I am just curious how many people will be able to understand the reference to Mr. Peabody and the way back machine. Oh, how much better was TV when I was a kid. When I was a child the television was my good friend. It stayed up late with me and kept me company on a Saturday morning. People use Microsoft Office to manage their schedules but I kept everything in my life tracked around the television schedule. Monday nights was the A-Team. Thursday nights was St. Elsewhere. Saturday morning was Loony Tunes, Space 1999, and Star Trek. During the week it was the Rocky and Bullwinkle, Banana Splits and the Japanese animation hour with Robotech and Star Blazers. There are plenty of these types of shows on TV today so what is the difference? TV was just a lot more innocent then. There was not as much pushing of the boundaries as there are today. Less sex, less violence depicted, and less foul language. Growing up, there were only a few kids that shared my love of sci-fi television. Only a geek or a nerd would watch those shows. My friend Brian was the one who would like the same kind of shows I did when I was in high school. Sometimes we would call each other and watch the shows from our own houses. One thing I did not watch much of as a kid was sports. I usually found those to be boring. Now as an adult I like them more because I have an allegiance to certain teams. Being a kid was so much easier. There is a great web site called http://www.retrojunk.com that allows you to see scenes from all the great shows, commercials and other things that made being a kid great.
Thinking about the way back machine, there is one time when I which such a device actually existed. In my senior year of high school there was a girl I had a severe crush on, Sheri-Ann Nogueira, but another one of my friends did too. Let me just say I had a 4 year crush on her though I hardly said 4 words to her the 1st 3 years of school. In my senior year history class, Sherri sat on the other end of the room with the jocks and because they would talk in class my teacher moved her to a seat right behind mine. Within seconds I was talking to her too. My teacher stood up and said " Cormier you don't all year long and I move Sherri there and you start talking, like a fly to shit I tell you." That ended my talking to her. At the end of the school year I asked her to sign my yearbook, I was nervous even doing that like every other opportunity to talk to her. Anyway I asked her and she signed it saying she was glad we finally started being friends.That was a real lift.
I always thought I never had a chance in the world with her but I knew Mike had less of a chance then I did. To put into perspective just how much of an introvert I was, let me set up this scenario. Mike and I were on the telephone talking about Sherri and Mike had an idea. he would call her on the phone using three way calling and talk about me and then I would do the same thing to her and talk about Mike just to see what she would say about each of us. Mike put me on hold and called Sherri's phone and then linked me in so I could hear them. Mike and Sherri made small talk for a minute and then when Mike stared to talk about me, Sherri has this great idea-she'll use three way calling to call me so mike can talk to me about her and she can listen.. When i heard this i panicked and hung up. When you have 3 way calling and one party hangs up sometimes you may reconnect and sometimes you cant right away. About 10 seconds after I hung up the phone rang which meant Mike was trying to reconnect to me. When I said hello, instead of hearing Mike's voice I heard Sherri. I started to freak out, then I thought that maybe she and Mike set their 3 way call up but I never heard Mike. Sherri and I talked for about 15 minutes and it was very awkward for me, I was just a mess on the phone. That was the lest time I saw or heard from her in 20 years. With our high school reunion coming up, there is a list of a few students that the school has lost contact with and she is one of them. I have no idea where she lives or what she has been doing.
Oh how the way back machine would come in handy.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
A day in the life, part 7 - Texas American Flight Academy
Ever since i was 7 years old I always wanted to be a pilot. It started when my family took our first flight to Orlando. It was a night flight and everything about that flight was awesome. My dad brought me to the airport so I could do one of those 20 minute scenic flights from our hometown airport and I was hooked. When I was 17 I took all the money I had and trained for my private pilots license, getting it when I was 18. In 1991, at the age of 19 I decided that flying was going to be my career choice but I needed to get more advanced ratings and I needed them fast. I decided to go to an accelerated flight school where I could receive all my training in about 6-9 months. I looked at three different schools, one in North Carolina, on in Tennessee, and one in Ennis Texas.
Ennis is a small town about 45 miles southeast of Dallas. When I moved there, I lived in a condo that was leased by the school. I already had a couple of things not going for me when I arrived. First off I was 19 and married and my wife at that time was in school in Massachusetts and could not go with me. Second, all I had with me for transportation was my bike because I could not afford a car out there. Third was my new roommate-Drew.
