Sunday Night With John: Scotty Doesn't Know

his blog is dedicated to one of my best friends, Scott Smith. Why dedicate a blog to him? Because Scotty is a friend in the true nature of the word. The word, "friend" is not what it once was. Nowdays, it's something lesser. It has lost its meaning, been devalued. "Friend", in our culture, has become a placeholder for the word "acquaintance". A true friend is not a "friend" on Facebook. A true friend is someone you can depend on, someone who will be there, someone who cares about you and the things you care about. Scott is a friend you can always depend on. Scotty burns calories being a friend.

Scotty and I met through a cowbell, yep, a cowbell. We attended the same college, but had never met. At one soccer game, I showed up with some rowdy friends prepared to support the home team. One of my friends brought a drumstick and a cowbell to be extra annoying. Scotty was there and started to talk with our group. As the game wore on, he joined in on our favorite taunt to opposing teams. Every time the ref blew the whistle for a foul on them, we would scream, “No One Likes a Cheater”. A friendship was born and Scotty and I began to attend our games in costumes.  We convinced our school's athletic director to allow us to bring a couch in to sit on during a basketball game.  I was in a band at the time. Soon, there was Scotty, showing up early to set up for shows and staying late to help us tear down. We even learned the song, "Scottie Doesn't Know," from the movie, "Euro Trip", in his honor. Hence, Scotty’s name changed from Scott Smith, to "Scotty Doesn’t Know", to finally, for brevity's sake, "Scotty Don’t". 

Tonight, I’m in Des Moines, Iowa, sitting in a restaurant/bar watching the World Series, even though baseball is a sport I care very little about. As I half heartedly watch the game, I'm in the middle of listening to Scotty tell a story. He goes on about his last business trip to a suburb of Phoenix and how he ran into an old Minnesota Twins ballplayer. As usual, his story goes on for five minutes too long. That's the only drawback of being Scotty's friend. He tells funny, amazing, and interesting stories that last slightly longer than they should.

There is a bonus for watching a World Series pitting the Chicago Cubs against the Cleveland Indians. It’s that the four friends I’m with (and especially Scotty) are experts at quoting movies. Scotty and I have attempted to have five-minute conversations using only movie quotes. The Cubs' game gives us the opportunity to quote lines from baseball-themed movies from our past. The Cubs evoke a line such as, "Pitcher's got a big butt", from the classic "Rookie of the Year" movie.  The Indians give us the classic, “They don’t call him the best color man in the business for nothing folks”, from the movie, "Major League".

When I first began public speaking, there was Scotty, sticking his reputation out for me to give me one of my first gigs. I once called the man two weeks before I was going to take a road trip to New Orleans for New Years'. He not only came along, but figured out a way to convince his girlfriend (now his wife), to join us. Two trips later, we had crossed San Antonio and Nashville off our list. There was the day I got to be a part of his wedding as a groomsman, and he would have been one of my groomsman if my wife and I had decided to have wedding attendants. Over the years, Scotty has always gone one step too far, committed what most would say is just a little too much energy to the cause.  But, it’s that trait that endears Scotty to me -- the full commitment, the complete lack of care about what the outside world will think of us and our weird rituals. The man used a $250 dollar gift card to buy costumes and props for classy camping one year. When I had the idea for an outdoor living room weekend,  Scotty made it 25% crazier by helping create the outdoor living room Olympics. The man makes every idea 15% better with a costume, a t-shirt, or a ski-ball machine. He happens to have one in his basement and has won the Des Moines Ski-Ball League three or four times in a row.

So, back to my first question, why dedicate a blog to my good friend Scotty? His personalized license plates, “Scotty Don't”,  show he completely has embraced who he is as a person. However, I do not think he understands the impact his life has on me, has on other people. We need more examples of people being unafraid to allow their true, weird, dorky, fun colors to come flying through. Scott has been my example for 12 years of how to live and not care what others think of you while you are having a good time. Scott has repeatedly shown how having an idea, believing in it, and taking it just a little further, creates better and much funnier memories.  To fully understand what Scotty means to me and my group of friends, is to understand that, when we call him "Scotty Don’t", what we are really saying is, Scotty doesn’t know the world needs more people like him. Maybe I will tell him that today if he ever wraps up his latest story about some small town in Eastern Montana and the local he met who has five dogs, one eye, and makes beer out of an old dumpster.  

If you want to know more about my friendship with Scotty check out the blog, John and Scotty’s 9 dos and don’ts for life. http://jpderryberry.com/blog/dosanddonts

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