Thursday, September 09, 2004

My Summer Vacation


I guess you can say my summer started around Father’s Day, because I got a chance to see my grandparents and go to church with them in Arkansas. While I was there I went and hung out at the Basin Street Lounge in El Dorado with some of my kinfolk. The ‘vacation’ part didn’t start until the first week of July, that’s when my wife and I were without our kids for 2 whole weeks while they visited Nana and the crew on their annual summer excursion to New Jersey. Those who are married with kids know that anytime you can get those little people out of your house for an extended period of time, then you can REALLY relax and get your ‘home’ on grown folks style. There’s no more need for modesty and decorum around the house when the kids are gone, you can even walk around butt naked if you want to and not have to worry about who sees you. Free from the kids!! Vacation!! YEAAAH!!!
The first thing my wife and I did was start hitting parties..we went to a real nice housewarming party with some friends of ours. This is the group of guys that I used to play in a weekly basketball league with. They still play, but as for me and my playing days? “Say mane…ya’ll go ‘head!’

We also had time to pop over to some friend’s of ours pool party over on the Noufside. We had fun there too (No KIDS!), playing dominoes, listening to old school hip-hop and then we got in the pool and played volleyball. Men vs. Women. Guess who won?? Mmmhmm...the best thing about it was..yep you guessed it NO KIDS!! The good thing about hanging around with your friends who knew you 'back in the day', is that you don't have to front to kick it. Everybody is real and upfront with each other, there is no phoniness or pretense. Just hard working folks trying to make it in George Bush's America.

My uncle hipped me to the E.K. Bailey Conference in Dallas and we made the trek up there for a couple of days. Hanging out, listening to some EXCELLENT preaching and eating at some real nice restaurants. Ahhh..just living the life! After we got back from Dallas, the kids returned..(BOOOOO..just kidding), so we hung out with them for a bit, had a lil sum’n sum’n at the house for my son’s birthday. Nothing too major, just family over to celebrate the birth of another child in the village.

Not too long after that, we all caught plane up to Michigan for the Scott Family Reunion. This in itself was the highlight of the summer, being able to be around my family, laughing, talking, and catching up..enjoying life together. Or as Big Mama would say, 'living together and loving one another.' I’ve got a lot of superstars in my family and I’m looking forward to introducing the servinemup.com audience to these marvelous people, like my Aunt C..who has been doing her thang in the jazz world ever since I’ve ever known her. When we visited the jazz club Flood’s in downtown Detroit during the reunion, she even got onstage and did a rendition of Summertime with the band. Needless to say..we were HYPED to watch her do her thang. She’s already promised me an ‘exclusive’ Cynthia Scott interview to be posted on servinemup.com, so watch out for that.If you want to know more about her music/tour schedule or PURCHASE!! her CD’s, you can visit her at www.cynthiascott.com. Ya’ll check her out and show her some love, that’s kinfolk.



Aunt C has truly been an inspiration to me and the rest of our entire family, because she's show all of us that it doesn't matter where you're from..it can be from a lil country town in Arkansas..but if you put in your work diligently and never let anyone else control your dreams, then the sky is the limit. I'll have more on her advice later. Aunt C isn’t the only vocally inclined person in the family, my cousin Jamar is working on his first album and I’m looking forward to writing the press releases for it, cuz I KNOW it’s go be JAMMIN!!

In case ya’ll don’t remember Jamar, he’s my cousin that sang the solo, “My Soul’s Been Anchored’ at Big Daddy’s funeral..he can make ya move ya’ll. Or as his brother Corey put it after the funeral..’Jamar? Boy!? You sang like you know tha Lawd!’ So ya’ll look out..another one of those Sam Scott descendants is about to blow up on the scene and we’ve got a lot more preparing for their time to shine.


It wasn’t too long after the reunion that I headed out to Milwaukee for the PGA Championship. While I was there, I scooted down to Chicago to check out one of my Bruhs new seeds (boop-boop!), and when I got back to Milwaukee, I caught up with some of my relatives who lived there. For those who didn't know, yes, there ARE black people that live in Milwaukee.

I got to see a lot of my kinfolk that I hadn’t seen in YEARS, as well as meet some for the first time. We broke bread together and we all went out and had a nice time. The good thing about blood-ties is that they last over generations. And the strong bonds that are formed through mutual bloodlines allow people to really relax and just be who they are..there is no need for pretense.


After I got back from Milwaukee..or was it before? I don’t even remember, I met J.L. King at his book signing, went to a photo-shoot party by a fantasy merchandise company owned by some of my high school buddies (I c'ya FSX!!), drafted my fantasy football team, went and hung out for a few days with those Alabama City Boys (You my boy Hawkeye!) and this past weekend, I went out boat riding with my father and the kids. He had just bought a new boat and he wanted to take all his grandkids out riding. When we got off in the water and set out, I asked him a question..



How far out can you go?



What do you mean?



I mean. how far out into the Gulf of Mexico can you take this boat?



As far as you’re brave enough to go.



I quickly thought, ‘D’mn..I guess that’s what they mean by some birds fly and some float’..but then I thought back to Dr. Gardner C. Taylor sermon at the E.K. Bailey Conference and what I wrote about him in my July 14th post entitled ‘All-Stars’..

"I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Taylor preach for the first time at this conference on a Thursday night..and let me tell ya’ll, he’s a bad man. He got up to the podium and began his sermon and after he gave all the initial welcomes and acknowledgements, he gave us this joke (please excuse the fact that my written words can in no way compare to the pace, delivery and enunciation of his classical Southern Louisiana drawl combined with his astute literary presence):



An ol farmer was in his wagon going to town, and being a part of the litigious society that we live, happened to be involved in an accident with an automobile. The dispute of which ended up in a courtroom before a judge. And the judge queried the farmer,



“How can you claim to sue for personal injury, when I have the sheriff testifying that immediately after the accident, you were proclaiming that you had never felt better in your life?”



“Your honor, I can explain that” said the farmer, “When I was struck by the automobile my wagon was overturned. When the sheriff drove up, he saw my pig shaking and he pulled out his gun and shot and killed it. After he shot my pig, my mule stumbled and the sheriff shot him too. Then the sheriff turned to me and said, ‘How do YOU feel?’, so of course I replied, ‘I’ve never felt better in my life’.”




At this point of course, the whole congregation cracked up laughing, and as Dr. Taylor paused for a moment and enjoyed the laughter, his smile slowly faded and he turned his tone to a more ominous note of determination laced with purpose and declared to the still chuckling crowd, ‘For we have been in this snug harbor long enough, we must now weigh anchor and set sail to do business in great waters.’"



I pondered that phrase for awhile..’For we have been in this snug harbor long enough, we must now weight anchor and set sail to do business in great waters.’ I was in the middle of my Proverbial Challenge..and that phrase seemed to spur the ‘sluggard’ in me. Because in so many ways, I know that I have tarried in ‘snug harbors’ quite often, instead of weighing anchor and setting sail to do business in the great waters that are before me. Some folks calculate their trip and measure how much fuel it’s going to take for them to reach their destination and plan accordingly. Some folks go out only as far as a half a tank, to make sure they have enough fuel to get back. But the people who REALLY ‘get out there’ in those GREAT waters? They don’t hold back, they go as hard and as far as they can and don’t worry about how they’re going to make it back.

So as I rode along with my dad and my kids and my niece and nephew, watching the water and the sky, contemplating the tasks before me, and what it’s going to be like when I ‘weigh anchor’ and release my first book, ‘Real Game’ , I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Man..I’m having a GREAT summer!!!”