Drew was the opposite of me, outgoing, a party kind of guy that loved skydiving and nude sunbathing. He owned a white cockatoo that was loud and, well just really loud. Drew was also something of the ladies man. I remember one night he was running to the liquor store even tough he was waiting for two girls to arrive at our condo. He told me he would only be a couple of minutes but if the girls arrived to just keep then company. Of course they show up before he gets back. When they knocked on the door, I open it and find two blonde's standing in the doorway in jackets and lingerie. I knew how Drew wanted me to keep them company, after all I was 19, but I was also married. Drew was back shortly and took over where I could not. The next few hours I could hear all the fun through my bedroom wall.
In the 9 months I lived in Texas I made some great friends, though I do not have any contact with any of them now and I surely miss that. Rob Johnson was my flight instructor, a guy from Ct whose father was an American Airlines pilot. Rob was everything I wanted to be, a great pilot, a funny guy, all on his own with a goal in life. Bianca Entermann was a girl from California whose father worked for Boeing if I remember correctly. She brought her horse from California to Texas with her. She was a good pilot, she was also a good friend. She left TX for a couple of weeks and let me use her car because I did not have one. She also turned me onto The Cure, I listen to that music over and over. Bianca was involved in a gear up landing and she was not injured in the crash but I was very upset when i heard about it. At the time I did not know if she was hurt or not but she made out fine. Keith Keegan was another guy who was probably one of the best pilots I ever flew with. It's ironic that in all the years that I have been flying, I came close to crashing twice and both times were with Keith. Neither one was his fault, just happen that way. Keith was the person that everyone knew was on to bigger things in life. I heard he was involved in a DUI stop after graduation and we didn't think any airline would pick him up after that. I don't know what happen or where Keith is now. Connie Gust was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines that wanted to be a pilot. I think she was Minnesota. She would spend a lot of time with me studying or just talking about flying and she was a good study partner. There were a few other guys as well, Greg, Pat, Jim, all guys that were very close to me then but gone now. Greg was the Vodka and orange juice guy. He would always have a bottle of vodka in the freezer for when we all gathered around the pool area to relax after school. He was also something of a practical joker. Once I was held up at a railroad crossing on the main street in town. There were two girls in the car next to me and one of them threw her underpants in my car and told me she was going to a party and I had to bring those back to her. Being married put a stop to that invitation. Anyway a couple of weeks later when my wife came out to visit, Greg came in to the classroom with a pair of womans panties and threw them at me and said that girl wanted them back. My wife was sitting right there with me and didn't think the joke was funny. At the time i didn't either but I do now.
When we left school we took down everyone's name and address and said we would write. I did a few times but after a while people stopped and I did as well.
Being in Texas was both the best and worst time in my life for so many reasons. It was the first time I was on my own but I really wasn't being married so all the fun things that most late teens are doing I was not able to. I loved Texas and wanted to move there, sometimes I still do. Dallas was a great city, I saw Van Halen play a free concert there once. I had great friends and I regret not having contact with them still. There were so many great times in that 9 months from sand volleyball games to skinny dipping in the pool, Al the flying I did, all the times I just hung out with other people in the Texas night time looking at big sunsets, talking about flying and where we were all going to be in life someday.
I know I am not in the same place I thought I would be and that is OK because the place I am at is great. I wonder if anyone else in that group of us feels the same way.
Ennis is a small town about 45 miles southeast of Dallas. When I moved there, I lived in a condo that was leased by the school. I already had a couple of things not going for me when I arrived. First off I was 19 and married and my wife at that time was in school in Massachusetts and could not go with me. Second, all I had with me for transportation was my bike because I could not afford a car out there. Third was my new roommate-Drew.
Drew was the opposite of me, outgoing, a party kind of guy that loved skydiving and nude sunbathing. He owned a white cockatoo that was loud and, well just really loud. Drew was also something of the ladies man. I remember one night he was running to the liquor store even tough he was waiting for two girls to arrive at our condo. He told me he would only be a couple of minutes but if the girls arrived to just keep then company. Of course they show up before he gets back. When they knocked on the door, I open it and find two blonde's standing in the doorway in jackets and lingerie. I knew how Drew wanted me to keep them company, after all I was 19, but I was also married. Drew was back shortly and took over where I could not. The next few hours I could hear all the fun through my bedroom wall.
