BILL HALL, EVERYBODY'S PAL

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted December 1, 2005)

It has never bothered me one bit that Bill Hall isn't a certified doctor of meteorology.
He's never needed to be.

For 30 years, he's been something unique and highly appreciated in this community.... he's simply been Bill Hall.

He's been our weatherman....
He's been our fishing partner....
He's been our teacher of hunting, and gardening, and cooking....
He's been our steady friend who -- without really being aware of it -- has instructed us about calmness, tolerance and generosity.

Bill has never much concerned himself with all the fancy TV slogans and electronic weather gimmicks.
His real concern has been the people on the receiving end of the information he dispenses.

I cannot count the times Bill has said to me, "I don't want to unnecessarily alarm people."

But on those scary, stormy nights, it's always been comforting just to know Bill was there experiencing it with us, and talking us through it.
No weather machine can do that.

From now on, when rough weather happens, I'll know that Bill is somewhere nearby, checking things from his window at home.... or hurrying inside from the garden.... or taking shelter on a lake or farm.
And I find a certain comfort in that.

By the way, I have a particular 20-year old picture of Bill that I'll post here as soon as I find it, because it underscores that fact that -- for years -- I've kidded him about his stomach.
I used to tell him he was blocking our view of Jackson every time he stood in the radar picture.

Bill would always say something like, "Well, things are improving.... before I lost weight, we were losing Dickson and Clarksville as well."

Good luck pal.

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