THE GLORIOUS NFL.....

 Once again we enjoy the finality of yet another great season. The winners who will bask in the sunlight of their glory, while the losers who had made their way through the ranks will return only to work upon, how and why they lost. Recollect them selves and ponder on what it will take to be the VICTOR LUDORUM, next year.

I well remember my first encounter with American football going with my father as an invited guest of General Dynamics, to watch a game at Amon Carter football field in Fort Worth. As an Englishman, it took me most of the game to even understand what was actually happening. Two teams, one comes on, and another goes off? Most peculiar? TCU was playing the Arkansas Razorbacks, and it was clear the overwhelming superiority of the Razorbacks in 1967 was far in excess of the ‘Horned Frogs.’ A very different experience to the game of Rugby, which I had played in my school years. The equipment worn by the players, gave one the impression this was a battlefield, and don’t be out there unless you know exactly what you’re doing!

In any event I became extremely intrigued with the sport. I watched and attended many games to learn and ask questions to my good friends, the Perkins family, so that I could become the ardent admirer of the sport, that I am today.

The game that inspired me the most was a match played at Lambeau Stadium on December 31st 1967. A game in which the Dallas Cowboys with only minutes to go had the game almost wrapped up at 17-14. The conditions were deplorable, players sliding about in the snow in sub zeros temperatures. After arriving in Dallas on June 9th of that year I could hardly believe the change in seasons between, summer and winter. Although I had put up with the damp and rainy winters of southern England growing up, these temperature variations were something to behold! Then in the last moments of the game Green Bay pulled out a touch down to put the score to 21-17 Green Bay. I was so mad that I got up and stomped around the room for at least ten minutes, and grabbed another beer to get over my disbelief. No wonder it became known as the ‘Ice Bowl’, playing against the great coach Vince Lombardi. I always remember his great saying, ‘I never lost a game, I just ran out of time!’ It was then I knew I was truly hooked.

Yes, you can say it again, ‘Is not over, ‘til it’s over!’ What a fantastic game. From that moment on, I have become a tremendous fan.

I so enjoyed the Landry years, his class and demeanor added to the Dallas Cowboys that extra dignity that has made them become ‘America’s team’. Revered and watched by many throughout the world especially the Brits, like myself. The great years of the 70’s, with the Doomsday Defense, of Bob Lilly, Ed ‘Too Tall’ Jones, Harvey Martin, Randy White and Leroy Jordan. The Offence, with its famous shotgun offence of Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Mel Renfro, Drew Pearson, Billy Joe Dupree, Walt Garrison, and the list goes on.

Another team that I have been a great fan of is the ‘San Francisco 49er’s, The greatest come back quarter back ever, Joe Montana, his cool countenance worked well with the modest, but determined stewardship of coach Bill Walsh, and as for Gerry Rice, and Dwight Clark what game changers! Another great Texan, Terry Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers, also had their moments of poetry, with two great wide receivers, Lynn Swan and John Stallworth.

I searched for teams that possessed finesse. Yes, a team needs power, big players, force it’s all part of the game, or is it? Give me  fast mid sized players, who are agile and tackle low, are fit beyond belief, and I believe with a well thought out strategy you will have an unbeatable force. Okay, yes may be one or two big boys to intimidate the opposition, but to me its all about speed of execution. High tackling is necessary on occasion, but the coaches we had in Rugby would flick us with steel centered rubber flip sticks, because tackling high was considered being a ‘sissy’! The same for the Offence, one two, move the ball in the air or on the ground, when the defense doesn’t know what the offence is going to do, you win games. Anyway what do I know? Just part of the strategies we had as Rugby players.

I was proud to have my son go to TCU and pass out honorably. The ‘Horned Frogs,’ quite a different team today!

Thank you America, football has been one of the great sports to enjoy on this side of the ocean, and has gained another proud and loyal follower in both college and pro football.

Here’s looking forward to many more great and talented players, and another season!

New Years Resolution

Each year we are faced with the challenging opportunity of making our list of resolutions! What is it we would truly like to improve about ourselves? What qualities are going to help us succeed with our goals and aspirations? For those seeking new and higher places of attainment within our circle of life, is our goal primarily material, or is there room for being a more spiritually aware and aligned person?

