Mission: NEW YORK

DAY ONE (UNO)

HOLD ONTO YOUR SEAT, THE REAL STORY, THE REAL FACTS... MISSION NEW YORK.

Now I've never been to New York before and didn't ever plan to go but as you may know there have been some changes in my life in the last year. One of the things I planned to change was my inhibitions about doing things that required family expenditures ($$$$$). I never been real good about spending money on me. Oh i didn't mind spending it on other family but when it came to me, well it was difficult. I think it was ingrained in me growing up because my family just didn't have it. It's not a bad thing to live by a "honest day's work for an honest dollar" and a "save for a rainy day cause it's going to rain" attitude, but God said he would give us our heart's desire and that the windows of heaven would pour out blessing on us. Well I testify that both of those statements are true. I am truly blessed in this life, but that desire of our heart thing... well, I've always had a problem discovering the desires of my heart and kind of felt guilty about it when I did. So I'm in the discovery, hide and watch mode of my life. This should be really good because when your 57 years old and never done the things that you've wanted to because of emotional or mental handicaps life may take some swift turns and hopefully good ones.

"Honey the choir is gong on mission to New York. Would consider going with us?" The words of the woman I live with some time in the past. My response, "Well, I guess so." After she got up from the floor she said that I could think about it and if i didn't it would be OK. I knew right then that i had months of dread and thought ahead of me. I began to research the place and I confess, confess, confess! that I've seen a lot of movies and TV that took plan in New York City. King Kong, Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes (the old version), X-Men, NYPD Blue, Muppets Take Manhattan and somebody is always getting blown up in New York. I didn't know if I could take the weird people and "STUFF" that goes on in New York.

So as all good Christ believing folk should I began to study the 23rd Psalm and Romans 8:28. I figured I was headed into the valley of the shadow of death and that God promised all things would be for my good... LORD watch over me and mine.

OK, up and ready to go. Packed and ready to go. Getting in the van and ready to ...... "keys?", "I thought you had yours!" "No, why would i have mine?", "OH NO, OH NO, OH NO!" she said. Now I know that none of you have ever been in this spot before so stop laughing. I'm a problem solver and i guess at that moment my problem solving skills took over, I really think I just couldn't take that crying and shouting "OH NO!" any more, so in a split second the "12 EE shoe" key opened the back door and I walked into the house to get keys to the van. I mean really, I'll fix it later. Got in the van and we're ready to go.

This is the Newark airport. Ants on a piece of fat back, right?

Air ports are not places that I spend a lot of time in because some how i figure somebody is always looking at you like you have a bomb in your shoe. OK, we're ready to go and on the plane, a nice large one, we go and off to Atlanta. Atlanta is a BIG AIR PORT! Lots of eating places from one end to the other which is pretty much where we had to go to get from our BIG plane to this not so big plane. We're ready to go! Some how not so big planes aren't my cup of tea. Both taking off and landing brought tears to my eyes and "poop" to my "draws." Not really, well I'm not going to confess it anyway. Why can't they give a warning when they are going to do something that is LOUD and sounds like the tail fail off or the tail is dragging the ground. GOOD GRIEF!!

OK, landed and after I could stand up and exit the little plane we were in Newark. OK, we went to Atlanta first but it was not to bad cause we were on a rather large plane. Now we get a ride to the Hotel. Welcome Mohranadama. What you here about cab drivers in New York is true in and olfactory sense. I guess Mohranadama had work a double of triple shift and hadn't had a chance to freshen up, to say the least. Yes, I had to sit up front. The sight was wonderful though. The sky line was just as the pictures and the spelling on the signs was the same too. PEOPLE IN NEW YORK DRIVE CRAZY!! YES THEY DO CUSS AT EACH OTHER, HONK THE HORN, SHOUT THINGS AT EACH OTHER AND MAKE HAND SIGNS!!! I could even understand maybe 23% of all of this.

This is from the cab on the way into New York.

We finally made it to the hotel, HYATT. Wow, this isn't your fathers Best Western (more about that later when we get to Detroit). We got some rest and got dress for a "PLAY". You could tell that I was real excited. We were ready to go and we did. We walked and walked and walked and I got my first ever look at a "SUBWAY." (Nothing like the samwich by the way, ha ha ha, sorry) Very interesting, reminded me of Atlanta Air Port. any way, THE LION KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW! WOW! WOW! THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER'S "PLAY"! BOGGLES THE MIND AS TO HOW THEY DO WHAT THEY DO WHEN THEY DO IT. IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE TO SEE THIS SHOW TAKE IT. Now of course knowing the story, as I do, allows you to look for the technical stuff and it .... well, DYNAMITE!! Even the music was great! "Da Monkey (Baboon that is), Pumba, and Timon were great!! I'm ready to go home after this but that not the real reason I came to New York. Lastly I some up by saying "Hakuna Matata".

