Laugh if you must but I relate more to Forrest Gump than any other character in literature or film.
First, we are both small-southern- town boys and, we graduated from the same great university; but, the similarity doesn't stop there. Interesting events and interesting people just happen.
My IQ is probably say 4 or 5 points higher than Forrest's if you are rude enough to be curious!
It was the spring of ‘65. i was totally focused on full-time daydreaming. My friend Bruce Jayne had applied for a summer job as a counselor at the Boy Scout Camp over near Owensboro. I thought that was a brilliant idea so I applied too. We both got hired. Two 15 year old boys were off for adventure
The job paid almost nothing. We lived in tents. Nice tents but tents all the same. We ate camp food. They told us it was food and we believed them, trusting souls that we were.
The camp was built on the side of a big hill with a lake at the bottom. I taught orienteering or "map and compass." I had four or five classes a day. That left me with a lot of free time.
I looked around and the thought hit me square: "I am living at a Boy Scout Camp, for goodness sakes! Look at all this stuff! I bet I could get a bunch of merit badges if I wanted." So I did. I think I got t10 and was almost an Eagle Scout by the end of the summer.
It was early the next year before Al Smith, the local newspaper owner, presented me the award. But that summer made it possible.
While working hard not planning to achieve Eagle Scout, I also worked at not planning to be a lifeguard.
As fate would have it, the waterfront director told us counselors he would teach a Red Cross Lifesaving Corse if we wanted it. Several of us signed up. Bruce and I were too young but we promised not to work as a lifeguard until we turned 16.
I have always been a strong swimmer but I came close to drowning several times that summer. The instructor was excellent but a taskmaster with sporadic sadistic impulses.
Bruce and I both passed/survived and returned to Russellville as Red Cross certified lifeguards. I turned 16 late in the summer and worked at the country club and Lake Malone before the season ended.
Over the next several years I worked first part-time and then full-time at Spring Acres Park.
Bruce worked there too.
Spring Acres was a spring-fed swimming pool and park located on the Bowling Green Road a few miles out of Russellville. The water could be chilly (cold) but it was perfect during the hottest days of summer.
Doug Shoulders and family owned the park and the land around the spring. There were Indian relics all over the property. It was a special beautiful place.
Near the spring was an entrance to a cave. I had explored the cave a few years earlier. My dad went with me and also a friend. The opening was so tight, dad got stuck when he inhaled. Once inside, the cave opened up and was massive. The Mud River ran through the cave and came above ground at the spring.
The temperature inside was around 55 degrees. There was the usual graffiti on some of the walls in some of the rooms near the entrance. The further we hiked, the less traveled the road. At times the ceiling would drop so low we would have to crawl/swim in the cold water to get into the next room.
We carried flashlights plus we had carbide lights on our heads. Carbide lights were common in those days. They had been used in coal mines for years. Crystals were placed in a small can. Water was added causing the carbide to put off gas. The gas was lit and a small flame gave light. A reflector focused the light forward. This whole operation was incorporated into a crude headgear for hands-free action. No batteries required!
So a few years later I'm working at Spring Acres. Doug Shoulders was a wonderful boss and a fine man but he was tighter than a gnat stretched over a rain barrel. He was, however, generous as a mentor and later as a friend. Doug took his team under his wing and made us part of his family. I will always be in debt to Doug and his wife, Peggy.
Doug taught me many lessons. Possibility the most important lessons I learned at Spring Acres were responsibility and chemistry.
100 people in the water is a disaster waiting to happen. Drowning is the number two cause of death for children (car accidents are number one). I learned to stay focused for long boring periods of time. I learned that in some jobs, getting it right most of the time is not good enough.
I also learned that pool people want their water to be clear and clean. It takes some skill and effort to manage 25,000 or more gallons of water. Doug taught me well, and those skills helped me not plan for my next adventure at Bama.
It's unclear how Forrest or Nelson graduated high school, but we did graduate and we both found ourselves at the University of Alabama during the 60s; both of us crossing the path of the great Coach Paul "Bear’ Bryant.
The student recreational resources at a major university are vast. The Alabama football program helped fund impressive facilities for athletes, students and faculty. I spent time after classes and on weekends at the indoor and outdoor pools where I took training and received additional Red Cross Certifications. The swim coach and I became friends, and I was soon on a student job-study program.
I mostly taught swimming, guarded, and kept the water pretty.
