Even if nobody asked……
1. I was 15 when the nation turned 200 in 1976. No job (unless you count a paper route as employment), no car, no wife – not even a girlfriend. I was still a B student. What I remember about the 4th of July that year is that by late day no one seemed to be around.
I was all alone.
So I spent hours that afternoon and evening in my backyard shooting hoops, dreaming I’d make every shot for the rest of my life.
On that night they all seemed to go in. Even the ones that missed, swish after swish.
2. Jaylon Brown posted a 198-word goodbye message to Boston. In doing so he used 19 first person references. Yeah, that about says it all to me.
3. Protein bars are basically candy bars dressed up in gym clothes.
4. A successful life is being able to interrupt the interruption.
5. If you drive past me in the same make, model, and color car I am driving then, yes, I am waving at you.
It’s what our cars would want us to do.
6. The Star-Spangled Banner was written nearly 40 years after July 4, 1776, but nonetheless still stands strongly for our independence.
Remember that when someone impugns a gospel for being written 40 years (“so long”) after Jesus died. #Justsayin
7. The rage in 1976 for me was having a red, white, and blue basketball with a red, white, and blue net to throw it through. I could afford only the net.
8. ‘Silly Love Songs” by Wings (Paul McCartney) was the number one song in the country when America turned 200. A week later it was replaced by Afternoon Delight.
At 15, I got the actual meaning of only one of those songs.
9. The most attractive – and contagious – quality a person can have is enthusiasm. It rules the room.
10. Today, 50 years since shooting alone in my backyard, I’ve fathered four children, landed a spectacular wife, saw both parents and a sister die way too young, had my heart captured by Jesus, started and ran a company for 35 years, coached youth sports for 25 years, met five kids who call me Papa, (oh, and learned about Afternoon Delight😎) traveled, got sick, got really sick, got better, got much better, and reached the countries 250th with a grateful heart and a few more shots left to bury!
Happy birthday America! All net!
(Bristol July 4, 1976)