Thud!

I was watching a news type show on TV one night, I don't recall which one, and I don't remember the particulars of the story, but it was something about an accident somewhere in the south caused by a drunk driver. I want to say it was somewhere in the Carolinas, but it might have been Tennessee or Georgia or one of the others.

Anyway, this young couple were on their first date and got hit by a drunk driver. The girl ended up in the hospital for a time in pretty bad shape. Now, I'm not making light of any of this, I realize it was a bad situation that just as easily could have turned tragic, but they are interviewing this kid, and I'm sitting there shaking my head, because right in front of me was someone so close to me 40 years ago that I had to smile.

He was saying stuff like all he could think of was the old Tim McGraw song, "Don't Take the Girl". and how he sat there every night wishing it was him instead of her and he was going to stay by her side for the rest of her life if that's what it took. He loved her that much!

Okay, a sad story and he is to be commended for his devotion and compassion, but in the back of my mind I'm saying, "It was your first date! What do you know about her? What are you going to do when she gets on her feet and decides to move on?" He's sitting there, talking like he's planning his whole future, and he hasn't the slightest idea if she feels that way or not.

Nobody falls quicker and farther than a young southern boy. I know, I was one. They walk around with their hearts on their sleeve waiting for some young girl to smile at them, and as soon as she does, Thud!! He's head over heels.

When I was a freshman I carried a particular girl's books to class every day right after lunch. Just her books mind you, some other guy was walking her to class, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking she will see what I'm doing and that's all it will take, she'll be mine forever. Okay, so I exaggerate a little bit, but not much!

There's a couple I fell for like that. Hook, line and sinker. I don't know that she has ever seen this blog, but if she does and she remembers it too, "Sorry. Hope I didn't embarrass you or anything like that."

I'm not exactly apologizing for it. I couldn't have controlled it even if I wanted to. I don't know if it was the age, the time, the hormones or what, but I'd have had more luck trying to stop the tides. I got better, eventually. I know every guy didn't act that way, but most did. Some of them were able to think things through a little more clearly and save themselves any embarrassment, but not me.

I didn't have "Don't Take the Girl", but I did have.....

Oh, I'm beginning to think, that man has never found,
The words that could make you want me.
That has the right amount of letters, just the right sound,
That could make you hear, make you see, that you are driving me out of my mind.

*sigh*

I wonder if the people who write songs like that know they're writing an ode for lovesick teenage boys? :)

Days Off

Alright, help me out here. We had two weeks off at Christmas, and the Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving off, and that was it, right?

No fall break, no spring break.

I guess you could count fair day as a day off, since they let you go if you wanted to, which was dumb because the alternative was to stay at school all day. Let me see here, I can either go to the fair, or stay at school all day. Touch choice, that. :)

Brenda mentioned before that we got some time off during semester tests, but I don’t really remember that. I must have had reason to be more anxious about my tests. :)

Anyway, that was it, right? No time other than a few snow days here and there. And while you wanted at least a few of those, you didn’t want too many. I can remember a few times in junior high when we went half days on Saturday to make up for the days we missed because of snow.

Hog Rotten Taters

I know we've talked about the cafeteria before, but it really was an important place. Call it a combination of the times and me being a bit "backward", but it was a place I learned to like a lot of things I'd never eaten before.

Tuna for one. We had it in grade school but I always "traded" it for something else.

Broccoli and cauliflower, which still taste a lot alike to me.

Asparagus, which I dearly love, and au gratin potatoes, which someone, I think it was Wayne McNabb, called “Hog Rotten Taters”, partly in fun, partly because he didn’t like them.

I guess the most popular thing we had was barbeque, which is more like what we call a Sloppy Joe these days. Even though I lived in Memphis for awhile, I’m still not real big on barbeque. Memphis bills itself as the “Barbeque capitol of the world”, but I always found the restaurants far too smoky and smelly for my taste. But if you do ever find yourself over that way, stop in at a place called The Rendezvous. It’s a little place and it’s in an alley, but their dry rub barbeque is really tasty, even to me.

Anyway, I thought the food in the cafeteria was good, and the ladies who cooked and served it were really nice. I remember if you were near the end of the lunch period and they had a lot of something left over, you might end up with a double helping of mashed potatoes or something. But you also ran the risk of not being able to get something else, like the barbeque.

Alumni Site Gets A Makeover

I have made some changes to www.loudonhighalumni.com. Hopefully, they are for the better. I tried to make it more informative and fun. Please take a look at it. As (or if) it begins to fill up I think it will be a pretty good site.

It goes without saying that I would like you guys to send in your stuff, and since it's for the entire school, you can even send in your spouse's stuff if they went there... hint... hint... Donna, Brenda, Darlene, Delphia.... :)

Of course I'm joking.... just a little. :)

Hope you all enjoy it.

Elections

Since Tuesday was Election Day I got to thinking about the voting we did in school. Every year we voted for class officers and a homecoming queen, and then senior year there were the superlatives to vote for.

There are similarities and differences between the voting we did back then and the voting we did Tuesday.... ummmm.... we did vote, didn't we? :)

Anyway the biggest difference I can think of is that back then we all voted. 100% participation. Now it's a big deal if they get half of the people to vote.

I guess another difference was we liked all the candidates back then, whereas now we have at least a little distrust of everybody running.

Another difference was that back then one candidate didn't try to look good by telling us how bad the other one was, nor did they whine and demand a recount when they lost.

We also weren’t lumped into things like blue states and red states and ridiculed for not voting the way someone else did.

I guess one thing that is the same is we don’t always know how someone got on the ballot. I suppose they were asked, or volunteered or whatever, but there is always a little head scratching as we try to figure out how a particular person got picked for this or that office. I suppose there are qualifications for running for judge just like there was for running for homecoming queen, but I guess the qualifications for being elected homecoming queen are a little more obvious.

Anyway, I’m not begrudging anybody their office or position, then or now. I wasn’t interested in any of the class positions, and you couldn’t pay me to run for office. In the immortal words of Lyndon Johnson, “If nominated I will not run and if elected I will not serve.” Besides, I would have looked ridiculous in an evening gown. :)

Holy Fuzzy Flying Things, Batman!

I saw this on the internet and just had to comment.

'Hazards dated Oct. 4, 2006, lists "bats in the building daily, dead and alive,"'

In the high school!! And they weren't talking about the biology lab or the baseball equipment!!

I'm not trying to make light of an obviously serious situation, but I've never heard of too many buildings invested with bats. Rats yes, but not bats. At one point I thought it was a joke, after all I was reading it on Halloween.

I will admit there were days I thought it was a deep dark dungeon, but I never dreamed there would be bats flying around.

Where do you think the bats hide?