Comments for Mem'ries...

Mem'ries...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:53:03 -0600

...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...

Comment from threadbndr on 2010-02-15

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:34:59 -0600

John, I'm coming to that point.

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.

Comment from Justthisguy on 2010-02-13

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:08:13 -0600

This cuts a bit close to my own memories of home places which no longer exist. Ow. My letter sweater was a band one, eventually tossed into a dumpster by the ex-brother.

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.

Comment from JamesLee on 2010-02-13

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 07:56:01 -0600

Hickman! That's right. I didn't do much of the sports stuff myself, was too busy wasting gasoline on Missouri Boulevard every weekend and chasing girls and beer. Rock Bridge was a name I remembered, but Hickman was the big one.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-02-13

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:04:50 -0600

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.

Comment from Rod Thorsen on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:45:52 -0600

I can't comment on others recollections, they should be remembered and charised as I do my own. I'm also trying to avoid another Hospitalier Moment (My sincerest apologies for that John, must make note to self, never try to be cute and clever). So please bear with me if it takes awhile to post this (not that anyone else will know).

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?

Comment from Grumpy on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:44:02 -0600

With your sale of the house, you become a member in the class, known officially as "old-timers". I've found no words, that even begin to express everything that goes on inside of you during this process.

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.

Comment from JamesLee on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:25:42 -0600

Been too many years and too much salt water off the fantail; is the Qewpies the "old" high school, or the "new" high school?

High school for me was 30 miles south, and I remember the Rock Bridge / JC Jays rivalry was usually a good one.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:23:58 -0600

Tim - I was all conference offense my junior year, all district offense and defense, and all state defense my senior year in football. I was conference, district, and regional champion in wrestling both years (I took my sophomore year off from everything because I had rheumatic fever) and I was third in state my junior year and state champion my senior year.

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.

Comment from Tim on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:07:14 -0600

So what was the big trophy for - did you score 4 touchdowns in one game?

Comment from Miss Ladybug on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:14:27 -0600

Oh, and I have lived in Augsburg longer (over those three times Daddy was stationed there) than any one place anyplace else...

Comment from Miss Ladybug on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:09:25 -0600

Oh, I remember you are a Brat, too. You moved more often than I did. I attended Boone Elementary K-2, Augsburg American Elementary 3-6, Bassett Jr High (El Paso) 7-9, Austin HS (El Paso) 10th & the first month of 11th, and finally Augsburg American HS until graduation.

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...

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:59:08 -0600

Don't forget, I was a brat, too, Miss L. I attend Augsburg Elementary, which went through the 7th grade. Back then, the HS was 8-12.

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.

Comment from Miss Ladybug on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:48:01 -0600

I don't really have a "home town" to go back to, to see old friends. Dad was in the Army and we moved every 3 or 4 years. During my four years of HS, I went to three different schools in two different cities (freshman year at a junior high, sophomore year at a HS in the same city, then the PCS to Augsburg). Ten years after I graduated, they closed the high school, as they also closed down all the American military facilities there, turning them back over to the Germans. My HS classmates are scattered around the US - and the world (the kid - 4 years younger - who sat behind me in German class when I was a junior is an AF pilot going to some school in Indonesia - one of those "we send ours to you, you send yours to us" exchanges, I think). There will be no going home for me like that. While I wouldn't trade my experiences growing up as I did, I do sometimes envy those who have someplace to go back to, from time to time.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:47:40 -0600

Your brain doesn't, sir. I was 3rd the first year. First the second. I choked the first year.

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.

Comment from prestonious on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:18:27 -0600

Congratulations Mr.State champion 2 years in a row (if my old brain serves). Another well deserved honor.

Comment from AFSister on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:01:55 -0600

I switched high schools just before my senior year started. I still consider myself a graduate of the OLD school- the one I went to through my junior year. It is that reunion that I go to, and those friends I consider my high school friends, even though I graduated from a school some 45 miles away- and a lot closer to the place I now call "home".

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.

Comment from BloodSpite on 2010-02-12

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:10:56 -0600

I experienced a similar ephiany when I went home this past year for the Homecoming Night.

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.