When writing columns, I try to take something personal with the hope my experience, whatever it might be, is a story my readers can relate to and remember something from their life experience. I found out recently I was going to have to go through back surgery. I have a couple of places where I need a spinal fusion and some screws put in somewhere up and down my spine.

It won’t be my first time for a spinal fusion. In June of 1967, just after my sophomore year at Samuell High School in Dallas, I went into Baylor Hospital for a spinal fusion to correct a back problem.

I had been having back problems since the eighth grade, but continued to be active in football, basketball and baseball. My sophomore year, I was basically a fourth string quarterback for the Spartan sophomore, or B team. We didn’t have ninth grade in high school back then and the B team was actually what is today the JV team. I rarely got in any action, other than during the week when I got to quarterback what my coaches Arvel Smith and Pete Lawless called the “scout team.” We got to run our upcoming opponents’ plays against our starting defense.

I finally got in a game against the H. Grady Spruce Apaches (now Timberwolves) when we were out of danger of losing and got hit pretty hard after a pass. My back really hurt for days. After finally going to the doctor, it was found I had some sort of malfunction since birth barely holding part of my back together and taking the hit aggravated it further. The doctor felt I could make until the summer and let me play basketball. In a B team city championship game against Carter High School I faked underneath the bucket and a player came down on my neck and back. I was not able to play sports again.

Spinal fusions are different these days. They told me this time I will have a short hospital stay (two, maybe three days) and would be up and walking a day after surgery. In 1967, I was in Baylor Hospital for two weeks. I was transferred home in a hearse from the local funeral home and remained in bed until August right before school was to start. I spent nine weeks in bed flat on my back as I started healing. Once I was finally able to get out of bed, I had to wear a back brace for another six months.

Being 16 years old and flat on my back I did get a profound reality of what humility truly is from direct experience. Until that time, I did not have a clue what bedpan was, but believe me, I found out. It was a very humbling experience.

While in the hospital I had a great time. I listened to KLIF, the mighty 1190, every day and learned their song rotation by heart, the Doors “Light My Fire” played every hour along with “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane, “I’m A Believer” by the Monkees, “Little Bit of Soul” by Music Explosion and “The Beat Goes On” by Sonny and Cher. I even found a girlfriend. She was candy-stripe volunteer at the hospital who went to Woodrow Wilson High School, but she broke up with me before she ever saw me get to stand up.

My Dad went to a union meeting in Detroit, Michigan that summer, and while he was there, went to a Tiger game and got me baseball Hall of Famer Al Kaline’s autograph. Kaline even took the time to send me get well wishes in a telegram.

One of my very best friends, Michael Don Smith, came to see me every day and was even there to help me stand up for the first time in two months at my home. Other good buddies Bill Sanderson, Ronald A. Collins and two friends who have passed on, Terry Crocker and Mike Bobo, along with good friend Cindy Darr (Smith) came by regularly to sit with me and entertain.

My folks cleared out of their front bedroom and made it my recovery room. The front yard of our home became Dairy Queen South. It was great. They would roll me out to the front yard and I would visit with all my friends and some people I had never met before. There was even one fight which my Pops, Clent Tucker, had to be the bouncer.

It was a summer of reckoning for me. I had plenty of time to think, read and contemplate a lot of things, mostly my life without athletics or a girlfriend. I finally walked again in August of 1967 and was able to go back to school for my junior year. The back was never the same. I did get to play baseball a little in college, but back problems limited my abilities.

I also started reading the writings of Martin Luther King Jr. and paying more attention to what was happening in the world around me. It was also my initial time to read “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau.

This time will be different. I am 65 years old, overweight and not real happy about what needs to be done. The good thing is, I now have a wonderful wife, Lorna, and plenty of great friends and family. I even stay in touch with those old Grove buddies who came to see me back then. Our friendship has endured over five decades and more.

If you don’t see me around for a while, just know I’m in good hands and will be back as soon as I am able. This time, all the thinking and contemplating I need to do is about getting back to my job writing for you. I plan to be back in the writing saddle in the very near future.