I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!
I beg your indulgence for a minute (or two). I teach a youth Sunday School class at the First Presbyterian Church (not far from my Methodist roots) here in Arkadelphia. This morning our lesson concerned the joys of giving as well as the joys of receiving and the human reaction to same. I was reminded of a W. C. Fields comment made when he was in a reminiscent mood. Mr. Fields said "A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her."
In February of this year I sent an e-mail message to a handful of you for whom I had addresses notifying you of the death of a classmate, Becky Scroggs. This and subsequent messages included some remembrances from our youth and high school days in Newport. As time passed and our 30th Reunion loomed on the horizon, the number of email addresses on my list grew. My "short stories" about our past together and our present apart came to be called the Miles' Files thanks to Cherry Lou Smith, the "Leader of the Pack" in organizing our 30th Reunion. Longing to see as many of our classmates as possible at the Reunion, I kept sending these Miles' Files as a "subtle" reminder to get back to the kennel for a Party. And did we have a Party! Who Let the Dogs Out!!!
Since the Reunion I have continued to "scribble out" these thoughts of mine for two reasons. One, it is fun for me to remember our past as carefree kids and to share the present situations of our adult lives. Two, many of you (including my wife, Kathi, who is also a Class of '70 soul mate) have been so encouraging. Your kind and supportive words (to paraphrase W. C. Fields) "drive me to write" and I haven't had "the decency to thank you."
After yesterday's "Random Punches" I received immediate replies from Mary Wynne Parker, Joy Stanfield, Margaret Ann Gillihan and Scott Baker all expressing their appreciation for "keeping us together." Well folks, it ain't me that keeps us together. It is the love we share and the common bonds of everlasting friendship. No matter how many days pass between times together, each meeting in person or over the phone is as if the last conversation was "just yesterday." So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for sharing your lives with me and allowing me to be a conduit in which our friendships can forever be intermingled.
This circle of ours (the Class of 1970) touches many more lives than I ever imagined it could - our parents, siblings, spouses, children, teachers, coaches, older and younger friends with whom we share Newport as a hometown, new friends we have made since we left the kennel in Remmel Park in the spring of 1970 and discovered other places beyond our own backyards. This rollercoaster we call Life has its thrills, chills and spills. Sharing all that creates the joys of living. Again, thank you all!!!
Some of you may remember Jimmy Toler, a couple of years ahead of us in school who left Newport as a ninth grader. Jimmy and I played on a First National Bank Little League team together with Jim Reid Holden, Woody Castleberry, Buster Stuart, Anson Clark, Donny Combs and others my mind can't bring into focus. Jimmy and I played a lot together as kids with Donnie Washam, too. As fate would have it, Jimmy and I found ourselves together for the first time in 26 years at a mutual friend's house in Arkadelphia last Saturday. We reminisced for hours about Newport and days past as kids and about our college days. Coincidentally, we were members of the same fraternity (Sigma Phi Epsilon) on different college campuses. Jimmy at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and I at Arkansas State in Jonesboro. We renewed our childhood friendship in college when our respective chapters got together annually. As a matter of fact, Jimmy came to Jonesboro to participate in my initiation into the fraternity. Anyway, I received an email from Jimmy this morning in which he remembered his "special love for Newport" and the people he grew up with. He lives in North Little Rock and is a civil investigator for a law firm. I hope to see him again soon. Just as I hope to see all of you again soon.
Remember to contact Cherry Lou if you can join littermates on the Friday evening after Thanksgiving. We can celebrate our friendships and all other blessings God has bestowed upon us. If I miss you in Newport during Thanksgiving, then I will "see" you in my thoughts and prayers each Sunday evening as we "get together" to remember one another.
Oh yeah, it is official - the Newport Greyhounds will be coming to Arkadelphia next Friday night, November 10, to meet the Badgers in the first round of the state playoffs. Come on down and give me a call! I know I've already said it, but THANK YOU for your continual encouragement for me to keep on keeping on with these Miles' Files. More importantly, thank you for your friendship!
You bring me Smiles as I walk the Miles of Past and Present,
joe
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