by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remembering Chuck Norris and his influence on one American family.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chuck Norris died a few days ago at age 86. To some, Mr. Norris was an American hero of the last half century. To some, Mr. Norris was a caricature of something funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Norris affected my family in ways that bring fond memories. He starred in a couple (more than that) movies in the late 1970s. I was in college. My younger brother was in high school. My younger brother loved martial arts and studied and practiced them achieving a black belt in something or other. That comment shows my little interest in the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My younger brother had to see the Chuck Norris movies. Okay, so we piled into my little car and drove the ten miles to Hammond, Louisiana to see them. I felt they were crummy movies. He felt they were significant milestones in Hollywood. Regardless, attending those movies together meant something to our relationship for the rest of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast forward to the 1990s and Mr. Norris starred in Walker, Texas Ranger. Okay, it ran nine seasons, so it was a success. Critics didn’t like it…so much for critics. I lived in Lagos, Nigeria with my wife and kids. One night a week, my wife and I would watch an episode on Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. It was a small highlight of the week to see Norris deservedly kick the bad guys and nurture a budding romance. My wife and I enjoyed it. We still talk about it now and then. It was part of our relationship during an otherwise odd part of our marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we will miss Mr. Norris. In these and other ways, he played a role in my family. That was something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Dwayne Phillips Remembering Chuck Norris and his influence on one American family. Chuck Norris died a few days ago at age 86. To some, Mr. Norris was an American hero of the last half century. To some, Mr. Norris was a caricature of something funny. Mr. Norris affected my family in ways that bring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[177],"class_list":["post-4588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4589,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}