Are You the You, You Used to Be?

In the last year and a half, we’ve lost two classmates and at least three others have had some serious situations. Also, there have been a few in the classes either side of us who have passed. I’m not trying to bring up a morbid subject here, but it brings to mind a question --- one that might be a touch out of line.

Do things like that affect you? Why?

Can I venture a guess? Yes, they do, and there are two main reasons. First, it is a reminder of our own mortality and second, even if they are not related to you, you know them. Notice I said know them, not knew them. Obviously, people change, but have you ever said that you “knew” a classmate? If I asked if you ever heard of Donna Morgan, most of you would say, “I know her.” Yes, there are some who wouldn’t say that, but I think most of us would. I know I would answer that way.

And that’s my point. We know each other, even now. Oh, I know that we’ve gotten older and there is this middle age veneer where our fresh teen selves used to be, but we still know each other. The soul of our friendship has not changed, and I bet if we were sitting in a room chatting, it wouldn’t take but a very few minutes to start feeling comfortable with each other again. I’ve experienced this. The evening with Donna, Brenda, Kathey, Sylvia and Pat was a blast. We couldn’t stop talking and laughing. We were the loudest table in the restaurant!

You guys were not my friends, you guys are my friends. I know I’ve been riding this horse for a long time, but if I didn’t really feel that way, I wouldn’t keep saying it. Obviously, if two people didn’t like one another in high school they most likely won’t now. I also realize there are exceptions to every rule, but it’s close enough to fact to be called one.

When one of our classmates pass, you feel sad don’t you? You might even cry. You don’t feel that way for people you don’t know.

The reunion is coming. Be there

We've Seen Some Things

One of my last posts got me to thinking.. and sometimes that's dangerous.

Anyway, since we graduated, it has been 39 years, 8 months, 13 days, or...
2071 weeks... rounded a bit of course
14,503 days
348,072 hours... and I think I've spent most of those sitting at traffic lights
20,884,320 minutes... yep, that's millions
1,253,059,200 seconds... and yep, that's a billion.

Feeling old yet?

Anyway, where I'm going with this is all that we have seen and maybe even taken for granted.

A young kid at work the other day said he thought the lunar landing in '69 was filmed in a studio because we "didn't have the technology" back then. That sort of rankled my fur a touch. But what have we seen?

The biggest things include 9/11 of course, but also the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the war in Vietnam, and a soiree into Granada and Panama, before two Gulf Wars.

There was Nixon then Ford then Carter then Reagan then Bush I then Clinton then Bush II and now Obama.

There were countless earthquakes, tsunamis (or is that tsunamii?) and hurricanes ranging from Andrew to Hugo to Katrina.

The Braves actually won a world series and several league championships, the Saints and Buccaneers actually won Super Bowls, Tennessee won a National Championship in football, Loudon tacked on another couple of State titles and a little lady nobody heard of became women's basketball coach at Tennessee.

Then there was Larry Byrd, Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Dan Marino, Tiger Woods, Dale Earnhardt, Walter Payton, Kareem Abdul Jabar and Shack. Just to name a few.

There was Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg, Bert and Ernie, The Govonator, Bart Simpson, Dallas, Cheers, CNN, Friends, Survivor and American Idol.

There was Star Wars, Star Trek, the Godfather and the Exorcist. Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Ironman and all my comic book heroes. Smokey and Bandit, Indiana Jones and Forrest Gump.

There was the Internet, Google, cable TV, HBO, cellphones, iPods, Ataris, Pong, PacMan, Doom and the Hubble Telescope.

How about NAFTA or PETA or NOW or the SLA .

How about Rap, Grunge, Southern Rock, Punk, Disco or "We are Devo"

Remember the Mustang II or the Yugo or Isuzu or Saturn or Nissan or Infinite or Hummer?

Or look a little closer to home. When we left the high school was the newest and now it's the oldest. There's the new 72, which combined with 75 pretty much takes people around Loudon now. Then who can forget Tellico Village, Staleys, and my favorite -- getting to Lenoir City by going through Piney? And while I'm at it does anyone else but me think it's a nice coincidence that Highway 72 is exit number 72 on I75?

The point is we've seen a lot and done a lot in 40 years, and I just scratched the surface.

Who Are You?

Sunday I had another reason to feel older. I was looking forward to the Super Bowl halftime show with The Who, but to be honest I was a little disappointed. To me it sounded like a bad, drunk karaoke impression of them. Obviously you can't get the sound quality outdoors as you can indoors, and I'm okay with that, but with Roger Daltry screaming in a strained, almost hoarse voice instead of singing, it just wasn't the same. Add to that Pete Townsend jumping around like he was 15 instead of 65, which I realize is something he's always done, but it made me realize why my kids look at me sometimes and say, "Dad, don't do that."

I liked the song choices though. Everyone of them brought back memories and smiles, so not everything was bad.

Besides, they unknowingly predicted the outcome of the game. When they finished I looked over and Sue and say, "The only thing worse than that would be if the Colts lost."

Number Crunching

This was written on February 7, 2010.

If this were February 7, 1970, there would be 119 days until graduation. Or,

10,195,200 seconds
169,920 minutes
2832 hours

Take your pick.

And yes I'm stretching just a bit for post material. :)

Looking Back - February 1970

Feb 1 -- Israel and Syria clash in the Golan Heights.
Feb 2 -- In Munich nerve transplants are performed for the first time in history.
Feb 6 -- The US sells warplanes to Israel.
Feb 9 -- The Vatican calls on priests to affirm celibacy annually.
Feb 12 -- Israeli jets attack scrap metal plant in Cairo, killing 70.
Feb 13 -- GM announces it will redesign autos to run on unleaded gas.
Feb 14 -- Four of the Chicago Seven defendants sentenced for contempt.
Feb 15 -- Defense attorney for the Chicago Four sentenced for contempt.
Feb 16 -- In New York, Joe Frazier KOs Jimmy Ellis to solidify his claim on the heavyweight title.
Feb 18 -- The Chicago Seven defendants are acquitted of conspiracy to incite riots.
Feb 19 -- Baseball suspends Denny McClain for gambling.
Feb 20 -- Five of the Chicago Seven defendants get 5 years for crossing state lines with intent to incite riots.
Feb 20 -- In South Africa, 22 blacks accuse police of torture.
Feb 21 -- In Switzerland, 47 are killed in an Israeli airliner bombing and crash.
Feb 22 -- Israel calls for world aid in stopping attacks on civilian aircraft.
Feb 25 -- In New York, Van Gogh's "Cypress and Blossoming Tree" and another painting are sold for $2.1 million.
Feb 26 -- In Saigon, 5 marines are arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and children.