So here's a nice shot of me and one of my older bros with the little dude. We're a good lookin' bunch, us boys! Course, like everybody, we're getting older (Still got the hair though! It's graying, but as my Daddy used to say "I don't care what color it turns so long as it don't turn loose! Apologies to the follicular challenged amongst my readers...) and sometimes I get to thinking about the boy I was vs the man I am. Having kids'll do that to a fellow.
I remember a great story from about 25 years ago. I was hanging out drinking the night away with my pals ("...as one MUST..." to quote Rod Stewart) when I got on a tangent about how shitty so and so's parents treated them and when I had kids THEY were gonna have the freedom to do what they want , and explore and blah blah blah...and my friend Mike Vermilion (whom I haven't seen in WAY too long) said to me point blank "Dude...locked inside of you is a forty year old man whose kids ain't going NOWHERE!"
I, of course, balked at this...but NOW...I wonder. See, when I was that age, I never even thought I'd even get hitched, must less have kids! To paraphrase Benedick "When I said I would die a bachelor, I never thought I should LIVE till I were married..." (or something of that order) Yet , fourteen years and one child later, here I am with an honest to goodness family, job, mortgage, etc...Didn't really see that coming back then. But you know what? I wouldn't change a damn thing! (OK, the massive student loan and that late 80's mullets MAYBE...but other than that...) Still, if you'd have asked me where I'd be 25 years ago, I guarantee that Lexington KY is NOT the answer I'd have given. And quite frankly, my son probably WON'T be going anywhere till he's old enough to whip me in a fair fight...which should be in about 3 years.
So here's my question - what, in your youth did you SWEAR you'd never do, that you've actually found yourself doing?
Go Nuts...and NUTS to CBS for STILL cancelling JERICHO!!!!
I sometimes can't let go of things...
..and 287 points for the EASY lyric...specially if'n you know your Xman!
21 comments:
Born in the USA...
but, I have to think a little bit before I answer what I wouldn't do when I got older..
and Laurie, (Becky here) if you check in, I was wondering how things are with you, Candy Shiffman was wondering too..
btw, wonderful photo!!
EEHHHHHHHHH! (*sound of a game show buzzer)
Right album- wrong song!
"Glory Days"
And when I was younger, I thought I'd go into the Army, like my dad. I never thought I'd be a teacher in Central KY.
The dnager of anything from that album is that Risck will get on his "No such thing as a speedball" kick again.
I never thought I would move back to small town Indiana, have any kids, let alone three, and never felt that I would be as poor as I am.
I have heard so many things come out of my mouth that I swore I would never do or say to my kids, I do have the decency to be ashamed of this, but so it goes. I also though I would never make my kids go to bed early, but now bedtime is one of my favorite times of day.
Steve
What the hell is a speedball???!!! C'mon Bruce, man of the people, "fastball" scans exactly the same!!! ARRGGHHHHH!!
Anyhow, I do shit like eat sushi and vote for Democrats, that's the kinda stuff I never thought I would be doing when I was a kid...I figured I would be playing baseball, coaching and teaching history and what got me to go into the theatre was the thought of coaching and teaching history scared the hell out of me...although I would probably be making more money, have more peace of mind and not have to deal with idiots like Bill Barto...oh well...
I also never thought I would have more than one kid, I was an only child raised by my father (it explains alot doesn't it) so the thought of having two kids terrified me...but its great. It is amazing how totally different my daughter is from my son, you'd think they came from different parents...(insert joke here).
My other option was to go in the military, my dad has worked for the military for over 40 years now in various capacities and I have tremendous respect for people who serve. I took the ASVABS (anyone else remember those)and scored well enough that the army was going to train me to fly helicopters and be a warrant officer, but I went to college to play baseball instead, especially since they wouldn't let me start out as a general (I asked...cuz u know, I'm pompous and arrogant like that!!
Peace
Rick
I rocked the ASVABS too...they told me that I was very well suited to be an engineer...oh well...
...and as per the lyric...
Springsteen and baseball is like mom and apple pie
June 28, 2003
By Scott Miller
SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Scott your opinion!
Sometimes -- and when I say "sometimes" I mean usually when I've been driving long distances with the windows down and the stereo up -- I can't help myself.
I will arrive at the stadium, step into the clubhouse... and ask a major league hitter to name me a few of the game's best "speedball" pitchers.
