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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Deo Vindice

PERRIN LOVETT

Tag Archives: Augusta

Goodbye, Mr. Banks

16 Sunday Aug 2020

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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Augusta, barber, Bobby Banks, death, education, history, schools

The world lost a legend last week. Bobby Banks, a heroic educator, and barber in Augusta, GA, died at the age of 87. I’m a little down about this and not sure how to begin, so I’ll just freestyle it.

Mr. Banks was formerly my barber, the greatest I’ve ever known, and a very good friend. He started cutting hair in another age while in the US Navy. He taught my parents in high school. Rather, he taught my Mother and tolerated Daddy. He was the principal at both my junior high and high schools, back when both were concerned with education. As luck wouldn’t have it, he skated ahead of me by a year or two. I never had the privilege of getting in trouble with him.

We had long talks about education. I know much about his time in the schools and his retirement. We spoke frankly about the changes over the years. He was the kind of man the public schools desperately need today (or needed 25 years ago) but which they simply will not have anymore. He was happier as a barber anyway.

He was fantastic with the blades – one of several business ventures he maintained. He was the real deal: providing manly cuts with razor-close precision, unafraid to perform a little impromptu surgery the way they did 200 years ago – usually without consulting the patient first. “Did that sting?”

I know tons of people who loved him in his academic role. The stories about his demanding, caring, off-beat, and semi-scofflaw ways are legion and legend.

“Where do you think y’all are going?”

“To Burger King, Mr. Banks. We can’t stand school today.”

‘Me either. Let’s go.”

He bent rules to do the right thing.

“You boys will be sorry you broke those windows.”

“We are sorry, Mr.—“

“The cops are coming! Shut up and get in my trunk!”

He was too good, especially for what’s become of the local ed scene. Back then, things, scores included, looked up, not down.

I got to know him in ways many students did not. He cut my hair before my wedding. He’d humor my daughter’s instructions and then cut my hair the way he always did. When Daddy was sick and dying and couldn’t leave the house, Mr. Banks made a house call – I know of no other barber who does or did. The connection was multi-generational. He proudly told me that his father and my grandfather used to raise and fight gamecocks together (back when America was a free country). He’s the only person I’ve ever lent my vintage cockfighting manuals to, the only one who was interested. The only one who, or one of few, who knew what Grit ‘n Steel was. He’s the only other man I ever knew who had one of Ethan Allen’s rare Bicentennial wall rugs – his copy hung in the shop at Daniel Village.

They don’t make them like they used to and I’m not sure they ever made another like him. All good things and people come to an end, even the very best. My condolences to his wife, family, friends, co-workers, and community left pooer by his passing, though richer for the knowing.

Farewell. Rest in Peace.

Masters Tournament 2019

06 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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Augusta, golf, Masters, Masters Tournament

Almost let this one slip. Today – not next week! Today is inaugural Women’s Championship day. Kids tomorrow. The Gentlemen crank up practice Monday morning. More to come.

THE NATIONAL’S SITE (all things Masters)

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I could get used to this new Masters thing. Sierra Brooks/Golfweek.

Masters Wrap 2018 (with Baseball Preview)

08 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes, Other Columns

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Augusta, baseball, golf, Masters, Masters Tournament, Patrick Reed

Congratulations, Patrick Reed!

CBS can fill you in on the tournament if you didn’t see it previously.

Here’s something you won’t be able to see until tomorrow:

Perrin’s Sneak Peak of Augusta’s (North Augusta’s) Incredible New Baseball Stadium, SRP Park:

I think this is a coming Crown Plaza:

IMG_20180408_200225826

PL

Beautiful:

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PL

Even the parking deck is nice:

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PL

Supposedly a beer garden somewhere in there:

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PL

Just nice, first class:

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PL

Magnificent:

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PL

This “highly respected web log” isn’t just about loving guns and cigars nor hating on GubMint. The roving source for sporting news…

Night, all.

-P

Big John Daly is Okay

07 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Augusta, crime, golf, Hooters, John Daly, Masters

They used to have a bumper sticker in Augusta: “Pray for me. I drive on Washington Road.” Sure, several places in America have heavier traffic, but that strip between Calhoun (John C. not Algonquin J.) Expressway and … the lake? is bad enough. Now it’s not even safe to stand off to the side of it on a Friday morning. Everyone’s favorite neon golfer, John Daly, learned that the hard way.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – John Daly injured his right knee on Friday when a car travelling down Washington Road lost control and ran off the road, crashed through a line of temporary fencing and into his RV that was parked next to a restaurant.

