Call yo' mama
You didn't have to be from Alabama to cheer for legendary football coach, Bear Bryant. By popular and professional consensus, Bryant was the greatest American college football coach of all time. He served as head coach for Alabama University for the final 24 years of his career.
The late Lewis Grizzard, humorist and sports writer for the Atlanta Constitution, told this true story about Bear. Grizzard was having dinner one night with a group of South Central Bell executives in Point Clear, Alabama. They began swapping stories about Bryant, then deceased.
A gentleman from South Central Bell told about hiring Bear Bryant to do a phone commercial for them. Now keep in mind that Bear Bryant's personality was that of a folksy, country, down-home, good-ole-boy. His line at the end of the commercial was "call yo' mama," as only Bear could say it. Departing from the written script, Bryant added a line of his own. He drawled, "call yo' mamma," and then with a reflective sigh added, . . ."I wish I could call mine."
The sentiment expressed in that added line resonated a common thread with all the listeners and proved to be an instant hit.
The CEO for the phone company told of receiving a call shortly after the commercial aired. A viewer called to thank him. "My husband and I were sitting watching television the other night when we saw the commercial for the first time. We were very moved when coach Bryant said, "I wish I could call mine."
"I got right up and called my mother." She added that she'd forget to call her sometimes and knew that her mother worried about her.
The caller went on to say that she told her husband that he ought to call his mother. He went straight to the phone and they must have talked for 45 minutes. "I've never known him to stay on the line with anybody for 45 minutes, much less with his mother." She confided to the phone executive how her husband talked about old times and told his mother how much he loved her.
The executive thanked the caller for sharing the account and told her it was really a heartwarming story . He started to hang up when the caller said, "Wait, you haven't heard all the story yet. Less than an hour after my husband hung up from talking to his mother, she died. He would have never had that conversation with his mother if it hadn't been for coach Bryant's commercial."
Well, dear readers, do you get the message? A week from tomorrow is Mother's Day. . So. . . call yo' mama. . . I sure wish I could.
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