We must be careful to set our boundaries within realistic objectives. t Too many resolutions, we may become overwhelmed and not fulfill our goal. So let us go easy on ourselves, and prioritize. The first and most important question we should start with, is this:

1.   Are we satisfied with the direction we are headed, or do we need a new recipe for change in our life? Remember if our house is built on a strong foundation, then the likelihood of success with our plans is more achievable.

2.   To do this we must take a good look at ourselves, not change who we are, after all, we are what God made us to be, but we can improve on who we are, to become that special person God intended us to be!

3.   Yes, most of us need more. Money, and all those items that may give us a better way of life, is important, but be careful they may not bring happiness. If you are not doing what makes you happy, chances are, no one else around you is going to be happy either.

So the first rule for yourself, take care of your own needs. Then you will be in a better position, to tend to the needs of others, such as family and so on.

Remember our planet was built in six days, and God rested on the seventh. Whether that was six million years or some other form of time, the fraction clearly expresses to us a lot about our creator? To me, is that out of the seven days, our God worked six. So what does this tell us? God was a doer, a creator and over 85% of the time he was out there making things happen. Yes he took time to reflect, but the time for philosophizing is extremely small in comparison to the sweat and hard work it takes to be successful. We have an innate consciousness as to what is expected from us, and yes it’s good to take time to reflect. But in the end it’s not going to happen by thinking and talking. It’s going to happen by DOING!

At night I look up and marvel at the stars, the creations before our eyes and the wonder that this universe brings to us. If it took seven days to create this planet, then the creator has not been idle, I can only wonder at such magnificence to behold. To think we are still in an expanding universe.

Our ‘health is our wealth,’ and as the old saying goes hard work never killed anyone, but worry and stress will.

The study of our universe since my young days has always been a hobby. I’ve often laid awake at night and asked the question as a young child, what do we all do when we pass on? It’s hard for me to believe that we live in this higher existence of love and endless sunshine. As the years have pressed on I have come to the conclusion through thought and prayer, that our journey here is only one to prepare us for the greater journey of helping our creator in this unbelievable part of the universe. To look about us and see all that has been created and how little so many of us appreciate what we have, concerns me. It is my hope and wish that more of us think this way, and open our hearts and minds to the spectacular journey ahead of us.

For me science and spirituality are one, it is in their separation that conflicting debate arises. A God like the one we have, could not have accomplished so much for all of us, without the unification of all these aspects within our world. For it is said, “That I am the Alpha and the Omega, and all that has been done and is, comes from me”! As I understand these words, we in our attempt to learn, make mistakes. The endless love, compassion and forgiveness that God allows us, is in order to learn, it is this that makes us only value his work with more depth and understanding.

So God bless you all on your journey of life, and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.   

David Francis

THANKSGIVING

As a Brit ‘Thanksgiving’ was a new experience for me as I well learned on my first invitation to my dear friends ‘The Perkins family’.

with the Perkins family at my birthday bash

It was Christmas 1967 and I must say I had no idea how celebrated this time of year was. The only reference that I had been given about this event was that the early settlers all left from Great Britain sometime in the 1600’s from a pub in Boston, for those of you who don’t know where Boston Lincolnshire is, it is on the middle to North east side of the English coast off the North Sea. These adventurous people got on a boat, hoping to reach the new land of the Americas and ended up at another pub on the other side of southwest side of England at a place called Plymouth, in the county of Devonshire. As the crew were obviously inebriated and having never been to this region before, they naturally assumed that they had reach a different land. It was then that the guys in the pub at Plymouth decided to take the boat on to the new land, hence the famous Plymouth Rock that is now referred to!

Where these crazy stories come from, old folklore, I don’t know? I've always found an element of truth in these stories, but have yet to find anything close to establishing the fact, other than that the people telling the story have had one over the top, as well as those hearing the illustrious tale.

Anyway, the fact remains that this is a magnificent way to celebrate the ‘founding fathers’, and a time where people travel great distances to be with their relatives and catch on all the latest news. I am always impressed that people take the time to make the journey to be with the people, they love, on such a vast continent. In England we celebrate Christmas in a similar way, but the distances can’t ever be compared. 

my 3 children

Not to say that Christmas is not important as well in the States, but there is something very special about this time of year, so thank you America I enjoy be a part of ‘Thanksgiving’, and as a U.S. citizen wholeheartedly celebrate the season with my family,my grandchildren and y’all !!!    

my daughter with her mother and my sister

4 of my grandchildren

me and my brother

my son and his family

David 

My Grandfather ..........

