Perched high above Tazewell Avenue in the Clinch Valley Community Action offices, I can almost see the old steam engine coming down to stop at the water tank about 50 yards on down the line. The long-time Norfolk & Western station, where they used to drive the cattle and sometimes turkeys down from Burkes Garden and Thompson Valley, still stands proudly watching over the main line of the Clinch Division of the (now) Norfolk-Southern operation.
From the days of Tazewell Supply and later A-Mart and Acme Supermarkets, this was one place I always enjoyed visiting. Not only did we get to shop and pick up the all-important groceries, but directly across the street was the Jackson-Fleet Drug Store with those great wire-backed chairs and the soda fountain. That was not the main attraction for me, though — especially not in the summer.
When the weather warmed those were the best times on Saturday mornings to get the weekly copy of The Sporting News, which was the self-proclaimed baseball bible published by the Spink family in St. Louis. Every issue was devoted entirely to baseball and they carried all the box scores. At the time I started reading TSN, there were 10 teams in each league (I am not always sure these days just how many there are) and that had just recently changed from eight in each league.
It had only been a year or two since the Dodgers had left Brooklyn for California and the Giants had followed suit.
That baseball paper was all in black and white, and that, too, brings back thoughts of the significant past. Barely 10 years earlier, Jackie Robinson had broken the “color line” when he joined the Dodgers as a speedy second baseman. Now for the confession — I never paid any attention to Robinson and it had nothing to do with the color of his skin. No, my allegiance was 100 percent given to the Cardinals.
Baseball, you see, was one of the most American examples of how civil rights could bring improvement. When St. Louis acquired the services of Bob Gibson, Bill White, Curt Flood, and Lou Brock, they really started to win. My father, a coal miner, pointed out the unique way those men not only helped the team win but how they exemplified what equality should be all about.
He told me that in the mines, all men are the same color and everyone takes care of the other to reach a common goal. That made perfect sense. There was another key point that we often talked about and it related especially to Gibson. He was one of the greatest competitors in baseball history and that pleased Dad. Gibson, in fact, set a record with seven straight complete game victories in the World Series (games between 1964-68).
Dad said that proved to the whole world that the lie about a black man not being able to withstand pressure was not true.
We were so proud of Gibson for a lot of reasons but the example that those Cardinal athletes set, along with others, really helped to improve our country. It was their effort which helped to “integrate” the Cardinal housing facilities. When the African-American players complained the ball club bought a hotel in St. Petersburg, Fla., so that for the first time, players of all colors stayed together.
We still don’t quite have it right, and we are learning to get along, but they are some of the people who paved the way for improvement. So here in the Clinch Valley Community Action offices, where people are working every day to help make life better, those lessons continue to be illustrated.
This agency is about helping to make things better, and it takes a great group of hard-working people to do that. As the saying goes, if everyone is playing the same note, there can be no harmony.
At CVCA, as with those old Cardinal teams, the group effort does pay off. From outgoing director Chris Thompson to new interim director Doug Sheets, they work together to make good things happen. Men and women of different races and creeds come together.
It is heartwarming to know that still happens.
After all, the Fourth of July is all about independence and freedom no matter who you are or what you look like, and all you have to do is work hard to make the future brighter. To get the harmony we so desperately need, we do have to play a wondrous variety of notes.
God Bless America.
Larry Hypes, a teacher at Tazewell High School, is a Daily Telegraph columnist.
Columns
July 2, 2011
CVCA, the drug store and Bob Gibson all prospered under our grand old flag
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