Last night I spent more to fill up the gas tank of the van than I made in a month of working after school during senior year, and more than I made in half a month in the Air Force in 1972 when I was married with a baby. Down right pitiful.
I can remember Clyde Wagner telling us during senior year, "If you made more you'd only spend it."
He was right.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Looking Back -- May 1970
May 1 – Demonstrations against the trial of the New Haven Nine, Bobby Seale, and Ericka Huggins draw 12,000.
May 1 – President Richard Nixon orders U.S. forces to cross into neutral Cambodia, threatening to widen the Vietnam War, sparking nationwide riots and leading to the Kent State Shootings.
May 4 – Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and 9 wounded by Ohio State National Guardsmen, at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia.
May 6 – Arms Crisis in the Republic of Ireland: Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney are dismissed as members of the Irish Government, for accusations of their involvement in a plot to import arms for use by the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland.
May 8 – Hard Hat riot: Unionized construction workers attack about 1,000 students and others protesting the Kent State shootings near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street and at New York City Hall.
May 8 – The Beatles release their 12th and final album, Let It Be.
May 9 – In Washington, D.C., 100,000 people demonstrate against the Vietnam War.
May 11 – Henry Marrow is murdered in a violent hate crime in Oxford, North Carolina.
May 11 – An F5 tornado hits downtown Lubbock, Texas, the first to hit a downtown district of a major city since Topeka, Kansas in 1966; 28 are killed.
May 14 – In the second day of violent demonstrations at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, state law enforcement officers fire into the demonstrators, killing 2 and injuring 12.
May 17 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II, to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
May 23 – A fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait in north Wales, contributing to its partial destruction and amounting to approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage.
May 24 – The scientific drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the USSR.
May 26 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
May 27 – A British expedition climbs the south face of Annapurna I.
May 31 – The 1970 Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed.
May 31 – The 1970 FIFA World Cup is inaugurated in Mexico.
May 1 – President Richard Nixon orders U.S. forces to cross into neutral Cambodia, threatening to widen the Vietnam War, sparking nationwide riots and leading to the Kent State Shootings.
May 4 – Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and 9 wounded by Ohio State National Guardsmen, at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia.
May 6 – Arms Crisis in the Republic of Ireland: Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney are dismissed as members of the Irish Government, for accusations of their involvement in a plot to import arms for use by the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland.
May 8 – Hard Hat riot: Unionized construction workers attack about 1,000 students and others protesting the Kent State shootings near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street and at New York City Hall.
May 8 – The Beatles release their 12th and final album, Let It Be.
May 9 – In Washington, D.C., 100,000 people demonstrate against the Vietnam War.
May 11 – Henry Marrow is murdered in a violent hate crime in Oxford, North Carolina.
May 11 – An F5 tornado hits downtown Lubbock, Texas, the first to hit a downtown district of a major city since Topeka, Kansas in 1966; 28 are killed.
May 14 – In the second day of violent demonstrations at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, state law enforcement officers fire into the demonstrators, killing 2 and injuring 12.
May 17 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II, to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
May 23 – A fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait in north Wales, contributing to its partial destruction and amounting to approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage.
May 24 – The scientific drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the USSR.
May 26 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
May 27 – A British expedition climbs the south face of Annapurna I.
May 31 – The 1970 Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed.
May 31 – The 1970 FIFA World Cup is inaugurated in Mexico.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Reunion Etiquette and Other Dos and Don’ts
August will be here before you know it, so I thought it might be a good idea to review some of the things you should or shouldn’t do during the night.
Do not say “Damn man, what happened to your hair?” to any guy that might be a little thin on top.
Do not talk about anybody’s hair, wrinkles and waistline, unless your hair is still naturally the color it was 40 years ago, you have no wrinkles, AND you can still fit in the clothes you wore in high school. Be prepared to prove the last one.
If you are sitting around a table trying to guess who’s who as they walk thru the door, don’t jump up and down too much if you’re right or slam your fist on the table too hard if you’re wrong. The person coming in the door might get the wrong idea.
