Debate Brings Back Memories of a Vanished Friend

The first debate between Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was held last week as we move ever so slowly to Election Day.

I need not give the details of the debate, by now it has been analyzed to the point of redundancy. Further, if you watched the debate you really don’t need me to tell what to think about it.

Tonight the Vice-Presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan tee it up.

I’ve enjoyed the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates over the years. I recall some very famous moments. I remember Ronald Reagan’s classic line to Jimmy Carter of “Well, there you go again.”

I remember Lloyd Bentsen telling Dan Quayle, “I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine and you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

I laughed along with both Republicans and Democrats when Ronald Reagan at 74 years of age said that he was “not going to make his opponent’s youth an issue of this campaign.”

I remember Al Gore’s sighing and Gerald Ford forgetting about the iron curtain. I recall Jimmy Carter quoting his twelve year old daughter as an authoritative source.

The debate last week also brought back memories of my debating career. During high school I was a member of the debate team for Tattnall Square Academy in my hometown of Macon.

During that era some academic types got together somewhere and put together a topic for high school debaters each year. Then each school’s team would form two sub teams of two folks each, one pro and one negative, and we would argue the topic against other schools.

I remember one year the topic was “Should the United States have a comprehensive national health care policy?”

I was in my teens then and I turn 51 this week and some things haven’t changed; this is still a matter of debate. As a side note, 51 is still youthful by Ronald Reagan’s standards.

My debate partner was a fellow by the name of John T. Edge, who today is Dr. John T. Edge.

He earned a doctorate studying southern cooking and its impact on southern culture. He has published a number of books on the subject and is considered an authority in his field. The last I heard, he lives out in Oxford, Miss. in the shadow of the University of Mississippi which is a pretty good place to study southern culture.

John T. and I also were on the football team together. I played line and John T. was a back. John T. had really huge lips and I gave him the nickname of “Blimp Lips.” I was portly even in my high school days so John T. gave me the nickname of the “The Incredible Tummy.” I think John T.’s obsession with my incredible tummy led to his desire to study southern cooking so I will claim to be the inspiration for his success.

John T. lived in Gray; no, actually he lived in Clinton, a “suburb” of Gray, in a house with a historic marker in front. His father was in federal law enforcement. I recall that his mother was one of those of whom it could be said that “broke the mold.” She was a very friendly and outgoing person. She would attend our football games with a cup of flowers that she brought for luck.

There is a legend, that has never been confirmed by me, that she once doused John T.’s Little League baseball team with champagne after they won a championship.

One Halloween John T. and some of his friends from Gray decided to ride around Gray and through a few eggs at people, houses and cars. This didn’t go over well with the Gray Police Department who put John T. in a cruiser and drove him home to mom and dad. I suspect he had rather gone to jail.

Upon hearing the news of John T.’s peccadillo our headmaster, Dr. Joe B. Hill, dubbed John T. “as the legendary thrower of hen fruit missiles.” The name stuck until graduation.

John T. attended the University of Georgia as did I. He and I were in different fraternities but we rode home together a time or two. We even had a class or two together. I don’t recall seeing him since college. I’ve thought of looking him up when I have visited Oxford for a Georgia-Ole Miss game but just never got around to it.

So it was that watching the Presidential debate brought back memories of debating in high school and memories of a friend that I no longer see. It gives me pause to wonder how many of us might have friends to whom we have spoken in years simply because our paths diverged. We all have high school classmates, college friends, or former coworkers that seem to have vanished.

However, from time to time there is something that makes us think of them. It also gives us pause to see if with today’s social media and other tools to see if we can find them. I might just have to look up ole John T. Who might you wish to find?