Beware of #5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There probably will never be a movie about it, but it was the kind of game that a young man will reflect on for a lifetime. Last Friday I went to watch my 16-year-old grandson play in a sub varsity basketball game. His team plays very hard, but they have not won many games. The first half of the game was hard to get excited about, because our team couldn't seem to find the basket with a shot. At the intermission they were trailing 29 to 16.

But the second half is a completely different story. The boys came out with the same high intensity on defense, but now they began to make some shots. One of the boys on our team got hit with an elbow just above his left eye and it began to bleed. He had to come off and get some treatment. To keep the bandage in place, his head was wrapped in a medical tape that made it look like he was wearing a sweat band. But his wound didn't keep him out of the game or cause him to be bashful. He and my grandson are the primary ball handlers for the team, so it was important for him to be on the court. In the third quarter shots began to fall for everyone, including my grandson who hit three three-pointers in that frame. Our team held the visitors to only six points in the quarter, and the score at the end of three quarters was 35-34.

The game was intense in the fourth quarter, but our defense was up to the task again and only allowed nine points in the quarter. In the midst of the battle, I was thrilled, and afterwards found out my grandson had heard and was also thrilled, to hear the opposing coach shot several times in the frame, "Beware of number 5, beware of number 5!" He didn't want number 5 to get any good looks at the basket because he was really on fire. Number 5 ended up leading scorer in the game with 25 points and his team won 55-44. Of course you know who wore number 5 for our team, don't you?

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Teaching Them They Belong!

For the past week we have been digging out from the debris left by Hurricane Ike. After we got the limbs and leaves cut up and piled at the curb in our yard, we helped the neighbors on our block. We includes our 7 and 8 year old grandsons that live with us. We wanted them to understand what it means to belong to a community.

After we finished our block, the guys and I went to remove limbs and leaves from the lawns of our widows and elderly in the congregation. The boys could work for a couple of hours without distraction, then they would need a bit of a break. I set a pattern of half an hour working and half an hour to play/relax. They were able to contribute to the efforts throughout the days on that schedule.

The first day of the work, they were just using their hands to bag up leaves. That evening I took them to the Home Depot and bought each of them his own rake and pair of gloves. They were so proud of the new tools. I hope they remember this time when they are old men and tell their grandsons the stories.

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Fifteen Years Ago Today

I dropped my wife off at the airport so she could fly to Amarillo and get to our daughter's side in time. We had just gotten the call that she had gone into labor and was on her way to the hospital in Pampa. I drove through the night, and a snow storm to meet the granddaughter we had seen on the ultrasound picture.

I arrived about seven am and went in to find my family. When I entered the room, my daughter asked, "Did you see my son?" I was dumbfounded. Ultrasound pictures do not always do justice to a young man. When they placed the little fellow in my hands for the first time, I felt as if all my work was done, that all that meant anything to me would go on through this child. And to hear that his middle name is my surname; sweet icing on the cake!

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My Grandson Has A By Line!

Once a month there is a community newsletter delivered in the mail to everyone who lives on the west side of our town. Sometimes I scan the pages to see if there are some articles I want to read. It is a 40 page periodical with lots of items about home and school and church functions.

The copy that was delivered yesterday has only one story on the front page, about happenings at the new high school that is opened near us. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that article was written by my grandson. He is a freshman at the new high school, playing basketball and participating in school life for the first time after having been home schooled from kindergarten through his junior high years.

The boy is taking a journalism class, and is working on the yearbook staff. The story in the community newsletter continues on page 2 and ends on page 3. The young man did a nice job, if I do say so myself. Best of all, it was paid by the paper for his efforts.

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