February 6th.....Year 1977

I got out early, around 10am to get some things done that needed to be taken care of...the temperature read 25 degrees on the bank clock...no wind, plenty of sunshine, it seems much warmer than that.  The Sun of course is shifting, and even though we have plenty of winter weather ahead, the direct sunlight, especially in absence of wind, will make the days between now and actual spring seem that much warmer.

"February 6th"  I said to myself " that is one of those days I have burned into my memory banks for the rest of my days"...frankly, I don't really know why...it's just a date, and really nothing special happened on this day.  However the reason I remember February 6th is pretty simple.  I was living just 2 houses from where I reside today, on Brandon Avenue, back in 1977...Patricia and I had been married about 7 weeks.  Much like today it was a sunny day, with a bit of snow on the ground and I was ready for Spring...it had been a long winter.  I yelled at the Airedales, Rag and Max, and loaded them in the Jeep Cherokee...and we headed for Windy Point...the dogs loved swimming there, but with ice on the lake and temperatures in the 20s, there would be no swimming for sometime to come.

Windy Point, on the southside of Grand Lake has always been a place where I cold go and just sit...especially in the fall and winter months, very seldom would there be anybody around...1977 was one of those days.   I don't remember if I had classes that day at Wright State Lake Campus, probably not, but I did have to bartend at Fat's Stag Bar that afternoon.  I had moved on from Hocking Tech and was enrolled in the Environmental Health Program at WSU-Lake, taking day classes while I worked afternoons and evening at Fat's slinging drinks and serving ham sandwiches and chili soup.

One thing about those first two Airedales was...they loved to ride.  If and when I stopped and got out of the Jeep, Max the 100 pound male, and Rag, his female boss at 65 pounds would jump to the front seats...Max always in the driver's seat and Rag taking over the passenger side...damn I miss those days!  During the summer months I would haul them out to Windy Point to swim...the both loved the water...Max was a natural swimmer, like all Airedales, being the partial descendants of Otter Hounds, they were drawn to water...Rag on the other hand, while loving the water, was the worst damn swimmer of any Airedale I have known...she did a half assed "Dog Paddle" but always got to where she was going....

Patricia and I would drag them to the Michigan Lakes, where we would all end up in the shallows of Higgins or Kneff Lake in the Upper portion of the lower Peninsula...anyway back to February 6th, 1977.  That day, it seems, is the day I designated to be the beginning of my lust for Spring weather....and so it remains to this day.

Baseball Begins....sort of!

Tonight we will have our first official meeting of the Mid-West Buckeye Baseball Umpires Association...Van Wert Middle School will be the site.  Thus but another sign that Spring is on the horizon, and we can soon leave Winter behind.  I am looking for the end of basketball, although last night in the 7th/8th grade Junior High games at St Marys, I officiated the best Junior High game I can remember, as the host Roughriders took down Fort Recovery in the 8th grade game 48-43...after a 16 all time at the half, both teams were on fire in the second half, with St Marys finally scoring the last 6 points of the game to put it away.

I will continue with a look at my Air Force years in the next posting....with that I will look at the 39 day break between Vietnam and Upstate New York.

back later>>>>
Photos-Nothing Really Planned for today, but once I remembered it was February 6th, I figued I had to get out to Windy Point...just to kick some comwebs out of the memory banks.  Frozen Grand Lake at Windy Point, looking my like it did back on February 6, 1977.  The Original Airedales, Rag(front) and Max, back in 1980 in our Dodge City backyard.  Patricia and the Airedals in the shallows of Higgins Lake, Michigan, Memorial Weekend 1977.  And below Rag and Max's favorite Swimming Hole at Windy Point....