Memories often lag among us 80’s. I have several beloved friends whose wives have been thrust into “caregiver roles”. I remember my 90 year old Mom lamenting “…all my friends are gone!”

Alton played for the BEAUFORT SEA DOGS. In the 60’s this coastal village in North Carolina produced three straight high school state basketball titles. He and a bunch of high tider boys named Hassell won 91 straight games. And they are proud of it. For years I listened with envy as they all recalled details from each years games. Alton was perhaps the most meticulous oral historian of all the BEAUFORT SEADOGS.

A popular commment recently was “…seventy may be the new sixty, but eighty is still eighty!” One suggestion is to limit questions to my gang. “Do you remember…. yeilds a blank, often panicked look.

I recently asked Alton, what schools did you guys beat in the state championship playoffs? Oops–his face became overtaken by “the look”.

Momentarily though, with a new, confident expression –he answered my question : “All of em!!

Touche.