It has been awhile since I have done some things...
It has been more than 50 years since I:
* Turned all the glasses in the kitchen cupboard upside down to keep scorpions out.
* Found a copperhead snake sleeping coiled up on top of a laundry basket full of clean clothes taken recently from the clothesline.
* Went skinny dipping in a neighbor’s pond.
* Lived in a house that didn’t have indoor plumbing.
* Owned a pig.
* Drove my Dad’s irresistible 1952 Plymouth into an immovable hundred-year-old oak tree.
* Had a lime phosphate at Mayfield’s Drug Store after school and then walked two miles home in the blazing sun.
* Fed chickens.
* Rode on the back of Spike Austin’s motor scooter to the bank and deposited money collected for Senior Class Rings.
* Made a valedictory address.
* Played a clarinet solo.
* Played an alto saxophone solo.
* Marched in a half-time show in the pouring rain at a high school football game.
* Sat in the end zone seats at Texas Christian University on Band Day with a band that played the national anthem in a different key from all the other bands.
* Cleaned white suede shoes after marching in a big-city rodeo parade behind many horses who heard Nature calling frequently.
* Danced on American Bandstand in Philadelphia and breathed the same air as Dick Clark.
* Filled a paper bag with bat guano at midnight in a limestone cave on a scavenger hunt just to make my fraternity brothers happy.
* Drove onto a small wooden pier to wait for a ferry to take me across the Wabash to Vincennes, Indiana, and discovered the pier was the ferry.
It has been more than 40 years since I:
* Shoveled snow off a sidewalk.
* Bought snow tires.
* Saw icicles more than eight feet long with my own eyes.
* Flew 1500 miles in the back seat of a very loud, four-passenger Cessna 180 from Omaha, Nebraska, to Orlando, Florida, with a refueling stop in Memphis, Tennessee.
* Climbed to the top of the Statue of Liberty with two small children.
* Ate at a Chinese restaurant on W. 57th St. in New York City with Angie Dickinson and Burt Bacharach sitting at the next table.
It has been more than 30 years since I:
* Rode on Space Mountain at Walt Disney World.
* Visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
* Drove on Lombard Street in San Francisco.
It has been more than 20 years since I:
* Threw a snowball on the second of July at Mount Rainier.
* Saw eagles in the wild in British Columbia.
* Found someone on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. with my surname (Edwin S. Brague, Panel 13E, Row 120 -- zoom in, pan down to twelfth row from the bottom of the panel).
But I have:
* Held a grandchild in my arms.
* Watched a man install a satellite dish on my roof.
* Taken a dying dog to the vet.
* Walked along a beach and gathered seashells.
* Attended the launch of a Space Shuttle and felt the sound waves pass through my body.
* Shown a child Orion’s belt and the Big Dipper and the North Star.
How about you?
My goodness, what a wide variety of archives you have shared. Quite the life experiences.
ReplyDeleteLess than two years ago, I saw wild eagles soar near the appropriately named town of Hope, British Columbia. That is the town, for any trivia buffs, that "Rocky First Blood" was filmed. And no, nobody mistook me for Sylvester Stallone.
Despite your amazing and varied past. Your now is heart warming and encouraging.
In peace and goodwill,
Gary
Lovely, lovely post! I very much enjoyed this. I will think about some of my own.
ReplyDeleteI didn't understand one thing, tho:
"Had a lime phosphate at Mayfield’s Drug Store after school and then walked two miles home in the blazing sun."
What on Earth is/ was a 'lime phosphate', and was the blazing sun relevant to this said lime phosphate?
This was a lovely idea for a blogpost and one I should mimic some time. How did the authorities react when you abducted those two children and forced them to the top of The Statue of Liberty?...Also, if you died in Vietnam you are currently a ghost and it sends a shiver down my spine to realise I have been in communication with a veritable poltergeist! Have a nice day!
ReplyDeleteTHOSE ARE EXACTLY exactly THE VERY THINGS I HAVE DONE OVER THE PAST 60 ODD YEARS{ME BEING THE ODDEST EXCEPT MAYBE FOR YOU<><>YES WE ARE TWO PEAS WHO PEE IN THE SAME PEA PATCH
ReplyDeleteA LIME PHOSPHATE IS VERY MUCH LIKE A CHERRY IRON PORT AND THEY USED TO COST A NICKLE AT CALDWELL'S DRUG STORE
ReplyDeleteGary, and much peace and good will to you as well.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, a lime phosphate is a carbonated drink and the blazing sun had nothing to do with it!
Y. Pudding, Esq., thank you for the compliment. I did not abduct two children. Also, I am not currently a ghost. The jury is still out, though, on whether you have been in communion with a veritable poltergeist.
Putz, though it pains me to say it, two peas in pod, that's us!
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you for explaining a lime phosphate to Katherine.
Such a lovely post! Thank you for sharing that x
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emma! It was my pleasure.
ReplyDelete