Friday, February 23, 2007
I spent the morning with my good friend, Bruno, on a little trip we had planned about a month ago. We met at 7:30am to take a ride up to the metropolis of Wiggins, Mississippi. After passing through the heavy traffic in about fifteen seconds, we made it to the tiny town of Bond, Mississippi, to begin our search for the Bond Cemetery.As typical males, we felt sure we could find it without any help, and after a couple of wrong turns Bruno spotted a small cemetery. We parked and wandered the hallowed grounds for a few minutes. We made a local dog very angry by being there, and after recognizing that we weren't in the right place, I think we were both relieved to be back in the car and headed someplace else.
We followed our first couple of wrong turns with about three more wrong turns before Bruno spotted cemetery number two. When we parked, we were amused that this small cemetery was named, Big Bond Cemetery. I suppose the first one we found was the Little Bond Cemetery. Anyway, we were in the right place, so we began our search for the grave of Dizzy Dean.
Dizzy Dean was a legend in every sense of the word, and in addition to being a Hall of Fame player on my favorite baseball team, he was also special to me from the many stories my dad told me about him in our backyard. My dad was parituclary fond of Dizzy's poor grammar from his days as an announcer following his legendary career ("...he slud into second base"). Bruno reminded me of one of Dizzy's famous quotes about his grammar: "You learn 'em grammar, and I"ll learn 'em baseball."
It seemed almost fitting that Dizzy's grave lies in a tiny rural cemetery in the poor part of a forgotten town. It wouldn't have done for old Diz to be anywhere fancy.
Finding that grave, recalling those memories, spending time with my friend, and taking some pictures was a very nice way to spend this Friday morning.
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After our return from Bond, I dropped by the Ocean Springs Record to take a quick picture for My Ocean Springs photo project. I had a GREAT time visiting with the folks there; in fact, they helped me think of ideas for my project! And, best of all, I was given a genuine newspaper reporter's notebook!!!
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By lunch time I was back at our church building. It isn't coincidental that several of the men at church scheduled a building cleanup (read: throw away) day when most of the ladies were leaving for a ladies retreat in Fort Walton Beach, Florida (smile). I spent 2 1/2 hours throwing stuff away with the early crew. In just a few minutes, I'll be headed back up for the big show that is scheduled to begin at 5pm.
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My friend, Laura, sent me a link to a story that just about perfectly caps off one of my recent unpleasant experiences. Clink on this LINK and at least read the title. You'll understand.
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My friend, John, sent me a link to an article that made me feel a lot better. Our SPIN ministry at church is reaching out to single-parent families, and our 2nd big event is scheduled for one week from tomorrow. This article does an excellent job of highlighting this crucial yet overlooked need. Read about it HERE.
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