.  The classmate I reference was always complimentary of my speeches.  I liked him.  He was a plain-speaking, upbeat, positive youngster.  How I wish I remembered his name.  Twenty-seven years and being more worried about my grade than his will cloud things.  I did get an “A” in the class.  In fact, we were competitive.  There were about twenty-two of us in the class.  My point total at the end of the semester was 2nd to a girl from Clarksville.  Her last name was Overton.  I don’t remember what she looked like.  I just remember her last name over the top of mine.  It was a close race I can tell you.

The student whose name I can’t remember worked at a Ponderosa Steakhouse.  His demonstration speech was how to cook a steak.  My strip steak I cooked Wednesday faintly have the criss-cross sear marks my classmate told us about and took a great deal of pride in.  I turned this piece of beef over and thought about my old classmate. I thought of Rick Jones, our teacher.  We became friends.  We lost track of each other years ago.  He liked The Moody Blues too.  I have written about him on these pages before.  He was a great teacher.

That leads us to today’s Top Ten List.  My Top Ten Teachers.  My parents notwithstanding, I must give them credit, I give you today’s list that comes to mind.  Tomorrow the list may be different.

#10  Mrs. Bridges…my kindergarten teacher.  She sent a note home telling my folks that I was “all boy”.  I don’t know what that means but I appreciated it.  She was a great teacher.

# 9  Mr. Jim St. Clair…He taught me a media class at IUS.  We just flat had an understanding.  He loved what I had to write and I loved the way he ran the class.  He was so complimentary and demanding in his own understated way.

#8  Mr. Larry Martin…He taught me Social Studies in the 7th grade.  Had him the last period of the day and it was dream of a way to end the day.  Even those damned “get out a clean sheet of paper and number it down the left margin 1 through 10.”  The pop quiz.  Did you pay attention?  We found out quickly on those days.

# 7  Mrs.  Patty Miller…She taught a course called Sports Literature when I was a sophomore.  Maybe they were trying to get rid of her.  It worked.  She didn’t know if a ball was filled with air or stuffed with feathers.  It was second semester and the Baltimore Colts moved their stuff via Mayflower moving trucks to Indianapolis.  She too was complimentary of my writing.  She helped me a great deal the day she grabbed my yearbook and wrote the words “You are an excellent writer.”  That helped.

# 6  Dr. Dick Brengle…One of my professors at IUS.  Talking Chaucer and Beowulf with this man was an extraordinary experience.  He played baseball for Columbia University and one the teams they played was Yale who had a player named George H.W. Bush.

# 5  Dr. Nancy Cunningham…Dr. Cunningham taught a course at the University of Louisville whilst I was working in my M.Ed.  She was so smart.  She was such a great communicator.  Class wasn’t class…it was an experience.  Time flew.

# 4 Dr. Bill Sweigart…He was my expository writing teacher and this class did me a world of good.  He knew what I was trying to do with my writing and pointed me in directions that made things better.  He guided.  He did not interject.  He too gave me confidence in the craft and helped me edit things in ways I did not think I had the patience or time for.  Translation:  This was valuable time.

# 3  Mrs. Betty Englehardt….This lady taught my senior English class.  She was tough.  She was kind.  She was about 4 foot 9 inches tall.  She was much larger than that to me.  If there was someone in the building I did not want to disappoint beyond my Dad, it was Mrs. E.  My Dylan Thomas speech was a highlight that senior year.  I worked as a helper for her with other students that struggled a bit.  We were a heck of a team.

#2  Mr. James Stewart…So he was my boss.  We worked together all of three full years.  The first two went so well that after I left and took a job somewhere else he called me two years later when his guidance counselor retired and offered me the job.  I told him I didn’t have a counseling license.  He told me I would get one.  I did.  We worked together one more year.  Then he retired.  He was a friend.  He was my chief.  That is what I called him.  The best school man I ever knew.  I miss him.

#1  Dr. Millard Dunn…I called Dr. Dunn yesterday to ask for help with something I am working on.  It is a piece of writing.  I emailed him some things later and included this passage:

In the fall of 1991, I walked into a class room and met a man that changed my life.  G207.  Grammar and Usage.  Dr. Millard Dunn was the man.  What he did was the difference that has allowed me to utilize the English language in multiple forms and be somewhat successful at it.  He met me where I was.  He had to stoop for sure to reach me.  Stoop he did.  And with great strength and cause and care and desire and knowledge and maybe some pity…he stayed there with me until I graduated in 1995.  Whether he knows it or not, I have taken him every step of the way since.

