A true mentor.

As an adult and parent at 52 years old, I realized that I had never had a vacation with either of my children. This year, I had finally made up my mind that I will take one but with a purpose. I was returning to my hometown. The high school band that I was a member of for [about] 3 ½ years was having a gathering, a reunion. We were honoring a mentor—a very special person, our band director. Only he didn’t know it at the time—Larry Keating. I had once asked his son, Bobby, “Were we really bad students that gave him a hard time?” “Yes” according to Bobby. Well he is correct! We did give him a tremendous of difficulty but no more than we probably would have given our parents. Come to think about it, yes we gave him more difficulty than our parents ever knew about. I started to think, how did Larry Keating survive? There were many lovely faces there; it was like seeing a great wine mixture that had fermented to perfection with age. I looked collectively at years of growth. There were also many missing from this past weekend which some have passed on and some were just unable to attend. But I happened to think about what Walt Whitman had written about Lincoln having his worth in his pocket; a man’s worth is what is in his pocket when he passes from this place to the next. I would like to take it one step further. A man may not have much in his pocket, but it was how the man lived his life. Our memories will die with us and we will take them beyond unlike our physical possessions. Larry was a band director with an associate E.B. Coleman. He directed and E.B. followed through—almost like a god-father would in the Mafia. Larry directed a correction and E.B. Coleman had a board that went across the “butts” of America. We had to respect our uniform, our band, our school, our city, our country and then ourselves. It only took one “pop” and a dare for another before we understood and he would dare us not to cry. We received that message in the deepest sense of the word that registered in our brain whole-heartedly. The lessons we learned was self esteem. Then pretty soon, after the end of the 1st showing, we had an ego—there was no one greater than us with the belief we could do anything we wanted. To put together the ideal show, Larry would have us meet a while as a music instrumental section (like the trombones, trumpets, flutes, etc.) Then we met as wood winds and brasses; then as a whole. Our performance had to be perfect precision because it was detailed which was marked to the beat of the music. I had learned like many others, anything worth doing is worth doing well. Not having a totally functional home life, those actions and words of Larry Keating haunted me when things were really bad for me because of illnesses. I had come to a period in my life that I couldn’t realize tomorrow. Larry came to me and I could see his hands clap and tell me “again until you get it right.” He was a mentor that touched so many and I realized that his purpose in life (that God afforded him) was to motivate many. He did just that! His words from the 70s motivated me to continue living and make a change toward the better. So I was a little late in doing so. Now I am not putting this man too high on pedestal, because God moves in mysterious ways. He is human like the rest of us. He just motivated us to be the best we could be. This is the best lesson that a child could learn. It is a lesson that last a life time. These are the lessons that many speak about “it takes a community to raise a child.” Larry Keating helped to raise more than his fair share of about a 1,000 or more children. What is even greater, he is a live, living and will live more through the eyes of so many. He was our mentor, honorable to us. Today, the big question on the table is “where is the E.B. Coleman Board?” It was the board that touched more butts in America than a standard pair of pants. The board is trophy that should be displayed in the Halls of Murphy High School in Mobile, Al. We knew not the board of E.B. Coleman except with Larry Keating direction in the rising of more than 1,000 children. EBC rest in peace and Larry—thank you.