DaughterGeeding was asked by her mother to draw a picture of our house. Of course it wasn’t great looking, but she put a lot of detail into the drawing, such as including the blinds on the windows. Instead of us interpreting her drawings, we ask her to tell us about it and she’ll point every little detail, but the kicker this time was she turned the sheet of paper over and on the back side was a drawing of the back of the house. We thought that was pretty darn impressive.
SMU’s woes continue, this time they were shutout by rival TCU 56-0. In the four games they’ve played, they have only scored a total of 12 points (one touchdown for the year) while they opponents have scored 202. There are 128 Division 1 football programs in college football, and SMU ranks last in rushing yards, points for, and points against. Since Deion Sanders’ kid plays for them, I’m surprised we haven’t heard some public griping.
Would it have killed Jerry to open the roof last night? But then again, Dez would probably cramp up again. And it’s kinda weird that both head coaches last night own homes in the area.
I think the hardest position in the Chipotle line is the first one where you have to deal with greeting the customer, warm the tortilla, and serve the rice and beans.
The background of the new Weekend Update set a map of the globe, but the land looked like water and the water looked like land.
’60 Minutes’ let Lara Logan out of the dog house, I’m actually surprised she’s back even in the smallest capacity. Obama was interviewed on the show, and I normally think he’s not good at these things as he tends to over think his answers as he’s speaking and then just rambles, but he seemed well prepared yesterday. He gave an answer about U.S. leadership (pretty authoritatively) that I think even his enemies would be proud of (I’m just speaking about the rhetoric), but I’m probably wrong.
Last night John Oliver stated that Obama has used drone strikes much more than his predecessor, but to be fair, I don’t think drone technology and availability was just getting to the point in which it was dependable.
According to this article, the Secret Service took days to realize that a gunman had fired at and hit the White House several times back in 2011 while the First Daughters were home.
I found it interesting that the ‘Family Guy’ – ‘The Simpsons’ mashup was really a Family Guy episode. The show started off with . . . I’m not going to spoil it for anyone, I’m sure most of my readers recorded it and watched the Cowboys last night. All I’ll say is that it exceeded my expectations and I won’t be deleting it anytime soon. Now I want to see a special about the making of the episode and how the creative talent worked together.
Here’s an interesting article about the Starbuck located inside the CIA. The baristas not only have to go through an extensive background check but can’t write names on the cups.
Renewed. Refreshed. Restored. Rekindled. There was so much of me that didn’t have any intent on going because I felt I already kept in contact with people that I value and it would be too emotional for me to go back as things are just “different” since my parents died. Hot damn, this trip HOME was worth it and it filled me with joy that I could take my wife and kids. I think I haven’t been to Mineral Wells in a decade. I haven’t had a night that made me feel so good in so long.
It’s only when you age and gain some perspective that you can really understand and appreciate the phrase, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” That rung so true on this metaphoric walk down the Nile. There was so much that changed with that town, yet there was so much that just stayed the same that keeps it unique.
I forget how much I miss the scenery of the rolling hills and rocky areas west of Fort Worth, and to my surprise Weatherford now has a lot of traffic. Never would I have thought it would be so congested in certain parts.
I wanted to visit my grandparents grave which is between Weatherford and Mineral Wells, but surprisingly it now has a gate and visiting hours. There’s also a house near that cemetery that was kind of built into a hill, so the roof is actually a lawn, and it’s nice to see it’s still around. I always heard it was tornado safe and all the soil made great insulation.
There’s no way I can adequately describe or list all the emotions and memories that came flooding down right as I drove into town.
One of the first places I visited was my father’s old place of employment, the Palo Pinto Community Service Corporation. It was based in the old Nazareth hospital that the Catholic church leased to the organization for one dollar a year. Sadly the place is defunct and boarded up. I have good memories of Mom driving me there to surprise Dad with a special snack she made. It also had one of those old timey elevators when you actually had to close the gate.
I told myself I wasn’t emotionally ready to drive by my childhood home, but I summoned up the courage. Not everyone can call one house “home” for almost thirty-years. Mom and Dad worked so hard keeping the lawn in tip-top shape as well as the exterior, but when I saw my old home there was a gutter barely hanging on, trees and bushes extremely unkempt, and numerous other things in disrepair. As unsettling as it was to see that, it brought a certain kind of closure I’ve been seeking.
