The year was 1970. I was a 17
year old high school junior and a really decent kid, if I do say so myself. I remember it like it was yesterday.
This particular day was a
Sunday morning. My mom and I arrived for
Sunday School at First Baptist Church of Loudon. The first person we saw was Ernie Black (no
relation) who scolded me: "I can't
believe you 'egged' Mrs. (name withheld because...well...I don't have a good
reason...maybe I'm afraid some relative is still alive that might yet retaliate)'s
house." This person was an English
teacher at Loudon High School.
The next person I ran into said
pretty much the same thing and added
that he was really disappointed in me, that he thought I was a much better
person than that. The problem was that I
didn't do it.
So on my way home, with my
mother in the car, I stopped by this teacher's house. When I knocked on the door, she opened it
without taking off the chain thingie, just like what you find on hotel
doors. I'm pretty sure that she owned
the only hotel-type chain security device in all of Loudon County.
"What do YOU want?"
"Yes
mam, I would really like to know why you're telling everyone that I egged your
house."
"Because
you did. I saw you. You were hanging out of that Ronnie McNabb's
car and throwing eggs at my house."
"No,
mam, I didn't do that."
"Yes
you did!" SLAM.
OK. My mom knew that much of the story. She believed me when I told her that I
didn't do it. What she didn't know
until almost 43 years later was that the next weekend three friends and I
dropped four dozen eggs on this teacher's house, commando-style, in the middle
of the night.
I figured
that if I'm gonna do the time, I might as well do the crime (or something like
that). And I still don't feel bad about
that little bit of revenge. So what's the
message (and what the heck is this doing in the sports page)?
I don't
know. Maybe it has to do with the
importance of maintaining your reputation.
Even at that young age, it was important to me. I saw myself as one of the good guys. Football player, good student, Eagle Scout,
in church pretty much every time the doors were open, and already a community
activist.
I have
always cared about what people thought about me. I remember another incident years earlier in
which I did do something that I shouldn't have and the mother of a young child
said to her son "please don't turn out like them." That one hurts to this day.
The bottom
line is that if you don't have a good reputation, you can't be trusted which
means that you won't be given any real responsibilities which means that you
won't get the opportunities that you might deserve. That works on the playing field and in the
board room.
So protect
your reputation but first make sure that you deserve it. Be the person that others can trust--the
person that they know they can count on.
It makes you the best possible teammate or co-worker.
Ernie Black Sr? Did you know he had surgery s few months ago? He and Ms Pat go to church with me. :-)
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