Americana

Everybody Needs a “Hi-Pockets” Duncan in Their Life

/ Andy R Taylor / 4 Comments

I bet you never even heard of him! Well, that name meant nothing to me either until a few months ago. *(Thanks to my good friend, Charles Lynn who sent me an autographed copy of Terry Jennings [Waylon’s son!], and who I recently became friends with) brand new book, Waylon, Tales of My Outlaw Dad) Hi-Pockets was a Lubbock, Texas disc jockey in the ’50s who was instrumental in giving a young Lubbock performer, Charles Hardin Holly, better known as ‘Buddy’, his first real opportunity. In those days there was lots of talent around Lubbock but Buddy Holly was special.

You know the tragic story of Buddy Holly but you might not know that his young friend and bass player from nearby Littlefield, Texas gave his seat up to another performer on that ill-fated plane destined for Fargo, ND. Yep, Waylon Jennings, himself, should’ve been on that plane. The regular tour bus froze up and Buddy decided to charter a plane for himself and his band. The others would use a school bus for the long, cold drive to Fargo.

Waylon and Buddy were tight friends and before Buddy departed on that fateful night they jokingly exchanged barbs with one another. Since Waylon was going to have to ride a bus to the destination, Buddy jokingly said, “I hope the bus breaks down.” to which Waylon replied, “I hope your ‘ol plane crashes.”That would be a statement that would haunt Waylon for decades. In fact, it almost ruined him, and understandably so. It crippled him so emotionally that he basically quit the music business altogether.

It was months later and Waylon had no intentions of re-engaging in the music business at any level when Hi-Pockets cornered him that afternoon. I guess you could say he, more or less, gave him a good chewing out; you know, one of them old fashioned talkin’ to’s! He told him he had absolutely no business feeling guilty about his friend’s terrible twist of fate; and that what he should do is get out of the ditch he was in, quit moping around, get back up….and get going again. It took a few days for that advice to kick in, ……but it did! And the rest, as they say, is history.

There’s probably not a single one of us who’ve not had our dreams snuffed out. For some it’s been terminal; for others maybe just a delay in where their life was to go. But at any rate getting back up after a derailment is exactly what needs to happen. Someone said, “To be successful in life all you have to do is get back up one more time than you get knocked down”. Sounds easy,…..the actual ‘doing of it’ is much harder. But, undeniably, it IS the thing to do.

And, sometimes, it takes a Hi-Pockets Duncan type to get you up and going again. Better yet, …..maybe sometime you’ll have the chance to be that person of encouragement for someone else. Sometimes a good ‘talkin’-to’ is just the thing to get the ball rolling again!

You Oughta See Us When We Ain’t Winnin’!

/ Andy R Taylor / Leave a comment

It was back in the late ’70s, during my rodeo days.  We had driven all night the night before from Montgomery, Alabama with very little sleep. Only what little you could get in the back, or front, seat of a car with four others packed in there too. We had finished riding on this particular night in the rodeo in San Angelo, Texas. It was around midnight and we pulled into an all-night convenience store to get stocked up for another all-nighter to Phoenix. We dropped off one guy so there’d only be four of us for this trip. One less driver….but more room to sleep!

We made our trip around the c-store and brought all our stuff and put it on the counter to check out. Out there on the counter were big bags of potato chips, Doritos, pork skins, Cheetos, Louisiana Hot Sauce, Slim-Jims, Fritos, bean dip, beef jerky, peanuts, a few candy bars………oh, and a case of beer. The night manager, a gentleman in his 40’s, looked over all the items we put on the counter, shook his head back and forth a few times, ….looked me square in the eye and said, in an extremely serious tone, “How in the hell do you guys live??!!” …..To which I quickly replied, “Heck, that ain’t nothin’, you oughta see us when we ain’t winnin’!”

True Story!

March Madness

/ Andy R Taylor / Leave a comment

I love college basketball! In fact, college sports are a lot more fun for me to watch than the pros. It’s about the only sport that I don’t really care who’s playing, I can get into the game. I think it’s the fact that there’s not six points difference in a team that doesn’t make the NCAA tournament and the one that wins it all. I love to watch the coaches as much as I like watching the players. Great sport, great watching!

