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Hunker Down with Kes

They’re All Legendary in My Heart

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I don’t remember the exact year. I was in my first days of junior high, struggling almighty hard to find my way. If I had to guess, I’d say 1960.

The Paschall family had just moved into the little white house across from the elementary school. On Stonewall Street! Talk about a special road! You have no idea the length and depth and breadth of memories the mere mention of that street calls to mind. I believe to this day, it is the most wonderful thoroughfare in the whole world. But I digress before I even start….

Mr. Ratliffe Paschall and Mrs. Velna Gray Paschall moved to McKenzie to teach school. Mr. Paschall was originally from Puryear but I believe they had been teaching in Buchanan prior to the move. They brought three sons with them.

Between the five, they were going to touch and enhance my life in ways that still resonate in all that I am to this very day!

And I was only one of many that were blessed by this special family.

Douglas was the oldest. And smartest. David was a year younger and maybe the most athletic. But they all could play every sport we had in those days. Martin was a year younger than Dave and quite possibly the most talented guy I’ve ever known.

The three of them raised the IQ of our entire student body. I didn’t say Dave and Martin were not smart; it was just that Douglas was brilliant. And they instantly made our football, basketball and baseball teams more competitive.

Mrs. Paschall didn’t teach the treachery of Pearl Harbor or dwell on bombs flying and ships exploding. Tears filled her eyes as she described the sailors swimming for their lives in water that was ablaze with burning oil. She clutched a hand to her throat as the Arizona sank slowly beneath the surface.

Wow! I never knew history was alive until I met her. She could make the building of the Aswan Dam interesting and fun. And listen, when she got to talking about General Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg, you’d swear she was racing up Cemetery Ridge with a Colt 1851 Navy revolver in her hand….

It was no accident that I spent a great deal of my career teaching history to high school kids.

Mr. Paschall knew a little something about everything! And he was a hoot in the classroom. He would have you laughing just calling the roll. I showed up every day to hear what he was going to say to Prentice Doyle.

He taught biology and when Bobby Jackson and I accidentally pulled off his pet frog’s hind leg stretching it out to view the circulation, I thought he was going to have a stroke! He kept shaking his head in disbelief and declaring over and over, “I picked the two best men I had!”

He would come to our ballgames, mostly to goad the other team. He was a master at it. I always thought it a blessing he wasn’t down in Gibson County when the fight broke out. He would have been in the third base dugout, choking somebody.

He, Miss Velna Gray and the boys shared a passion for life that couldn’t help but rub off on everyone around them!

Martin was a year older than me. He could draw pictures, faces, caricatures like you wouldn’t believe. He played guitar, trumpet, spoons, French horn, coat hangers….anything he wanted. I remember him after basketball practice, beating time on the locker room door with his hand and singing Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman.” And he threw a curve ball that I couldn’t hit!

There is no telling how many hours we spent practicing and playing for whichever high school sport was in season. And he always lightened the load with a poignant notion or great quip at the exact right moment.

Douglas was a senior when I was a freshman. He was captain and leader of the football team. I was the invisible rookie. But he never failed to talk to me, encourage me. David ran over me at every practice. Man, he was tough. But it was never personal. He ran over everybody!

Doug and Dave went off to college. And came home and said, “Kes, you need to come to Sewanee. You’d fit right in.” I didn’t consider another school. If they thought it was good for me….

At the university, they both “looked after” me while acting like they weren’t.

As a group the Paschalls never quit on me! Not one time!

I don’t pretend to understand life. Doug died way too early. As did his mom. Mr. Ratliffe lived to be 94. And I don’t keep in touch with David or Martin like I should.

But what a family!

And I promise you, they are way more than just a memory….

Respectfully,
Kes