Memories (Continued) - My best friend from childhood was Larry Kilgore. We went to school, church and scouts together and lived within a mile or so of each other, so we hung out a lot. Back then a 11 or 12 year old boy could venture miles from the house alone without his parents being concerned or worrying. Of course, my dog usually tagged along and was good protection if I had ever needed it. Larry’s dog, on the other hand was an embarrassment and we I did not like her to hang with us. She was a beautiful German shepherd but was afraid of her own shadow. I would cringe and hang my head when she ran with tail tucked under her from a Chihuahua. We didn’t do a lot of fighting back then, but you wanted to appear as if you could, and with his dog around you felt like you would be ridiculed if anything happened.

Larry was of heavy stock, built like his dad who was tall and big. He was not one to look for a fight but was not afraid to engage in one if pushed to it. All around he was just a nice likeable guy who always tried to do the right thing. He and I covered a good 10 square miles around our neighborhoods by the time we were in high school. Most of that was on foot, but we also traveled a good bit on our bikes.

I can recall one time when we were riding our bikes up in the Oakdale area. Oakdale was short interlude on the road between the city of Smyrna and Fulton County. The local ball field was there, a small grocery store, a convenience store, drugstore and 2 gas stations. We would either walk there or ride our bikes and it was a good place to get a snack or just meet other friends. We were in the area on a road that we rarely took, and using it probably just because we hadn’t before. I was riding in front of Larry and we were headed to a dead end intersection. As we started down the rather steep hill I started breaking a bit to slow my ride when Larry just sped by me. I thought to myself that he was going awfully fast, especially for Larry who was not the daredevil type. Then I noticed that he had a terrified look on his face and was dragging his feet in an effort to stop the maddening descent toward the dead end and red bank ahead. He did not slow down much and I watched helplessly as he stopped suddenly by implanting his face in a bank of red dirt. I was at first concerned whether he lived through it and relieved that no car was passing by at that time. He was actually in remarkable shape when he stood up and spit the dirt out of his mouth. And I couldn’t help but laugh, which caused his anger to burn red hot against me. But, come on, after it’s over with you have to laugh.

Larry and I remained good friends even until today .And that’s saying a lot about his good character because we went opposite ways in high school. I ended up staying in trouble and indulging myself in the drug culture while he studied and played football. We hung with a completely different set of friends yet we still remained good friends the whole time. I was the one who encouraged Larry to date his future wife (even though he claimed I was setting him up as a joke).

Oh, and I also made his girlfriend cry at school. My younger brother was a sax player and she had heard that he played. She walked up to me and said, “Hey Lynn, I heard that your brother plays the saxophone”! I just answered with a very serous straight face, “that’s not funny Bobbie, my brother doesn’t have any fingers” and walked away. She started crying. I was mean.

I can still recall a football game in Harroldson County. It’s a very rural area and it was their homecoming, which meant the stands were packed with their fans and we had a handful in ours. We were kicking a field goal on the 10th yard line and after we made it they started fighting. I was very nervous because of the crowd and then I thought about Larry out there playing center. I looked and saw him on his feet, a look of rage on his face and swinging his helmet at anyone who came near him. Pretty cool! Up until that time I was not aware of Larry having ever been in a fight and I was concerned for him. No need. He can handle himself very well.