an amazing way to start 2013

when YOU look at this, it may just be a RADIO...

but to the Barnette family, it will forever mean something more profound than a simple way to hear music, a game, or the news.

it is so, so, so much more.

many of you have probably seen this movie with cuba gooding, jr, and ed harris.

and some of you have probably even thought, "what a touching story.  a coach taking up with a disabled man in his community when it wasn't the popular thing to do."

some of you may have even thought, "you know, i'd love to go to a game and see him sometime!"

or then again, you may not have even cared.

BUT - if you know our family, then you probably know that that was NOT the response tommy and i had when we watched this movie years ago.
  

instead, on our bucket list was "go to anderson, south carolina, and go to a game at t.l. hanna high school."

both of us just felt that tugging to go! so when we decided to surprise mary peyton with a trip to the mountains after Christmas, we were SO excited to see that on the way to our destination was, you guessed it, anderson, south carolina!

i googled and found the school...

then we had to search (o.k., maybe not TOO much, but you know what i mean) for the football field.  and here is what we found! 

of course tommy and mary peyton had to have a photo op!  granted, this isn't the original location from when everything happened, but this is t.l. now.  t.l. where radio goes every single day.  to this day!

as we left the campus, we were all talking.  how cool it was to be there...did the kids we saw practicing even realize the opportunity they had...how amazing it would be to actually SEE and MEET radio and coach jones!

i had my ipad out and just started looking at sites.  we were somewhere between anderson, south carolina, and asheville, north carolina, when i found a neat site with lots of info that seemed legit and current.  there was a place that said something to the effect of "contact us - we love to hear from visitors", but another one that said "we are responding to emails from September 2011, so be patient".  needless to say, with it being December 2012, i didn't expect a response until around march 2014!

HOWEVER - right as we were checking into the hotel in asheville, an email came through.  i asked tommy if he knew the name "harold jones" and he said he didn't (i don't always open emails if i don't know the sender).  as it turns out - this was THE coach jones!  the site that i had "contacted" sent the email to him!  i.  was.  floored.

we e-mailed back and forth while we were in asheville and coach jones told me to call when we were heading back through near anderson.  y'all, he gave me his phone number as if we were just old friends!  yeah...we were a little speechless.

i did e-mail coach jones back and tell him that we would be coming back through on new year's day and i knew that was a busy day for many, so we completely understood if we didn't get to meet.  he agreed, but said that he still wanted us to call and hoped it would work out!

as we zig-zagged through the mountains between asheville and anderson, i decided to go ahead and call.  talking to him was like talking to my granddaddy.  and made me miss him more.  only i don't remember ever talking to granddaddy about how the bowl game went between Clemson and LSU.  but that's what coach jones and i talked about!

we pulled up to t.l. hanna and just waited out front under the rotunda area.  mary peyton just kept saying "i TOLD y'all we were going to meet coach jones and radio!  i TOLD you!"  i explained to her that only coach jones was coming and she just smiled...

it was drizzling rain and just "yucky" weather.  we saw a ford ranger turning in and heading our way.  no doubt it was coach jones.  but someone was in the passenger seat.  tommy and i just stared at each other.  i said "maybe mrs. jones decided to come with him!"

as the truck got closer and we could make out faces, tommy and i looked at each other in tears.  we WERE going to meet coach jones AND radio!  mary peyton MIGHT have piped up a "told you so" from back behind us...

radio jumped out of the truck and rushed straight up to us as though he had known us forever.  "Cwemson whooped dem boys! Said 'get back on dat bus!"  he was already hugging tommy and shaking his hand as he rehashed the game i already mentioned in his OWN excitement.

for nearly the next two hours, tommy and i would just look at each other wide eyed, surprised by the opportunity we had at our finger tips to hang out with and befriend not "characters" from a movie, but amazing people that God had allowed our paths to cross!

if you haven't seen the movie, Radio, i HIGHLY recommend seeing it.  i asked coach jones if the movie adaptation of the real story was pretty accurate.  he said that it was.  watching the movie after meeting radio and coach jones makes it much more personal, as i'm sure anyone would understand.

new year's 2013...a day THIS family will never forget! 

(below are some of my favorite pictures from our time...radio showing us the "movie" area of posters, etc, hanging in one of the halls; showing us former t.l. hanna players who have gone on to college careers; explaining things to tommy; and hanging out in radio's office with him and coach jones!)