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Hall of Famer [22127]
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The Bi-Centennial Minute
Oct 17, 2018, 8:34 PM
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Some of you may be old enough to remember the Bi-Centennial Minute that was a daily feature on one of the major TV networks during 1975- 76 to celebrate our nation's birthday. It was a short story of some event in our nation's history and always concluded with: "and that's the way it was, Oct. 18, 1975". I believe Shell Oil was the sponsor of the story.
The Clemson basketball program had just been placed on probation and Bill Foster had just been hired as our new coach beginning with the 1975 - 76 season. I had been asked by the Clemson Lions Club to prepare a Ci-Centennial Minute for each club meeting and given the freedom to select a topic of my choosing.
Coach Foster had been invited to speak to the club so I decided to make basketball, our probation and Coach Foster the topic of the "Minute". I can't locate the copy I stored for safe keeping and I don't know where Coach Foster is at the moment to see if he still has the copy I gave to him, so I will have to do the best I can to reconstruct the story. So here goes.......
Foster and Prunella Dribble lived on a small farm in the hills of Northern Pickens County. The Dribbles had several sons, the oldest being named "Double". One day Foster Dribble was moving a barrel and it fell apart. Foster took one of the metal rings and nailed it to the barn door. One day, Double noticed the ring on the barn door and, being a fun guy, picked up a cow chip and threw it through the ring. After a few tosses, Double was hooked. He kept moving further and further from the ring and found he was pretty good at tossing cow chips through the ring. Double decided to add a little movement to test his cow chip tossing talent and became quite adept.
Thanksgiving was approaching and Foster went out to his pumpkin patch to select one of his best pumpkins so Prunella could make her delicious pumpkin pies for the holidays. He placed the pumpkin inside the barn until Prunella was ready for it. Double spied the pumpkin and decided the pumpkin was a much better object for his new found game than the usual cow chips. Double Dribble was literally in hog heaven. He took that pumpkin, moved deftly to his right and then to his left, drove to the ring and slamed the pumpkin through the ring. Double was now the first "punkin dunker".
But the pumpkin Double had dunked was the one his Mother, Prunella Dribble, was going to use to make the Thanksgiving pies. Double Dribble was placed on probation. And that's the way it was. Oct. 17, 2018.
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Orange Blooded [2504]
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Re: The Bi-Centennial Minute
Oct 17, 2018, 8:51 PM
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Great story, Joe. You are an excellent writer. Do you do fiction? We have a fiction writers group here at our retirement community and get some hilarious stories.
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Hall of Famer [22127]
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Re: The Bi-Centennial Minute
Oct 17, 2018, 9:12 PM
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Well, at times, I have been asked if a certain story was fact or fiction. All of my WW2 and Korean War stories are fact as are the stories re my youth. I do have some that are fiction. The Bible offers a lot of opportunities. Noah, his sons and the ark makes for a good story when we compare ship building today compared to the time of Noah. Jonah also makes for a good story. In one of my stories "turn around is fair play". Jonah goes fishing, catches a fish and yanks it so hard, the fish comes flying out of the water. With Jonah's mouth so wide open over his good luck, the fish goes down into his belly. Sometimes a simple incident can serve as the topic for a fiction story. Years ago I used to send a lot of fiction stories to a good friend.
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Orange Blooded [2504]
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Re: The Bi-Centennial Minute
Oct 17, 2018, 9:39 PM
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I would love to read some of them. We have a small lake on our “campus “ and have a “ Goosemaster”on contract to keep the geese at bay. I did a story about his body being found by the lake late one evening. I know this is not football related, but wait, turns out he was a South Carolina graduate and a Clemson resident became a person of interest.
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