Today a gentleman was in the building to speak of a scholarship he is the benefactor of for an IUS student.  I told him about me talking to Millard yesterday.  I told him that little did we know when we both walked into that class room 27 years ago that we would still be in touch and he would still be my teacher and me his student.  One of those rare occasions when things align the way they should…for the best.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

At this writing I am listening to Elton John’s 1984 album “Breaking Hearts”.  It was not the prolific songwriter/performer’s most memorable effort.  One thing you can give Elton credit for, good or bad, he has never allowed much moss to grow.  One record after another.  Many not very good.  Some, though, unforgettable.  For me, “Breaking Hearts” is an unforgettable release.  When I was a junior and senior in high school, I wore a cassette tape of this release out.  The melancholy tune, the album’s namesake, “Breaking Hearts” is a great song.  The haunting chorus with its soaring harmony takes me places.  It did then.  It does now.  Whether I am sixteen or fifty, I hear and feel the same stuff when I listen to this album.  That is how you know it became and continues to be a part of your life.  This one, for whatever reason, resonates with me more than most all these years on.

Am I a Pirate?  I feel like one.  I am listening to this album on the world wide web on a common website.  That is all I will say.  I couldn’t tell you how many times I have been to used record/cd shops all over the country East of the Mississippi River looking for this album on CD.  There is plenty of Elton to procure.  But I can’t find this one.  My tape is long gone.  I feel like a heel listening to this without paying for it.  I suppose I will order it properly this weekend if I can find it.

Does Elton need my six dollars?  I doubt it.  I donated to see him in concert many years ago.  It was worth every penny.

During baseball games at North Harrison High School, I can be found in the press box announcing the game and playing the same old tunes in between innings.  The picture above was taken this past week in an NH home game against Heritage Hills.  What I love about this pic is catcher Brett Rudolph, sans his catcher’s mask, looking as the ball sails out of play.  Brett was the subject of some good pictures I posted here during football season.  His Dad was a senior when I was freshman and now and again I was lined up against him during practice scrimmages.  His Dad, Jeff, was like a piece of steel.  To me, Jeff Rudolph will always be the greatest North Harrison Cougar of them all.

Listening to Elton’s 1984 album “Breaking Hearts” for the first time in decades, I can tell you it is even better tonight than I remembered.

On facebook last Saturday I posted the following…

There are still some non-believers out there thinking I am in Cleveland today for The Moody Blues induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I am at home where my old “breakfast of champions”, a Canada Dry Ginger Ale, has been replaced with coffee in a Moody Blues Hall of Fame cup thanks to Dan Goins. On this gloomy, “Moody” Saturday morning in Southern Indiana, I am back where it started for me in 1983…and that old cassette still works 35 years later. First time I have played this tape in at least 2 decades. Sounds wonderful!

That original Days of Future Passed cassette.

So The Moody Blues finally made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I am ready to visit the place now.  I want to go one time.  This year will be the time to do that.  I have never been a great fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I got a copy of this year’s induction ceremony program.  There were multiple errors in the section that spoke of The Moodies.  No Moodies fan is shocked by that.  We all had the Moodies in a more important Rock and Roll Hall of Fame many years ago….our hearts.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

I am here to type these words.

I was asked today why I had not posted anything lately.  Gone is my excuse of doing those 50 post in 50 days…that ended near a month ago.  It was a priority and a sense of duty to take care of it.  You know, to deliver the goods…or at least deliver well, something.

Test season is here in the State of Indiana.  I am not sure why we Hoosiers think we are so important that we need to make things so difficult for students.  Things don’t have to be this complicated.  Look at some other states and how they go about things and you’ll find that, in some cases, Indiana spends too much time with the T-square and the compass and the protractor trying to chart the course.  Test them all, they say!  They do.

I was not a good test taker in high school.  I can empathize with kids about this.  The older I got, the better I got at it.  When I took something called the GRE to get into my grad school program, I was certain they gave me someone else’s results.  I took them home and smiled.  That only lasts so long.  There is still work to do.

The latest graduation proposal beginning with the Class of 2023 in Indiana high schools is not a very good one.  Too many moving pieces and parts.  The verbiage is weak in places and seeps of elections to come may very well change a thing or two here.  I hope so.  We can do better.