Tickets to see Bruce Springsteen at Fenway Park are going quick.(AP)
And sometimes I get a knowing smile and an answer. The answer usually includes Roger Clemens.
(Loud guitar here)
I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool, boy...
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing baseball parks later this summer? Glory days, indeed.
This is the coolest thing this side of getting into the Pit area on the current tour.
Annie Savoy, in the famous Bull Durham scene, discusses her belief in the Church of Baseball.
Many baseball players -- not to mention thousands and thousands of others -- believe in the music and lyrics of Bruce Springsteen.
For years, various big leaguers such as Paul Molitor, Al Leiter, Paul O'Neill and Ron Coomer have been chasing Springsteen all over this land and over into Europe (in Molitor's case) to watch Bruce and the E Streeters perform their legendary live shows.
So now it's only right that Springsteen and the band will chase them in a Ballpark Tour.
Besides Pink Floyd (The Wall), I can't think of anybody better suited to play Fenway Park when the Red Sox are on the road in September.
Other than a reincarnation of the late blues great Robert Johnson ( Sweet Home Chicago), I can't think of anybody better suited to play The Stadium Formerly Known as Comiskey in August (sorry, I refuse to use its new corporate name).
Talk about lucky towns. As things stand now, this E Street shuffle will extend to Pittsburgh's PNC Park on Aug. 6, Chicago's South Side ballpark on Aug. 13, Fenway Park on Sept. 6 (and possibly 7th), Detroit's Comerica Park on Sept. 21 and Milwaukee's Miller Park on Sept. 27.
The Rising will be a natural in the new Pittsburgh, Detroit and Milwaukee ballparks -- all of which have risen since 2000. (That, or, given recent baseball in each of those places, Darkness on the Edge of Town or Wreck on the Highway.)
As for Boston, I dunno... perhaps This Hard Land. Or maybe The Promised Land?
And in White Sox Park, hmmm... I'd nominate Lonesome Day.
While these will mark Springsteen's first concerts in baseball-only facilities, they most certainly will not be anywhere close to his first appearances in baseball stadiums. The ties that bind the Boss and baseball extend through the years, albeit, usually from the backstreets and not center stage.
He took his son, Evan, to St. Louis in September 1998 to watch part of Mark McGwire's pursuit of Roger Maris' single-season home run record.
And a month before that, he was in Yankee Stadium to watch Molitor's Twins play the Yankees. It was a Thursday afternoon, and Springsteen and Evan arrived plenty early -- early enough so that his son could get a chance to see what a major league clubhouse looked like.
They visited both the Twins and the Yankees, and there was a ballpark buzz that August morning like few others.
Someone asked Yankees manager Joe Torre before the game if he had seen "The Boss" walking through the clubhouse.
Torre quipped that no, he usually doesn't go out of his way to see George Steinbrenner, and the Boss didn't stop by his office.
Over on Minnesota's side, then-Twins manager Tom Kelly -- like Springsteen, a New Jersey native -- emerged from his office too late. By the time he came out, Springsteen and his son had already left the clubhouse.
"Someone came in my office and told me Springstead was out there," Kelly said. "But I said, 'Why do I want to go out and talk to Marty Springstead?'"
At the time, retired ump Marty Springstead was baseball's director of umpires.
It was typical Kelly, master of the brilliant disguise.
(Loud guitar here)
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in and he was walking out
We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks but all he kept talking about was...
Glory days, well they'll pass you by...
To this day, I've heard of fastballs and curveballs and knuckleballs and palmballs, but no pitcher I know actually throws a speedball.
Then again, nobody I know captures moments and feelings in quite the same way as Springsteen. For many of us, his music has been the soundtrack to life, and his words have been the snapshots providing. Screen door slams, Mary's dress sways. I believe in the love that you gave me/I believe in the faith that can save me/I believe in the hope and I pray/That someday it may raise me/Above these badlands.
And: God have mercy on the man/Who doubts what he's sure of. Now the hardness of this world slowly grinds your dreams away/Makin' a fool's joke out of the promises we make/And what once seemed black and white turns to so many shades of gray/We lose ourselves in work to do, work to do and bills to pay/And it's a ride, ride, ride, and there ain't much cover/With no one runnin' by your side, my blood brother.
A good friend of mine says the coming Fenway Park concerts could extend Boston's Curse of the Bambino even further.
C'mon. The Red Sox allowing an unabashed Yankees fan to play Fenway?
