...are so beautiful and yet. Etc, etc, etc, to quote a famous actor and his most famous character.
I'm back home in Columbia, Missouri, for a "Last Hurrah!" I'm getting inducted into my high school's jock hall o' fame tonight. Too bad I don't have my old letter jacket - not that it would fit. I could be the embodiment of that guy whose last great day was the "big game" in high school!
Don't let my cynicism fool you - I'm tickled. I was the first state champion jock my school ever had. That's a record you can't lose to someone else. And, in a sense, that's why I went to Rock Bridge. Columbia had finally grown enough to need another high school, and those of us who were already in high school but who fell into the new district were given the choice of staying at the old school. I went with RB - I wanted to take the chance to establish traditions, not just maintain existing ones. Not many get that chance.
Heh. I still think of it as "the new high school" even though it has quadrupled in size, my niece and nephews are graduates, and it has been around for 37 years. Amazing to realize I've been out of high school for 35 years, given my behavior hasn't changed all that much. I don't think I want to ponder that too deeply...
I came in yesterday, to do some tidying up from the passing of the Auld Soldier, by naming the Reverend Heather McCain a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Foundation. Heather was the poor Rotarian who came to visit the Auld Soldier in the hospital and ended up ministering to him and the family when he died, and then being the rock the rest of the family clung to, as she put together the memorial service and burial. That was Heather's first military-themed funeral. She wasn't used to a service replete with people with guns who sounded a bugle and then started volley firing... She handled it with grace and aplomb, as one would expect.
We had the estate sale last weekend, and the Auld Home is now pretty much empty... I suddenly realized that Columbia really and truly is no longer home. The backstop, the place of refuge that was always there if you needed it... is gone, really gone. Soon enough, the Auld Home will be someone else's home. To be sure, there are still family and friends, etc - but the Last Homely House is empty, and the elves have gone over the ocean.
Now, I realize that Castle Argghhh! is the Last Homely House to the Prodigal Son. And is, in fact more like Rivendell than Columbia was... but, damn entropy, anyway. Castle Argghhh!, at least not yet, isn't the Last Homely Home to me.
Heh. I just looked up from the screen (I'm sitting in front of a mirror in the hotel) and realized - the body of the bedside lamp looks like an art-deco 81mm mortar round.
Heh. Only the Armorer would see that in a lamp - well, a lamp that wasn't actually *made* out of an 81mm mortar round.
No, we don't. Really. Ours are made from Brit and Aussie 2in mortar rounds. Not the same thing at all.
I'm back home in Columbia, Missouri, for a "Last Hurrah!" I'm getting inducted into my high school's jock hall o' fame tonight. Too bad I don't have my old letter jacket - not that it would fit. I could be the embodiment of that guy whose last great day was the "big game" in high school!
Don't let my cynicism fool you - I'm tickled. I was the first state champion jock my school ever had. That's a record you can't lose to someone else. And, in a sense, that's why I went to Rock Bridge. Columbia had finally grown enough to need another high school, and those of us who were already in high school but who fell into the new district were given the choice of staying at the old school. I went with RB - I wanted to take the chance to establish traditions, not just maintain existing ones. Not many get that chance.
Heh. I still think of it as "the new high school" even though it has quadrupled in size, my niece and nephews are graduates, and it has been around for 37 years. Amazing to realize I've been out of high school for 35 years, given my behavior hasn't changed all that much. I don't think I want to ponder that too deeply...
I came in yesterday, to do some tidying up from the passing of the Auld Soldier, by naming the Reverend Heather McCain a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Foundation. Heather was the poor Rotarian who came to visit the Auld Soldier in the hospital and ended up ministering to him and the family when he died, and then being the rock the rest of the family clung to, as she put together the memorial service and burial. That was Heather's first military-themed funeral. She wasn't used to a service replete with people with guns who sounded a bugle and then started volley firing... She handled it with grace and aplomb, as one would expect.
We had the estate sale last weekend, and the Auld Home is now pretty much empty... I suddenly realized that Columbia really and truly is no longer home. The backstop, the place of refuge that was always there if you needed it... is gone, really gone. Soon enough, the Auld Home will be someone else's home. To be sure, there are still family and friends, etc - but the Last Homely House is empty, and the elves have gone over the ocean.
Now, I realize that Castle Argghhh! is the Last Homely House to the Prodigal Son. And is, in fact more like Rivendell than Columbia was... but, damn entropy, anyway. Castle Argghhh!, at least not yet, isn't the Last Homely Home to me.
Heh. I just looked up from the screen (I'm sitting in front of a mirror in the hotel) and realized - the body of the bedside lamp looks like an art-deco 81mm mortar round.
Heh. Only the Armorer would see that in a lamp - well, a lamp that wasn't actually *made* out of an 81mm mortar round.
No, we don't. Really. Ours are made from Brit and Aussie 2in mortar rounds. Not the same thing at all.
It was to be the last homecoming night for my High School as they are shutting it down and replacing it with a newer school. The name will change, the mascott, as well due to PC reasons (We were the Colonels , and in Georgia that means we were automatically sponsoring the Confederacy in someones eyes ...although our colors were blue and gold. I'm still trying to twist my brain around what idjit filed that complaint)
But while I knew everyone and I met, and felt as if I had never been gone a day, I also felt like Ihad been gone a lifetime.
