It has been thirteen weeks since the Miles' Files has called me to the keyboard. Another Christmas season has passed through our lives. As well, another Hanukkah has been assigned into history. A new year has taken root and is beginning to exhibit the buds of springtime from which new life will burst. Valentine's Day gifts and cards have been exchanged once again by lovers everywhere. Some "old" friends have passed from this life into another. Such events are touched with sentiment and emotions flow from high to low. The ups and downs of life exists for all. Trudging through the valleys of everyday living is often tiresome, but the challenges of climbing to the peaks along the way to get a better viewpoint of life's landscape are most rewarding. You have to experience the valleys to get full enjoyment from the peaks. After all it is from the peaks that you have a wondrous view of the valleys below.
Since our previous time together in these pages, a number of my school mates has lost family members, some of whom shared memorable moments in my life's journey. The Reverend Bill Stewart, father of classmate Drew Stewart, passed away recently. Brother Bill was my pastor at the First Methodist Church from 1967 to 1970. It was from the front yard of his home on Walnut Street that I stood among friends and gazed up at the moonlit sky on July 20, 1969 as man, in the form of astronaut Neil Armstrong, first stepped on the moon. My curiosity coupled with some ignorance caused me to wonder if man were trying to find a way to heaven without first dying. I don't recall Brother Bill giving answer to my thought. Where were you that night? Brother Bill Stewart also delivered the baccalaureate address to the NHS Class of 1970 just prior to his departure from Newport. He set a tone for a pleasurable jaunt en route to adulthood. A little later along life's path, my first house became Brother Bill's first house. In 1983 as I was preparing to return to Newport to begin work at the old First State Bank, I sold my house in Little Rock to Brother Bill Stewart. It was the first house I had owned and it is my understanding that it was the first house Brother Bill owned after years of living in parsonages provided by the church. Life goes 'round like a spinning wheel.
Another who recently departed this life is Doris Travis, mother of classmate Freeman Travis. "Miss" Doris was not only the mother of one of my dearest childhood friends, but she also managed and taught in her kindergarten forever and a day. She cared for and attended to the pre-school needs of Newport children over a couple of generations. She taught my oldest child, Evelyn, while we lived in Newport in the '80s. I spent hours upon end in her home. She was a pillar in our church alongside her husband, Buddy. I'm glad to see Freeman back in Newport at the radio station. I'm sure his mother was excited to see him circle back home. Life goes 'round like a spinning wheel.
Peggy Allbright, mother of a clan of kids (Eddie, Lee, Marsha, and Nancy) all counted among those called friend, also left this life in recent weeks. She nurtured the youthfulness in all who entered her house just across the street from the "old" NHS gym. She had a zest for life accompanied by a joyous laugh that will always be remembered with love. I can now see her smile in the faces of her grandchildren. Life goes 'round like a spinning wheel.
Classmates Scott Baker and Linda Lindsay have also experienced the loss of loved ones in the last few weeks. Scott's father, Bill, and Linda's brother, Mike, knocked on heaven's door and entered. Their memories will spin up images of these departed family members for years to come. Life goes 'round like a spinning wheel.
What goes up
Must come down
Spinning wheel
Got to go 'round
Talkin' 'bout your troubles
It's a cryin' sin
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel spin
The group Blood, Sweat & Tears released their hit "Spinning Wheel" in the summer of 1969. It is one of those memorable tunes for me marking man's first trip to the moon. You know, one of those "soundtracks of your life" songs; when you hear it, you can pinpoint the year on your personal timeline. "Spinning Wheel" also serves me well in my assessment of life. Life indeed goes up and down and 'round and 'round. Your memory takes you back to places you have been before. Relationships move in and out of your personal world. Each stage of life is filled with comedy and drama, good and bad, happy and sad, work and play, ups and downs. But there is also the 'round and 'round. Life is a complex circle of events and relationships. Births and deaths. Marriages and divorces. Job promotions and job losses or transfers. Peaks and valleys. The relationships make up the circle of life. The events offer up the element of complexity. Relationships founded in friendship will withstand any life event.Friendship is the essence of life.
You got no money
You got no home
Spinning wheel
All alone
Talkin' 'bout your troubles and
You never learn
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel turn
"No money" and "no home" are not familiar themes to most of us in this audience although I'm certain there have been times for many when things were lean. I have been very fortunate in life and blessed in my relationships. I love life. However, I occasionally yearn for a more stable existence and a much slower pace. Yet when I look upon my life's experiences and the events which have molded my relationships, I clearly see that the changes I have encountered have helped me better understand me. These changes are simply a turning of the wheel, another ride on the carousel, another thrill on the roller coaster. I know that I have fallen from the saddle of several "painted ponies," but I have not yet totally fallen from the carousel. After each fall, I have been lucky enough to find a more majestic carousel steed on which to continue my ride through life.
For some of us who "grew up" in Newport and moved away, there is the excitement of homecoming each time we return to our roots. Sure the community has seen some alterations, but the relationships are steadfast and the good memories are true to the heart. Just a couple of weeks ago, I accompanied good friend Mike Turner to a meeting of the Newport Rotary Club. There were several new faces unfamiliar to me, but many who were there when I became a member of the club more than twenty years ago made me feel right at home. Once again I was privileged to visit with Troy Gray, Ed Scoggins, John Purdy, John Conner, Sr., Ralph McDonald, Toby McDonald, Bill Fortune (who I succeeded as president in 1986), Clay Curtner, Terry Scoggins and Jeff Fortune among others. The welcoming spirit was pervasive. This Newport "spirit" is with me at all times.
Did you find
Your directing sign
On the straight and narrow highway
Would you mind a reflecting sign
Within your mind
And show you, the colors
That are real
In my thoughts of home, the "directing sign" and the "reflecting sign" are one and the same. Both point to Newport. At the core, Newport's colors are true and real. The connections to my hometown are strong.
Following the Rotary Club meeting in Newport, I left for Jonesboro to attend a birthday party of sorts for two college friends and fraternity brothers. Mike Brooks and Mike Bramlett grew up together in Jonesboro and reached their fiftieth birthday within a week of each other in January. After high school graduation, Brooks went on to college at Arkansas State in Jonesboro and Bramlett attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Events in my own life created the opportunity to happen upon the paths of both Mike Brooks and Mike Bramlett within close proximity of the other. I bounced between the campuses of ASU-Jonesboro and the UofA-Fayetteville during my college years. I went to Fayetteville my freshman year of college, transferred to ASU where I received my undergraduate degree, returned to Fayetteville to attend law school for a year, and then returned to ASU to complete a master's degree. Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity is the common bond with Brooks and Bramlett and many other fabulous friends from both college campuses in the early '70s. This time of my life was merely an extension of my high school years. Many of my high school cronies shared college life with me in Jonesboro and Fayetteville. The friendships formed then are deep seated and genuine. We can be separated by thirty years and yet feel as if we were last together a couple of days ago. The sculpting of relationships is a bit like throwing clay on a potter's wheel and turning it until a creative piece of work appears. Each piece is different in your appreciation for it. Brooks and Bramlett reaching the milestone of their fiftieth year was a nice excuse to gather up a bunch of college pals and old hippies for a reunion with a birthday theme of "Greeks and Freaks." John Pennington was there to share in the laughter. A good time was had by all. A song that comes quickly to mind as I think of that evening is Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years." Life goes 'round like a spinning wheel.
I'm a fortunate son of Newport. I can still hear the laughter of my high school friends in the crowded halls of NHS. I often see myself as a student in Betty Newell's speech class, Virginia Umsted Castleberry's and Almarie Carr's english classes, Ima Jean Paige's typing and bookkeeping classes, and Butch Duncan's history class. I was a not too serious student with a whimsical attitude. I had fun as a student and the teachers to whom I am endeared are those who allowed me the latitude to be me. I invite you to return to those years with me from time to time. My mind often drifts back to those days. It was simpler then. My 45 rpm records actually played at that speed on my small portable record player. Every now and then I would shift the speed to 78 rpm and the voices and music sounded as if Alvin and the Chipmunks were playing every song. Today life seems to be running at 78 rpm on my turntable. I'm not sure I really want life to slow down, but I do want to hear the music at the proper speed.
Littermate Cherry Lou Smith Simmons is preparing to move from Newport to Little Rock. She has not lived beyond the boundaries of Newport and there are sure to be some anxious moments over the next few weeks. Cherry, remember your old friends remain as close as a phone call or mouse click. And a new circle of friends awaits your arrival. Turn up the volume on your radio, so you can absorb the sounds of this new chapter in your life.
Someone's waiting
Just for you
Spinning wheel
Spinning true
Drop all your troubles by the riverside
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel fly
The circle of life expands with your experiences. Whether you envision this journey as a roller coaster, a carousel, a potter's wheel, or a spinning wheel, it still goes 'round and 'round. Enjoy the ride! I will see you again on the next trip around. I'm still Miles from Nowhere, guess I'll take my time . . . or maybe not, this ride is picking up speed!
joe
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