{"id":72280,"date":"2019-10-17T12:18:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T10:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=72280"},"modified":"2020-07-31T15:12:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T15:12:43","slug":"jack-blanchards-column-the-optimist-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/17\/jack-blanchards-column-the-optimist-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Blanchard’s Column: We Named Him Donn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jack Blanchard’s Column<\/strong>: We Named Him Donn<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

We named him Donn, but called him Donny when he was little.
\nHe was a beautiful kid. His mother, my ex-wife, raised him,
\nexcept for a couple of years,
\nso when we finally met, as people, he was all grown up.
\nWe tried to figure each other out,
\nand worked at getting to know one another.<\/h3>\n

At first he had resentments toward me and tried to hide them,
\nbut we both felt something needed to be resolved.
\nFor some reason it was hard to talk directly at the REAL subject.
\nI knew that he had heard a lot of things about me from his mother…
\nnot all good.
\nSome were probably true.<\/p>\n

Then he went away for a few more years before we tried again.
\nThe next time was better.
\nWe both had had time to think things over.<\/p>\n

People told us we walked and laughed exactly alike.
\nWe understood each other’s humor.
\nWe were sitting with our wives in a barbecue restaurant
\non one of his visits.
\nWe both reached for the check, and I said,
\n“I’ve never done a damn thing for you,
\nso I’m going to do this one thing, and then THAT’S IT!”
\nHe said this: “Aw, gee, pops. I wanted to go to college.”
\nWe all broke up laughing.
\nThat was the last time Misty and I saw him alive…
\nat least I think so.
\nThat whole period is sort of mixed up in my mind.<\/p>\n

He was riding his motorcycle in traffic
\nwhen the car in front of him hit the brakes.
\nDonn’s bike hit the car and threw him.<\/p>\n

We rushed from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale to the hospital,
\nand he looked perfectly healthy,
\nexcept he was brain dead.
\nI talked to him anyway.<\/p>\n

After that it’s all a blur.
\nSomebody pulled the plug and Donn died,
\nThere was a little funeral in northern Tennessee.<\/p>\n

I keep thinking of things I should have said and done differently.
\nI guess that’s natural.<\/p>\n

Maybe someday we’ll get another chance to hash it all out.<\/p>\n

Jack Blanchard<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n
\n
Jack & Donn.<\/div>\n
\n

\"Jack\u00a0—<\/p>\n

Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan... \nHome Page: http:\/\/www.jackandmisty.net<\/a>\nAwards: Grammy, Billboard, CMA, BMI, ASCAP.\n\nMastering & restoration studio: 352-530-2068.\nEmail: jackandmisty@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/pre>\n
\u00a9 Jack Blanchard, 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack Blanchard’s Column: We Named Him Donn We named him Donn, but called him Donny when he was little. He was a beautiful kid. His mother, my ex-wife, raised him, except for a couple of years, so when we finally met, as people, he was all grown up. We tried to figure each other out, and worked at getting to know one another. At first he had resentments toward me and tried to hide them, but we both felt something needed to be resolved. For some reason it was hard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73620,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72280\/revisions\/73620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}