Here’s a little analogy you probably haven’t thought of. The Sunday church service is much like the timeout in basketball. In most games both teams usually uses all their timeouts. The timeouts are critical and are used very strategically, especially in a close game. I’d say the same about the Sunday church service. There are no points scored during the timeout….but what’s done there is always critical to the overall outcome of the game. If you think about it, it’s much the same with the church service. And, while many would argue that the Sunday service is the ‘big show’, wise people realize that the real game is outside the walls of the church.

Take for instance a few years ago: I’m watching Roy Williams, the great North Carolina coach, during the timeout of the NCAA National Championship. He’s very animated, he’s passionate about getting his point across, he’s ‘coaching’ his boys about what they should do, and how they should do it, when the whistle starts the game again. He’s making sure everyone knows their job, knows their place. The entire season is on the line!  Mark Few, Gonzaga’s phenomenal coach, is doing the same. It’s coaching intensity at it’s very best. Nothing like it in any other sport, in my opinion. You’ll notice that they use every single second of every single timeout. It’s what the Bible calls “redeeming the time”.

The Sunday service should be just like that. It should be, above everything, very strategic. In my case I want to do the best job I can do to tell my ‘players’ what I’m hearing from the Lord. I don’t want to just throw a ‘sermon’ out there; not my style anyway. I want to be strategic and relevant for what my ‘players’ are facing in the game (real life!).

And, lastly…..the timeout gives the players a chance to get their breath, rest a little and get everything back into proper perspective, and come into one accord. No games are won or lost during the timeout….but what’s done there directly affects the outcome of the game! 

There’s a lot at stake when we get back in the real world on Monday! We should be strategic when we gather up on Sunday!

**So, if you call me through the weekend and I don’t answer….be patient with me; I’m doin’ research!

Running On Empty

/ Andy R Taylor / 2 Comments

As songwriters go, I’d consider Jackson Browne one of the best. In fact, way back in the 70’s, Glenn Frey and Don Henley (the Eagles) moved in above Jackson in a $60 a month apartment in L.A. They admitted that they learned, and perfected their craft of writing songs by listening to some  of those ‘mind boggling melodies’, as Rolling Stone magazine described Jackson Browne’s songs. They agreed that he was just a notch above anyone else who was writing in those days….and there were a bunch of ’em. One of those songs, “Running on Empty”, was the title track of his ‘Live’ album in 1977 and is, to this day, the most played of all his songs on Classic Rock stations. On an interesting note the song was written while Browne was struggling to make it and, in his own words, “I was always driving around with no gas in the car”.

A few years ago I had just returned to the office after five weeks off. Haven’t done anything like that in the 28 years since we started Trinity Fellowship. I didn’t take the time off to fast and pray. That would definitely be time well spent but I took the time off to just get away from it all. No studying, no preaching or teaching, no late night emergency phone calls, no funerals……no nothing! Pretty much everybody’s job has its own level of stress. Ministry’s no different; and people ain’t lined up to tell you good news! It took at least a week to get out from under the load of ministry that I’ve been used to. And, maybe another week to get in full, no stress mode. But, with the support I have from the people around me (they’re the best in the business!) I finally started to actually relax. I think I was like a lot of folks who are out there today, running on empty……and maybe not even knowing it! It’s easy to get in crisis mode and if you’re not careful…..never get out. It’s unhealthy!

The Father, Himself, rested on the seventh day…and He designated and set aside a day for us to rest, too. Most of us don’t do it; don’t know how, never even tried it. We’re too busy doing all the things we know we should be doing. But, the Sabbath was made for man! We should learn how to do it! When we’re running on empty we won’t even come close to doing our best work.

Hardly anybody can get as much serious time off as I had, I understand that. But, we could learn to take a day a week to get out from under the load. Maybe we could learn to work ‘smarter’, not harder. It’ll take some time, no question.  But if we’ll make it a priority…..we won’t have to be running on empty!

