What's Wrong with Today's Music?!

I would like to share what is wrong with the music our young people play today. The answer is as simple as, you know, "the nose on your face". It is so plain that it will make perfect common sense once I explain it below. The main issue with music today is that it is too loud and the words don't make any sense. When you compare music to today to that of the past it is obvious there is a problem.

Where are the days when you could sit down and hear a love song about your girl "Boney Maroney" who's as skinny as a stick of macaroni or your girl named "Rama-lama-lama, lama-lama-ding-dong" who means everything to you?

You remember when music really asked the hard questions like "Who put the bomp in the bomp-bah-bomp-bah-bomp? or know that what sets our hearts aglow is the "boogity, boogity, boogity, shoo" and how it happens every time my baby and I dance to the "dip da dip da dip"?

Oh and what deep meaning when we hear that "a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom" as we "Tutti Fruitti" or "Wooley Bully". Yes and how life could be a dream "sh-boom sh-boom ya-da-da da-da-da da-da-da da sh-boom" with my baby "beep bop a lula" in the red blue jeans.

And when we didn't know what to say to our girl the doctor coached us with "Oooo eee oooo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang, Oooo eee oooo ah ah ting tang walla walla bang bang" knowing "hoop dee doo, hoop de doo" when we heard a Polka our troubles were through.

Generations are different. We all have our likes and dislikes. Granted I don't like the songs with off color or suggestive lyrics. Then again as a teen I remember having "Louie Louie" and "House of the Rising Sun" banned from our school dances.

In order for generations to get along and solve our problems it's important that we try to understand each other. No generation is any better than any other. We all have something to offer. The older generations need to listen to the younger and the younger needs to listen to the older. It's a two way street to a better world.

Now I'll still have a button on my XM radio for the 50's music and one for the 60's, but I expect that half-time at the super bowl will be music for a much younger generation. You know what? That's okay. It's okay to be different with different likes and dislikes. It's okay if you like blue and I like maroon. It's okay if you like chocolate and I like vanilla. It's okay if I wear a tie to church and you don't It's okay to be different.

The main thing is that we learn to respect each other for who we are and "hot diggity dog diggity" and "tweedlee dee" we'll be able to "ba-bah-ba-ba-bah, ba-ba-bah-bah-bah" in harmony.

My Dad: Plano's #1 Football Fan

Plano’s “Friday Night Lights” Keeper Retires

By DeAnn Daley Holcomb, Special to the Star Courier

Published: Thursday, March 4, 2010 11:04 AM CST

In the lore of Texas football, Smitty Minton is truly what the saying “Friday Night ights” is all about.

Minton has missed just one Plano Senior football game since 1959, and for more than 20 years, Minton has been the final person in Clark Stadium to turn out the stadium lights.

Minton’s love of football led him out of retirement in the mid-1980s to join the Plano ISD athletic department to supervise Clark Stadium and on Friday, coaches, co-workers, friends and family said farewell as the 86-year-old Minton retired from his duties of taking care of the field and stadium at Clark.

“I always like to close,” Minton said. “When the game is over, I go through the field because it was always important to me to put the field to sleep – that’s what I call it: you close down the stadium, lock it up and turn off the lights.

“Everyone leaves the stadium and everything is back to what it was before. You make sure all the kids have a ride home and then you turn out the lights – I will never forget it.”

Minton’s granddaughter, Sarah Minton, watched as her grandfather greeted and visited with folks who had come by the Clark Stadium Athletic office on Friday to say goodbye.

“Football is his second love and family is his first love,” Sarah said. “He taught me how much he loves football and he always talks about how the football field comes to life on Friday nights.

“Then, when it is over, my grandfather told me the field tells what happened during the game and then when you turn off the lights at the stadium, it can heal you in a sense that it is taken care of and what football means to a community on Friday night.”

Minton and his wife, Dorothy, moved from Dallas to Plano in 1954, after Minton retired from the Navy, having fought in World War II. The Mintons started going to Plano football games because, as he tells it, there wasn’t much to do in Plano on Friday nights.

“We would go to Rice Field and watch Plano play back then,” Minton said. “From 1954 to 1959 we would go to the Plano home games and then in 1959 we started going to all of the games, whether it was a home game or out of town, and I have only missed one Plano game since 1959.”

The Mintons had four children, Kathy, Danny, Gary and Terry. All three of the sons played football for the Wildcats. During a Plano playoff game in Wichita Falls in 1965, Minton’s oldest son, Danny, broke his neck during the game.

“Back then we didn’t have trainers, so they carried him off the field and laid him on the bench,” Minton said, “and when he nearly passed out that was when they got him in to an ambulance.

“He recovered from the injury and Danny was given the game ball from the first Wildcats championship that year.”

In 1966 and ‘67, Minton served as the Plano Wildcats’ Quarterback Club captain. It would be 20 years later when Minton would come out of retirement and go to work for the PISD, where he first worked on a school crew mowing and taking care of school grounds.

“I got tired of staying home by myself since my wife was still working, and one day I ran into John Clark and asked him if I could get a job at the school district,” Minton said. “John was here at the stadium and I later told him I wanted to work on the athletic fields, and he called me when the guy working the fields was hurt and I started working full time at the stadium in 1986. I would clean the stadium, make it shine, mow the yard and keep the field in good condition. I like to lay out athletic fields and I like to work outside.”

The athletic department was moved to Clark Stadium in 2003.

“We built a storage house for all of the equipment,” Minton said. “My day starts at six in the morning with a cup of coffee, and by 7 a.m. I am ready and open for business, and then the coaches come over and pick up the equipment they need for the day.”

PISD assistant athletic director Russ Schuler calls Minton a Plano legend.

“All of the coaches love him,” Schuler said. “Smitty had his system of going around, locking all of the doors, picking up the barricades, making sure all of the outside gates were locked and making sure everyone is out of the locker room and no one was left behind. And when it was quiet and he prepared to leave, then the last thing would be to turn the lights out.”

Minton said he is going to miss the stadium, the field and coaches and being a part of the football aura.

“I’ve seen some great players and great games at Clark and I will never forget,” he said.

Remembering won’t be too difficult for Minton as he has every Plano football program since the early 1970s along with plenty of Wildcat memorabilia. Minton even drives a maroon truck.

But Minton isn’t likely to be forgotten either.

He was given special recognition at the Plano ISD Hall of Honor banquet for being a devoted Wildcat fan for more than 50 years and the elevator at Clark Stadium is known as “Smitty’s Elevator.” At Minton’s retirement reception Friday, he was presented with a Wildcat football jersey with the number “1” on the back, along with a lifetime pass to any Plano athletic game.

“He missed his daughter’s first child being born because he was in line buying tickets to a Plano football game,” said Terry Minton, Smitty’s son. “Dad loves being around football, coaches and athletics. To my dad, taking care of the stadium is a passion just like it is a coach’s passion with football.”

Sarah wrote on her blog the day before her grandfather’s retirement party, “I never thought I would see the day he retired. He’s leaving his second love tomorrow, his permanent Friday night date. I hope they let him turn the lights out at Clark Stadium one last time.”