1975-Time in a Bottle!

The rains continued yesterday and as I look out this morning, it is coming down, after a brief dry spell overnight. Our games were rained out, and I expect tonight, and possibly tomorrow's will be the same. League schedules, and Sam and my Sectional Tournament, have already been changed. Speaking of poor Sam....here he is a big time Columbus Blue Jacket fan, gets tickets tonight for the first ever Jacket home hockey game, and boom! The stomach/flu virus that Patricia, then me, had, gets him....he was scheduled for a mid-term today at OSU-Lima, then was heading with a buddy to Columbus this afternoon. He missed the mid-term, e-mailed his prof last night(or early this morning about 3) after getting up and visiting the "throne", something I got used to for a few days while I was in my battle with the bug. I know, with $110 invested in tickets, he will make an effort to get to the game tonight, but that 2 hour drive each way and the 3 hours at the arena, will not be easy....he's young however, and at 27 he might have a chance to recover in time...maybe.

Weather wise, I guess it could be worse...Wisconsin is getting pounded by 6 to 9 inches of snow and winds....now I remember why I left Wausau in the north country after living there for 2 winters....those winters never seemed to end.

1975_________

I got up this morning, saw Patricia off to work, and sat down at the computer, and checked the e-mail....I had been writing back and forth with my old buddy Rick T(pictured with me above at last years 40th RD Reunion) whom I had not seen since the "Red Door Reunion" last April. This Saturday will see another event at the Door, and I was asking him if he was going to make it.

His answer hit me as to how life ebbs and weaves at times....he said he was going to try, he needed a break and would try. Several things were on his plate however....His mom was in the Lima Hospital after undergoing double by-pass and was not responding well. I had just talked with her last month and she seemed fine, but apparently not that fine...Rick said she was struggling. Then on an even sadder note, he mentioned his 15 year old grandson was in a fierce battle at a Columbus Hospital, with leukemia, after a bone marrow transplant. I told him Patricia and I would pray for both, and hopefully he could get away for a night, if not, I would toast him with a drink Saturday night.

I then wrote another e-mail back to him and typed in: "I'm sitting here thinking about your mom and grand kid, I sit here and wonder...Don't you sometimes wish it was 1975 again? I'd like to freeze that time in a bottle, and be sitting there at the Red Door, getting stoned without a care in the world and money to match the cares(none). Our only cares were whose asses were we going to have to kick or get kicked by that night at work, how much beer we could down after we closed, and how soon we could start?

Sad to say Rick, the world doesn't work like that, but sometimes don't you just wish it did?

Later Buddy"

Rick and I tendered bar at the infamous Red Door together from 1973 through the fall of 1975....we were the 2 constants there...I was the so-called manager, he was my right hand man....those couple of years are forever etched in my mind(and his as he wrote back) as the bell weather days of our transportation from youth to adults.

I worked 6 nights a week(Monday nights off) while Rick filled in when I was off and worked Thursday through Sunday. Without exception we would close down the place and either drink at the bar or head to my place, or Jim Olson's, or somewhere else to get our evening "party" started...few nights did we make it home before dawn, or if we did, it was just to hang out. It was one Hell of a 2 year run...something I will never forget or look back at badly for the rest of my days.

Rick drove a little red AMC Gremlin with "Levi" seats...I had an AMC Hornet with the same interior...we took those damn things everywhere. Reds games in Cincy, to beer runs to wherever...those were our fun mobiles, along with my 63 Ford Econoline Wagon, and both of us had motorcycles as well. I can see us tooling down I-75 passing back and forth with each of our cars filled with bodies and beer on the way to Riverfront Stadium. It's a wonder any of us survived...but survive we did, and are still here to talk and write about it.

Don't get me wrong...Patrica and I have been together since my Red Door days, so she knows what I'm thinking. I love my family, I couldn't go back and do those things again if I had the time. But those days, the year 1975 in particular, just before college, marriage, kids, bills, and the aches and pains of getting "mature" and older, are in fact, the days I would put in a bottle if I could.

In the meantime, say a prayer for Rick and his family, especially that young Grandson of his.....

back later>>>>>

photos-top left: Me and Rick at last year's Red Door Reunion/ The others from 1975, views from 303 North Brandon(just a block from where I live today), my first home bought. Me with Jake the Red Tick hound and my 1974, 250 Kawasaki in the background/and my 1973 AMC Hornet, complete with the Levi Package, in front of the house.

Below: Standing in front of the well used Econoline at Daytona Beach in June 1975, and a 1974 Kaw 250 similar to the one I used both on and off the road.