{"id":5148,"date":"2015-08-25T16:32:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T21:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=5148"},"modified":"2015-08-29T12:11:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-29T17:11:47","slug":"coachs-wisdom-paint-dump-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/08\/coachs-wisdom-paint-dump-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach’s Wisdom, Paint Dump, Rhymes with Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>Shy of a Load<\/h2>\n

I haven’t thought of Coach Jim Rowland in ages, but apparently he’s still there, now athletic director for Fort Smith, Arkansas, Public Schools.\u00a0 His address to the School Board there Monday the 24th inspired the editorial “That Is All<\/a>” in The City Wire<\/em> regional news website.<\/p>\n

How did I know Rowland, as I was a band jock? Driver’s ed* one summer, early 1970s, when he was football coach at Southside High. Yes the Southside that in recent weeks lost its fight song “Dixie” and team name the Rebels — as in Confederate (not Nicaraguan Contra rebels) — in unanimous<\/i> School Board votes.<\/p>\n

The mascot, it turns out, never sat right with Rowland, who attended Little Rock Hall High at the same period that Central High became a paragraph or a chapter in history books over integration.<\/p>\n

The editorial continues:<\/p>\n

“Rowland said changing the traditions tells the world that ‘we are good good folk, (who) in good faith, want to at last put the Civil War to rest and stop glamorizing its symbols.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*It is possible I’ve misremembered who taught me driver’s ed.<\/small><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

I\"Contractor<\/a>f you’re working as a carpenter and house painter working for a construction company, what kind of brains do you need to see an obvious garden bed — obvious from its border, trellis and planting grid — and think,<\/p>\n

“Instead of cleaning paint from my brushes over some weeds in the yard, I’ll move the hose over and scrub them where the owner plans to plant chard for the fall.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He didn’t think that, obviously, any more than he would’ve known what my plans were for this OBVIOUS raised-bed garden. He also could not have known that I’ve kept this bed organic since we moved in 16 1\/2 years ago.<\/p>\n

Even if I used chemical fertilizers and pesticides, latex paint residue doesn’t do vegetables or flowers any favors.<\/p>\n

After weeks of delays alternating with crews scheduling us in, repairs fixing damage from all the year’s rain were completed Monday, the last crew did the final painting.\u00a0From January through July we’re have 38 inches of rain, when for the whole year of\u00a02014 the area had 39 inches, according to National Weather Service statistics for the Fayetteville area<\/a>.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

Phrases I should learn, but they’ll be gone before long.\u00a0<\/p>\n