James Brewer, Jim Brewer, I think I remember him best as Jimmy Brewer….
Knew Jimmy Brewer all the way back to the old Guilford Elementary School on College Road, from the old Guilford College Community…”Guilford Elementary School, the place we go each day, we enjoy it all the time, in both work and play…Through her halls pass many students with their heads held high, children who have gained their knowledge spreading far and wide”….
That was a good school, and Jimmy Brewer was a good student…He was everything that was right, and he worked hard in his studies, and he loved basketball…I was in the Cub Scouts with Jimmy Brewer, and we used to meet with our Scout Troop, either Pack 109 or 174, and our meeting place was at the New Garden Friends Meeting/New Garden Friends Church….And I think the Brewer Family were members of that church…Jimmy Brewer’s mom Martha, used to help out with the Scouts, maybe one of the Den Mothers as they called them…
Jimmy Brewer was a good student, a good scout, and good at just about everything he did…He came from such a good family…Doctor’s family, and the family did have money, but they didn’t flaunt it…They were hard-working people just like everybody else down in the Old Oak Ridge Road neighborhood of the 1960’s and 1970’s…The Brewers with Doctor James Brewer, his wife Martha Brewer, their sons Gordon and Jimmy Brewer, and their daughters Cynthia and Diane Brewer….
The Brewer Family and Doctor James Brewer were a God-Send to the Guilford Community…Jimmy Brewer at the Guilford Elementary School, at the Guilford Junior High School, then on to the Western Guilford High School…Jimmy Brewer had the academic qualifications to be in the Beta Clubs and the National Honor Society….Jimmy Brewer excelled in the classroom, and he was a very good basketball player too, in his youth days…He also ran track at Western Guilford HS, and he may have run cross country too, but not sure about that one…
Jimmy Brewer was not an outstanding athlete, but he was very good, and his efforts at his athletic choosings are to be commended…Jimmy Brewer worked hard, and at times I could see the pain his face, and it was showing up in his body, he was trying and working so hard….
A very hard worker, no doubt about that…I remember playing a lot of basketball with Jimmy Brewer in the younger days, say around the fifth grade, up to about the eighth grade….Seems like all of the kids in the Guilford College Community were really into basketball back in those days…I guess it was the influence of the Guilford College Quakers basketball success…Winning the 1973 NAIA Title, and all of those good Jack Jensen, and Jerry Steele Quaker teams, made interest in the sport of basketball spread through our community like wildfire…Jimmy Brewer, Tommy Waynick, Tim Sapp, Chris Burritt, David Hardison, Sam Welch, Randy Wilhoit..There were so many good basketball players in our grade, back in the Elementary and Junior High School days, that playing basketball was like a household event, even a chore you better get done before you ate your supper, or went to bed at night….
When I first started playing basketball, I couldn’t hit the right side of a barn…I even had a basketball hoop that was nailed up onto the side of our barn, and that’s where I learned how to execute the sport of basketball correctly…Lots of embarrassment though, coming my way before I was able to perfect the shot…Nobody really around to teach us…They gave you the ball, and expected you to go do it…Well, I can tell you this, I became self-taught, and now at my current age, I can shoot as good if not better now, than I did back then in the old Guilford School days…
I can also tell you this, I got better in basketball over the years by riding to practices and to camps with Jimmy Brewer in his family’s station wagon…They always had a real nice station wagon, and it was really good to catch a ride with the Brewers over to the old Guilford High School Gym, there on College Road, where we would dribble, do passing drills, work on shooting, practice our free throws, and go over the game of basketball…We should have worked on a few inbounds plays too, but we didn’t do too much of that, and I wish we could have slowed the whole process down more, and really focused on our shooting, and worked on getting better in that area of our game….Better at it now, but it took several years to perfect this system of shooting…
Jimmy Brewer’s mom was almost like a taxi driver, she was hauling so many kids up and down, Old Oak Ridge Road….The Brewers lived over on Western Trail, and that street ran perpendicular, and thank-you Mrs. Semmler for helping me with that word back in the fourth grade, and Miss McGuire gave me some good help in the fifth grade too…And Jimmy Brewer was right there in many of those same classes…Back on the streets, you had the Western Trail, and the Firewood Trail running perpendicular with each other….And before those two streets got those names, I think they were Raynard Road, and Shirley Drive….
On Western Trail you had the Brewers, the Foxes, the Gordons, the Parks, the Tice Family, the Davises, the Ruddisils, Ray Nelson’s family at the top of the hill, plus Vickie Little and Lynn Little down below the Nelsons…On Firewood Trail you had Frank Hanner, the Hinshaw Family, the Barbers, the more Davises, the Knights, the Jessups, the Kozlowsky Family, and that is just about everybody from those roads/street/drive back in the day…And Marvin Staley was the man who was responsible for overseeing the entire conglomeration…Now conglomeration is a word that I will give credit to Charlie Lindsey for helping me with….He mowed a lot of yards, back in his day….Quite the Conglomeration…
But WOW, there was some kind of history back in those days with Jimmy Brewer and his Brewer Family looking over all of us sick people across the Guilford College Community and Old Oak Ridge Road landscape….The Brewer Family was not only a helping family, they were a happy family…I could pretty much make Jimmy Brewer laugh at the drop of a hat…He laughed at all my junk/jokes, that I would throw out there…He laughed and nearly cried, as he watched some of my early basketball shots, but if he could only see me now, as the old tune used to say…
From days of youth, the memory of Jimmy Brewer is very solid, almost like a slab of strong concrete…The Brewer Family name was really sort of like royalty from back in the those days, due to fact that you could count on Dr. Brewer and his family to pull you through just about anything…I remember one time I lost about 27 pounds during a high school wrestling season, and by the time, the season was over, I was down to 149 pounds, and I had to see Dr. Brewer….I missed 2 days of school, and those were the only 2 days I missed in my four years of high school, but Dr. Brewer got me back on track, and I was rolling again, in a few days…
Jimmy Brewer died of a respiratory complications from what I read on Facebook, but he is in a better place now, with his Mom, Dad, and brother Gordon….And Jimmy Brewer does not have to worry, he more than made his mark while he was with us here on earth…He is now in that better place, and we thank him for his graciousness and friendship, while he was among us…His struggles are over and he now can get his rest…
Rest in Peace/RIP:Jimmy Brewer…..
(It will always be like a lifetime of pleasant memories, when I think back on the Brewer Family…That outdoor basketball court that they had, the swimming pool, Mrs. Brewer’s Taxi Service and can I catch a ride??? All good, and Jimmy Brewer now gone….)