Learn to hug by leaning forward, in some cases it will be necessary.
For the most part, you will still feel like you did 40 years ago, but everybody you see will look at least a little bit different, and in some cases, a lot different, so try not to walk around with a shocked expression on your face.
If, by some quirk of nature, you still look fairly close to what you did 40 years ago, don’t flaunt it.
If you don’t want people looking too closely at you, come early. Get there before they do and look at them closely.
Try to limit expressions that start with “Oh my God”, especially when it prefaces a comment related to who you’re talking to or about. It’s okay to use the expression if you are having a religious experience.
Do hug a lot.
Do laugh a lot.
Pick at least one person to really get reacquainted with, or chat a bit to someone you didn’t know that well way back when.
Tell as many as you can how good it is to see them, and mean it.
Trade email addresses, or phone numbers, or pictures, or recipes or golf tips.
When it’s noisy with talk and laughter, close your eyes for a moment and see if the hubbub sounds anything like it did 40 years ago.
And, don’t forget the biggest rule of all…. Show up!
Do not say “Damn man, what happened to your hair?” to any guy that might be a little thin on top.
Do not talk about anybody’s hair, wrinkles and waistline, unless your hair is still naturally the color it was 40 years ago, you have no wrinkles, AND you can still fit in the clothes you wore in high school. Be prepared to prove the last one.
If you are sitting around a table trying to guess who’s who as they walk thru the door, don’t jump up and down too much if you’re right or slam your fist on the table too hard if you’re wrong. The person coming in the door might get the wrong idea.
Learn to hug by leaning forward, in some cases it will be necessary.
For the most part, you will still feel like you did 40 years ago, but everybody you see will look at least a little bit different, and in some cases, a lot different, so try not to walk around with a shocked expression on your face.
If, by some quirk of nature, you still look fairly close to what you did 40 years ago, don’t flaunt it.
If you don’t want people looking too closely at you, come early. Get there before they do and look at them closely.
Try to limit expressions that start with “Oh my God”, especially when it prefaces a comment related to who you’re talking to or about. It’s okay to use the expression if you are having a religious experience.
Do hug a lot.
Do laugh a lot.
Pick at least one person to really get reacquainted with, or chat a bit to someone you didn’t know that well way back when.
Tell as many as you can how good it is to see them, and mean it.
Trade email addresses, or phone numbers, or pictures, or recipes or golf tips.
When it’s noisy with talk and laughter, close your eyes for a moment and see if the hubbub sounds anything like it did 40 years ago.
And, don’t forget the biggest rule of all…. Show up!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
I am Different
Are you a product of your upbringing? Do your values mirror those of your parents? If you lived in a different place, even a different neighborhood, do you think you would have been any different?
When I was growing up, a southern Democrat was a conservative, just too damned stubborn to call himself a Republican. Some of them were still holding it against Lincoln, so there's no way they'd belong to the same party. The adults who were around when I was growing up were that way. They wouldn't tell you, heck no! Saying who you voted for was something like the 11th Commandment. "Thou shalt not say who got your vote!" But they didn't have to. Everything they said before and after the election told you all you needed to know. I have fluttered from one back to the other until I figured there wasn't a whole of difference between them. I am a moderate, so in that regard I guess I buck my upbringing.
I'm religious, to a point. I'm no bible thumper and rarely get into discussions on the subject. But I know what I think and I believe and trust in God. The folks I grew up around, on the other hand, would always tell you very quickly how wrong you were and that you were going to "burn in hell?" Oh, and they've been saying since I was old enough to go to church that Jesus is coming back tomorrow, and as I approach 60 I think I've finally figured out that they don't know any more than I do. But I am totally different in that regard now, because I'm... Catholic! I know several people who must be spinning in the graves to hear me say that.