Audio Version:

If you’re wanting a little more:

There’s Something To Be Said For Not Knowing Anything!

‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’

The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Click here to listen/watch my favorite Jackson Browne tune (you’ll like it!)

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

/ Andy R Taylor / 3 Comments

Baldemar Garza Huerta, better know as Freddy Fender was born in San Benito, Texas in 1938. He took the name, ‘Fender’, from the Fender guitar. And, he just thought Freddy sounded good and would, in his opinion, sell better with the ‘gringos’. Evidently he was right. He first recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” in 1959 and it was a hit. But soon after, he was derailed when he and a band member were convicted of marijuana possession and ended up spending a stint in the Angola Prison in Louisiana. By the end of the 60’s, Fender was back in Texas working as a mechanic, and attending a local junior college, while playing music only on the weekends. In 1974 he recorded “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and it reached #1 on the Billboard Country and Pop charts. His next three releases all reached #1 and the re-release of “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” became his first million selling single. He also won three Grammys in his career. Fender died of lung cancer in 2006. I can’t say I was a huge fan of Freddy Fender but he definitely made his mark. *(I came face to face with him at the Houston airport one time!)

As you know by now I’m a big music lover….and I’m always looking for a good blog title. That’s how I landed on “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”. There’s a very important verse in Proverbs that goes like this, “Without a vision the people perish.” I’ve thought about that verse a lot over the years and I’ve come to a couple of conclusions. First, if you’re a regular reader of mine you know I often refer to our ‘destiny’. I believe the subject of destiny is one of the most important things we could talk about. I’m not talking about ‘destination’ so much since, if you’ve made the decision to receive Jesus, your destination is sealed. But destiny includes the events that we encounter on the way to our destination. And, what’s a lot more important than those events, are the people we encounter along the way. It also involves the ‘call’ of God on our lives….which we all have. He has a plan, a meticulous and detailed one, for each of us. And I think that Proverbs verse speaks directly to that point.

“Without a vision, the people perish”. I surely don’t think that it means that if we don’t have ‘vision’ for our lives we die. I mean, we are gonna die whether we have that vision for our lives or not. But, if you think about it, “to perish” could easily involve wasting our lives in pursuit of things that might not matter at all in the long run. I’m afraid there are many who might fall into that category. It seems like a pretty big thing to me…..to miss what we’re on the planet for in the first place!

I don’t want my life to be a string of wasted days and wasted nights! ……and I know you don’t want that either. Here’s the fix: Run to Him! And, I wouldn’t mess around too long thinking about it. Ask Him about the plan for your life. He’s very free with that kind of information. His plan for you is bigger and better than you can comprehend. It’s never too late to jump in!

Let’s let our lives count for something! 

No more wasted days and wasted nights!

Check these out:

It’s Not Too Late to Make a ‘Mark’ With Your Life!

Living Your Life With Abandon

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Turkeys Just Need to Tend to Their Own Business!

/ Andy R Taylor / 2 Comments

I’m a little put out! Turkeys, yeah you know…the big goofy lookin’ bird, are beginning to get a little big for their britches, if you know what I mean. They’re really starting to get on my nerves. I don’t mind a slice or two of turkey around Thanksgiving. It’s not necessarily my meat of choice on that holiday, or any other for that matter, but I’ll do it if I have to. If I’m forced to eat it I’ll go for the deep fried, cajun version.

But, the last few years turkeys have been branching out into new areas and I think it’s a huge mistake on their part. I’m sure you’ve noticed turkey jerky. Now that’s plumb out of character for a turkey. He shouldn’t be doing that at all. Then there’s turkey chili! Are you kidding me??!! Absurd! No way should a turkey be attempting to be the main ingredient in a fine dining dish like chili! It ain’t right! But the worst offense of all is now they’re doing turkey bacon. That’s downright un-American! I had a friend visiting here awhile back from back east. We went to a popular breakfast spot and when it was his time to order he asked if they had turkey bacon. The waitress looked at him thinkin’ he must’ve been joking….but he wasn’t. I cut through the awkward haze by saying, “He ain’t from around here!”.