I drove by my very first friend’s house. We use to poke fun at his father for never taking the Christmas lights down, which all were blue. Sure enough, they were all still there.
From 1935 to 2007 our high school called Miller Stadium home. It wasn’t anything special, but it had an old school charm to it. Now the games are played in a high school version of AT&T Stadium. Our class was going to rent a suite for the game, but it costs a whopping $5oo a game, and they are actually pretty swanky. Sure, proceeds go to a scholarship, but geez Louise. Never in my life would I have thought Mineral Wells could have something so nice and modern.
When I was in high school everyone got to the game before kickoff, but Id say almost a third of the crowd was outside the gates at kickoff.
I forgot how much a small town basically shuts down for a football game. On the way home WifeGeeding and I talked about how the feel of a small town football game is drastically different from a large school.
During my senior year I really wanted to be voted “most likely” or “best” something and I thought I didn’t have a chance at anything, as it was just a write in ballot. I asked a lot of my friends put me down for Worst Driver, but to my surprise I actually won Most Friendliest and Worst Driver. To help a friend out, I declined the Most Friendliest title.
It was nice upon entering the gate that some people actually recognized and called out to me. It feels really good to have your name called out in excitement. I thought I’d enjoy just seeing friends, but I may have enjoyed visiting with their parents more. One parent told me she has a picture of herself and my mother in a framed photo near her dinner table.
My older brother is named Ben and as the younger brother, a lot of teachers and others use to accidentally call me by his name and others referred to me as Little Ben. While I liked it at the time, I just felt like I was in his shadow and not unique. Thankfully he was never brought up, people actually remembered me for being me.
The best thing about the experience was how relaxed everyone was, no egos or grudges, and all social cliques were nonexistent. But I did make a point to seek out certain people and just tell them I wanted to apologize because I felt like I didn’t treat them with enough respect in high school, but none of them felt I slighted them at all. I also made a point to talk to those I had high regard for and tell them that I appreciated how they treated everyone the same, how genuine they were, and for being sincere.
Some folks never age.
The furthest someone traveled was a freshly retired Marine (just finished serving 20 years) from Florida who looked like someone out of central casting. Gosh, he was massively built.
One guy finished his PhD in Music Education and is now . . . a cop.
Another guy is a K9 officer who just happen to put his partner down before coming to the game. Ouch.
Two classmates got a head start on family as their daughter was in the homecoming court.
One friend lost a mother and brother to MD, and his father recently had a liver transplant who is making a remarkable recovery.
It was a bit surprising that one friend is the father of nine children to several different women in different states.
One girl I don’t think I said a word to in high school tapped me on the shoulder and introduced herself to me. It took me a second to remember her, but she and her mother was amazed at how much I remembered hanging out at her house when I was in elementary school.
It was fun talking to the first girl I ever danced with and the first girl I ever took on a date, we had some fun reliving some memories.
There was a decent amount of people that didn’t graduate with us but still attended this class reunion as they had more memories with us than the school they actually graduated from.
A lot of folks told me to find them on Facebook, but were quite surprised when I told them I don’t have a Facebook account.
One friend told me that I taught one of her employees in the college finance class I use to teach.
The school song and fight song must have changed, it doesn’t sound anything like I remember.
I really cherished showing off my wife and kids.
On the drive home, I forgot just how dark country roads can be. City life makes you soft after a while.
The thing is, I really wanted to stay longer and catch up, but I’m afraid if I did, it would have taken away from how great the night was. It’s one part of not having too much of a good thing, one part of leaving them wanting something more, and one part not overstaying your welcome.
The kids won’t stop talking about the football game or playing football with each other in the house. BoyGeeding prefers to tackle as oppose to run with the ball.
Sounds like a great trip. That stadium must be a trip. Don't think I've ever seen suites at a high school stadium.
Nice post, K! I didn't go to school in a small town, but did go to a school with a small graduating class (16).
Oh, and you're not the only one without a FB account…