Tell Y’all About My Two New Friends
I’m fixing to tell y’all about my two new friends.
You won’t believe it but they’re Rhubarb Jones and Furman Bisher.
I had the good fortune of being able to hang out with them this past Saturday evening. The occasion was the Georgia Author of The Year Forty-fifth Annual Awards Dinner hosted by the Georgia Writers Association (GWA) up at Kennesaw State University (KSU).
Rhubarb was the Master of Ceremony of the affair, but we had time to do a little hobnobbing during the social hour preceding the dinner and awards. I’m sure everyone remembers him as having the record longest (23 years) running morning drive radio show, during which he entertained us with his wit and good music.
In all he had a 36 year career in radio and was an Emmy Award winner along with several other outstanding awards and achievements. But when his last radio show ended, so did his career in radio. So in case you’re wondering what he’s been up to, let me tell you, and you won’t believe it, but he’s a professor at KSU.
Rhubarb is a graduate of West Georgia University, West Georgia College back then. He told me his liver got much better after he graduated from that fine school.
Somewhere along the way he also achieved his Masters of Arts from Shorter College, leading to his new career. He told me that if anyone wanted to hear him early in the morning these days, then they would have to sign up for Communication 101.
Mr. Bisher was on hand to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the GWA. The man was born in November of 1918, and was named one of the nation’s top five columnists by Time magazine in 1961, the year I graduated from high school. Among many others his awards include 18 first place Associated Press Awards, induction into five Halls of Fame and had his work anthologized in Best Sports Stories of the Year 23 times.
That’s right, you figured it out, he’s 90 years old and is still a sports columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He’s covered every Super Bowl except the first one, and every Kentucky Derby and Masters Tournament since 1950.
He autographed my program for me and at first I figured he though I was just some young whippersnapper, and I hadn’t been thought of as a young whippersnapper since I was a young whippersnapper. But, no, I discovered that wasn’t the case at all.
When it came time for him to accept his award, he didn’t take the steps up to the stage, no sir, he just “hopped” up there. When I asked him later how he did that, he said, “I’m a rock climber,son.” Now we know something else about him.
Oh, I almost forgot, while I was there I picked up the Georgia Author of The Year Award in the Young Adult Fiction category for my novel A Yellow Watermelon.
I don’t know which I’m fixing to be more proud of, my award or my two new friends.