No false bravado, and congrats Mr. Forsha

By Rory Ryan
The Highland County Press

You won't see (or hear) me whistling past the graveyard. No false bravado here.

For background, "whistling past the graveyard" is an attempt to appear calm while actually feeling nervous or afraid. As I've heard the explanation, many folks used to believed cemeteries were full of ghosts, especially at night. Years ago, a passerby on foot or horseback would whistle loudly while walking past a graveyard at night to keep up his courage and pretend he was not scared.

This phrase had me thinking about the proper etiquette and common courtesy when one is driving and encounters a funeral procession. When I was a newspaper publisher in Adams County a quarter of a century ago, coworker Caleb Grooms shared a story about Adams County Common Pleas Court Judge Brett M. Spencer.

The Honorable Judge Spencer was a practicing attorney back then and our next-door neighbor at Cross and Mulberry Streets in West Union. Caleb told me that during a recent funeral procession, Brett parked his truck (actually, I think he may have been on a tractor), got out (or down), removed his hat, placed it over his heart and bowed his head. That was most respectful, in my opinion.

It has been my practice – when a funeral procession approaches – to pull over to the right side of the road and stop. I turn on my hazard lights to warn oncoming motorists, and remove my hat and place it over my heart with my head down. Occasionally, an oncoming motorist will pass me. I like to think that they also whistle past graveyards.

My much better half and I were discussing some of this Saturday on our way to Rocky Fork Lake.

She asked me if I'd heard the old superstition about counting the cars in a funeral procession being bad luck.

I replied that as I remembered it, if you counted the cars, you were counting down the days until your own death. I added that for my own funeral, there most likely will be just one car: the hearse.

"Oh, no, there would be at least two cars," Pam insisted. "I would follow the hearse. The cemetery is on the way home."

As Marty and Joe used to ask, "ain't love grand?"

* * *

Congrats and thanks, Mr. Forsha

HCP sports editor Stephen Forsha will soon cover his 3,000th high school, college or professional sporting event for our readers.

As one of our Greenfield readers (thanks, George) posted to a recent column: "Thank you Stephen for everything you have done for student-athletes in our county and beyond over the years. You are a talented writer who has never once thrown a player, coach or official under the bus. Well done."

I couldn't agree more. Stephen has always kept his reporting as positive as possible, realizing that his stories and photos often become scrapbooks that are saved and cherished for years to come.

I cannot recall a single time when Stephen blamed a game loss on a single player, coach, ref or umpire.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Blankenship used to remind me when I was a sports editor almost 40 years ago that our reporting and game coverage was about the student-athletes, not about focusing on any missed free throw, throwing error or dropped pass.

Former Hillsboro Indians football coach and AD Jim Horne always gave me the same advice back then: "Keep it positive." In a preseason column one year, I predicted Coach Horne's Indians would go 9-1. Jim was not impressed, and he proved me wrong. His team went 10-0.

Today, Stephen is covering the football Indians, who are coached by Jim's son, Nathan Horne. As Stephen wrote in his Aug. 1 column: Where does the time go?

Thanks, Stephen, for 20 years – and counting – of outstanding sports reporting. You are the best in the business. And good luck to all of today's young student-athletes.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press, Highland County's only locally owned and operated newspaper.