Beatty – Basketball

Brenda: I am going to talk about basketball, okay? Dad loved basketball, as Phillip was telling you earlier, and especially UNC basketball. Of course we were young in 1957, and he let us stay up really late to watch that triple overtime, which most of you did probably did too. It was a thrill for us.

He was always involved with us in basketball. And I guess because of him we played basketball. Of course he had put a goal up on the back side of the garage. And he would teach us how to do layups and shoot free throws, you know, and have us practice this over and over, which we loved. We loved doing it. So he got us ready for when we got to high school, to where we could play. And he always made it possible for us to get to practice.

And he never, ever, ever missed one of my ballgames, ever. He and Mother were at those ball games and it did not matter where it was. And my friend Joyce Honeycutt Spurlin used to talk about how she just loved to go with us. So I always had a friend to go with me to those ball games, which was great too. And the practices: Anne likes to tell, I had forgotten, really, about Edith Jolly Dobbins, who was a year ahead of Ann, and who played basketball with us. We were too young to drive, we didn’t have our licenses, and Dad asked Edith to drive our extra old Plymouth, and used that to take us to the practices. And of course, when Edith got back he would take her home. That was a really good thing, we were glad that Edith could do that.

Ann, are you going to tell about that one ball game you remember?

Ann: Talking about them always being at the ballgame, I remember one time we were playing Shelby for one of the championships, it wasn’t the state championship, and they were a tough team. We had a jump ball and girl I jumped against grabbed my arm and flung me around the floor. And coming down, you know, wham! I got up and I was like this, and I heard Dad out of the bleachers, “Calm down Anne!”

Recorded at the Society’s 3rd annual Gathering, October 9, 2009.