Ready for the Weekend (with our Pants on the Ground)

Rex, London, Maddie and I certainly weren't the only ones to chuckle over 62-year-old Larry Platt's appearance on the Atlanta auditions for American Idol. A few weeks later, since every time one of us bursts into the song, it still makes us smile, I thought I would share it with any of you who missed out.

For your fun Friday, we offer up the Pants on the Ground Remix featuring "General" Larry Platt:



We got to wondering whether Larry Platt was really a General. He's not, but he has earned his nickname. I did a little Internet research and found this story over on USAToday.com:

Take a look at the photograph below from the home page of the Civil Rights Veterans Movement website. See the young man on the left, looking directly into the camera? That's Larry Platt, age 16.



"We had come by bus in 1963 to a church in Savannah, Georgia to plan a march to desegregate the city," Platt writes. "Reverend Hosea Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were our leaders. That particular planned march was canceled and we were singing to raise our spirits before returning home."

Platt worked with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Georgia, organizing sit-ins in the South.

He was beaten during the Bloody Sunday march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery.

He got his nickname, "General," from the Rev. Hosea Williams because of his heroic efforts on behalf of the civil-rights movement.

The Georgia General Assembly proclaimed Sept. 4, 2001, Larry Platt Day in Atlanta, because of "his great energy and commitment to equality and the protection of the innocent and for his outstanding service to the Atlanta community and the citizens of Georgia."

He remains a community activist in the Atlanta area and recently has become known for publicly protesting foreclosures.

I agree with USAToday's Idol Chatter:

If anybody in that Atlanta crowd deserved his 15 minutes of fame on national television, it was Larry Platt.

"Pants on the Ground" refers to the gangsta look of wearing oversized jeans literally falling off with your underwear sticking out and baseball caps sideways or backwards. Sing along with Roxy now: "Mouth full of gold...hat to the side... Lookin like a FOOL with your pants on the ground."

When "General" Larry Platt tells you to get your pants off the ground, you'd best listen.

I just might have to get my girls these commemerative T-shirts from Donkey Tees.