W.

  President George W. Bush was coming to Greenville in 2008 to speak at the Furman graduation.  There was a lot of hype over his visit, as well as protests.  Many students and faculty didn't want him to come.  Furman was a rather liberal school.  Since I had seen every President in my lifetime, except for JFK, I thought it would be perfect opportunity to continue my streak.

 The route was supposed to be secret.  He was either going to go by helicopter from the airport to Furman, or he was going to go by motorcade through downtown.  At the last minute, it was announced that it was going to be the motorcade.  I drove down to a corner near Furman to get my best look.  I found a group of spectators there with signs welcoming the President to Greenville.  I had heard that there would be a lot of protestors along the route, but this group was the only one with positive signs towards the President. They had been interviewed on TV as the only pro-Bush folks on the route.  I decided to hang out with them.

 There was a woman in the group whose husband was a police officer.  She was getting calls from him as to where the motorcade was.  There was also an officer with our group, and we could hear calls on his radio.  It was the group's goal to have him wave at us. We had heard that they were going 70mph through town.  The car would have to slow down at the intersection, because there was a dip in the road.

 We heard the sirens off in the distance.  Everyone got ready with their signs that greeted President Bush.  The motorcycles approached.  Then, the police cars came by.  Then, the two limos came toward the intersection.  The President would be in the second one.  They weren't slowing down.  We were waving.  We were waving our signs.  They weren't slowing down.  They took the dip in the road at 70mph.  Like a flash, they were gone.  I did get to see the President in his car for a split second.  He didn't wave at us. The group was disappointed.  If you blinked, you would have missed seeing him.

 They arrived at Furman.  Many of the students and faculty stood with their backs turned away from the President, as he was speaking.  I thought that was rude.  So did many others in town.  But, I did get to see Bush for a split second.  I can count that.

Grace

  My Aunt Grace died in 2008 in Atlanta.  It had been her home for many years.  Her husband was one of my father's brothers.  Aunt Grace lived in the social circles of Atlanta.  They lived in a nice part of town and had a log cabin in the backyard that they fixed up for guests.  She had shoulder length white hair, and I always thought she looked like George Washington, but I would never tell that to her face.  When she came to my father's funeral in Greenwood, she sat on the end of the front row.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw her and thought why is George Washington here.  Then, I saw it was Aunt Grace.

 She and Uncle Bill wanted to move out of Atlanta after he retired.  They found an old antebellum house that they said looked like "Gone With the Wind".  They were to sign the papers on a Monday.  The day before, it got hit by lightning and burned to the ground.  They saw that as a sign that they were meant to stay in Atlanta.

 After Uncle Bill died, she moved to Greenwood, SC.  We didn't know why, because she was kind of uppity, and Greenwood wasn't.  My grandmother had died, and there was no one from our direct family that still lived in Greenwood, so Aunt Grace wanted to make a statement that the Dursts were still in town.  We had been one of the founders of Greenwood.  The Durst name was to live on in Greenwood through Aunt Grace.  It was also strange, because she never really liked Greenwood.  She stayed there a while, but she missed Atlanta.  She moved back for good, and into an apartment building near downtown.

 When she was 94, she needed to renew her driver's license.  She drove a long Cadillac car.  She drove to the DMV in Atlanta traffic only to be told that she needed to get her glasses to pass the vision  test.  She drove back home and got her glasses.  This was who my Aunt Grace was.  Very feisty and self-reliant.  She was dying, and she told her pastor that only young people would come to her funeral, because she had outlived all of her friends.

 I got the news that she had died and planned to attend.  I rented a Kia to drive down from Greenville to Atlanta.  It was a good car.  She was being buried in an old and historic cemetery next to Uncle Bill.  The cemetery had been a Civil War battlefield.  Many of the elite were buried there including Uncle Remus.  Aunt Grace was right.  The ones that came were her relatives from south Georgia; some of her young neighbors from her apartment building; and me.  I represented the Durst side of the family.  

 Aunt Grace was one of a kind.  Every time that I see a picture of George Washington, I think of her.  

Bo

  One of the perks of living in Greenville was running into celebrities.  I had already run into George Clooney and Renee Zellweger, and I ran into another one--Bo Hopkins.  The name may not be as familiar as the other two, but he has had a long career as a character actor.  In fact, he was in the first episode of "Charlie's Angels" in 1976.  

