FRONT-PORCH GOSPEL: Open Letter – My “Hachie” H.S. Seniors

  This past Friday night, I watched as 150 of my students walked across that stage, robed proudly in green and with smiles stretching halfway across the football field.

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 With the congregation gathered around, Doocy was prepared to go on.

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As you know by now, Doocy was Shakespeare and Twain combined when it came to exaggerating, overstating, and embellishing repetitive hyperbole.In the twinkling of an eye, this theatre of a brick job became nothing less than a full-fledged musical. Broadway it was.

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Oblivious to my immediate surroundings – being wrapped between my mind’s wanderings and Doocy’s pontificating, which is a word invented for no other reason than to describe what was taking place that foggy morning – an audience had gathered out behind the truck.

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As I’ve said, Doocy was an enigma. I don’t know any other way to say it.You could argue with him, and it didn’t matter if everybody in Randolph County knew he was wrong – he’d hold out to the bitter end and get the last word even if it was his inaudible mumbling as he stomped away.

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Even though Corrina was not directly involved in the hoopla that would soon be ablaze that morning, generally just her presence or even the prospect of her coming strolling up the road onto the job at any minute could throw gasoline on anything.

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Word got out that there was a little trouble in Paradise over on that Alabama hillside where the nosiest people in the world were laying brick and creating havoc for one called Pup.Naturally.

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Corrina was an open book, and she couldn’t hide what was going on inside. I let it ride for a while, then said, “Awright, Corrina Belle,” I said, “two things.”“What are you thinking, Billy Ray?”“One, look at the last of the sun shinin’ right through those trees.” I pointed.

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We were wrapped up in our shooting lessons and the protests for a good while. Regarding the lovely’s lady’s protests, I was forced to pull Shakespeare and Doocy out of the hat simultaneously and tell her that “my sweet lady sho is protestin’ a mite too much.” In the excitement, we didn’t hear Mrs.

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Her life would turn from being comfortable to complicated, and it happened with a single, harmless glance and a quick smile.