Why seeing The Eagles was important
Dear Jim:
Vicki and I saw The Eagles in concert last night in Columbia.
Don Henley is the last original member though Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit are still around. Vince Gill has joined the band. Glenn Frey died in 2016, and his son Deacon is now front and center.
For 2 1/2 hours, they played all the hits. Joe Walsh had a mini-concert in the set. Vince Gill sang one of his songs.
I sang "Take It to the Limit" as loud as I could for you. I confess the eyes were misty, but I also laughed.
I miss you,
Scott
Arriving from Warner Robins, GA, Jim Cosey was the brand new publisher-editor of the newspaper. His wife Wynelle was the office manager.
There was no job opening at the newspaper office. I loved to write, and I needed a job. I wondered if they might have a job for me at the newspaper. My bike trip was the ultimate cold call. No
appointment. They didn't know me, and I didn't know them. As I write about all this is my new book, Hickory Trail, I don't understand why Jim hired me, but he did. That fall, he paid me $3 plus supper to go with him to high school football games and gather stats so he could write the game story later. While I was busy gathering stats, he took game photographs for the newspaper. The money was poor, but it was so much fun.
I will never forget the road games. We rolled down the windows on his Ford, listened to an 8 track tape of The Eagles, and sang along with them. Jim introduced me to The Eagles and all those great, early hits.
By November's basketball season, Jim gave me $20 each week to come in after school for 90 minutes each day and be the office janitor. I also continued going with him to sporting events. Supper was on my own.
By baseball season of my sophomore year in high school, I was still making $20 per week, emptying trash cans and cleaning the bathroom. I found an old vacuum cleaner and vacuumed the office on Fridays. One afternoon, I came in and Jim had put an old, black manual Royal typewriter on a table in the back of the office. He told me to come in on Saturday mornings, and he would let me write. I started writing stories for the high school baseball games. Jim taught me to write obituaries
and had me write and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite some of the press releases that came to the office by mail. I especially enjoyed the gardening tips from the county extension agent.
I worked part-time for Jim Cosey through my senior year of high school (1977), and summers during college. Jim, Wynelle, Sheila, Roger - all of us on that small staff became like family. I had a Georgia Press Association press pass, a key to the front door, and sometimes opened and closed the office by myself on Saturday mornings. On Mondays, we worked late on a deadline, locked the doors, and turned up The Eagles. It sounded like a choir. We would sing through every hit. A favorite was "Take It to The Limit." There was always a reverence to singing that one.
Jim became more big brother than a supervisor. He taught me about writing for audiences, he taught me how to interview someone for a story, and he taught me how to face adversity. On the one hand, he drove my confidence to new heights, but on the other, he pulled me right back to Earth. Many Saturdays we watched college football together; Wynelle would invite me for supper at least once a week. Outside of my own family, he was my biggest champion.
He helped me get a four-year grant from the Georgia Press Association, and that grant covered my tuition for four years at the University of Georgia. He also helped me get a job at the daily papers in Athens while I was in school. He was my friend. By the time Vicki and I began dating, he and Wynelle had moved back to their hometown to own and publish the newspaper there in Butler, GA. I took Vicki to meet them - they were that important to me.
Jim died in November 2000. Wynelle has since gone on to be with the Lord, too. (I'll write about that precious woman on another day.) About two years before Jim died, I drove to Macon, GA to see him in the hospital. We laughed a lot, told some stories, and I was able to tell him how much he meant to me and how much I loved him. Fittingly, a radio station began playing "Lyin' Eyes," and we sang along with it. As I left, I was able to thank him for having broad shoulders to lift up a boy like me. I know as sure as I'm breathing that the Lord placed him in my life.
The Christmas before he died, Jim sent me a card. In that hand-written note, he told me how proud he was of me, proud of the husband and daddy that I had become, told me to always be there for my boys, and . . . told me to see The Eagles one day.
I have now done that.
www.scottdvaughan.com
Don Henley is the last original member though Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit are still around. Vince Gill has joined the band. Glenn Frey died in 2016, and his son Deacon is now front and center.
For 2 1/2 hours, they played all the hits. Joe Walsh had a mini-concert in the set. Vince Gill sang one of his songs.
I sang "Take It to the Limit" as loud as I could for you. I confess the eyes were misty, but I also laughed.
I miss you,
Scott
*****
In the blazing hot summer of 1974, I rode a white 10-speed bicycle for almost three miles, up two massive hills, and past several barking dogs, toward a goal of getting a job at my hometown newspaper, The Forsyth County News. I had just turned 15 and was unemployed after a failed opportunity at a local pizza restaurant.There was no job opening at the newspaper office. I loved to write, and I needed a job. I wondered if they might have a job for me at the newspaper. My bike trip was the ultimate cold call. No
 |
| Jim Cosey |
I will never forget the road games. We rolled down the windows on his Ford, listened to an 8 track tape of The Eagles, and sang along with them. Jim introduced me to The Eagles and all those great, early hits.
By November's basketball season, Jim gave me $20 each week to come in after school for 90 minutes each day and be the office janitor. I also continued going with him to sporting events. Supper was on my own.
By baseball season of my sophomore year in high school, I was still making $20 per week, emptying trash cans and cleaning the bathroom. I found an old vacuum cleaner and vacuumed the office on Fridays. One afternoon, I came in and Jim had put an old, black manual Royal typewriter on a table in the back of the office. He told me to come in on Saturday mornings, and he would let me write. I started writing stories for the high school baseball games. Jim taught me to write obituaries
and had me write and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite some of the press releases that came to the office by mail. I especially enjoyed the gardening tips from the county extension agent.
I worked part-time for Jim Cosey through my senior year of high school (1977), and summers during college. Jim, Wynelle, Sheila, Roger - all of us on that small staff became like family. I had a Georgia Press Association press pass, a key to the front door, and sometimes opened and closed the office by myself on Saturday mornings. On Mondays, we worked late on a deadline, locked the doors, and turned up The Eagles. It sounded like a choir. We would sing through every hit. A favorite was "Take It to The Limit." There was always a reverence to singing that one.
Jim became more big brother than a supervisor. He taught me about writing for audiences, he taught me how to interview someone for a story, and he taught me how to face adversity. On the one hand, he drove my confidence to new heights, but on the other, he pulled me right back to Earth. Many Saturdays we watched college football together; Wynelle would invite me for supper at least once a week. Outside of my own family, he was my biggest champion.
He helped me get a four-year grant from the Georgia Press Association, and that grant covered my tuition for four years at the University of Georgia. He also helped me get a job at the daily papers in Athens while I was in school. He was my friend. By the time Vicki and I began dating, he and Wynelle had moved back to their hometown to own and publish the newspaper there in Butler, GA. I took Vicki to meet them - they were that important to me.
Jim died in November 2000. Wynelle has since gone on to be with the Lord, too. (I'll write about that precious woman on another day.) About two years before Jim died, I drove to Macon, GA to see him in the hospital. We laughed a lot, told some stories, and I was able to tell him how much he meant to me and how much I loved him. Fittingly, a radio station began playing "Lyin' Eyes," and we sang along with it. As I left, I was able to thank him for having broad shoulders to lift up a boy like me. I know as sure as I'm breathing that the Lord placed him in my life.
The Christmas before he died, Jim sent me a card. In that hand-written note, he told me how proud he was of me, proud of the husband and daddy that I had become, told me to always be there for my boys, and . . . told me to see The Eagles one day.
I have now done that.
www.scottdvaughan.com
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