Massive Mufosa (Semba's dad) image on the wall at the LION KING performance.

This actually is TIME SQUARE but GOOD GRIEF! Reminds me of New Orleans, of course what I've been told.

Leaving the KING show we walked back to the hotel. Reminded me of the state fair and "Mardi Gras" with the smells and PEOPLE. It's 11:00 PM and the streets are packed! This New York never sleeps. Time Square is all it is made out to be. Lights lights lights and more lights. The buildings go straight up and at night you can't see a star so it looks like the buildings go and go and go. WOW!

YEP! TIME SQUARE!!! I was there for real. (You aren't missing much. I nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.)

DAY ONE ENDS WITH GOOD NIGHT KISSES FROM MY GIRLS AND A COLD POP. (You won't believe it but the cheapest pop you can buy is $2.00!!!)

Things I learned about New York my first day there: (right, another list)

1. You must go through the HELL of flight to get there.

2. New York Cab drivers are over worked and don't get to freshen up.

3. New York has a very high utility bill to pay for the lights.

4. New Yorkers are confused about Time Square being the State Fair or Mardi Gras.

5. Somebody is making a lot of money off sodas in New York.

The world is not the same without Coach Bob.

There are those who have affectedus in a greatway but we really don't know how much till they are gone. I lost a special person this summer and I want to share about him.

I had never played an organize football gme till I was in the 8th grade. Not that I didn't want to but because I was to large. I 1967 I went to high school at Central High in Jackson. Back then things were definately "balck and white" if you get what i'm saying. That didn't bother me because I was brought up respecting black folk. Anyway... That was when i met Coach Bob Stevens. A bigger that life man who would do things that amazed all that surrounded him.

This is the real Coach Bob...Bob Stevens possessed multiple talents as a football player, football coach, basketball coach and champion handball player.
But his legion of friends and associates may remember him most for the lively sports discussions that took place at the I-55 YMCA in Jackson, where Stevens once operated his popular sandwich shop.

"Coach Bob," said George Dale, former state insurance commissioner and longtime YMCA lunch regular of Stevens, who died Friday at 82. "He was an extremely likable, fun-loving guy. Those of us at the Y always liked to pick at him and make fun of his alma mater (Southern Miss). "He was the biggest USM fan there was. We would all pull for Southern in private, but we wouldn't tell him. We'd always kid him about Southern and anything else we could."

Stevens, a member of four halls of fame, played football at Copiah-Lincoln Junior College and Southern Miss as an end and tackle, sandwiched around a Navy stint in 1945 as a combat air crewman during World War II. His high school football coaching career, in which he compiled a 141-73-9 record, began in 1949 at Pass Christian and also included stops at Meadville and two Jackson schools, Central and Murrah. Stevens, whose 1973 Murrah team went 9-1-1, was ranked No. 1 in the statewide AP poll for much of the season and remains the highest-scoring in school history (28.5 points per game) - was known as an offensive innovator and risk-taker.

"When I was coaching at Moss Point, we never played his teams but we knew what he ran," Dale said. "Bob was well known for his trickery. People who played him would go through the ballgame knowing he'd do something crazy, but what is it?
"Many times he might not have the best talent in the world, so he had to be somewhat deceptive to compete in some situations, and he did that well. Bob was probably one of those that took less talent and did a lot."

In 2003, Stevens was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. He also is a member of the Co-Lin, USM and Mississippi Association of Coaches halls of fame.

So much to have accomplished, so much to leave behind.

I didn't kow how much Coach meant to me till i sat at his funeral next to two black guys that were my friends then and are still today. He took us from a low position in life and helped us all be more than we were. I'm the only person in my family to go to college. I couldn't have and probably wouldn't have gone to college if it hadn't been Coach Stevens.

He offered a stabilizing force for us all to keep us from going down the tube. The dad we NEEDED and a dad than many didn't have.

Coach Bob Stevens R.I.P.

