No. 262 - THE "BEAVER CLEAVER" HOUSE

No. 262

Jim Davidson...NEWSPAPER COLUMN

THE BEAVER CLEAVER HOUSE

The other day I got a phone call from John Garris who is the womens softball coach at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He began by telling me that as part of his program, he is providing his student athletes with a positive thought for the day and has been using information in some of my columns. However, he was having a problem making high quality copies of the newsprint from his hometown newspaper The South Alabamian in Jackson, Alabama. I told him my column was also carried by the Huntsville Item but one way to insure a quality copy was to pull it down from the Internet at www.thecabin.net, the web address for our local paper here in Conway.

During our conversation he also told me something that might inspire others who work with young people that could make a difference in their lives. He said a while back his team was on a long road trip and to pass the time, one of his players had brought along a movie for the team to watch. He said, As I sat there and watched this movie I was appalled at the filthy language and the plot unfolding. He went on to say, I got up and turned it off and said to my team, girls if you want to watch this kind of stuff at home thats up to you, but you are not going to watch it on trips that we take where we are representing our school. To this I say, Amen and praise the Lord. Sometimes it takes courage to stand up for decency and to point the way to a better lifestyle that is far superior in the long run.

A few days later I was in another city to speak to a civic club and was greeted by a man whose name is Don Crow. It turned out that Don has been a long time faithful reader of my column and I shared with him what John Garris had told me. At this point he said, We dont allow profanity in our home. He went on to say, when our kids were growing up our house was the place where they all congregated. It was not until several years later that I found out the kids called our house, the Beaver Cleaver house. In case you dont know, these were homes in the life of every community where kids loved to come, where they felt safe and where there was discipline. Believe it or not, kids do want discipline.

Then Don Crow shared another true story with me that really makes a point. He said, One day a group of kids were sitting in our living room and one young man began to use some off color language. After a few minutes of this, Don called him down and told him they did not allow that kind of language in their home. In response this young man said, What are you going to do about it? At this point Don told him, The first thing Im going to do is turn you over my lap and give you a spanking. Then this kid said, You and who else, old man?

Well, there just happened to be another young man sitting there and he stood up and when he got all the way up he was 6 foot, 6 inches tall. Then he said, Ill help you, Mr. Crow. With this, the young man who had been using profanity saw the writing on the wall and he began to back track and apologize for what he said and the way he had been acting. He could not have been more of a gentleman from then on.

My new friend Don Crow concluded his story by saying, A few days later this young man came by our house and apologized again and told me that no one had ever stood up to him and challenged the way he used his language. Im sure this was an experience this young man will never forget and while I dont know the rest of the story, Im sure it made a difference in his life. Before this encounter with Don Crow, Id never thought much about it but you know, we need more Beaver Cleaver homes in todays society. (Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)