In September, no less?
Me, I figure it this way: Fenway Park, Thunder Road, throwing that speedball by you... national treasures and poetic license, we should never, ever take either for granted.
Because life is too short not to breathe deeply and live fully. And if we're not very careful about that, well, you know ... it'll pass you by in the wink of a young girl's eye.
*Poetic license indeed!
right on natalie, can't believe I missed that one, I posted too quick..oh well..
I had no notions of how I might be when I grew up, really...I am glad a lot of things are behind me and I do enjoy all the things I can afford now, but I must say, I never thought I had such a "protective gene" until it came to my adorable neices and nephews...they are the deal..it is so healthy to be selfless..
Not really much...so not much, nothing really comes immediately to mind. I still think of myself as I was twenty-five years ago. But my personal habits, tastes, philosophy, world view have not really altered all that much.
My wife used to say I was born forty-five and spent my life growing into it. Since I've passed that benchmark, I guess I'm just getting more so.
I'd always planned to thrust myself out into the big world stage and make my living in the business of show. I always planned to come back to Kentucky some day. I suppose the biggest surprise was that I did made my living as a writer rather than an actor...but writing was ever a serious option for me, so it wasn't that big a surprise when it took over the acting track.
Well...I never thought I'd be in Florida...
I truly thought I'd be on a soap. (insert jokes here about my real life is soap opera enough) Hey, work is steady and has variety. I thought "PERFECT!" Really, that's what I thought.
Hey Becky...and everyone...I will be in Lex June 5th-????
The "???" is because I am having some surgery in Lex (the shitty doctors here won't take my insurance...but that's FINE with me...cuz "screw u guys, I am going home!"
THe surgery is abdominal and kinda major...but fear not...it's necessary and should improve my quality of life a great deal...not that's it's bad...but it will be lots better. SO I can't travel for a while and I'll be on drugs..I should be a blast!!
Surgery is on the 13th...probably at Central Baptist.
Come to think of it, that's another thing I never thought I'd be doing...having surgery. But who does?
Yeeehaw.
Laurie, I will email Candy and let her know and anyone else that may check in, if that's ok with you, let me know...bless your heart, prayers are with you!!!
your spirit sounds so great!
how is your Dad?
i never thought i'd be an on again off again smoker. going to be off again soon. (i've heard that one before.) never thought i'd have to dismember a body after killing a guy during a bar fight, but alas. But my memories of Donnie Brosco got me through it.
becky, tell candy I said hello too. (old boyfriend here from High School, back when she was Weber)
Adam
I sure will...update on sweet Candy, she has a beautiful baby, just moved to Alabama from LA (we lived out there at the same time)and has been cast as Stella in a nearby theatre company...she's doing great
I never thought I'd be ALIVE at this age. That sounds a lot more macabre than it really is. Explanations will have to wait until alcohol is involved.
Kids was never in the cards for me. Turns out the lady looking at the cards was just takin' my money.
One thing I always *felt* I would get but did not know how the hell I would, especially given the crappy choices I made in the early nineties, was True Love. Glad to see that Fate pairs more with Faith than with Planning.
Wait. Here's one. I never dreamed in a million years that I would be... overweight. That's a disappointment borne from many of those same choices in the nineties and beyond.
Other than that, things are actually way better for me than I thought they would be. Well. Who'da thunk it?
I never thought I would get tired by one a.m., much less midnight. good to see one half of the idiots first on the blog.
..."good to see one half of the idiots first on the blog." I'm not sure I know what that means...
Camera pans to a lone woman standing over a freshly dug grave, a man in his late 30s stands a few steps back.
Woman sighs, wipes a tear, and signals the funeral director.
The funeral director signals for the workers to get the casket ready for its final descent.
As if on cue a fairly balding older man pushes play from the inside of his car that sits right outside the gravesite.
The music blares as the casket is lowered into the grave....
"GLORY DAYS....THEYLL PASS YOU BY...GLORY DAYS....."
The woman turns, takes the younger mans hand and walks away slowly to her car.....smiling.
IDIOTS FIRST is a reference to an old punk band consisting of the 3 Davis bros and the "anonymous" dude that always posts...Our drummer, Fletch.
gotcha...and you are a handsome trio!
Is it just me, or are Tonys biceps getting into Chuck Norris territory in that picture??!!
He better watch out....Ive heard Chuck doesnt cotton to being outgunned.
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