A link to this article was in my Facebook memories today.
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Thanks Marty. Brings back lots of memories.
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This piece gets better every time I read it. What a legacy OH left. Reminded me of my dad chewing me out after I threw my wedge at the Sheridan CC. He said one more temper tantrum and we were going home. Excellent as always Clay.
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Man, this hit me right in the feels.
I had a somewhat similar experience when going through a bunch of stuff of my mother’s. She died in 1997 and 20 years later I found a box of her treasures from high school, when she was dating my dad, and when preparing for the wedding. It really opened my eyes to a woman I never really got to know as an adult.
Your writing is amazing, Clay. Thank you for sharing your memories. Marty, thanks for bringing this back up. amazing read.
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Amazing, great story
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I also had a similar experience. After my mother and father passed, my sister and I found 2 shoe boxes in their attic containing 165 hand written war letters and photographs from 1917 - 1919 from her father to her mother (girl friend at the time).
He was from Coal Hill. She was from Hope.
His father sent him to Ouachita Baptist High School in 1901 because juvenile delinquency was bad in Coal Hill.
He attended the U of A his freshman year but transferred to Ouachita Baptist College because Arkansas was a “party school” in 1903.
We knew very little about his life. He never discussed it with us nor did our mom. He was just Big Daddy to us.
We found out he led an amazing life and that he was a very stubborn man:
• Blackballed by the Brooklyn Dodgers for refusing to show up for spring practice one year; never played another inning (he played baseball during summer to finance college and medical school)
• Demanded an Army Officer commission to the Army Medical Corp from the US SECDEF (he got his way)
• Refused the Royal Order of Saint Sava from King Alexander 1, King of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, because he wouldn’t decorate his 5 Red Cross nurses for their post-WW1 service for epidemic typhus that was ongoing during the war (he got his way; all 6 were decorated; first females ever decorated by the King)
His proudest accomplishment he ever talked about was delivering Brooks Robinson. He was an obstetrician in New Orleans before and after the war until he married and moved his practice to Little Rock in 1920.
He was an ardent fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers until they moved to LA in 57 even though they blackballed him 50 years earlier
He was a Baltimore Orioles fan afterwards. Brooks signed with the Orioles in 55 and was Baltimore’s opening day 3rd baseman in 57.
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Amazing story. I can only imagine how it made you feel to go through all that.
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Thanks for sharing. What a man.
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That was, indeed, a fantastic read. Thanks to Marty for recirculating it, and to Clay for putting his thoughts/memories down for us to read and relate to. Very touching.
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I have still not been through every file. It is just volumes of stuff in two boxes. I probably can write another column in just some of the letters.
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Reading your memories and listening to Nick talk about helping OH with his internet connection (when Nick and OH both lived in Malvern) are fascinating stories.
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Fascinating stuff.
Im sure theres more to come Clay as you read through these.
Take your time - enjoy
That is some Awesome memories Clay…
I didn’t think you had about given up golf though, seems like you were just changing equipment not long ago… I plan on trying to get back out there the spring after about 3 years off.
Mr Henry seemed like quite a man, he would be very proud of the work you have produced.
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You know, reminiscing is really good for the heart & soul!!! Seems the older we get, the more we do it. Too bad we weren’t as interested when we were younger; might have been a bit more “grown up” earlier?? Anyway, keep those/these articles coming, please. Us older folks truly enjoy them…
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That column was written awhile back Youdaman…Marty just linked it at the top because it popped up as a facebook memory. Not to speak for Clay…but Clay has written about getting some new equipment…and it does seem he still plays some…and pretty damn well at that!
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Oh ok…I gotcha… yeah because I remember him talking about getting a new driver and some new irons… I plan to get back out this spring and summer too unless I get a job and I’m working all the time.
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Yes, that column is about five years old. It was written before I moved to Norfork. I moved all of that stuff that Kirby Shofner gave me. One of my brothers is interested in going through the boxes and taking some of it. He’s welcome to it.
I played more golf in 2021 than in any year since the year before my dad passed. He was too sick to play golf in his last year as the chemo was tough on strength.
We had a lot of high water in 2020 and 2021 and I just couldn’t wade fish much. So I turned to golf for some recreation. Big Creek GC in Mountain Home is terrific. It’s probably one of the top 10 courses in the state, well maintained with bent greens and zoyzia fairways. So we joined with a golf membership in March of 2021. I had played as a resort pay as you go player in 2020.
Todd Dunaway, now pro at Paradise Valley in Fayetteville, was the pro at Big Creek when I started back. He and I played some and I enjoyed that. We’d just skip around and play five or six in some afternoons after he was done. He got me interested in new irons and I’ve changed drivers twice. I’m playing with a PXG driver and 3 wood. But everything else – including a hybrid – is Mizuno. Can’t go wrong with any of that equipment. Taylor Made and PING are great, too. I have not tried the new Titleist stuff, but they have good reviews.
I’ve been toying with new golf balls of late, the Bridgestone stuff. It’s a Tour model. The Bridgestone rep gave me a couple of different balls to sample. I think it’s the BRX Tour that I like the best. I’m no longer good enough to see a big difference in clubs or balls.
The PING rep was close to convincing me to buy the new blades that have a big lower weight to them. They look like blades but probably aren’t the classic blades I grew up on. I could hit them in the middle of the club face and he thought they were the “cat’s meow” for me. Todd convinced me that maybe I’d be able to hit them now, but not in 2-3 more years and it was doubtful that I’d buy another set of clubs at my age. After all, I played the PING Eye-2s for 30 years!
PXG very proud of their equipment 
Irons I saw were about 2K if I remember,How does their driver compare to Ping Drivers??
I bought my Ping Eye-2s in 2003. My previous Ping irons were bought in 1986 but were not sized. Prior to that I had Ram XS 1000 irons and persimmon woods for well over a decade. I’m not much on changing clubs. I’ve determined that my golf issues are not club related.
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PXG has really come down on prices. Can’t recall. But the driver was no more than the other top ones on market. Irons are their real expensive product. I got Mizuno instead of PXG irons. I hit them both great.