What I Learned from Leroy

Back in my teens, I knew a man named Leroy McCarty.

When Leroy was a young man, in the 50’s, he worked at the East Point, Georgia Fire Department with a guy named Bobby Hanson. Fast forward twenty years later into the 70’s and Bobby Hanson was the biggest name in Atlanta radio except he was known by another name: Ludlow Porch.  Leroy got me Ludlow’s autograph. I still have it.

Leroy enjoyed singing Gospel Music.  He would lead music at the church and sometimes sing duets with his wife. It was obvious that somewhere down the line Mrs. McCarty had some sort of musical training. I’m pretty sure Leroy did not. However, what he lacked in talent he made up for in enthusiasm.

He also liked to teach people how to water ski. I was a prime candidate to learn this skill because I weighed maybe a buck twenty-five and it would be easy to get me up out of the water and pull me around. Of course, there were problems with this theory.

One problem is that I am one of the most un-coordinated humans that have ever graced this planet. When I walk, one foot goes in one direction-the other foot goes into an entirely different direction. I have never “taken” to a sport in one or two tries. It usually takes one to two hundred tries just to get mediocre. 

The other problem is I am extremely near sighted. The cherry on top of that blessing is I have an astigmatism as well. This is a recipe for a person wearing thick coke bottle glasses. I didn’t like do anything without my glasses because everything was just one big blur.

The big day came for me to learn how to water ski. I was sitting out in the middle of Lake Allatoona listening to Leroy’s instructions. He told me to bend me knees and “do not let go of the rope”. Years later, Leroy’s son told me he heard his dad say that a million times because Leroy would see people finally get up on the lake, skiing for the first time in their life, become so excited that they would let go of the rope.

He asked me if I was ready. I said, “Let it happen, Captain”. (I was a witty one back then.) He hit the gas and I promptly fell over.  “Ready?”  “Yes, sir”.  He hit the gas and I promptly fell over.  Then for a third time, he hit the gas and I came up out of the water.

For a second, I thought I had made it. I was wrong.  If I were a Calvinist, I would say it wasn’t in God’s perfect plan for my life to be a water skier because I fell face first in to the water. Not only that, I held on to the rope like Leroy taught.

Leroy was not facing me when I fell and because I had held on the rope, it was still taunt like I was actually water skiing. He kept hitting the gas and soon I was skipping across Lake Alatoona on my face. I held on to the rope with all of my fifteen year old might because I was afraid if I let go, Leroy would not be able to find me in the vastness that is Lake Allatoona.

Soon I lost my grip on the rope and I saw the boat, or rather, the blur, go off into the distance. He came back for me and said these words that I have kept all of these years. “Next time, LET GO OF THE ROPE.”

I think about that often. What Leroy was saying is that you really need to use some common sense. It would have been better for me to fall and let go of the rope so he could come back and have me try again. Now, after skipping across Lake Allatoona, I was in no shape to want to try again. He was right. I have never even put on a pair of water skis since that day and I think Nixon was still President.

There was a time in my life I wanted to become a high school social studies teacher. I went back to college and made the best grades of my life. However, to become a teacher I would have to quit my job at the insurance company and go for almost a year without my income. To me, it was just common sense to let go of that dream and find another.

It is not a matter of quitting. It is just a matter of knowing when to stop. Just like “The Gambler”: you got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. Unfortunately, Class of 2012, that course was never in the curriculum of your school and you have got to learn it for yourself.