Charles Apple

I thought I’d take a quick moment to offer Happy VizEds birthday wishes to my dad, Arthur Apple. He turns 65 today.

My dad takes a nap with one of his dogs. In the
driveway. Hey, what do you expect? It’s Georgia.
—

Dad has always been very, very supportive of me and my journalism career. He enjoys seeing the graphics and pages I’ve written and designed. And now that he’s retired, he actually has time to read my blog.

Sometimes.

A graduate of Clemson University, dad spent his career as a manager in the textiles industry. He lives with his very, very patient wife, Nora, in Thomson, Ga., just west of Augusta.

In fact, this year is the first in a while that he didn’t pick up a temporary spring job as a night security guard for the Augusta National golf course.

One of the interesting things he’s learned: Just a few days before the world-famous Masters Golf Tournament begins, the club hires a professional snake wrangler to remove all the unwanted reptiles from Rae’s Creek and the other famous water hazards along the course.

If you ever meet my dad, get him to tell you about the time he had a run-in with Brent Musburger while he was guarding the press tent.

Dad was guarding the tent, I mean. Musburger wasn’t.

Dad was a superb football player in high school. In fact, his B-team coach at Anderson Boys’ High in Anderson, S.C., was Harold Jones, who was portrayed by Ed Harris in the movie Radio.

The real coach Harold Jones
with James “Radio” Kennedy.
—

The movie was set in Anderson — in the foothills of South Carolina — but most of it was filmed in Walterboro, S.C., down in the low country. The football scenes, Dad tells me, were, in fact, shot on the current field of Anderson’s McCants Middle School. Which was Dad’s home field back in the late 50s/early 60s.

Dad has three kids. I’m the oldest at 45. My sister, Caroline, is an office manager for a medical firm in Greenwood, S.C. She’s an unspecified number of years younger than I am.

The baby, Artie — who’s 35 — works for CSX Railroad. He lives in Martinez, Ga., with his wife and two daughters.

My dad loves to read. He also enjoys watching James Bond movies. He likes the early Sean Connery ones best.

And, naturally, he’s a big Clemson football fan. This past bowl season was particularly painful: Nora is an Auburn fan. And Auburn edged past Clemson 23-20 in overtime in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

Dad shares a birthday with sports greats Willie Stargell and Shaquille O’Neal, actors Tom Arnold and Lou Costello, director Rob Reiner, former Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan.

In addition, today is the birthday of Michaelangelo Buonarroti, the guy who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. If Michaelangelo were still alive today, he’d be 533 years old. Just slightly older than my dad.

Plus, today is National Frozen Food Day. Seriously.

Thanks for all the support over the years, Dad. Happy 65th birthday!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 8:32 am and is filed under Charles Apple, Happy birthday, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.