Daly, who sells merchandise from his RV each year during the Masters, was standing in front of his RV with his fiancée, Anna Cladakis, when the accident occurred.

“It whaled into the front of the bus,” Cladakis told GolfChannel.com. “John dove out of the way, he tweaked his knee.”

I heard a rumor that the lady behind the offending wheel was DUI. Then again, one hears a lot of rumors in Augusta this week: kids’ golf, women’s golf, THE END OF CIGARS ON THE COURSE (yeah….), hi-rise hotels, property purchases, monorail, private airport, the true belief that screaming at a ball may direct its course towards a hole, someone knows a guy who knows a guy that saw something, etc.. Strange times in a strange town.

All know seeing this bus at Hooters each year is not strange:

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The Daly Bus in happier times. Perrin.

I read a couple of stories about the incident from the popular press. First, maybe it’s the golfing and New York media that are “outlandish.” John is merely outrageous. For that, we love him. Him and his … eye-catching … merchandise. We even love his signing:

He’s pretty good! Happier times… Perrin/YT.

We just don’t want him hurt, thank you.

I’ve ranted before about how bad many most America drivers really are. This week in a-town witnesses some of the worst of the worst. John’s wasn’t the only big bus “accident” of the week. This woman, if she was drunk, wasn’t the only one. In fact, if she was sober, she could have been the only one. I think a house cat might assume better control of a car. Confidence is not inspired. **Americans: either learn to drive or else await the robo cars (not long…).**

Happily, Daly, tweaked knee or not, is okay. I verified as much.

I see him from time to time, year to year. He figured into my Happy Little Cigar Book even.

jd

Daly and some cigar-crazed nut in happier times. Perrin.

As luck – or purposeful maneuvering – would have it, I caught up with Big John last night. He was limping but otherwise moving well and pretty quick. I asked how he was. He replied: “It hurts a little but we’re alright.”

Then, we’re all alright.

bus_1920_john_daly_crash2

Fore! Anna Cladakis.

Par Three Wednesday!

04 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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Augusta, golf, Masters

It’s that time again, Sports Fans. Wednesday in Augusta. Old Mr. Sunshine made his appearance a short time ago. Follow all the action, remotely, courtesy of the Tournament:

The Masters

IMG_20180404_125150873_HDR - Edited

Throwback. That’s not a lady bug…

Best of luck to the field. Y’all have a grand time. And let’s not forget the other “Par Three” festivities at the tent, tonight.

John Daly Singing Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

17 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in The Perrin Lovett Show

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Augusta, Hooters, John Daly, Knockin on Heaven's Door, Masters, Shinebox, Youtube

A new, old video – from Masters Week, 2015. Yes, that’s Big John on stage with ShineBox. Finally dug this out of the archives.

Perrin Lovett/YouTube.

Who knew the boy could sing? Pretty good stuff. And, yes, this is clickbait…

*As noted on YT, buy a Dylan album…

nimbus-image-1500313418181

Perrin on Patreon.

 

Master Brewing Ale in the Ailing South

04 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

ale, Augusta, beer, brewing, cigars, Savannah River Brewing

My friend, Graydon Brown, has taken a good concept to new heights in Georgia’s second city. He has Apathy Town’s newest (and only) brewery cranking out some of the coolest and most innovative craft beers in America. Brown, the Texan master with over 30 years experience, knows what he’s going and it shows. He also knows cigars.

Check out Savannah River Brewing

I just sampled a few brews to include the IPA and the Brown Ale. Here is the Savannah River IPA, a cool but stout 7% ABV with an incredible distinctive flavor:

IMG_20170603_154010389

A lighter beer that pairs surprisingly well with a cigar!

After a few years of dawdling, pre-Graydon, the company is now in full swing. I suspect distribution is their main focus. I can’t really recommend a visit: sure it has to be nice but I won’t tell anyone to enter the deserted industrial zone ‘tween the ghettos in Southern Detroit. Of course, if you’re there, do stop in. I can recommend, however, trying to find these micros at better shops and bars near you. Right now that is limited to GA and SC (and I fear not even the good parts) but I would imagine the range will grow rapidly.

If you enjoy beer with actual taste, then these are right up your alley. They might even convert a few yellow water drinkers.

“Deep South High Hops.” “Bring it on Home.” Please do.

Cheers.

