October 31, 2024

Musical time machine took us back to UGA days

 

          When you hear certain oldies, it’s as if you’ve stepped into a time machine. A few beats are all it takes to have you hurtling backward to an era forever etched in your mind. That’s what the Tams’ mantra of the Carolina-beach-music explosion does to legions of my generation.

“Be young, be foolish, be happy” transports me back to 1966. I am in the shoulder-to-shoulder-packed basement (The Pit) of my UGA fraternity house with those lyrics blaring from the Wurlitzer jukebox. There wasn’t room to dance. But you had just enough space to sway and barely enough oxygen to sing along with the Tams.

A few blocks up Milledge Avenue, two future friends of mine were doing the same at their fraternity house. Both frat boys were renowned dancers. Their Weejuns and saddle oxfords got Friday-and-Saturday-night workouts, shagging on the dance floor.

It’d be a few years before I’d get to know fellow journalist Lewis Grizzard, who became a nationally acclaimed columnist, author and humorist. Before Lewis died, I met his fraternity brother, Dorsey Gary Hill, whom the witty wordsmith crowned the “World’s Biggest Bulldog Fan.”

Gary and I met when we both served on UGA’s athletic board. I can thank Dr. Charles B. Knapp, then-president of the university, for introducing us. Our chemistries clicked, and the Hill family has been intertwined with ours ever since. Gary and Charlotte’s son, Alex, grew up with us.

Alex and I fished in the Altamaha River Swamp. He learned to water-ski behind our boat on Lake Hartwell. We rode horses in Costa Rica. Alex shot clay pigeons with our shotguns. And we surprised his parents when I let him drive into the farmyard behind the wheel of our 1969 Chevy pickup, Sweet Pea. Alex might have been 10.

Fast-forward more than 20 years, Alex and his fiancée, Selby Merritt, chose our farm—which is near his parents’ Oak Ridge Farm—for their rehearsal-dinner celebration. And for their special night at Historic Smithonia Farm, among the “guests” were our old pea-green Chevy and Selby’s horse, Bailey.

The UGA grads earned more than diplomas in Athens. Selby and her equestrian teammates won a national championship. Alex, a scholar athlete, played on two national-championship tennis teams.


Lewis, a rabid Dawg, would have wanted me to mention that on Oct. 19—one day after Gary’s birthday—Georgia beat Texas, 30-15. And of course, all four Hills were among the 105,000 fans in Austin.

Here's another worthy footnote:

In 1962 Gary cruised down from Rome to Athens, driving a 1957 Chevrolet convertible, red with a black top. Campus heads turned when he rolled by. After graduation, the freshly minted Air Force officer was off to Vietnam. That’s when Gary and the classy convertible parted ways.

But on Oct. 26, 2024, my friend drove to his 80th birthday party in another red 1957 Chevrolet. (The classic car had been a gift to Gary, from his son, before Alex and Selby were married in 2019.) Inside the Athens Country Club, more than 100 friends were ready for a night of reminiscing, laughter, beach music and dancing.

Another smoking-hot band of the 1960s, the Swinging Medallions, was on the stage. The group’s anthem—“Double Shot of My Baby’s Love”—always brings the gray-haired and bald generation out of their chairs and onto the dance floor. But that revered party song had to wait.

The kickoff tune of the evening belonged to the Tams: “Be young, be foolish, be happy.”

After looking around the room, I’d say the crowd was far from young.

And for the most part, we weren’t trying to be foolish.

But Dorsey Gary Hill and his revelers were locked in a time machine, circa 1966, and happy.

Very happy.     


 

 

 

 

 

 

dnesmith@cninewspapers.com