In the 9 months I lived in Texas I made some great friends, though I do not have any contact with any of them now and I surely miss that. Rob Johnson was my flight instructor, a guy from Ct whose father was an American Airlines pilot. Rob was everything I wanted to be, a great pilot, a funny guy, all on his own with a goal in life. Bianca Entermann was a girl from California whose father worked for Boeing if I remember correctly. She brought her horse from California to Texas with her. She was a good pilot, she was also a good friend. She left TX for a couple of weeks and let me use her car because I did not have one. She also turned me onto The Cure, I listen to that music over and over. Bianca was involved in a gear up landing and she was not injured in the crash but I was very upset when i heard about it. At the time I did not know if she was hurt or not but she made out fine. Keith Keegan was another guy who was probably one of the best pilots I ever flew with. It's ironic that in all the years that I have been flying, I came close to crashing twice and both times were with Keith. Neither one was his fault, just happen that way. Keith was the person that everyone knew was on to bigger things in life. I heard he was involved in a DUI stop after graduation and we didn't think any airline would pick him up after that. I don't know what happen or where Keith is now. Connie Gust was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines that wanted to be a pilot. I think she was Minnesota. She would spend a lot of time with me studying or just talking about flying and she was a good study partner. There were a few other guys as well, Greg, Pat, Jim, all guys that were very close to me then but gone now. Greg was the Vodka and orange juice guy. He would always have a bottle of vodka in the freezer for when we all gathered around the pool area to relax after school. He was also something of a practical joker. Once I was held up at a railroad crossing on the main street in town. There were two girls in the car next to me and one of them threw her underpants in my car and told me she was going to a party and I had to bring those back to her. Being married put a stop to that invitation. Anyway a couple of weeks later when my wife came out to visit, Greg came in to the classroom with a pair of womans panties and threw them at me and said that girl wanted them back. My wife was sitting right there with me and didn't think the joke was funny. At the time i didn't either but I do now.
When we left school we took down everyone's name and address and said we would write. I did a few times but after a while people stopped and I did as well.
Being in Texas was both the best and worst time in my life for so many reasons. It was the first time I was on my own but I really wasn't being married so all the fun things that most late teens are doing I was not able to. I loved Texas and wanted to move there, sometimes I still do. Dallas was a great city, I saw Van Halen play a free concert there once. I had great friends and I regret not having contact with them still. There were so many great times in that 9 months from sand volleyball games to skinny dipping in the pool, Al the flying I did, all the times I just hung out with other people in the Texas night time looking at big sunsets, talking about flying and where we were all going to be in life someday.
I know I am not in the same place I thought I would be and that is OK because the place I am at is great. I wonder if anyone else in that group of us feels the same way.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
A day in the life of an average joe part 6- it sucks becomming a teen
Every kid I have ever known can't wait to go up, to do all the things that being a grown up brings. Driving, getting paid for a job instead of going to school, the ability to make one owns decisions in life; Theses are all good things to look forward to. I have to say though that being a kid was a great experience, even if it were not always picture perfect. I just loved being a kid. As a kid there were basically three places where I could just enjoy life. The first was the school playground. It was simple to have fun as a kid, even an average Joe kind of kid. On the swings, I could swing higher then most and had no fear of jumping out of the swing seat and making a that plunge to earth from 10 feet high. We had one of those slides that has a twist to it. My friends and I would go down and stop half way down, causing a blockage as more people came down. The trick was to see how many people you could block in before your legs and arms gave out and you could not hold the masses any longer.
The neighborhood I grew up in was the second. I had my best friend, kick ball games until way past sunset, the ice cream truck, and bike rides until my legs felt like rubber. I used to love building bike ramps and jumping over things, including my trash cans and my brother. Another fun time was playing in the woods and the swamp behind the neighborhood.
