God’s first words to human beings, according to the first story of creation in the Bible, were: “Be fruitful and multiply.”

It hit me over the Memorial Day weekend that my wife’s Belgian ancestors took those words seriously. There were some 140 relatives who showed up for the Mathews-Vanhoof Family Reunion at the Belgian-American Club. Many of them were from a family of 11 Mathews siblings – the children of Lawrence and Rosalie (or Rosie) Mathews. They were: Inez, John, Oralee, Charles, Huey, Tom, O’Hearn, Myrt, Delores, Alfred and Shirley.

Many were from a passel of siblings from Augustine Vanhoof’s family,  the likes of which included Cecelia, John, Joseph, Julian, Rosalie, Louis (Bud) and Fabian.

But here’s a takeaway from the reunion – for a multiplying family, there was a recurring theme of scarcity in conversations with different folks from this fruitful clan.

“Nobody wants to (fill in the blank on a variety of jobs) anymore.”

This was a lament from people who are good at what they do but are worried about the future because of shortages of everything from priests to firemen. Younger folks are in short supply for the work force, and it shouldn’t be surprising since birth rates and fertility rates have been tracking on an ominous downward slope for many years.

Then, too, there is the matter of not only the shortage of those in our society who are able but those who are able but not so willing.

As for this crowd, there was no shortage of cooks, camaraderie, kidding or kindness. 

Elsewhere …

As you probably have learned by now,  the recent vote by the NFL to ban the “tush push” failed by just two votes. I think this was “breaking news” at the major networks when the vote was announced. For those not up on the NFL and wondering what the heck is a “tush push,” it’s also been called “the brotherly shove,” and it’s a play teams run when needing short yardage. Players line up behind and around the quarterback and after the snap, the team pushes the runner forward.

What you probably don’t know – but has been revealed to me by secret sources — is the “tush push” is the “end” result of a “bun run.”

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It’s ironic that although LSU has won four national championships in football, it has fewer retired numbers (four) than LSU basketball, which has never won a national championship. LSU basketball has five retired numbers for Bob Pettit (50), Pete Maravich (23), Rudy Macklin (40), Shaquille O’Neal (33) and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (35). It was recently announced that former All-American running back Charles Alexander will have his No. 4 jersey join the other retired jerseys of football legends Billy Cannon (20), Jerry Stovall (21) and Tommy Casanova (37).

Other LSU jerseys retired are, for baseball, Skip Bertman (15), Ben McDonald (19), Eddy Furniss (36) and Todd Walker (12); and for women’s basketball, Seimone Augustus (33) and Sylvia Fowles (34). 

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Finally, here’s bidding a couple of fond farewells – the first to the Long, Gray Beard, aka Phil Roberston, aka the Duck Commander. He’s the guy who preceded Terry Bradshaw as quarterback for Louisiana Tech, but, as Bradshaw will tell you, he didn’t beat him out of a job; he took over after Robertson quit football to purse his passion for the outdoors, especially duck hunting.

Robertson died at age 79 Sunday. He was elected in 2020 to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame but because of the Covid restrictions that year, he wasn’t inducted until the delayed ceremony in 2021.

The last RIP wish is for Baton Rouge native Lynn Amedee, the former LSU quarterback and coach at the high school, college and professional levels. Just learned Monday of his death at age 83 last week. He was a kind soul, always ready to help whoever came calling. Such as former Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams, who encouraged Amedee to take the head coaching job at Doug’s alma mater, Northeast High in Zachary. This was after Lynn was let go as offensive coordinator amidst a coaching staff change at the University of Texas.

Amedee took the job (one of many in his well-traveled coaching career) and guided Northeast to nine wins and a district championship. “I guess I proved I don’t have one of those big egos,” he said. “I had three phys. ed classes, bus duty and lunchroom duty.”