The Last Season (copy)

The prologue begins, “It was the first Ole Miss game that season in Jackson, and I’d been looking forward to it all summer.” Stuart Stevens was 10-years-old when he memorized the Rebel football roster. The list was taped to the wall above his bed where he could go over their names before bedtime.

“I knew the names of every starting Rebel as though they were family members: the all-American quarterback Glynn Griffing; the running back Lou Guy; the fullback and linebacker Buck Randall. I knew them all. The way the radio announcers described them was how I thought of the Rebels: ‘rocket-armed’ Griffing; ‘swivel-hipped’ Guy; ‘bruising’ Randall. They were like titles bestowed upon knights competing on fields of battle.”

The year was 1962 and Stevens was reminiscing over the game his father took him to at Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Miss. He remembers his mother fussing about wearing a jacket. He remembers his father holding his hand as they walked in a crowd to the stadium. He remembers the Rebel flags everywhere and an agitated fan yelling from a car, “Go to hell, Kentucky!”

It was the start of what Stevens called a “perfect season in that most imperfect year.” That year, Johnny Vaught coached a winning streak and was awarded the SEC Coach of the Year. It was also the same year James Meredith walked onto the Oxford campus flanked by federal marshals to become the first black to enroll in classes.

Political strategist to Mitt Romney, Stuart Stevens, suffered his first ever loss to an otherwise perfect career. Fast forward to 2012, as he walks slowly down the hall of the hotel to tell the Romney family they just lost to President Obama. The walls began to move in as he senses his own pending loss. How much time will he have left with his 95-year-old dad and 86-year-old mother?

The next day Stuart states, “I woke up at the age of 60 and realized that what I wanted most in the world was one more season. With my father and football and the Ole Miss Rebels. It didn’t need to be a perfect season. One last season would be perfect enough.”

Stuart Stevens’ book, “The Last Season: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime of College Football,” is a must read for any Ole Miss fan. Each chapter is a chronological step in the 2013 “last” season Stuart spends with his dad. Flashbacks abound as Stuart navigates the treacherous crowd with a much slower but alert father. You will find yourself smiling with the familiar Ole Miss fans as they go out of their way to help, and you will laugh at a father whose 95-year-old wit is fresh.

The Last Season (copy)

https://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-last-season-copy.html

A House Divided

Monday night was host to the game of a lifetime in the Moran house. The SEC championship between Clemson and Alabama put Pete and me at opposite goal posts. I was proud of Clemson for the undefeated season, but Pete was over the moon. He graduated from Clemson with a bachelor in economics back in 1979. I gathered a master’s degree at Alabama in 2005.

We sat in our respective corners as the game began. I drank coke out of my Bama glass and he sipped his diet drink from a Tiger tumbler. Clemson would score and he would do a little tiger dance. Bama would score and I would demurely smile. It was rather a quiet game for the first half.

After the break, Pete wanted to make a little wager. The man hates Krystal burgers and I love them. I have a hard time sitting still at Cracker Barrel, but he loves the joint. If the Crimson Tide rolls over the Tigers, I can have Krystal whenever I wish for a year, and he the same for the Cracker. Now, we were disagreeing and throwing imaginary yellow flags at every play.

This bashing of heads over a football game is rare in our family, but here in Mississippi it happens all the time. Mississippians are serious about their football and it is not unusual to have a household with more than one Ole Miss and State fan in the family.

“A House Divided” is a new picture book for children that reflects the conflict of parents who support opposite Mississippi Universities. The book opens, “Long ago, in Mississippi, a crazy decision was made to create two schools in this tiny state that still remain today.” Next to the prose is a beautiful watercolor of the state and the two schools with flags a flying.

By the second page, the author, Emily Ruff Witcher, is unable to hide her loyalty. “The first of these was THE University or Ole Miss, as it’s fondly referred. The mascot is the Rebel and ‘Hotty Toddy’ is the cheer that’s heard.” She continues, “Thirty years later another was formed State College, it once was named. And after much decision making, Mississippi State Bulldogs became its claim to fame.”

The illustrator, Joanna Keith, graduated from Mississippi State in 2007. Her watercolors are vibrant and depicts both teams equally. The sister in the story sports both cheerleading outfits and the little boy holds an Ole Miss football in one hand and a Mississippi State cowbell in the other.   

Emily Ruff Witcher has written an engaging 38 page book filled with the spirit of fair play. She is a 2002 graduate of Ole Miss and married a 2004 Bulldog. They currently live in Madison, Mississippi with their young daughter and son. Wonder what they wager during games? 

A House Divided

https://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-house-divided.html

Resolve to Read, Mississippi

A little over ten years ago, I started writing book talks for The Southern Reporter, a local newspaper based in Sardis, MS. I had graduated from the University of Alabama in 2005 with a masters in library science and really wanted to incite people to read - especially those Mississippians who shared the notorious position of being the least literate people in the United States.

I would like to say that levels of reading have improved and I can go about doing other things. I do not need to share every book read and encourage others to read. Y’all are reading and sharing just fine without me. But...

“According to a study conducted in late April (2013) by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can't read. That's 14 percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can't read.

The current literacy rate isn't any better than it was 10 years ago. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (completed most recently in 2003, and before that, in 1992), 14 percent of adult Americans demonstrated a "below basic" literacy level in 2003, and 29 percent exhibited a "basic" reading level.”

As I hang my head low in despair, I want to think tomorrow will be a better day. I want to think people will spontaneously rush to the nearest public library and check out 20 books. Some for them to read, some to share with their children, some to help them grow a garden in the Spring, some to fix that dang car, and some to get them back on the road to financial success.   

With a New Year comes new resolutions, and I resolve to make 2016 the Year of Reading! So much of a good life is wrapped up in reading good books. Sharing thoughts from a book can help us all understand how and why people do what they do. Books make you smarter, and I would rather my neighbor enjoy intelligent thoughts about improving our community than wallowing in the ends and out of a Kardashian.

My New Year resolution, and this is crazy, is to make Mississippians read! I will be telling you about great books and I dare each and every one of you to read these great books and books similar to them. After reading, go out and share your thoughts with others. I dare YOU to make Mississippians read, too!

Resolve to Read, Mississippi

https://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2016/01/resolve-to-read-mississippi.html