There is no getting around the fact that I was brought up poor. Heck, a lot of folks in and around Loudon shared that distinction with me. I can remember not eating, getting one pair of shoes a year and more than a few bare Christmases. Now, I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my kids didn't have to worry about that kind of stuff. It wasn't my parents fault. They played the cards they were dealt. But sometimes I wonder if I had stayed in Loudon if I would be able to say that I did better. I love that little one horse town, but of all the things I left behind, the preconceived notion held by me and everyone around me about how I would turn out was one that I'm glad I did.
So, as far as how things turned out, I would have to say I'm almost totally different. However, one thing that I have not lost, and never will, is the pride and love I have for that place and the people who touched my life. And in some ways, that cancels all the changes in me.
When I was growing up, a southern Democrat was a conservative, just too damned stubborn to call himself a Republican. Some of them were still holding it against Lincoln, so there's no way they'd belong to the same party. The adults who were around when I was growing up were that way. They wouldn't tell you, heck no! Saying who you voted for was something like the 11th Commandment. "Thou shalt not say who got your vote!" But they didn't have to. Everything they said before and after the election told you all you needed to know. I have fluttered from one back to the other until I figured there wasn't a whole of difference between them. I am a moderate, so in that regard I guess I buck my upbringing.
I'm religious, to a point. I'm no bible thumper and rarely get into discussions on the subject. But I know what I think and I believe and trust in God. The folks I grew up around, on the other hand, would always tell you very quickly how wrong you were and that you were going to "burn in hell?" Oh, and they've been saying since I was old enough to go to church that Jesus is coming back tomorrow, and as I approach 60 I think I've finally figured out that they don't know any more than I do. But I am totally different in that regard now, because I'm... Catholic! I know several people who must be spinning in the graves to hear me say that.
There is no getting around the fact that I was brought up poor. Heck, a lot of folks in and around Loudon shared that distinction with me. I can remember not eating, getting one pair of shoes a year and more than a few bare Christmases. Now, I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my kids didn't have to worry about that kind of stuff. It wasn't my parents fault. They played the cards they were dealt. But sometimes I wonder if I had stayed in Loudon if I would be able to say that I did better. I love that little one horse town, but of all the things I left behind, the preconceived notion held by me and everyone around me about how I would turn out was one that I'm glad I did.
So, as far as how things turned out, I would have to say I'm almost totally different. However, one thing that I have not lost, and never will, is the pride and love I have for that place and the people who touched my life. And in some ways, that cancels all the changes in me.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
What Once Was --- Is
I seldom drove in high school. Since then I've put 125,000+ plus miles on 8 different vehicles. I figured it up the other day and I am at or near a million driving miles. But in the last few years I seldom drive anymore than it takes to get back and forth to work or to church, not withstanding a few trips here and there to see the kids or visit Loudon.
Almost every Sunday in high school I was at church. Usually twice, and then again on Wednesday. Then there were a bunch of years with a lot of forgiving and forgetting packed into them. I figure I'm like everybody else. There's some things I wish I could take back and other things I wish I had done differently, but what's done is done. Now I'm back in church every Sunday and a lot of times in between. Heck, I've even worked a bunch of ministries and chaired a few.
In high school a some of you guys were around almost everywhere I went. In between I lost track of many of you for long stretches at a time. Over the past few years I've gotten closer to more of you again. Not to come around and hang out or be a pest, but just to be there if you ever want to reminisce or just talk.
Funny how that works out, huh? Life takes you to different places all the time, but in some ways, it's really not all that different.
Almost every Sunday in high school I was at church. Usually twice, and then again on Wednesday. Then there were a bunch of years with a lot of forgiving and forgetting packed into them. I figure I'm like everybody else. There's some things I wish I could take back and other things I wish I had done differently, but what's done is done. Now I'm back in church every Sunday and a lot of times in between. Heck, I've even worked a bunch of ministries and chaired a few.
In high school a some of you guys were around almost everywhere I went. In between I lost track of many of you for long stretches at a time. Over the past few years I've gotten closer to more of you again. Not to come around and hang out or be a pest, but just to be there if you ever want to reminisce or just talk.
Funny how that works out, huh? Life takes you to different places all the time, but in some ways, it's really not all that different.
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