Coach, thanks for all you did for me and the other guys. Let's run "WO-trap."

I'M BACK AND I'M BAD!

Not really, but I am back up, back at the "JOB" and back to blogging.

Simple start but worth the effort. In the future look forward to more about NEW YORK! NEW YORK!

OK, of course it would be.................. a LIST!!!

You can't read this and stay in a bad mood!

1. How Do You Catch a Unique Rabbit?

Unique Up On It.

2. How Do You Catch a Tame Rabbit?

Tame Way.

3. How Do Crazy People Go Through The Forest?

They Take The Psycho Path

4. How Do You Get Holy Water?

You Boil The Hell Out Of It

5. What Do Fish Say When They Hit a Concrete Wall? Dam!

6. What Do Eskimos Get From Sitting On The Ice too Long?

Polaroid's

7. What Do You Call a Boomerang That Doesn't work?

A Stick

8. What Do You Call Cheese That Isn't Yours?

Nacho Cheese.

9. What Do You Call Santa's Helpers?

Subordinate Clauses.

10. What Do You Call Four Bullfighters In Quicksand?

Quattro Sinko.

11. What Do You Get From a Pampered Cow?

Spoiled Milk.

12. What Do You Get When You Cross a Snowman With a Vampire?

Frostbite.

13. What Lies At The Bottom Of The Ocean And Twitches?

A Nervous Wreck.

14.. What's The Difference Between Roast Beef And Pea Soup?

Anyone Can Roast Beef.

16. Why Do Gorillas Have Big Nostrils?

Because They Have Big Fingers .

17. Why Don't Blind People Like To Sky Dive?

Because It Scares The Dog.

18. What Kind Of Coffee Was Served On The Titanic?

Sanka.

19. What Is The Difference Between a Harley And a Hoover?

The Location Of The Dirt Bag.

20. Why Did Pilgrims' Pants Always Fall Down?

Because They Wore Their Belt Buckle On Their Hat.

21. What's The Difference Between a Bad Golfer And a Bad Skydiver?

A Bad Golfer Goes, Whack , Dang! A Bad Skydiver Goes Dang! Whack ...

22. How Are a Texas Tornado And a Tennessee Divorce The Same?

Somebody's Gonna Lose A Trailer Now, admit it.

At least one of these made you smile. I KNOW IT DID!

WILLIAM THE GREAT!

MY GRAND BOY!

LET'S CATCH UP.

Well allow me to catch you up on a few things I've been involved with and of course that means another list.

1. I have decided to accept the invitation to become a deacon at First Baptist Church of Jackson. It was  a difficult decision but thanks to a lot of friends and prayers I believe God said yes. I really figure that I'm going to serve any way because I love the LORD and desire to serve and being a deacon might allow me some opportunities that I might not have other wise. Anyway there is no position that will keep me from doing what I feel God wants me to do.

2. I have this wonderful friend from high school who gave up her real life in California to come home and take care of her mom. Quiet a testimony for a person, any person. Any way her mother just died. Wonderful answers to prayer. Peace for a suffering lady and peace for her little girl who had become the parent for the parent.

3. Football has played a major role in my life. Playing ball has allowed me become what I am today. Not many people get the chance to play ball in front of thousands of people. I have played with some wonderful guys and developed some friendships that will last forever. The men that coached me also played a major role in me forming the character that i have today. One of those men was Coach Bob Stevens. Best Coach I've ever had. The man took 18 players in 1967 and had a winning season. 18! Coach Stevens got a lot of guys scholarships to play ball in college. Many of those guys wouldn't have gone to school if it hadn't been for Coach Stevens. Coach Stevens died last Friday. Thanks Coach, you get a lot of credit  for what ever I am and what ever I will ever accomplish will be because of your care and dedication for young men.

4. Built another Pergola! That makes three and I learn some new each time. If I keep this up I might get it right.

5. I'm learning a lot this summer from efforts to live the life God has for me. Expect more stuff from me about that.

6. Going to New York City! I've been invited to go with a mission group from FBCJ. Now I'm not much of a traveler but God has impressed on me that I need to go places and do things. I'll have the opportunity to preach at a homeless shelter! It will be a challenge for me but it will great to speak for the LORD.

Anyway, the summer is going great. The only thing is the heat!! Good grief!!! I drink lots but it doesn't help much. it makes you want to sit on the couch and eat ice cream all day. I LOVE ICE CREAM! but never have it.

WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM.