John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Firing Line

An unsuspected gift from fate that impressed a son and grandson. And surprised William F Buckley Jr .

You know the old Groucho Marx joke, “I’d never want to belong to any club that would have me for a member.”

I think most of us feel that way about our families–at least in the sense that we don’t believe they are all that special. And that’s a good thing–mostly. We see them as they are–their faults and foibles, their best and worst and most ordinary.

(I remember meeting Ed Prichard’s wife Lucy shortly after Prich had died. I was awed by Ed Prichard and peppered Lucy with eager questions about her husband’s greatness. Until she resignedly said, “I knew him warts and all.”)

JYB Sr., JYB Jr. and JYB III circa 1972

Other people, by contrast, are seen as they’d like for us to see them. And that’s an unfair comparison–but it’s the best our brains can do.

This past weekend when I was alone with my son and we were talking about Big John (my father; his grandfather), Johnny was astounded to hear Big John was once a guest on Firing Line, the uber-erudite political talk show hosted by the eloquent sesquipedalian William F Buckley Jr.

(I’ve never gotten to use that word before –meaning a person who uses big words—-and not about to pass it up now!)

I remember when I heard about this show and had the same reaction as Johnny, namely: “I know Big John is smart and has a lot of common sense but I doubt he can hold his own on with William F Buckley.” Few can.

But it didn’t matter anyway because as I explained to Johnny I had tried for about 25 years to get a video or transcript from the 1981 show and had never been successful.

Until we got to our hotel room and found to our amazement it was available for free online.

And then found to our astonishment, that the plain spoken, quick witted family member of ours known more for horse sense than book sense, went toe-to-toe with Mr Buckley and…..Well, put it this way… For those watching who just saw Gov Brown for how he wanted to be seen (and weren’t biased family members), he held his own.

And even the two fellas who knew better than to think such nonsense had to admit they were awfully proud.

Here’s the transcript (click this link). I doubt anyone will be interested but you never know…. It just might inspire you to realize you are much more capable than you think. We all probably are….We just don’t get he chance to prove it often enough.