As fate would have it—yet again—a wealthy paper baron lived in Tuscaloosa. His name was Jack Warner. His paper mill stunk up the whole town but it employed everybody not working at the university.
Jack Warner provided Paul Bear Bryant, the legendary Alabama football coach, 25 summer jobs to keep some of his players in town for extra training during the summer.
(Note: Paul Bryant was a successful head football coach at the University of Kentucky and Texas A&M before "Mama called" and he returned to his alma mater at Alabama)
Jack put the football players to work around the mill, doing make-work projects and heavy lifting.
At that same moment in time while I was working with the swim coach, it happened that Jack Warner and Gulf States Paper was developing real estate around a yacht club he was building on Lake Tuscaloosa. Jack needed two water-safety guys at the club. He wanted two of the 25 boys he funded for Coach Bryant to work this special project. None of the football team qualified. Only one member of the swim team qualified.
The swim coach called me in and told me I was the last man standing, but he wasn't sure they would take a non-scholarship athlete. He said he would set an interview with coach Bryant and the rest was up to me.
Walking into the palatial athletic offices, I felt something akin to what Moses must have felt climbing Mount Nebo to meet God.
The Bear was bigger than life. He was the most powerful man in college football; the most powerful man in the state of Alabama; and certainly, the most powerful man on campus.
Sam Bailey was the assistant athletic director. He brought me back to his office first and asked me a few questions. Once satisfied, he told me to stand in the hall. He said that Coach Bryant would be along directly.
Having never visited King Solomon's Palace, nothing from Russellville prepared me for this visual experience. The halls of the athletic offices were 20 feet wide and the ceilings were 60 feet high. Well that's how it felt to me. Every wall was covered with life-size to scale pictures of bowl stadiums where Alabama had played.
As I stood there in the hall, trying to hide in the deep crimson carpet, I watched a ten foot giant in a brown sports coat lumbering my way. Amazingly he grew larger with every step. Was that a glow or just a light shining from somewhere behind him? I still wonder!
Soon the "Bear" stood in front of me. His eyes drilled a hole through my soul. i tried courageously to stand tall on weak knees. He spoke in a tone lower than thunder. I have no recollection of what he said to me. If I said anything, I don't remember what it was. My strongest memory of the event was the sound and feel of my head hitting the wall behind me! I had backed into Section 3, Row 27 of the Orange Bowl!
Coach Bryant finally shook my hand, smiled, slapped my shoulder and walked away. I stood there in the hall in a state of "I can't believe this"!! Coach Bailey came by in short order. I asked if I got the job. He said, "Yeah, now get out of here."
And so it went. While many college students were protesting, marching, and changing the world, I was teaching sailing classes and lying on the sand hauled in by trucks from Panama City. I worked year-round at the yacht club until graduation.
I had the honor to be with, around or near Coach Bryant on numerous occasions after that first meeting (more stories later). I studied him like a book, trying to learn his secret for success.
Coach Bryant had all the traits of a great leader and manager. The Bear always gave others credit for a win. The Bear always took personal responsibility for a loss. I never once heard Coach Bryant publicly criticize another coach, a referee or comment on a bad call. He never blamed the weather or the field.
Every Sunday afternoon after a Saturday game, the whole state would watch "The Bear Bryant Show." Coach would comment on every play. He would praise his players, mention their hometown, and say hello to their mamma. We never got tired of it.
I do not remember my hallway conversation with Coach Bryant but I am sure I know how it went.
Coach walked up and looked me in the eye to size me up. He asked me where I was from. He asked about my momma and daddy. He asked me if I was willing to work hard. He told me he knew I would not disappoint him, that I would make him and my parents proud. I'm sure he leaned in close and said, "Isn't that right, son?"
I nodded my head hitting the wall with my noggin. He probably suppressed a laugh as he shook my hand, slapped my shoulder and walked away.
That's the way Bear Bryant talked to players. That's exactly the way I am absolutely sure but do not remember that he talked to me. I know this because Bear never changed what worked.
Dr. Steve Brown says, "If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know it did not get there by itself."
I believe that half the battle of life is won if we will just make the effort to show up! I learned that from all the teaching moments, from every pat on the back and every kick in the pants I received growing up in the 60's.
Forrest Gump had a mama with high expectations. My generation in my hometown had the expectation of our mammas plus the entire community. From Russellville to Tuscaloosa I know I was blessed with great mentors who cared enough to take me under their wing. I will forever be grateful.
It's true but it wasn't my mother who said it. Life really is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get!