My, How Times Change [Or Do We?]
All In The Family
All in the Family came on to the scene in the early 1970s, and changed the way America watched television. Out was Ward and June Cleaver. In was Archie and Edith Bunker. Gone was the hand-holding, family at the dinner table sit com. The Bunkers fought, they yelled, and they sounded more like the family across the street than the Cleavers.
I enjoyed All In The Family so very much. I sided politically more often with Mike, and was uncomfortable with Archie's patriotic, flag waving ways. Man, look around you, Arch. Things arn't that good. But that was during a time when things weren't so good in America. Vietnam. Watergate. Inflation and high oil prices. No, it wasn't fun being an American.
Today, however, I side far more often with Archie. No, not that grumpy, bigoted side, but I do have today those family values that he so uniquely espoused. I think I am typical of most humans I think. At 18 or so, you tend to be more liberal, wanting to have the world and not have to pay the price for enjoying it. As you get older, you become more hard working, more dedicated and more appreciative of those in the world who carry with them a value system.
"By da way Glenn Miller played .... songs that made the hit pa-rade...."
Some Of The Happiest Days Of My Life
Basic Training in 1978
Basic training wasn't that bad. Really. I arrived on January 20th 1978, and for the next six weeks, it was like nothing else I've ever experienced.
I was the "housemouse," or my flight's version of Radar O'Reilly. I acted as the administrative assistant for the T.I., Sgt. Gannon.
Oh, How I Love Sports Photography
Most any person who loves photography, and who loves sports, would like nothing better than to be able to take photographs of sporting events. When you live in the "big city," however, getting noticed is very hard. When I was in high school, a sports editor for the Northern Virginia Sun came to my high school and asked for a photographer to take photographs at that nights football game. I was lucky enough to get the assignment and did the job.
It was many years later that I got the opportunity to photograph big time college football. I met the new head football coach of Idaho State University, Brian McNeely, at my camera store. He needed a photographer and videographer for his team, and he gave me the job. I followed the team for five seasons, from 1992-1997. These pictures were hardest to take because of the lighting conditions and fast movement, yet football was my favorite sport to shoot. I began taking the pictures for the ISU mens basketball team the following year. In 1993, I was the photographer for the Pocatello Posse of the Pioneer league.
I made only a little bit of money, but made many wonderful and lasting memories. It was a great time for me, combining my love of sports with photography. I hope that one day I get the chance again.
The Summer of 1969
Well ... I USED to be cute. Compare this picture with the one shown in my profile. Sigh. "The times, they are a changing"
1969 was a wonderful year. I turned 13 in May, finally, officially, a teenager! My Mother had died in 1967, and that stinging, sinking feeling associated with her loss had finally begun to subside.
This photograph was taken in June, from our 6th floor apartment balcony. We lived in the Lake Barcroft apartments, just down the road from 7-corners in suburban Washington D.C. The apartment was very nice, although I had to share a bedroom with my Dad [so unfair for a 13 year old]. But we had a lot of nice amenities: swimming pool, pool and ping pong tables, weight room and sauna -- all a very big deal in 1969.
It was a great summer. I spent every afternoon at the pool [notice the tan] and every evening with my little red Toshiba transistor radio, listening to MY boys of summer, the Washington Senators. That was the one and only winning season for my team during their 10 years in D.C., making the summer even that more special.
Summer. Baseball. Swimming. And, to top it off, girls didn't seem quite as creepy as they did the previous summer.
How I View Blogging
How I View Blogging
This picture reflects my view of blogging ... with my fee up on the desk. No. Seriously. Blogging is [in my view] the most important outgrowth of the internet. Sure, the internet changed how we live our lives, make our money, and see our position within the global world. But blogging has done more to change who we are as individuals. To this point, the only people who cared what we as unique humans believed were our closest friends and relatives. Now, with the blog, people we will never meet, and likely will never communicate with, are reading and analyzing our thoughts. I have five blogs that range in context from sports to politics. Right now, having been publishing less than two months, I am averaging 20+ hits per week. Where do these people come from? I have no idea. Many like what I'm saying, some strongly disagree. But a dialogue remains open between me and the rest of the world.
When I was a young man growing up in D.C., the only news I received was from the "big 3" networks and the couple of radio news networks. There was no differing opinion, no alternative ideas as to the word around me. Because the networks and newspapers usually copied themselves in character and content, and because my beliefs differed from them, I thought myself to me strange and alone in the world. Today, a single key stroke can find thousands of others who share similar values and traditions. Just like that.
Gosh, I love that.
It's An 8-Track Flashback
Oops. Don't Ask Me For Investment Advice
Many years back, oh, around 1972 I guess, I decided to save up and by a tape player for my '68 Olds 442. I went to the local Montgomery Wards, and found myself having to make a choice. I could get one of two different systems, both new and relatively untried. I could get the "cassette" system or the "8 track" system. Hmmmm. Let me think. The cassette tape is about 1/10th the size of the 8 track, and plays about 45 minutes per side. The 8 track has to switch from track to track as the tape loop ends, causing a really loud "clunk" noise. Often, this "clunk" comes in the middle of the song. "Bye bye, Miss American pie, drove my Chevy to the" *CLUNK* "levy but the levy was dry." The 8 tracks were a little more expensive [$4.77 at Harmony Hut near 7 Corners shopping center." Hmmmmm. "I'll take the 8 track please" I said to the sales guy. Within three years, 8 track system were no longer made, and cassette tapes continued well into the mid 1990s. So, never, never gamble on my predictions.