Now, here’s the way it oughta be. Turkeys, listen up! You need to stick with Thanksgiving. We’re giving you that. But, jerky…..NO! That’s something that’s way better left to deer and beef. Cattle know what they’re doing when it comes to jerky…so just leave ’em alone and do your own thing. And, chili, ……..c’mon now. You know that ain’t in your job description. Nobody in their right mind’s gonna opt in for turkey chili. It don’t even sound good.

Now, let’s get this straight once and for all; You back off and leave the bacon alone! That’s a specialty that’s best left to the hogs. Hogs were made for bacon. I mean, you don’t see them trying to push bacon on folks for Thanksgiving, do you? Right! You can brag all you want about turkey being a more healthy choice but it ain’t working. There’s just some things real people ain’t wiling to compromise….and bacon’s one of ’em! Besides there’s no way that turkey bacon can put a sheen on your hair like the real thing!

So, turkeys, ….just tend to your own business; stay in your lane. And, quit trying to do things that are way out of your pay grade!

Do that…..and we’ll get along just fine!

 

Just for laughs:

The ‘Baddest’ Dang Turkey in Arkansas!

The Luge….Western Oklahoma Style!

That Crazy Little Thing Called Love

/ Andy R Taylor / 1 Comment

Today’s the day that we are reminded to observe the strongest of all the emotions, love. There’ll be literally millions of dollars spent today on roses (actually lots of other varieties of flowers, too, since the roses often sell out!), candy, cards and all kinds of other things to show our love to our people. I think it’s a good thing even though, just about like every other holiday now, it’s grown to be so commercial that it’s almost gotten out of hand. Retailers gotta love Valentine’s Day. Men are apt to lose all contact with reality when it comes to this day. We’re not the best shoppers in the world, if you know what I mean! But, it doesn’t take a ‘rocket surgeon’ to make a call and buy some roses. Problem is most of us will wait ’til the day Of……and they’re all out of the dang roses! *Don’t ask me how I know this stuff! Then it’s normal to go into total crisis mode. Instead of buying roses we’ll go and try to find some flowers of some kind only to find that they’re picked over too. So, next step is to ‘double-up’ on the big read box full of chocolates. We get the biggest one we can find, you know to make up for not gettin’ any roses. Then it’s over to the card isle to get a nice romantic card. That card isle, Heads Up!!, ……there ain’t nothing like it I’ve ever seen before. It’s the scariest sight you’ll see for awhile! There’s fifty men reachin’ and grabbin’ for a card….any card. I mean, it’s like a bunch of buzzards on roadkill. They all have a distressed, uneasy look on their face. I find it interesting that there’s not one single woman in the card area, not one! I’m guessing they might’ve done a little early shopping; just a guess. So, if you’re lucky you might find a card; gotta be real lucky to find an envelope that goes with it….but who knows, you might! (pink card with a red envelope; she’ll never notice!) It’s not unusual for a guy to try to find something else to buy for his girl…you know, ’cause he didn’t get the roses. So, all in all, it usually works out pretty good for the wife or the girlfriend. And us guys…we usually manage to bail ourselves out, somehow.

But it’s all done in the name of *“That Crazy Little Thing Called Love”!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! ……..and good luck shoppin’ guys!

PS-If that reminded you of a story, feel free to let us in on it. It’ll make us all feel better!

*If you click on the highlighted link you can watch Dwight Yoakum sing the song. Nobody really does that song like Freddy Mercury but that video was a little too racy for my likin’!

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“It’ll Ride” Part 3

/ Andy R Taylor / 6 Comments

I know you’ve been waiting for the next one. LOL I think I may be getting down to the last ones now. I’m trying to minimize the “It’ll Ride” incidents the best I can. It’s kind of a chronic problem. If my guess is right there’s a few others out there who have a story or two of their own. 