Victor Cook was born in 1884, the second son to a family of six, and to my Great Grandfather Leo Cook, who was a famous tailor to Queen Victoria, King Edward the Vll and many of the aristocracy of that period. He also tailored the uniforms for the British troops fighting the, ‘Boer War’ of the 1890’s, in South Africa.

My Grandfather not being the eldest, started his own business in 1917, and having developed his skills, to cut cloth for suits, transferred these abilities to the early aircraft of the day, which used material to fly planes.  In 1917 he started his own business, Hercules Engineering, in the same year my father, Francis Cook, was born.

He turned the back yard of his East London home into a factory, and was soon on his way to becoming a, ‘sort after’, master of his trade. In 1929, the banks with the onslaught of the ‘Great Depression’, failed and his hard earned savings were lost. Through difficult times he struggled, eventually taking out all of his six children, from school. It was the end on the 1930’s, and they would all have to contribute by working in his fast growing factory. This was possible to do in those days. Soon after he was hit with the traumatic loss of his beloved wife. So now in his fifties, six children and a growing business, he was delivered the most challenging fight of his life. On the edge of World War ll, after recovering from a failed bank, he was yet again hit with an insurmountable task.

Victor, took the challenge with a courage few could imagine. He trained the two eldest daughters to do all the administration in the office, and his four sons in all the practices necessary to work in his machine shop. After dinner each night, he would teach them on the blackboard at the end of the dining room table. For example, how necessary it was to learn ‘PYE’, in order to cut threads to shape material, and so much more.

His method of teaching was invaluable. In other words, do we teach a baby to speak ‘English’ with a grammar book? No we let them learn by ear and then add the grammar afterwards. More note, should be taken from this manner of teaching. His children’s accomplishments are a testimony to this. In other words, learning the practical, before applying the technical aspects of much of what we learn today. As an educated man himself, he was able to teach them about world affairs, and what England was about to encounter, with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the increasing expansion of Germany.

As a result of my Grandfathers efforts, he has helped to make our family’s credibility within the financial community, stand head and shoulders above us all. His honorable behavior in paying off all of his creditors, when the banks failed, gave my family a platform of trust and goodwill towards our future endeavors that has lasted through the generations.

In addition he was able to not only build a company, but leave a lasting legacy to all his children. His Eldest daughter, my aunt, started and built her own business, called Wilment Engineering. She became the first woman President, of the mechanical engineering institute in England. My father and his brothers all started their own businesses, and the eldest Lawrence took over my Grand- father’s business in1959, having passed on at the age of seventy five.

I always felt sad for my Grandfather, because after all the hard work and financial success he created for himself, and his dedication to his family, he had materially everything in the world anyone could imagine. Yet I don’t think he ever got over the loss of his wife. He lived in his huge mansion called Trowlocks, alone. I used to ride with my bike as a child through the large wrought iron gates to the main entrance of his home, his property extended over seven acres to the edge of the river Thames. I spent all the time I could with him, he would take me to his factories as a young child and have me learn the intricacies of what would one day become my trade. I went with his truck drivers to make deliveries to learn our customers and will never, ever forget those most precious early years.

I remember his 1951, Buick sedan, with its huge front grill, shining in brilliant chrome, and the car body in metallic burgundy. He would stop by to pick me up, and I felt like a little Lord being chauffeured to the factory in his car. American cars were rare at the end of the war. The American forces had brought them over during the war effort. It was my dream as a child to have an American car, which to my way of thinking was so much more appealing than our frumpy little English cars. Large admittedly, but I enjoyed all the people looking and pointing as we drove by. A young kid’s dream!

His many comments and wise words of wisdom ring in my ears today.

1. ‘Please God, help me to keep my mouth shut!’
2. ‘Don’t read too many books before learning the art of writing, in this way, you can keep your own individual opinions that God has given you. Then you will be prepared to add to them.’
3. ‘Man proposes, and God disposes! You may not receive what you’ve prayed for, but it will be the best outcome, for the journey of your life.’
4. ‘Remember, God’s socialism.’ You may receive a gift one way, but there is always and equalizing force and balance in another way, because to whom much is given, much is expected.

These are just a few of the many words of wisdom I received as a young man, and have now grown to know the importance they have played in the role of my own life.

My own Father, Francis Cook continued on beyond the boundaries of my Grandfather, as I too have sought to do, in the journey of my own life. Thanks to his courageous journey so many have benefited.