Par Three Wednesday, 2017

06 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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Augusta, golf, Masters Tournament

Alas … there was no Par Three Contest this year! Yesterday’s weather terminated activities around Noon. Dustin Johnson went home only to find a banana peel on the stairs…

Well, here’s a look back at Par Threes of the recent past:

2016

2015

Oh, weather or not, I did run into Mrs. Par Three, 2017, last night:

IMG_20170405_231124544

There was that!

Masters 2017, Fun for One Week

31 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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Augusta, golf, Hooters, Masters, Masters Tournament

Monday commences the greatest week in sports. Actually the fun starts Sunday though the revelers are rolling in now.

Follow the action online: THE MASTERS.

If you’re in town feel free to roam Washington Road and adjacent areas – nice and clean and ready to entertain this one week out of the year. It’s not always like that.

If you return to Washington Road any other week of the year, the stores will all be as you remember them, and the traffic almost as bad as you remember. What’s gone, however, is the frisson: Gone are the smiling white men in Easter egg-hued pants streaming onto the grounds clutching their golden badges. Gone are the entrepreneurs selling those men Macanudos and Cohibas and Ashton Churchills as fat as a pipefitter’s fingers. Gone is the tent for the Christian Motorcyclists Association Resurrection Riders with tattooed men in “Riding for the Son” jackets hawking pop the color of antifreeze, and the black guy on the sidewalk with a hand-lettered sign advertising “cold juicy apples” from an old Styrofoam cooler that appears to have recently held bait. Hooters — yeah, it’s still here, still packed, but now the crowd comes for Monday Night Football, not the Green Jacket Bikini Contest.

What’s gone, in short, is the party, and the feverish city-wide embrace of golf and belief in its saving powers, or at least belief in the redemptive power of golf’s money, and the feeling — for a single week in April — as real and heady as the azalea-drenched air that, just maybe, all things are possible here.

Summer doesn’t abandon Georgia by late October. Step outside and a soft washcloth-slap of humidity reminds you that you’re in the South. The sky has the kind of look that wouldn’t be welcome if on a boat a far piece from land — bright but reconsidering, edged with cauliflower cumulus. In the yards not far from the National, the azalea blossoms have been replaced by red Georgia football pennants. This is Dawg country. The only challenge to their popularity is the political yard sign. It’s election season in Augusta. And many Augustans say the autumn’s mayoral race is crucial — the indicator whether this city will finally grope its way forward.

This is a city still shaking off the blows of its past, some of them subtle, some as sharp as grenade blasts: a violent race riot in 1970 that drew national attention, suburban malls that sprang up in the late ’70s, further decimating the once-vibrant downtown. Between 1950 and 1986, the city’s population dropped more than 40 percent, from a high of 72,000 to 42,000. Augusta was dying. So in 1996 voters agreed to merge governments with the surrounding county.

Suddenly — immediately — shrunken Augusta became swollen Augusta-Richmond County, the second-largest municipality in Georgia behind Atlanta — 200,000 people today. A chunk of Georgia that spraddles from high-rises to piney-woods, all under the name Augusta. During last year’s Masters, the local newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle, reported the arrest of a local man for making moonshine.

The consolidation was supposed to be salvation, but it hasn’t worked out that way.

Chris Solomon wrote those words ten years ago, yesterday. And salvation still alludes Georgia’s second city. Some things have changed for the better: the interstates have been rebuilt and widened, making escapes faster. Others changed for the worse: Darius Rucker continues to plague the area each Spring. A few more government contracts and monies, a little more traffic, more sex trafficking. Most Augustans are willfully oblivious to most of reality. The sacred pile of magic bricks collapsed late last year, casting a pall of misery over the already struggling Detroit of the South.

There is the Masters though. And the big tent at Hooters!

girls

Not all is bad in the Dead City…

Masters Wrap 2016

10 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes, Other Columns

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America, Augusta, Masters Tournament

The 80th Masters Tournament is now in the books. It was a year that challenged the field like few have – wind, wind, more wind, and the Augusta factor. Hats off to Danny Willett for his win!

UK Telegraph.

All in all it was a terrific year. Spieth looked unbeatable until he wasn’t. Highs and lows and wind. Springtime in Augusta.

Outside the gates things were booming too. The cigar market, as headed by Russell Wilder, charted new territory. I haven’t seen any figures but it seems to me there was more money in town than normal – a good sign. Aside from that stretch of Washington Road and I-20’s Exit 200, traffic seemed almost normal. Good traffic management is one of the reasons the Wall Street Journal names ours the best major sporting event in the world. And, World, thank you once again for your visit.

Now, tomorrow is back to the usual in the most unusual city in America. Fifty-one weeks til next year…

 

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