Years ago when we were living on the ranch my Mom had sent one of her favorite  rocking chairs to the upholsterer in Pampa, Texas. It was on the Wednesday right before Thanksgiving and she sent me there to pick up the chair. We loaded the chair and pushed it right up against the cab of the pickup. It was a pretty sturdy, heavy chair. I took a good look at it and decided, “It’ll ride”. No big deal, 60 miles, I’ll keep an eye on it and it’ll ride fine. Well, on the way home, one of those Texas Panhandle storms started blowing in! It was well after dark, the wind was blowing at least 5o mph….and the dirt was thick in the air. We were half way home when it happened! That chair, you know….the favorite rockin’ chair, started moving. It went end over end so fast it was unbelievable. It was supposed to fly right out the back end of the pickup.…but, miraculously, it hung up on the tailgate. I looked it over and there wasn’t a scratch on it! Still to this day I don’t know what kept it from going airborne and exploding on the pavement. 

OK, last one; A couple of months ago I loaded 2 of my propane tanks for my grill to get filled up. Put ’em in the back of the pickup. (*I don’t have a tailgate on my pickup.) Only had a half a mile to go. Made the short trip, got out to grab the tanks……I bet you’re already ahead of me in the story. Yep! They’re gone! I turned around ASAP, retraced my route….but no tanks! I did grind my teeth a little on that one!! Cuss words may or may not have been used to express my frustration.

After all these “It’ll Ride” stories I’m beginning to think that maybe I ought to start securing some of those things with a little rope or something. But, you know, that’d take five minutes or so….and rope ain’t cheap! I am starting to doubt myself a little when I look a situation over and declare, “It’ll Ride”!

I really am hoping this is the end of the “It’ll Ride” series!!

How about telling us your own “It’ll Ride” stories? It might make me feel better!

More “It’ll Ride”:

“It’ll  Ride”

“It’ll Ride” – Part 2

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I Did It Just For Him!

/ Andy R Taylor / 2 Comments

*Today marks a year since my Dad left for heaven. I wrote this blog on his birthday back in August. He would’ve been 87. It seems fitting to publish it today.

The 15th of August; For as many years as I was old enough to remember we did something to celebrate my Dad’s birthday. This year was a little different in that, this time, he wasn’t here to enjoy it with us. We did, however get together anyway. Monty drove up from Ft.Worth. We had supper at Rib Crib with just about everyone there, minus Cole and his little family, (Calli Softball practice) and Cade.

As we sat at the restaurant the TV’s were tuned to the Olympics. We watched several events including the preliminaries for the women’s 400 meter hurdles. Then it was time for the women’s 100 meter finals. Allison Felix, the USA’s marquis sprinter and most decorated American woman track and field athlete, was the odds-on favorite to win the gold medal. She had a great start, ran her race, and it appeared that she was clearly going to win the gold. But just at the very end of the race the sprinter from the Bahamas did something that was totally unexpected. Rather than just running ‘through’ the finish line she dove forward at just the precise moment….stealing the gold medal from Allison Felix.

You’re probably wondering what in the world this has to do with my Dad. Well, the 100 meter finals and the miraculous finish took me back about 47 years. I was a junior in high school. One of the things I was pretty decent at was running the hurdles. I broke the school records in the high hurdles and low hurdles that had stood since 1929.

It was at the district track meet. I hadn’t been beaten in the highs or low hurdles up to that point in the entire track season. There were several really good competitors but if I’d just run my race I could beat them. I wasn’t the fastest by any means but no one could beat me out of the blocks and I could navigate the hurdles better than most of them. But on this day there was a new guy. First time I’d seen him. We were in the same preliminary heat in the high hurdles…and he beat me. I ran a good race…and he still beat me. We had the two fastest times in the prelims so in the finals we’re lined up in the two middle lanes.

