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Notes -
Guy in my home town played football for the state team. The Tide, as we say. A bit before my time--I was still in elementary school then--but he played well enough that under Bear Bryant he made a name for himself locally. Never went to the NFL but had a respectable following. Graduated, disappeared for a several years then was suddenly back and opening a church, as one does. Charismatic protestant, people speaking in tongues, ran it out of a little part of what we called strip malls back in the day, now I think these outdoor malls are the norm, at least back home, and the old indoor malls are nearly dead. Bama paraphernalia shops, a Victoria's Secret where the customers do not resemble the models on the displays, Spencer's Gifts, Sbarro's with slices of pizza under heat lamps.
I do not recall the name of his church. I believe the word Light was part of it. Many people attended his services. I knew some of them. Twice on Sunday, then Wednesday nights to top you up during the week. Lots of singing and praising God, etc. The dude was a very charming sort, apparently, and athletic even into his older age--though I'm older now than he was then.
He had married at some point and had a daughter who was by then a fetching blonde teenager. You could see a younger version of her mom in her, or at least that was my guess. I heard many stories that they (dad and daughter) were very clingy, would dance together in ways that did not seem, let me say, normal for a father and daughter. One guy I knew claimed to have seen them kissing on a dance floor at the Old L&N Club.
I didn't follow what was going on and I knew even then that people like to run their mouths about other people without any basis, but it's true various sources were whispering the same thing. Whether it was this, or money, or some other scandal, the church went under, just suddenly wasn't there any more. Not that his followers abandoned him. The true believers always said he was a great guy--they all called him by his first name, let's say it was Garrett (it wasn't.) Garrett this, Garrett that, Garrett is a good man, etc. Maybe one or two would say Garrett's ideas about the Lord are wrong because of A B or C but nothing against Garrett.
He seemed to submerge again, then suddenly there was his face in the back of the phone book. Injured? Call Garrett Footballer, free consultation. So he had become am ambulance chaser. Apparently he had also begun (or continued) drinking. And then one night, alone in a suburb, he wrapped his car around a tree and went to be with the Lord. That last part was of course the popular coda at the time. I've never trusted preachers.
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