The PBP Tribal Court asked me to give a historical presentation to a group from the Republic of Zambia and that is a long way from here, by anybody's estimation. They represented their Supreme Court. Zambi is located in Southern Africa for you geography buffs. I imagine that is one hot country. One, Matthew Zulu, asked me if I would go out of the country to give presentations. I said yeah, I will go to Topeka once in awhile. Our Royal Valley Drummers and Singers gave a dance performance and that is always good to watch.
The next day, we all loaded up our vehicles, all dressed up in our going-to-town clothes and went to witness my granddaughter, Tara, graduate from Haskell U in Lawrence, Kansas. The same town where the Jayhawks are located. We had to endure some long-winded speeches, gift-giving, long periods of name-dropping and a whole lot of back-slapping and I imagine the graduating class was sitting there wondering if it would ever end so they could make the walk they had waited so long for. Tara started out at KCK on a basketball scholarship but later transferred to Haskell. She wanted to be around her friends and did well there. I was glad to see her accomplish this milestone in her life. Tara was the first of our grandchildren, and they were my second-chance gift from God to get it right. Afterwards, we contributed to the local economy by going to eat at a local restaurant starving after all the drama of the graduation. I asked the waitress if she would call Bill Self and ask him if he was available for a meal with us. She laughed. My nephew William Gary Mitchell also graduated on this day. He's a good kid, too.
After a day of rest, if you call working in the yard all day, a day of rest, we geared up for our next family event - watching my grandchildren Hooty and Kek graduate from Royal Valley High School. Unlike the Haskell speech-a-thon, this was a fast moving event and just like that, it was over. I enjoyed watching my two grandchildren graduate. It wasn't easy at times. Hooty struggled with some health issues and Kek didn't apply herself at times but both did what they had to do to finish. It seemed like they were little kids not long ago running in and out of the house, so it is true that they grow up fast. We had a big meal after the graduation where many of our family and friends showed up. The highlight was a band hired by Hooty's dad. The sang to the group. I, too, enjoyed that. These graduations will always remain a great memory for me, not just for the event but what they accomplished. I have no regrets with my grandchildren, except they took a lot of my disposable income away from me, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Oh, what was the basketball news, you might ask. KU pulled off the biggest recruiting coup of the year by signing Andrew Wiggins, a guy everybody wanted. Now KU will be knocking at the Final Four door again. Bill Self is one great recruiter, hence the term "in bill, we trust." They later picked up a guy from Memphis and along with the rest of the class this will be keep KU in the limelight for a good long while. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.