I know this is off-topic, but your sentimental post reminded me of something. My grandmother died in 2001, a few months before my youngest turned 1. She was my rock, my confidant, my friend... and I miss her terribly. She's the one I told about boys- and breaking up. She's the one I called when Mom asked me to make something for dinner out of a pound of hamburger. She's the one I am reminded of now when I eat those delicious orange scones from Panera- because she used to make this wonderful orange chiffon cake with a glaze just like the one they use on the scones. And she was the one I wanted to call one day when my son did something really funny I knew she would get a kick out of. It wasn't until a stranger picked up the phone that I realized that calling her was my first thought... almost a year after her death. I cried. I mean SOBBED.
There are some people you just never stop missing. The Auld Soldier will be one of those people for you, John. Some days the memory will make you smile; some days the memory will make you cry. and some days... the memory will make you do both, at the same time, for the same reason.
And you, sirrah, don't read your email. You were (and still are) invited to tonight's festivities - either the dinner at 5:15 out at the school, or the game, starting at 7, with festivites at half-time. Or both.
A curious symmetry - I started school at Russel Boulevard Elementary in Columbia, when the Auld Soldier was a student and ROTC instructor. He went back there to be the Professor of Military Science and chose to retire there, so I finished in the Columbia Public Schools. And since I went to the University, Columbia became the first place I ever lived at for more than two years.
In between Russell and Rock Bridge, I attended MacArthur Elementary at Fort Leavenworth, Paris American Elementary in... wait for it - Paris, then Boeblingen Elementary in Stuttgart, then Wilmore-Davis Elementary in Wheatridge, Co, then West Junior High in Jefferson County, Co, then Augsburg Elementary, then Frankfurt Junior High, then Hickman High before ending up at RB. 10 schools in 12 years. Not bad, considering I went to two of them for two years each (Frankfurt and RB).
I know the feeling. But once we got back to Columbia in '72, Mom and Dad never left, so, even though I was born in Wurzburg, and lived in Hanau, and Fort Benning, and Fort Sill before we ended up in Columbia for the first time - I call Columbia my home town.
While I still have one grandmother around, she doesn't live where they lived when I was young - heck, Grandpa worked for the phone company (MaBell/SWBell/AT&T), and they moved a bit, too, while I was growing up. It was Austin, then Plano, then Austin again through my HS years, and those years in Austin weren't all in the same homes... I am more connected to people than places, I think. When it was time to come "home" after being in AR for more than 8 years, I moved back to where my parents were (my sisters were still in school & still living at home); there is extended family in the area, too (cousins, mostly, besides Grandma), but I can't go back and visit my old high school stomping grounds. It is literally not the same anymore...
So what was the big trophy for - did you score 4 touchdowns in one game?
It's been downhill since then...
The Auld Soldier and I were the first father-son team to be state wrestling champions, and we're still the only ones to have done it in the same weight class.
High school for me was 30 miles south, and I remember the Rock Bridge / JC Jays rivalry was usually a good one.
Your view of the "Castle" will change, don't fight it. The "Castle" will have a deeper sense of being *home*. Your memory of the Auld Soldier's home will fade, but that's OK, everything changes. Rated only on importance to you, what would you bring back with you? Mom and Dad are only a thought away. We all know this is a temporary status, a very short period of time, these are your memories. But like the house most will also fade.
But, at some point, you'll get some 'Really *Grumpy* Old Phart', come over to you and 'Welcomes you into the Old Timers. Good grief, I didn't realize, it's my turn. Since, I'm both an Old Timer and a 'Really *Grumpy* Old Phart', it is my honor, from one Old Timer to another Old Timer, John, The Armorer, Welcome.
My own Auld Home was given up back in early '01 in order to exchange California for Alaska. A few months later we give my own Auld Soldier his last reward. He'd expressed his concern about my going into armour. He was WWII Infantry (1945 Phillipines), but his only exposure to tanks was during training. That training gave him the greatest confidance in how to deal with enemy armour, (a greater tribute to how we prepare these folks I cannot imagine.).
When his time came the nearest critical care facility was at Reno NV, but he was sent to UC Davis Medical Center instead (NV didn't recognize DNR, I didn't know any of this until later), he just didn't want to be any trouble to anyone. To my horror he ended up as a research subject for california and we weren't able to get him back home until after. I don't believe he thought that would be either.
Less then 6 months later the Auld Lady came down with cancer, so I'd started wintering back in CA to take care of what I could. Didn't do too bad, can you imagine trading a day's worth of work for a crew replacing a balky well pump, pipe, controller, and preasure tank for the auld man's Simpson Multimeter that he'd carried with him since the '50's? I dunno, something about that old stuff being more accurate the the digital stuff of the time. My dad and that crew boss knew and understood. Dad was still taking care of his own.
In '03 I was called back to CA in the middle of the fire season to get Mom out of the "home" and back into her home. In October she truelly went to her final home. The last thing she asked me was if she will see her husband and first son again. I asked her to let them know they are missed. She said she will.
Both of the folks were promised that I'd do everything to get them home. I was able to do better with Mom, but both are now with my oldest brother in the same plot. It took a lot to do that and I owe the local VFW for way too much.
The Auld Home is still there and the folks who have it now seem to really appreciate what my dad had done. He built it with his own hands (not the first time) and over built it to last. What more can be said?
James - the Kewpies are Hickman, they had the rivalry with the Jays. Rock Bridge, the Bruins, were more oriented on Helias when it came to the JeffCity area.
Hey, we share the short legs, too! Close to the ground makes a good rassler, as I pointed out in a comment a while back.
The Marine!Goth, when I asked him whether he wanted me to keep W's and I's house or my mom and dad's house, he said 'Grandma and Grandpas - it's the FAMILY home'.
Now I'm faced with selling that one soon, too. The kids aren't coming back to Kansas when they get out of the Corps - they want to settle near her folks, and I'm strangly ok with that.
I may move toward them when I finally retire.