Skip to main content

Flashback Friday



After college graduation, a few of us tried keeping the spirit alive by meeting once a year in a cental location.  This was usually somewhere in Iowa, but once we even met in Kansas City.  This picture is rather intriguing, and I've never posted it before.  Not sure why, but maybe becasue I thought I should know what is going on.  I will do my best with what I do know.  

1.  That young lady looking up at whoever was taking the picture is Margie, with a hard G.  Not sure why it was pronounced that way,  and if I did at one time, I have forgotten.  Margie ended up marrying her date, Mark N., and after his coaching gigs in Nebrask and Idaho, settled in Arizona where we remain in contact.  

2.  The girl in red is Pam, my date and occasional GF in college.  Pam was a New Jersey girl, Patterson, NJ actually, and had the East Coast/Jersey accent.  We liked walks, and walked all over Mt. P talking about life, love and everythign in between.  Poor girl was nuts about me and her folks had money.  Should have worked harder but I was the philosophy student who said a starving man could die happy.  What I have sinced learned from life is that a man with money can die happier.  Alas, she found a hulking brute named Rocky, no doubt with a similar accent, and I assume lived happily ever after.  

3.  The young man, of course, is your fathful blogger,  playing cards and looking like he needs to work on his poker face.  Since I see no money on the table perhaps we had different stakes in mind.  If you peer under the table you might see a white tennis shoe that has my sockless foot in it.  I did not wear socks until I started working at the Mary Davis Home.  In fact I was painting my ankles black for formal functions.  I got caught abusing the dress code at the Mary and the rest is history.  Socks ever since.  Shame.  

4.  I am guessing this to be our first post-college get-together.  Pam was a year younger so she would have been in school still.  What I don't get is the time of year - we all have winter clothes on, and I thought we met in the summer.  That is definitely a motel room.  And I started school in Denver in the Fall after graduation, so frankly I'm a bit confused. 

These get-togethers didn't last (does anything).  People got jobs, moved away and life finally forced all of us out into the real world.  Mark N. became a coach in Nebraska, Tom S. a realtor in Marengo, Iowa, RB back to England, Dave became the CEO of Boetjes Mustard in the Quad Cities, Mark became the Superintendant of Orion water department, and I continued on with school for another couple of years.  The cocoon of college is ephemeral - it is there as a constant reminder of early adulthood, and then it is gone - the real world of kids, bills, jobs and marriage soon popped the protective bubble.  


"When Life begins Anew, 
And Youth, from gathering flowers,
from vague delights, rapt musings, twilight hours,
Turns restless, Seeking some great deed to do..."

Laurence Binyon


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the facts of the murder and attempted murder are most unpleasant

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week.  Except for me.  I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers.  These pics need no words.  Why muddy the waters?   They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley.  The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter.  If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one.  But, please, no more.   

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida.  There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife.  In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride.  He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much.   He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A.   But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here.  If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying.  He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed.  Note the propeller