“What is a test score without civility?”  I said that at meeting recently with other education folks from the county in the room.  We were there putting our heads together for the good of the cause.  It was meaningful dialogue.  That is not always the case when there is a power-point, snacks on the table, and multiple building levels in the same room trying to make sense and make nice.  It worked.  I was proud of that.

Test scores.  I’d rather have someone in the room I can depend on than a test score that looks nice.  Now….don’t get me wrong.  Test scores are important.  They can measure what needs a yardstick now and again.  But the notion of a one size fits all measuring instrument is, well, archaic.

The need to make that point is why I type these words today.  I think I could be a little more effective for my school talking to kids more and chasing down test logistics less.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

This evening we will know who the Masters Champion for 2018 will be.  We have a good one to look forward to I think.

I told my dear wife, Carrie, I doubt some of the organizers for this grand tournament could sleep much last night.  A close leader board and an improved weather day sets greatness in motion.  Think about it.  The place would still be what it is regardless.  If there was a golfer sitting ten shots ahead of the rest, the tension would be off.  The excitement would not really be there.  But, look at the leader board, there is plenty to be excited about as the last two fire off at #1 before 3 PM.

I hope Patrick Reed can hang on.  I really do.  Rory McIlroy is looking immortality in the eye if he were to become just the 6th golfer to complete the “grand slam” which means you won all four of golf’s major championships.  The last to do that was Tiger Woods in 2000.  The first was Gene Sarazen in 1935.  If Rory wins my feeling won’t be hurt.

Look out for Rickie Fowler.  He’s like a gnat a good barbecue, he just won’t go away.

I enjoy watching golf on television.  My two favorite events of the year are two majors.  I like The Masters and the British Open…or am I supposed to call it The Open?  You can depend on the tradition and scenery of the course in Augusta when they play The Masters.  The British Open is such a contrast in course and in when is it going to rain, how cold, and how windy, and how am I going to find my ball in high weeds?

This was my tee shot at the 170ish yard blind over the hill #7 at the now grown over New Salisbury Golf Course.  This fights another par 3 I played at Old Capitol as the closest shots to a hole-in one that I have managed.  One day perhaps I will hit one.

My old friend Gus Stephenson and I used to play quite often.  We walked the behemoth of a course that is Old Capitol in Corydon with regularity.  Mick Rutherford once said, “It ain’t a game if don’t walk.”  Well, that was a few years ago.  In fact, he and I were about to walk the Corydon course when the lady in the clubhouse questioned our sensibilities on a 100 degree day.  These days, we are riding.  The walking friendly New Salisbury is closed.  That is sad.

Left to right:  Mick Rutherford, Kelly Samons, and Gus Stephenson.  We were playing the Corner King Classic at New Salisbury.  This was the tee shot at #8.

Carrie and me in the Harbor Town lighthouse with the 18th fairway behind us.  The lighthouse helps to frame the TV shot when the golfers are making their way to the final green.  Hilton Head New Year’s Eve in 2014.

These days the most golf I play is with Carrie’s cousins and extended family and friends when we get together at Lucas Oil Golf Course in English, Indiana.  Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day weekends mean the golf outing.  We always have fun with it.  Above is the tee box at #1.

One of the best golfers of all time.  So good she can take her purse with her on the course!  We can’t all get away with that!  Putting near the shore of Lake Erie last summer in Ohio.  Look that stance!  Take lessons.

The Shot.

I wish I had a photo to go along with it.  Brother Tim Petty and I played a few times at New Salisbury.  One day he hit a tee shot over the fence at #4.  That means nothing if you have not been there.  I was and it was a beauty.  The hole was not a dog leg right. It was a right angle!   Okay, here it is below:

# 4 was 335 yards.  What you don’t see here is the fence.  It was along the right angle at the turn of the fairway.  I always felt good if I could get it around the end of the line extending from the tee box to the fairway around the corner.  I didn’t always do that.

On this day, Brother Tim Petty took it upon himself to aim over the trees and over the fence and go for the green.  The next photo gives a representation, of where the fence was and the flight of Tim’s ball.  It was the best shot I ever witnessed at New Salisbury.

It was amazing.  Thank you for that memory, Brother Tim.

My best shot?

5 pars and 4 bogeys.  I was playing by myself.  But I did it.  Under 40 for nine holes at New Salisbury National.  Best thing was making par on the final hole to seal it. Yes, I circled my pars.

The Masters is going to fun in a couple hours!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson