Lunch with Bum Phillips — Two Picnics — MidWeek Blues —

Bum Phillips, former coach of the former Houston Oilers, came to eat with us Monday. Over 400 men attended a Men's Power Lunch for which Bum was our speaker.

It was mostly a Question and Answer forum. My favorite question concerned keeping discipline of all the players on a professional football team. His answer was, 'well I have one son and five daughters, and up to 200 kids.' In other words, he was like a father to his team.

Bum Phillips: Link 1 (Bum Phillips web); Link 2 (Wikipedia); Link 3 (Google search)
I believe Bum told every one of these quotes that were on the Wikipedia site:
**"There's two kinds of coaches, them that's fired and them that's gonna be fired."
**"I always thought I could coach. I just thought people were poor judges of good coaches."
**"I've never seen a hammer and tong game like that one."
**"Mama always said that if it can't rain on you, you're indoors." (Explaining why he wouldn't wear his cowboy hat in a domed stadium)
**"Dallas Cowboys may be America's team, but the Houston Oilers are Texas' team."
**"I never scrimmage Oilers against Oilers...what for? Houston isn't on our schedule." (Source: The Book of Sports Lists)
**(To an official) "Hey, can I, can I tell you one thing? That's three holding penalties on one football team in a quarter and a half. (Pauses) That ain't funny."
**(To an official) "Now, you can't do that! If you do it, I'm telling you you'll have more hell over it than a little bit."
**(referring to Alabama head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, with whom Phillips worked as an assistant coach at Texas A&M) "He can take his'n and beat your'n and take your'n and beat his'n."
**(referring to Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon) "That boy could throw a football through a car wash and not get it wet."
**(when asked about Oilers RB Earl Campbell's inability to finish a 1 mile run in training camp) "When it's first and a mile, I won't give it to him."
**(when asked by Bob Costas why he took his wife on all of the Oilers' road trips) "Because she's too ugly to kiss goodbye."

From left to right, Mike Barber (former tight end for the Houston Oilers), Bum Phillips, and our pastor, Dr. Mark Denison, First Baptist Conroe, Texas
[click once or twice for larger sizes]

These pictures were a couple taken Sunday at our subdivision annual picnic. Yes, those little fellows are fishing with a dad. The girls had been throwing bread to the ducks.

We had a large crowd. Barbecue brisket and chicken, potato salad, beans, onions, pickles, bread were furnished by one of the larger building firms. The ladies each brought a salad, veggie, or desert. Shucks, I missed getting a picture of my plate.

Saturday had been Mrs. Jim's family reunion picnic held at Harold Miles Park in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Pictured on the left are Mrs. Jim with her first cousins. A couple were missing and a few more are deceased. Mema, Mrs. Jim's mother, was from a family of four girls and four boys. That was in back in the old days of large families.

Next is Sandra and Everett, third cousins of Mrs. Jim's (His dad and Mrs. Jim's mom were first cousins). They were celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary.

Finally is my pick of the many of beautiful Louisiana scene pictures I had taken at the park. They bayou water is clear in the background but is covered with green moss in the foreground.

If you think we have been on the run lately, you are right. The week of September 25 we met Sunday at Denver, Colorado, for a retreat at the Glen Eyrie Conference Center along with twenty-eight others from our church. Mrs. Jim came from Salt Lake City where she had been attending the National Conference for the Family Promise organization.

We returned home Friday but Saturday we attended Mrs. Jim's family reunion in Alexandria, Louisiana. That is a four hour drive each way, to and from our home. Sunday morning we attended our church and in the afternoon attended our Bentwater Subdivision Annual Picnic.

- - - - -

If you want to post a MidWeek Blues picture, go get directions from Rebecca by clicking on the logo picture on the right. She has a Mr. Linky and good directions . Just do what I did.