Thursday, March 27, 2008

A Hint of Spring/My Back Pages

























































































































Funny thing about March in Ohio(and the midwest in general) seldom are two days alike. After working a baseball scrimmage on Tuesday in windy, cloudy, and raw conditions, yesterday was pretty nice for a late March day. Sunny, a breeze from the west and low to mid 50s for a high. After getting out and walking for a mile or so, trying to loosen up from the previous umpire work, and before heading off to Van Wert for what was probably our final umpire class of the spring(there is one more but Sam and I have a game in far off McGuffy, Ohio next Wednesday), Reagan the Airedale and I headed out to the back yard...much work to be done out there in the next couple of weeks before Spring hits full stride, but I sat out back cracked open a beer and pulled out a nice medium body Robusto and fired it up.....the March sun was warm, especially sitting in jeans and a sweatshirt....sat out there for about an hour contemplating just about nothing, and enjoyed it. Snapping a few photos, including one 'self portrait'....sometimes you shouldn't do that...you begin to realize just how much you age, and how quickly you do it.

The Byrds had a perfect sound about aging, in reverse. My Back Pages, written by Bob Dylan, and released in 1967, that same spring I graduated from Celina High:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH6FB5zGtWw


Today, after the almost perfect Spring day yesterday, is back to rain and cooler....and the forecast is "hit and miss", mostly hitting with rain and some snow, for the next few days.....yes indeed it's Spring in Ohio, I guess we can be thankful in this part of the state, we have no flooding, and have had no tornadoes.
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Photos-My own back pages from the top....Mom and me sometime in 1949 in Scott, Ohio....the next two photos are from that early Scott era as well. Me and dad's trusty single shot 12 gauge with a Fox he dispatched, and me appearing to be waving, but as mom tells is, it was me trying to shade my eyes from the sun, both in the very early 1950s. The next 2 are from my years growing up in Venice, Florida....me and brother mike with the "jew fish" that dad caught, and my first grade mug shot from Venice Elementary in 1956. Then we have the basic Air Force Cop School mug shot from San Antonio in 1968, and me sitting on the folk's Dodge Charger in Montezuma in 1968, just before heading to basic training...you can tell by the always present smile, I was thrilled.
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We have the burnt out post Air Force Red Door bar tending days, on the beach at Daytona with my hippy dippy love van in June 1975....then me and Patricia with her parents Bill and Bev, on December 18, 1976, and me and Anissa in 1979, when living on the farm outside Wausau, Wisconsin.
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Me, Patricia, and mom, on the wife's graduation from Wright State in 1988 at the ripe old age of 34...she now has 3 degrees, Associates, BA, and a Masters.....PRH on TV doing the news/weather/sports and general BS at Cable Channel 7 in Van Wert, back in 1986. And to top it off, Patrick turns 50, Pat smoking, a cigar, and finally the modern day(yesterday) Pat sitting on the back porch, smoking a cigar, looking every bit the 59 years old that I have made it to. And despite the weathered face, enjoying it all for as long as I can.
























8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean. I look at pictures of me taken in the 1970's and 1980's during my military service. Then I look at pictures of me now, and I think "damn, how did it come to this?"

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Us SkyCops be good people!

Buck said...

...you begin to realize just how much you age, and how quickly you do it.

Wowzer...do I EVER hear that! But: aging beats the alternative, any day. Well, most days. ;-)

Ron Simpson said...

is that a Cadillac Gage Commando?

PRH said...

Ron Sez..."Is that a Cadillac Gage Commando?"

lol...had not remembered that name for years, but that is exactly what they be....the 14th SPS had 2 of them, and those SOBs were hot down in the hole.....but man, we thought we looked cool riding around in them.

Anonymous said...

I saw some of the Commando type security vehicles at Yechon Air Base in Korea in 1980. So they were still using them then.

Ron Simpson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ron Simpson said...

The airforce had them. My dad was stationed in Pensacola. The AF version was air conditioned and had padding on the doors. Very efimminate.
I can say that 'cause I joined the army.

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