 He was born in Greenville and had come back to his hometown to try and raise money for a movie project he was writing on Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Shoeless Joe was a disgraced professional baseball player from the early 1900's involved in a betting scheme.  Most people think now that he was innocent of the charges, and that was what the movie was going to be about.  So, Bo threw a party at Fluor Field in Greenville to drive interest for his project.

 I went to the party, because it was free.  He had grown up with the members of "The Swinging Medallions" band, and he invited them to play.  They were great.  Bo even got up on stage and sang with them.  It was a raucous Saturday afternoon.  During a break, I went up to Bo and introduced myself.  I then used the line I use on famous people, so they will listen to me:  "You and I have something in common."  He was listening.  I told him that we had both acted in movies and TV, and that we had both worked with Burt Reynolds.  I told him he had worked with Burt in "White Lightning", and I had worked with him in "Semi-Tough".  Then Bo said something that startled me.  He said, "Oh, I remember you."  I was shocked.  

 The only way he could have remembered me was if he had a photographic memory; freeze-framed the video to the part of 20 of us sitting in the stands; and remembered my red sport coat.  If you haven't read my story about that movie, they took 20 of us and moved us around the Cotton Bowl to be behind the actors on the sidelines for tight shots to make it look like there were fans in the stands.  I hope Bo was just being polite, but it really startled me.  We talked a bit about his project, and I asked him to write a part for me.  He said he would.

 I left the party with hopes of being in another film, but his project never got off of the ground.  He couldn't raise the money he needed to do the film.  Too bad.  I would have liked to have talked with him further about what else he remembered about me.  And I didn't even think to get his autograph.

Sunshine

  Paris Mountain State Park would have free concerts from time to time.  There was a small stage and an amphitheater made of stone.  So, it was announced that the folk singer Jonathan Edwards was going to play for free.  He had a hit called "Sunshine" back in 1971.  A lot of radio stations didn't play it at the time, because the word "damned" was in it.  Some stations bleeped the word.  That was the environment back then.  I was excited to see him for free.

 The show was to start around 7pm.  I got there early to get a good seat.  I even played around on the stage for a few minutes.  It's the performer in me.  People started coming into the area for the show.  A few "roadies" showed up to set up the sound and lights.  A man was introduced as Jonathan Edwards, and he began to sing.  I noticed he seemed younger than I would have thought for a guy who had a hit in 1971, but maybe he looked young for his age.  His music was pretty good as acoustic folk.  I noticed that some in the audience started looking puzzled at his song selection.  None of the songs were familiar.  He had just about finished his first set, when someone from the audience yelled out for him to play "Sunshine".  He stopped and said he wasn't THAT Jonathan Edwards.  They just had the same name.  He said THAT Jonathan Edwards was from Minnesota.  He was from Atlanta.

 Even the newspaper had advertised this singer as the one who had the hit "Sunshine".  So, most of us got up and left.  I don't know how many stayed for his second set, but I don't think there were many.  I kind of felt sorry for this guy.  I am sure that audiences had been confused like that before.  As we headed toward the parking lot, there was a lot of grumbling.  At least it was free.

Reunion

  We are not much on family reunions.  It is usually when someone dies.  To have a reunion just to be having one is not something our family does.  So, when I got an email from some cousins in Richmond, Virginia to have a reunion, I said okay.  One thing I found was I didn't fit into my dress pants anymore and had to buy new clothes.  I was no longer the same size I was in the 8th grade.  That was a surprise.

 As I was living in Greenville and having a questionable car, they told me that they would pay for my plane ticket and motel in Richmond.  The last time that I flew out of the Greenville/Spartanburg airport was in 1973 on the start of our trip to Europe.  The airport had changed some by 2008.  I am not the best kind of airplane passenger.  I loaded up on stomach medication and gum to tolerate the flight.  The trick of chewing gum upon takeoff and landing was something I learned during our Europe trip.  The plane did not go directly to Richmond.  We flew from Greenville to Cleveland, Ohio before flying to Richmond.  That didn't make much sense to me, but you just deal with it.

 I had not flown after 9/11, so I knew there would be extra security.  I knew to wear loafers for shoes, but I didn't know they wanted me to take off my belt, too.  So, I emptied out my pockets and held up my pants to keep them up.  The security was tight, and then I was put in a holding area before the plane was ready to board.  We left Greenville and flew over some beautiful farmland.  I had never been to Ohio before.  The farms turned into an industrial city of Cleveland.  It was kind of dirty looking from the air.  Maybe it was nicer on the ground.  We landed at the airport there, and I had just a few minutes to make my connection to Richmond.  

