John Shearer: Random Thoughts About Snow, Broken Windows, Peter Yarrow, Carter Funeral, Chicken, and Football

  • Tuesday, January 14, 2025
  • John Shearer

Like many, I enjoyed the nice first snow of the year on Friday.

I could tell by all the interviews on TV and the newspaper photos that people gladly welcomed it back like a lost friend after too few snows in recent years, too, even though we did get one last year amid even colder temperatures.

It was a sharp contrast to the cursing you might see in Minnesota in late February, when five or more inches have fallen for the 10th time of the winter.

And the power thankfully stayed on here, and people seemed to avoid driving much for the first day or so due to slick streets.

Speaking of hazardous driving, I kept noticing in recent weeks news photos and videos both locally and nationally of vehicles that had run into homes or businesses. I guess the reasons varied, but there seems to have been a rash of such accidents in recent weeks. I also happened to be in a business on Hixson Pike last week, and it had a window covered with plywood as well from some kind of accident.

Unfortunately, such incidents have become so seemingly frequent that I hardly did a double take, although I told the person waiting on me that I was sorry about what happened. I was obviously hoping to sneakily get some information without asking what everyone else had probably been asking, but she just said yes or thank you or something like that.

She, too, must be used to cars running into businesses or homes. Let’s hope the people involved are all OK with all these incidents. And if any accidents happened because of technology, let’s hope it is not due to a DUI – driving under intelligence!

Among those who died recently and had helped navigate the musical scene for decades despite a misstep or two was Peter Yarrow of the famed Peter, Paul and Mary folk singing group. I saw in Local 3 News newscaster David Carroll’s book, “Hello, Chattanooga,” that the group had come to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium for well-attended shows on Feb. 2, 1964; Jan. 22, 1965; and April 2, 1966.

That was right after they performed at the now-famous civil rights March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his memorable “I Have a Dream” speech.

They were known for speaking out about injustices in the world both in their songs and occasionally in performances. So, it was probably an interesting experience with a Chattanooga crowd of the mid-1960s, many of whom had to be conservative in that era, all coming together for beautiful music.

I got to see Peter, Paul and Mary both in March 1989 after the Tivol Theatre reopened following some major renovation work, and in February 1991. I enjoyed them both times and loved hearing such songs as “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Mary Travers, who reportedly was initially shy about performing in the early days, and Noel Paul Stookey’s beautiful wedding song, “There Is Love.” And Mr. Yarrow adding his voice to such songs as “Lemon Tree” and “Puff, the Magic Dragon” was also enjoyable.

I also remember them praising Chattanooga during the 1989 concert for preserving and renovating the Tivoli. It was obvious they liked the setting in which they were performing.

Ms. Travers had sadly died in 2009 from complications from cancer, and now only Mr. Stookey remains.

Mr. Yarrow, unfortunately, has a checkered legacy contrasting with the warm and upbeat songs his group did. He had been convicted in an improper sexually related incident with a 14-year-old girl, although he was years later pardoned by President Jimmy Carter as he was leaving office. Mr. Yarrow did face backlash over that as the years passed, and it was one move by Jimmy Carter that has been somewhat scrutinized, along, of course, with his policy decisions as president with which not everyone has agreed.

But the vast majority of Mr. Carter’s sincere life of trying to do good and be a good Christian example has been praised, and I enjoyed watching the two-hour funeral on TV last week. I enjoyed the music and such songs as “The Road Home,” and “Imagine,” the latter played by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. And it was also neat to see former President Gerald Ford’s and former Vice President Walter Mondale’s sons, Steve and Ted, respectively read their deceased fathers’ tributes written years ago.

The whole theme of the service seemed to be just like the Biblical message in Matthew that says, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

I also enjoyed the talk by former Carter UN ambassador Andrew Young and Mr. Carter’s grandsons, but I most of all enjoyed watching the camera span the audience of former presidents and vice presidents and Carter family members. I saw one woman I was trying to recognize, and then I realized she was former Second Lady Marilyn Quayle.

And I learned later that the Carter son sitting next to Amy and wearing a scarf was Jeff Carter, whom I read is now unfortunately having to face Parkinson’s Disease. And on a lighter note, I loved seeing the friendly banter back and forth before the service started between former President Barack Obama and incoming President Donald Trump. Maybe our country needs that!

The whole service was in certain respects a throwback to the 1970s remembering when Jimmy Carter was president. One memory I have of that period, and which I have not seen recalled a lot since his death, is of middle-aged Jimmy Carter and his campaign or support staff playing pickup softball multiple times.

Speaking of the 1970s, I happened to be walking through Northgate Mall one rainy day recently for exercise, and I noticed that the GNC nutrition products store is no longer there. It could have been months ago that it closed, but I believe it and Zales Jewelers, which is still there, were among the last original stores remaining from the mall’s 1972 opening. GNC does still have four locations in greater Chattanooga, including on North Market Street.

Looking at some empty spots in Northgate while wishing all those inside do as well as Chick-fil-A and maybe Colony 13, I have not understood completely why Highway 153 is still such a hot spot for development, and numerous stores and restaurants have been going up on the perimeter of Northgate. Yet spaces remain empty inside Northgate.

I guess there is something about having to walk inside an extra 100 yards in a foot jaunt that scares off retailers in this day and time, although I am not sure how much online shopping has also hurt. Maybe Northgate can put outside entrances as well on all inside stores.

Although I have not eaten there yet, I have noticed the lines of cars at the just-opened Raising Cane’s on Highway 153 near Northgate Mall. I went by it this week, and then I went by the Chick-fil-A a little west on the highway, and it was full of cars, too.

Have people just gone crazy primarily for boneless chicken? If I were a chicken, I might be running for cover now. I remember back in the 1970s when Kentucky Fried Chicken was popular and the main chicken place, but maybe people realized chicken was a lot easier to eat when you didn’t have the bones, and close to as tasty.

Besides chicken, football has also changed since I was a teenager in the 1970s. And I am not talking just about college quarterbacks now being able to legally drive Lamborghinis in this era of Name, Image and Likeness and multi-million-dollar paychecks.

Now teams and sports reporters refer to quarterback rooms or running back rooms when discussing how many players play each position, whereas when I played most everybody was in the same room. And is the term training table used anymore to refer to the athletic dining hall that usually had better food than normal students got?

Another new term is to say how many targets a receiver had, but they used to just say how many passes the player had thrown to him in a game.

I am also impressed at the new football strategy of having bigger linemen and other teammates try and push a ballcarrier forward when he is about to be stopped. It almost looks like what a football scene would have been like in the early days of the game.

And this armchair quarterback never completely understands why teams will have first and goal at the opponents’ two-yard line and will try to run up the middle three or four straight times and often get stopped each time by opponents expecting such plays. I also wonder why coaches often go for two points and a win late in a game than the safer alternative of tying and going into overtime.

And whatever happened to knee pads? Now some players look almost like they are at a local resort club wearing Bermuda shorts. And shoulder pads seem kind of non-existent on players like quarterbacks.

The players as a result don’t always look as thick as they once did with bigger shoulder pads or as we hope our chicken is.

But the spirit and fun and excitement of the game, like Jimmy Carter’s principles, remain as true and constant as ever.

* * *

Jcshearer2@comcast.net

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