Dad didn’t always get to be at the track meets but he was there that day. I wanted to do my very best for him. I got off to my usual great start but so did the other guy. In fact, for 110 yards there was never a foot or two lead for either of us. It was literally neck-and-neck. We cleared the last hurdle and he had me beat by a foot or two. Ten feet from the finish line, he still had me beat. But I wanted to win this race in the worst possible way……for my Dad. I felt like I’d be letting him down if I didn’t win. But, for all practical purposes this guy’s got me beat. But at the last possible second I did exactly what the gal from the Bahamas did. I dove….with everything that was in me. My right shoulder hit the asphalt track and it took most of the hide off for about 8 inches……but I won the race!

I was glad I’d won the race….but the excitement wasn’t really for me. I was glad to win  because I was determined to do it for him. I don’t think I ever told Dad that I did that just for him. I wanted him to be proud of me. And for me to ‘not’ put out, and give it everything I had would make me feel like I was lettin’ him down. We learned from our folks that whatever you were doing, you give it everything you got! That’s what they did.

But you know,…..all the hundreds of things he ever did for us, he never once had to say, “I did that for you”.

We just knew!

Try these:

VIP’s #10 – Cliff & Charlene Taylor

VIP #8 – Monty Taylor

Labor Day Out on the ‘Ol ‘Lazy J’

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“Hug-A-Thug”

/ Andy R Taylor / 2 Comments

Over a year ago I got involved with the Beckham County Drug Court. I guess you could say I’m an unofficial member of the DC team. Drug Court is a pretty amazing thing if you ask me. (Click here FMI) I have developed some great friendships with a lot of the participants that are in the program. It’s one of the highlights of everything I do these days to see these folks overcome their addictions and become productive members of society. I can’t speak for all the Drug Court programs in Oklahoma but I can definitely vouch for ours’! The success rate for these men and women to ‘get well’ is pretty darn good. I believe that can be attributed to the entire Drug Court Team, which includes the Sheriff, DA, County Judge…as well as others. But what seems to be the shining star of the whole program is the support that the DC participants give to one another. It’s pretty amazing. Very often all it takes is just someone who’ll love you and believe in you. More often than not….that makes the difference.

The Drug Court program is not without it’s criticizers, though. There are plenty of people who don’t much care about it’s success. Seems a little bit crazy to me. There are those out there who’d rather see these people go straight to prison and I guess I can kinda see where they’re coming from. But, I’d always like to see someone get another chance. And if they blow it in Drug Court….prison it is!

Some of the detractors like to mockingly refer to Drug Court as the Hug-a-thug program. I cringe a little bit if I hear that but you know what they say, “haters gonna hate”! I was thinking about their little moniker (hug-a-thug) a few days ago and I came to a conclusion or two. What if a hug for these people really did make a difference?! What if, maybe for the first time in their life, they could actually believe that someone cared?

I don’t have to sit long in DC to realize how good I’ve had it. I’ve never had to wonder if my Mom & Dad loved me. I didn’t have to grow up with them being the ones who introduced me to, and gave me drugs. I never was kicked around from family to family because no one really wanted me. So, yeah….I’ve had it good. Doesn’t take too long for me to start having a heart to see these folks do good. I’m a fan! …..and if I can help… I will!

Back to that hugging thing; I come from a long line of huggers. It’s something we’ve always done in our household. Probably came from my Mom’s side of the family. You see them….they’re gonna give you a hug…like it or not. I guess it’s contagious. But there really is something about a hug, something profound, something real and something, I think, that could really be important! There’s even scientific evidence that hugs are healthy for us….both physically and emotionally!

Here’s some scientific evidence of what a hug can do: *(thank you David Clark!)

A. Activates antitoxin hormone that can fill us with joy
B. Allows for more patience
C. Remedy against stress and anxiety
D. Strengthens self-esteem especially in children.
E. Releases the dopamine hormone responsible for good motivation
F. Helps alleviate pain or a bad moment
G. Communicates emotions without saying a single word
H. Helps preserve immune system
I. Helps balance central nervous system
J. Is an example of love, affection and unity

So there’s the evidence!

What’re we waitin’ for…….”Let’s hug some people!!”

You’ll want to read these too:

It Feels Good To Be “Believed In”!!

Drug Court

Prison Prayer Project

Party at the Prison!

VIP #7 – Rick Hudson

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