The last place was hanging out with my friend Marc Loranger. Marc had an incredible imagination and used to make up whole si-fi story lines that we could act out. Sure it was what most would call "geeky" but it always amazed me how he created things in his head at such a rapid pace. Marc was also kind of a comedian. Sometimes he would sleep over my house and he was a late owl. He would make a heck of a lot of noise to keep me awake until all hours of the morning, sometimes he would even wake up my parents. When they would come down to see what was going on he would pretend to be asleep. Marc was always good for a neighborhood game of football. After we graduated from grammar school together, he went to a different high school and we lost touch for a while. Later I found out he was becoming a reverend. I ran into him once or twice and he was always nice enough to send me a card around Christmas.
Now that I think about it, there were a lot of kids from that time I lost contact with. Steve Brown, whose father was a police officer for our city loved to ride dirt bikes but I don't know where he is anymore. Leah Sousa was one of the girls in my class that I liked and had a secret crush on but I could never tell her about that. the same thing with Diane Lawrence. Jennifer Constintine was the oldest of 8 kids, there was one kid in each of the 8 grades of my school. Her father was a dentist in town but I guess business was good because he needed a big house for 8 kids. Billy doushaneau was one of the kids in class that always made me laugh. i remember one day we had a snow storm and kids were being released early. If you lived close to the school and your parent called, you could be dismissed early and walk home. After announcing one kid after another, Billy stated that if were not the next kid called, he was going to hit his head on the desk as hard as he could. the result was something like " Leah Sousa, you are dismissed" BANG " and Billy Doushaneau is as well. Billy had an older brother named Norman who I think is a police officer in the city here.
There were some times that life didn't feel so funny. I remember getting picked on because of my size or because I was not as good in sports as some other kids. When I got my braces, that was a few days of misery as well. My parents divorced when I was 10 years old. At that time I think I was the only kid I knew who was from a divorced family. I'm sure there were more but it wasn't something that people came out and talked about. But looking back it didn't really matter. One of the worst but funniest was when I started my paper route. I really liked this girl named Karen, she was the paper girl in the neighborhood. I would follow her around all day. I did this for so long she wooed me into talking her paper route for her. The first day I was going to deliver was on Christmas morning and it was freezing cold and very windy. I also had lost the list of house that got the daily paper. So I went along the route in the cold with 85 newspapers guessing what house should receive them. One set of steps was icy and not shoveled and I fell down them knocking the wind out of me. I just laid there unable to breath for a few seconds but that was not a great start to my working career. I got a lot of angry calls that morning from people missing the paper. Being a kid was overall a great experience. Now that I have kids of my own I can see how they too want to grow up fast and do all the things that come with adulthood but I hope they remember how much fun it is being a kid from time to time.
Next time - What the hell is there to do in Ennis Texas?
The neighborhood I grew up in was the second. I had my best friend, kick ball games until way past sunset, the ice cream truck, and bike rides until my legs felt like rubber. I used to love building bike ramps and jumping over things, including my trash cans and my brother. Another fun time was playing in the woods and the swamp behind the neighborhood.
The last place was hanging out with my friend Marc Loranger. Marc had an incredible imagination and used to make up whole si-fi story lines that we could act out. Sure it was what most would call "geeky" but it always amazed me how he created things in his head at such a rapid pace. Marc was also kind of a comedian. Sometimes he would sleep over my house and he was a late owl. He would make a heck of a lot of noise to keep me awake until all hours of the morning, sometimes he would even wake up my parents. When they would come down to see what was going on he would pretend to be asleep. Marc was always good for a neighborhood game of football. After we graduated from grammar school together, he went to a different high school and we lost touch for a while. Later I found out he was becoming a reverend. I ran into him once or twice and he was always nice enough to send me a card around Christmas.
Now that I think about it, there were a lot of kids from that time I lost contact with. Steve Brown, whose father was a police officer for our city loved to ride dirt bikes but I don't know where he is anymore. Leah Sousa was one of the girls in my class that I liked and had a secret crush on but I could never tell her about that. the same thing with Diane Lawrence. Jennifer Constintine was the oldest of 8 kids, there was one kid in each of the 8 grades of my school. Her father was a dentist in town but I guess business was good because he needed a big house for 8 kids. Billy doushaneau was one of the kids in class that always made me laugh. i remember one day we had a snow storm and kids were being released early. If you lived close to the school and your parent called, you could be dismissed early and walk home. After announcing one kid after another, Billy stated that if were not the next kid called, he was going to hit his head on the desk as hard as he could. the result was something like " Leah Sousa, you are dismissed" BANG " and Billy Doushaneau is as well. Billy had an older brother named Norman who I think is a police officer in the city here.