GUYS,CARS & FRIENDS FOR LIFE..........

In Ft. Worth, I had a rather well-to-do young friend from England in 1969, David Cook - David Francis.

He ordered himself a new 1969 Jaguar E-Type.
His father owned a large aircraft parts manufacturing company and my friend ran it; when he went back to England for a 2 week visit in 1969, he left his brand new Jaguar with me, a 21 year old car freak... a dream come true, right? 

I got stopped driving that car 90 miles per hour in a 30 MPH zone, along the Rockwood Park area in Ft. Worth... there was no traffic around, and I didn't consider it a dangerous act, but the Ft. Worth cop who stopped me, sure did. He ran the plates and they came back to David F. Cook, and then he ran my DL and found out I had unpaid speeding tickets with warrants.

The car was impounded and I was hauled to the slammer in lieu of several hundred dollars in warrant fines. I managed to bail out after a couple of hours, and David had to get his car from the pound when he came back home to Texas. He wasn't very happy, but somehow our friendship has survived a half century. David is still a car guy; he sold the company he owned and now he operates his perfect "retirement" plaything... Eagles Canyon Raceway near Decatur, Texas. David drives his own Ferrari on his own paved speedway winding over several hundred acres of rolling North Texas hills. (He also has a few other cars including a fully tricked out Porsche race car... lucky guy, huh!)

The view in the picture is from the driver's seat of my own '69 E-Type, another car that was on my bucket list for a long time after that early morning happy ride through Rockwood Park at 90 MPH one Saturday in 1969 in David Cook's Jag.

I found this car in Florida; it was property of the original owner, a doctor who had bought it new "right out of medical school" and had lovingly kept it until he got too stiff in the knees with Arthritis to drive a stick shift.

I bought it on the spot in West Palm Beach and enjoyed the ride back to Texas, top down, radar detector on dashboard, winding through the whole Southern Gulf Coast for a couple of days of top-down, carefree driving.

The E-Type is legendary for cornering and grand touring. Some people think it's the most beautiful sports-car body ever designed. The 4.2 Litre inline 6 cylinder engine with twin SU carbs develops 275 HP, with a top speed of 142. This is the type car that swept victories in numerous international races and even took top honors in the original Canonball Run from New York to Los Angeles back in the early 70's with Hal Needham and friends.

As I wind down my collection of cars, this E-Type will be among the last to go. My friendship with David however,will last forever.

My knees,thank the Lord, still work!

Kent Perkins

October 27, 1977

"WHERE ANGELS DARE"

Angels sing as they bring,

A package to unwrap.

No finer thing,can they bring.

So put it in your lap.

Untie the blue-red ribbon.

And lay the white cloth down.

Now look at what lies hidden,

inside the box dace down.

Can you see the light

that emanates so bright?

This planet comes from Heaven,

just like the number seven.

Pull it from the box,

and set it on a rock.

For this is the beginning

of your greatest shock!

Now take another look,

for this will write your book.

About a plan to be

that man will live to see.

Can you see it now?

It's not far away.

Remember you took a vow,

for here you are to stay.

-----------

David Francis

"Inspirations for writing 'The Rise to Power' - Book 1 - in The Legacy Series"

For years I've known that a book was inside me. When I finally set about writing it, the process felt natural. I wrote for days and days on end - and then for months.
My inspiration for Book 1 the Rise to Power was life itself. I wanted to challenge of integrating the pragmatism of everyday life with the unseen world beyond. The world we cannot see has a structure. For example; what is a miracle? It's something that happens; yet we cannot quantify it. We can't explain it in the practical, real world. However, if we were able to transport ourselves into the future,say two thousand years ahead, would it be just an everyday event?
It is my hope that this book-and the entire 'Legacy series'- provokes you, the reader, to dig more deeply into your everyday lives-to look at what lies beyond our reach. This first book is an all-encompassing story of business, love affairs, human relationships, intrigue, an expression of human nature, and all our facets.
From the past I have brought us to the present.
Our history may not be as it appears or has been written. I have attempted to make the reader see things from a different perspective through this transcending of an intense story.
I would like the reader to "suspend disbelief",let go and enjoy the possibility that this could have been a reality in the civilization preceding us. So open your minds and know that this may be possible for all of us one day.
I wish all my readers to have a great experience and know there's more to come! 
Happy reading to you all, and know I'm always available to answer any and all of your questions!!

David Francis

www.davidfranciscook.com