 When we got to Richmond, one of my cousins picked me up and took me to the motel.  I had never met him before, and I found that I didn't know many there.  The motel was nice, and I went exploring.  He would pick me up the next day and take me to his house for the start of the reunion.  The next day was Saturday, and we all got acquainted.  We talked about our families.  This was the Merrill side, which was my Mother's side of the family, but most of my cousins came from a branch that was related through my Grandfather who was married before he married my Grandmother.  

 One of the things I learned was about a goldmine we owned in Alabama.  I was shocked.  No one had ever mentioned anything about a goldmine.  I saw aerial pictures of it.  One of my cousins mentioned that they had gone through some papers that my Uncle Carl had.  We was an attorney.  After he died, they had found the deed to the goldmine.  It seemed to still be valid, although the mine had been tapped out of gold, so they said.  It is neat to have a goldmine in the family, but it doesn't seem to be worth anything anymore.  If I'm ever down that way, I might take a pick and shovel just to see if they got it all.

 That Sunday, we went to the Jefferson Hotel for lunch.  It was really swanky.  They told me that the grand staircase in the hotel was the model for the Tara staircase in "Gone With the Wind".  The stairs were steep, so one had to be extra careful not to tumble down them.  After lunch, we took a bus tour of downtown Richmond.  We saw a lot of historical things, and went by the First Baptist Church.  My father had been on staff there around 1950, before they moved to New Orleans.  One of my older cousins bragged that my father built the educational building of that church.  I know he designed some churches, when he got to South Carolina, but I don't know how true my cousin's story was.  It was interesting.  As an editorial comment now, I would like to say that I oppose the taking down of the monuments in Richmond.  I'm sorry if that offends anyone.  We also got to see where Edgar Allan Poe lived.  That was cool.

 On Monday, it was time to fly back to Greenville by way of Cleveland.  I thanked my cousins for their hospitality.  When the plane got to Cleveland, there was a little layover.  I explored the terminal and then got back for boarding.  An announcement was made that the plane had some mechanical issues that needed to be fixed before leaving.  We watched them work on an engine.  It probably would have been better to just bring up another plane, but they didn't have any.  When it was time to board, we all got on kind of reluctantly.  We eventually took off for Greenville.  As we approached the airport, off to our left were some hot air balloons floating around.  They had a festival that day.  We landed at the airport, and I was very glad to get my feet back on the ground.  It was good to see some family I never knew existed before.  

Boz

  One great thing about living in Greenville is that it is pretty much halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte, so a lot of artists would come to Greenville to do concerts.  When it was announced that Boz Scaggs was coming to the Peace Center in downtown Greenville, I got excited.  I loved his music, especially on his album "Silk Degrees" that came out when I was working in the Sanger-Harris record department in the late 1970's in Fort Worth. 

 When tickets went on sale, I went down to the box office to buy a ticket.  I told the girl in the box office that I wanted to buy a ticket for the Boz Scaggs concert.  She was rather young and said that she had never heard of Boz Scaggs.  She asked me if he was related to Ricky Scaggs.  I told her no and that it was different music.  She was confused.

 I couldn't afford a downstairs ticket, so I got one in the balcony.  The show was great.  He played all of his hit songs.  I sang along with them.  While I was enjoying the show, I felt a hand on my left knee that wasn't mine.  I looked next to me, and there was an elderly woman smiling.  I tried to move my knee away from her hand, but she kept it there on my knee.  I wondered if she didn't have feeling in her hand and didn't know it was on my knee, but then I guessed she did know and was just frisky.  At any rate, I was rather uncomfortable and found myself giving Boz standing ovations, even if no one else was.  When the show was over, she and I went our separate ways.  She could have been a lonely widow with a lot of money.  I'll never know.

 I had brought my album "Moments" with me, in hopes that Boz would autograph it.  "Silk Degrees" would have been better, but the dark background wouldn't show the signature with a black sharpie.  I went to the stage door to wait on everyone to come out.  A guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted a backstage pass to enter the building.  Of course, I said yes.  He ushered us into a hallway where the dressing rooms were.  One by one, the band members came out to head to their cars.  I got to see Greg Phillinganes, who played keyboards for the band.  That was a thrill for me.  He has played with Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and may more.  He said hello.  Then, our guide came to us and said that Boz was feeling bad after the show and was dehydrated, so we couldn't meet him.  I was disappointed, but it was still cool to get backstage.  And, despite an old lady grasping my knee, I had a great time.