There were some times that life didn't feel so funny. I remember getting picked on because of my size or because I was not as good in sports as some other kids. When I got my braces, that was a few days of misery as well. My parents divorced when I was 10 years old. At that time I think I was the only kid I knew who was from a divorced family. I'm sure there were more but it wasn't something that people came out and talked about. But looking back it didn't really matter. One of the worst but funniest was when I started my paper route. I really liked this girl named Karen, she was the paper girl in the neighborhood. I would follow her around all day. I did this for so long she wooed me into talking her paper route for her. The first day I was going to deliver was on Christmas morning and it was freezing cold and very windy. I also had lost the list of house that got the daily paper. So I went along the route in the cold with 85 newspapers guessing what house should receive them. One set of steps was icy and not shoveled and I fell down them knocking the wind out of me. I just laid there unable to breath for a few seconds but that was not a great start to my working career. I got a lot of angry calls that morning from people missing the paper. Being a kid was overall a great experience. Now that I have kids of my own I can see how they too want to grow up fast and do all the things that come with adulthood but I hope they remember how much fun it is being a kid from time to time.
Next time - What the hell is there to do in Ennis Texas?
Monday, November 5, 2007
A day in the life of an average Joe, part 5 - the class reunion
I know I have been focusing on my high school years recently but this will probably be the end of that for a little while. Actually going by the title, this takes place 10 years after high school. My high school was having a formal reunion in November of 1997 but there was going to be a small informal gathering at a local Irish pub down the street from my house. It was within walking distance and so I decided to take a quick peak to see what was going on. I had no intention to going to the formal gathering the next day.
When I arrived I saw two people that I knew, though I was not friends with them in high school. I was making small talk with one kid when one of the old football jocks came up to me very excited. He put his arm around me and said something like "Hey dude great to see you again. Come on over and say hello to the guy's." I did not play football, I didn't hang out with the football crowd, and I didn't go to the football games so I was not sure what all the excitement was in seeing me. In any case once I was in the mist of 6 or 7 former football players they all seemed happy to see me. All had comments like "Hey buddy it's great to see you" or "Hey man what have you been up to?" I started to tell the story of the past 10 years when one football player called out to a guy named Joe Burke, a football player that was off talking to someone else. Joe Burke approached us and someone from my group said to Joe "Hey you remember this guy?" Joe Burke came over with a smile, shook my hand and said "Jim Butler, how the hell are you? That is all well and good except my name is not Jim Butler. Just as I was about to tell everyone that, the front door of the pub opens and the "real" Jim Butler walks in. As everyone was looking at the door I was making my way out the rear entrance. I felt really low at that point even though I probably should not have. I walked home and told my wife at that time what had happened. Her response was "well you were never popular in school so what did you expect." Comforting words from someone who is supposed to care.
So in less then two weeks my 20th reunion is happening and guess what, I will not be going.
When I arrived I saw two people that I knew, though I was not friends with them in high school. I was making small talk with one kid when one of the old football jocks came up to me very excited. He put his arm around me and said something like "Hey dude great to see you again. Come on over and say hello to the guy's." I did not play football, I didn't hang out with the football crowd, and I didn't go to the football games so I was not sure what all the excitement was in seeing me. In any case once I was in the mist of 6 or 7 former football players they all seemed happy to see me. All had comments like "Hey buddy it's great to see you" or "Hey man what have you been up to?" I started to tell the story of the past 10 years when one football player called out to a guy named Joe Burke, a football player that was off talking to someone else. Joe Burke approached us and someone from my group said to Joe "Hey you remember this guy?" Joe Burke came over with a smile, shook my hand and said "Jim Butler, how the hell are you? That is all well and good except my name is not Jim Butler. Just as I was about to tell everyone that, the front door of the pub opens and the "real" Jim Butler walks in. As everyone was looking at the door I was making my way out the rear entrance. I felt really low at that point even though I probably should not have. I walked home and told my wife at that time what had happened. Her response was "well you were never popular in school so what did you expect." Comforting words from someone who is supposed to care.
So in less then two weeks my 20th reunion is happening and guess what, I will not be going.
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