The call came in on a Sunday afternoon. I let the machine get it. When I got around to listening, I discovered a long, rambling message from someone affiliated with the Athens YMCA. The person on the recording went on and on, so it seemed to me, about a person who had worked at the Y for a long time and was something of a local hero in Athens. The crux of the matter was that there was a committee and the committee wanted a book written about this hero and they wanted me to be involved.
I didn’t return the call. I was up to my neck in alligators and had a couple of projects of my own going. I had three children in college and was teaching school full time and writing a syndicated newspaper column three times a week. My plate was full, understand, so I just didn’t return the call.