you remember Leonard Skinner?
Matthew my nephew is going away to camp next week for almost the entire summer. He will be 8 years old this weekend. That’s intrepid for a boy that age in the new world we live in. No email at this camp so we will have to send snail mail. I play a connection between the old Song “Hello Mother Hello Father” and my red neck ring tone. Show time about 8min
Drew ~ Don’t you know that Lynard Skynard was the PE coach for Ronnie Van Zandt? Ronnie was the original singer who was killed in the plane accident. The legend lives on through his lil’ bro Johnnie who wails ‘FREEBIRD’ to the millions of bicks to this day. I thought you might like the history lesson.
Next year let’s send little guy to boot camp. After all he will evolve into a teen-rager.
Danno
Comment by Danimal — June 17, 2005 @ 1:08 am
Dan, very cool comment. I had know idea that was the story. Free Fourm its a good thing. I bought some (LPHI) very good call. Digging that dividend also.
Comment by Administrator — June 17, 2005 @ 8:18 am
Good Luck!
Comment by Micheal Jackson — June 19, 2005 @ 6:39 pm
Camp Granada (Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder) was a mainstay song on the Sunday evening Doctor Dimento radio show back in the 70’s & 80’s.
Comment by Guvork — June 20, 2005 @ 7:04 am
I did not see that Nelly remix coming. Never heard that. Great stuff.
Comment by Matt — June 20, 2005 @ 12:23 pm
I just heard his nephew and grandnephew, Robert and Kyle Van Zandt play in our annual Chocolate Fest. They opened for Garrison Keillor. Robert plays a mean guitar and his son does the mouth organ. Bobby was in an accident 3 years ago, suffered brain-damage and still can put most professional strummers to shame. His more recent goal is to become the king of nursing home guitar players. Awesome talent!
Comment by Lauree K — July 10, 2005 @ 10:04 pm
Leonard Skinner did not teach Ronnie Van Zandt. He taught Bob Burns and Gary Rossington, and had something to do with them leaving high school. VZ went to a different school altogether. I should know - I grew up with those guys.
Comment by JMDRWAC — August 17, 2005 @ 12:57 pm
I remember a leonard skinner PE teacher at Wolfson HighSchool or Englewood highschool in Jacksonville. Is this the same guy????
Comment by Joel Torode — December 21, 2005 @ 10:50 pm
This is from an article that I recently wrote about the infamous Leonard Skinner. It is accurate as best as I can remember.
We arrived at gym that day and noticed on the big chalk board that we did not have to dress out. That was very unusual, as it had to be twenty degrees or snowing for us not have to put those little gray shorts, white tee shirts and sneakers on.
We had around 2,000 students at Lee that year, so with about half of them being male, that meant 1,000 guys had to be slotted into six periods to get their physical education in. We called it gym class, but never saw the gym.
We were told to line up single file on the basketball court. It was one of those courts that had about a half dozen courts side by side. I would imagine there were 150 hearty souls lined up with no idea of what was going on.
The three coaches we had that day, with Coach Skinner having the clipboard, walked the line, and if they pointed at you, then you were to step forward. I was selected as was my best friend. We were all talking about what we were being picked for and if we would get to miss class and that sort of thing.
The ones who were not selected were sent to the bleachers to sit until the bell rung ending the period.
As the coaches came back down the line, the word was starting to get down to our end that we were being sited for having long hair.
Now let me say this, I did not have long hair and I have never had long hair in my life. My dad sent me to get my haircut if it touched the top of my ears. I had to part it, comb it over, and it had to be tapered in the back. Even at sixteen years of age I knew I would be bald. My dad was bald, both of my granddaddies were bald, and even though I had not met him, my-father-in law was bald! So having short hair was a way of life and my ultimate destiny.
So Rick and I were talking about why I had been selected. While Rick had somewhat long hair (would be considered really short today), we both decided that my selection was a mistake.
When Coach Skinner, Coach Fagin, and Coach Barrett got to me, they said, “You can shave them or go home.” I said, “Sir,” and he said, “Shave them or go home. Your sideburns cannot be past the middle of your ear.”
Well, dad had never taken exception to or mentioned that my sideburns were too long for him, so I was surprised that they were too long for what suddenly appeared to be Larry, Moe, and Curly standing in front of me.
However, I knew that in my previous eleven years of school, dad had never sided with me against the school and I did not want to challenge the authority now. So I said I would shave them.
We were in the third period of the day, and I suppose they had looked at 450 boy’s haircuts and sideburns, so when they gave me a razor, I knew it would be dull. It seemed like 10 minutes that I stood there and scraped and scraped getting that sideburn removed. When I was done with the left one he told me, “That’s good enough.” I thought that was strange, but he knew I would shave the other one at home rather than go around with uneven sideburns.
Allen Collins, of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band, was also in the line and they sent him home for long hair. Allen’s dad called and raised sand about it, but did not win. I read a book recently that said Allen did a good job of pinning it and hiding it, but I think he cut it.
I have often wondered if Coach Fagin or Coach Barrett had been toting the clip- board and barking the orders if the band would have been named after one of them, but destiny held a clipboard that day and Leonard Skinner become the coach that rocked the south.
Comment by David — May 6, 2006 @ 3:28 pm