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I always think of Clarke Raley around this time of year because he was my settlement attorney when I purchased the house here in Piney Point and moved into it on 17 March 1979 (click here for previous post on this.)
On the morning of the settlement, I was in Clarke’s office a little early to review all of the paperwork and discuss with him what to expect as we settled on buying the property. Somewhere in our conversation, I confided to Clarke that I was having some second thoughts worrying that I was not going to be able to afford it. Clarke smiled and said, “J.Scott, you’re having what they call buyers’ remorse.”
Since this was the first time that I had ever heard that reference, I asked him what it meant. He said, “It’s what you’re going thru now – thinking about all the reasons why you shouldn’t be doing this when what you should be thinking about is why this is a good thing. Just remember, you’re buying waterfront property and they’re not making anymore of it. So let’s go get you some of it.”
In the years after that exchange, anytime I ran into Clarke at a party or a public event somewhere I would always remind him of his advice to me that day by saying to him “Let’s go get you some of it.” (Whenever I would do this, I could see the people around us wondering and thinking “Man, these guys from Ridge sure do say funny things to one another don’t they?”)
Clarke’s recent funeral service was held at Brinsfield’s and thanks to a heads up from my sister Donna Jean, I was able to watch the on line video of it. I was very glad that I did so because Ernie Bell (above) and Capt. Brady Bounds (below) did an excellent job talking about Clarke and what a great guy he was.
I tried to upload the video to include it here on the Buzzyblog for you but was unable to do so. However, you can watch it by doing the following: start by clicking here, and then scroll down to Next Page and go to Page 3 where you will see 2 videos on Clarke. You want the one titled Clarke “Judge” Raley. Start the video, but because the first 20 minutes or so do not have much to say due to the minister running late, go to the video’s 23:45 mark. There you will catch Ernie Bell starting to talk about how he knew and interacted with Clarke from the time they went to Ryken together.
Ernie does a great job describing how he, Clarke and John Slade worked their way up the political and judicial ladders. Ernie mentions a number of events ranging from the Stephanie Roper case to the fact that Gloria Steinem and her father once lived in St. Mary’s County and that Gloria went to St. Mary’s Academy.
Following Ernie’s talk, Captain Brady Bounds then discusses Clarke and how he knew Clarke from his many years of working for the Public Defenders Office. Of course Brady tells a fish story or two to include how Clarke took up an interest in fly fishing.
The two talks are most entertaining. Not only do they give you an idea of what a great person Clarke was but also they tell you a lot about various people and events here in the County.
Of course, the all time best song about lawyers remains Warren Zevon’s send Lawyers, Guns and Money (click here to hear it again.) However, since I have played that one a couple of times previously, instead, check out this very clever and very well done parody of it:
