Recently I was talking with my cousin Jim Jones and he explained to me that I now had a relative that was playing professional basketball. I was fairly sure that soon in that conversation, I would figure out that he was messing with me.
The Jones family is my mother’s side of our family. My cousin, Jim, is the son of my mom’s brother, George. Jim and his brothers and his sister attended Manual High school. We always enjoyed getting together when we were kids.
During our phone call, Jim explained to me that his grandson was playing professional basketball. I think he could tell that I was a bit confused, and he helped me out by giving me a detailed explanation.
He started carefully explaining his part of the family tree. He was talking about his grandson, Garriott Jones.
He told me that his son, George and grandson Garriott both attended Decatur Central High School. Garriott was only there for his first two years of high school. The family then moved to Florida.
Garriott finished his high school days at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida. He then attended college at Cornell and then at Pensacola University. Jim then explained that Garriott had now been hired to play in Europe and he is on location now and playing. I believe he has played several games now and has scored a triple double in a couple of them. (Triple double = more than 10 points – more than 10 rebounds and more than 10 blocks and steals).
Garriott was hired very late in the season. Just as with the NBA, that European season is almost over. I don’t know if they will be involved in any playoffs.
My cousin Jim’s younger brother, Harry, has a grandson that will be competing in the Little 500 this year in Bloomington, Indiana. Hunter Jones is a freshman at Indiana University and will be competing in his first Little 500.
His team, The Phi Kappa Psi, finished 5th in the qualifications. They should start in the middle of the second row. There is a men’s race and a women’s race. The women’s race will take place on April 21st at 4 p.m. It will be a 100-lap race covering 23 miles. The men’s contest will be held the following day, April 22nd at 2 p.m. It is a 200-lap competition covering 50 miles.
Both of my cousins, Jim and Harry, are retired members of the Indianapolis Fire Department. Jim had been doing a good bit of research into our family history. Our grandmother’s maiden name was Garriott. He has traced family back over six generations and was telling me that we have relatives that were minutemen in the revolution.
I’m sure you can understand that I sometimes feel a bit dizzy after talking to my cousin Jim and learning about relatives that are professional basketball players, Little 500 competitors and Revolutionary War Minutemen.
I’ll try to keep everyone posted as things progress.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.