Courier

  When I moved to Greenville, I wanted to do my Bible character monologues in local churches.  There are probably more churches per inch in Greenville than anywhere on the planet.  Maybe not, but you know what I mean.

 First, I started to see if anyone else was doing the same thing.  No need for competition.  I found a man in Easley, SC who did that sort of thing, so I contacted him and made an appointment to talk with him.  We met at the Barnes and Noble in Greenville.  He ordered coffee, and I ordered tea.  If you read my story about coffee and eating beans in the third grade, you know why I don't drink coffee.  We talked for about an hour about churches, and which ones liked Drama.  He said that his wife handled all of the promotion and booking.  Since I didn't have a wife, I would have to do that all myself.

 I started looking around at how I could promote myself.  When I graduated from seminary, there were only four of us in the Southern Baptist Convention to did Religious Drama.  Now it was 2008, and a lot more people were doing it, so I had to find a way to remind people who I was.  One saying in the Theatre is that you are only as good as your last performance.  I don't consider doing my monologues as "performances", because the focus is on me and not the message, but you get the point.  

 It dawned on me that the South Carolina Baptists have a monthly publication called "The Baptist Courier".  It goes out to individuals and churches in South Carolina and beyond.  I thought it would be a perfect avenue to promote me to those who might want me to come to their churches for my presentations.  It would consist of me doing a monologue and sharing my testimony.  I was also available for workshops to teach others how to do church drama.  

 I made an appointment to visit with the editor of the Courier.  I had known him since my days at Anderson College.  His name was Don, and he had been on the staff at the school.  When I walked into his office, we caught up on old times and then got down to business.  I told him what I wanted to do, and the interview went on for a couple of hours.  I told him about my experience, and about being the first person at my seminary to graduate with a degree in Communications.  I told him about the film and TV work that I had done, and the people I had worked with.  We talked about my doing puppet shows in other cities and towns related to Vacation Bible Schools.  We talked about my parents and their work in churches and the denomination.  I thought it couldn't hurt that my father had been in denominational work, because I knew there were some pastors who would have remembered him.  After the interview, Don asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with him.

 We left the office and headed to a nice restaurant.  When we got our food, he asked me a question that just about floored me.  He asked me if I was gay.  I immediately said no.  He said he didn't think I was, since he had seen me with girls at Anderson, but he said he had to ask.  He said that there would be pastors who would wonder why a 55 year old man had never married.  I told him that I had never married, because I was too focused on a career.  Also, because I never had found the right girl.  That last part was a lie.  I had found the right girl, but circumstances made it impossible to move forward.  At any rate, he asked the question I had been asked before throughout my life, and the answer was the same. 

 We got back to his office, and he asked if I would provide pictures of my work and a head shot to be used in the Courier.  I came back two days later and dropped off that material on a disc to be used in the article.  Don said the story would appear in the next issue.  The next month came and no article.  I called and was told it would be in the following month's issue.  I waited another month and then no article about me.  I went to Don's office to inquire why it hadn't run.  He told me that the editorial board felt that they shouldn't run an article promoting me, because if they did, they would have to have articles about all dramatists.  I told Don that they have articles about specific preachers or missionaries in the Courier.  What's the difference?  He then said that he was worried that if any conservative pastors questioned my marital status, rumors could start, and they could lose readership and advertisers.  So, because I was a 55 year old unmarried man, I could not get any article written about me in a Baptist publication.  I was stunned.  I had graduated from the largest seminary in the world.  I had done work around the Convention.  My father was a pioneer in the Southern Baptist Convention.  My mother had written Sunday School lessons for the Southern Baptist Convention.  I had an uncle who was the Director of the Florida Baptist Convention.  I personally knew many giants of the faith.  BUT, because I had never been married...

 This incident kind of put me off of church work.  I know I could have tried the Methodists or the Presbyterians, but my experience and love had been in the Baptist church.  I carry around a wedding ring on my keyring from the play "Blithe Spirit" that I did at Anderson in 1973.  I then wore that ring in Europe to ward off guys that wanted to mess with the girls on the trip.  Maybe, I should have worn that ring and lied that my wife had died in a horrible airplane crash.  But you know me?  Mr. Honesty.  I have never been willing to lie to get a job.  I guess that's why I have never taught Theatre in a Christian college.  I have never wanted to compromise my beliefs to get a job.  Instead of wanting to do church work in Greenville, I gave up and decided to hang out and watch TV.  Not very fulfilling, but at least no one was spreading rumors about me.  Their loss.