What a Year itWas

Oct 26

In September of 2020, my sons hosted the first Timothy E. Nettles Memorial Invitational Golf Tournament in memory of their father and my late husband. Six years later, in September 2026, we hosted our seventh tournament, a two-day Pro-Am golf tournament. About 200 people gathered for dinner and, I asked them to go back in time with me, and think about things that were happening in the year 1974, when Tim graduated from high school.

Here are just a few events we pondered:

On Jan 2, 1974, President Richard Nixon signed the national speed limit law, making 55 MPH the speed limit on U. S. highways.

Tim’s car in high school had been a blue Duster, which gave him the speed and coolness factor he wanted as a teenager. But gas prices had climbed to 53 cents per gallon (about $3.50 per gallon in today’s dollars), and the gas shortage in our country created rationing and long lines at gas stations pumps.

So, when he began commuting to college, he traded the Duster in for a more economical Volkswagen Beetle. Suffice to say he was able to stay at or under that legal speed limit. The Duster was cool, but the Volkswagen was definitely more sensible. And if nothing else, Tim Nettles was sensible. (After all, he eventually married me, which I always told him shows some very good sense.)

As the Rascal Flatts song goes, “Life is a Highway.”

But life can also be viewed as a puzzle. A man named Erno Rubik from Budapest, Hungary, said, “The problems of puzzles are very near the problems of life” (Rubik, 2020, p. 104). One such puzzle is the Rubik’s cube, which he invented May 19, 1974.

My grandson Nick just bought one at the toy store a few weeks ago, so the Rubik’s cube has stuck around a while. I asked Nick the other day if he had solved his Rubik’s cube puzzle. He explained, in great detail, how he and his sisters had shifted the puzzle this way and that way, and how his older sister Charlotte had accidentally removed one of the tiles in the cube, rendering it inoperable. His mother, Sarah, tried to fix it and worked with it several times, but couldn’t get it to complete.

“So,” Nick said, “Mom threw it in the trash.”

Well, yes, life is often about solving puzzles.

And it’s also about getting rid of things you just cannot control. I don’t recall Tim Nettles trying to solve the Rubik’s cube, but I do think he would agree with Sarah’s solution.

Author and motivational speaker Robin Sharma said, “Once every seven days, do something that frightens you. Every time we do something we resist and is frightening, we actually grow in our power” (2008, p. 80).

And here’s something frightening --- and powerful --- that happened that year:

On August 7, 1974, a man named Philippe Petit walked on a tightrope that was stretched between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. It’s a fascinating event and is described in one of my favorite children’s books, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, by Mordicai Gerstein (2007). I enjoy sharing that book with my grandchildren because it makes me smile to think that Mr. Gerstein has said that he wrote the book to commemorate something positive about the Twin Towers. Since September 11, 2001, our collective memories of these buildings are painful, but Mr. Gerstein’s book makes people wonder, in awe, of an unbelievable human feat that most would be too frightened to even think about trying.

Yes, 1974 was, indeed, a busy year. It was a good one for the late Dolly Parton. Two of her most beloved country music songs, “Jolene” and “I will Always Love You” reached to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart that year.

Dolly once said, “I’ve always tried to never step on anybody to get where I am. I’ve had to walk around a few people, jump over a few of ‘em now and then. But I think you’re a true success when you’ve seen your dreams come true and you can take pride in how you did it, and … respect and appreciate the people that helped you get there” (Lowe, 2026).

Likewise, more than anything, Tim Nettles appreciated and respected the people who helped him become successful. He never forgot where he came from, which was the small town of New Florence, Pennsylvania, just a few miles from Laurel Valley Golf Club, where we host a junior golf tournament, called The Junior.

In that tournament, we invite about 60 young student golfers to compete in a golf tournament that can help them get recognized by collegiate coaches and help pave the way to a future that involves golf. These young people are invited to play based on their golf score, but also on their leadership skills, community involvement, and commitment to faith.

We encourage our student athletes in The Junior to realize the power of gratitude, and to take pride in who they are and what they do, even when they’re not playing golf --- especially when they’re not playing golf. These are some of the same lessons I shared with young golfers in my earlier reflection, What Rhymes with “Lead”?

So, last month, on September 21, at least half the people in that room did not know Tim, including two of his grandchildren (and one soon to be born). But I’m so grateful for the people who, over the past seven years, have given us not only their time and resources, but perhaps more importantly, their open arms and ears as we talk about the person Tim Nettles was and the things he stood for. It’s humbling to realize that they’ve given up two days of their lives to play in a Pro-Am golf tournament or come to the event to watch others play --- in crappy weather, too! It was a heartwarming tribute to a good man they didn’t know.

I really wish they had known him, because he would have had so much fun meeting everyone, talking with them, and watching them play golf, as he did so many times for our sons.

And he would’ve told them that the Duster was a great date car, which he gave up for a more sensible Volkswagen. Sometimes --- again, as I often told him --- you just have to make smart choices.