Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Changes in Attitude....or The Little Dictators Among Us...part #1



 October 2, 2017


Just checking out my blog, before I get started on this newest collections of rants.  I was very active on this site from the time I began in July 2007 through 2014.  I posted about politics, social issues,  my Air Force and especially Vietnam service,  past life remembering, and photos of daily life. For the last 3 years or so, blogging lagged and I turned my "social media" attention to facebook, mostly, with an occasional political and social rant on twitter...never really could get into "tweeting" or is it "twitting"?  Regardless, the blogs, all three or 4 of them, suffered from my own personal boredom.  The events of the past couple of weeks have improved my outlook, as the old fires of troublemaking have began to surface. 

Before I get into my latest wars, with the OHSAA{Ohio High School Athletic Association} and the VSPA {Vietnam Security Police Association}, let me give a bit of background for those not up to snuff on my past life.

Since I was a kid growing up in the {at that time} the small berg of Venice, Florida, I had a big mouth...now that was a problem, since I wasn't the biggest kid on the block...but I took it when it came at me, and maintained my ability to speak my mind, often getting me in trouble with peers and teachers.  The "Board" of Education was used back in the 1950s and early 60s and I paid them dues on more than a handful of occasions.

With the family moving back to Ohio in 1962 during the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis...I was pretty much a nobody, Hell being from south Florida, what did I have in common with a bunch of bumpkins from Celina, Ohio?  I made a handful of close friends, the Jones Brothers and a few guys from Coldwater, but even though I still live here in Celina today{moving back in my radio days in 1980, to be a morning DJ and Program Director at WCSM}, I never have considered Celina my "Home"...Venice, the old Venice of the 50s and early 60s will always be home.  Not that I have anything bad, well some but wont' cover that here, about Celina these days, it was a good place to raise the family {nee: Watching my wife raise the family} and a safe and friendly town to reside in.

After High School, graduating from Celina in 1967{50th reunion is the 13th and 14th of October, I won't likely attend} and a year of partying around Mercer County, I joined the Air Force, and my Hell raising began anew.  The facts being,  I never was good at following orders or being told what I had to do, or act.   Or shutting my Pie Hole!  Although I enjoyed my time at Nha Trang, AB, in Vietnam, the rest of the entire four years was pretty much PRH vs The Lifers.  The fact that I made Buck Sgt in 17 short months, at the time I was at Tan Son Nhut{Saigon} in early 1970 was amazing, especially to me and the older NCOs...I was lucky to have any stripes, let alone three, which was NCO Material at that time....I continued to dodge Article 15s for the rest of my time in the Military...finally get a early out by about 6 weeks in May 1972...after getting into an {let's call it} 'incident" with a little Hitler Like First Lt...The Squadron Commander, Major Bartless{?} I think that was the spelling, told me they would like to give me an Honorable Discharge with no inactive reserve time, if I would "just go"...I agreed and added to the Major, "If I had known it was that easy, I would have slugged that SOB six months ago"

Back to Ohio in the early to mid 70s, where bartending and various colleges, under the GI Bill, were in my life...more Hell raising, but of the more innocent variety.  By this time, I had learned to handle myself physically, and once Vietnam Duty was done, I never have taken 'stuff" off anybody, regardless if they were an employer, or superior at the work place or a unruly drunk while I ran the Red Door in downtown Celina.  After finishing college I finally headed to north Wisconsin, with my wife, Patricia, in tow, I began a short career in Radio Broadcasting.  I was as outspoken on the air as I was off.  Radio owners tend to be nimrods in the true sense of things, and I moved from Wisconsin, then to Kokomo to work Radio News, Dodge City followed, now as News Director at a station called KGNO, then back to Celina as a AM Disk Jockey and Program Director at WCSM, I continued to be outspoken on the air and especially sports play by play...which on occasion got me in Hot Water.

After 5 years of full time radio,  I secured a job with the Mercer County Health Department as a staff sanitarian, something I majored in at College, both at Hocking Tech in southeast Ohio, and locally in Celina at Wright State's Lake Campus.  I still stayed in broadcasting as news anchor and sports director/ play~by~play guy for a dozen years...I majored in ripping officials in both basketball and football,  Who would have expected me to end up doing just that for nearly 2 decades and running?

On to the Van Wert County Health Department as Environmental Health Director and Chief Sanitarian for another dozen years before I finally "retired" from both broadcasting and Environmental Health work at the ripe old age of 53.  For the next 15 years I would deliver RVs{6 years} around the country and umpire High School, College, and Summer/American Legion Baseball, and then picking up football and basketball officiating for the next decade and a half.

My ability to "piss off" the self appointment elites, Liberal lackey types, and folks in bloated, lazy, organizations, like the Ohio High School Athletic Association {OHSAA} and the Vietnam Security Police Association{VSPA} have not dimmed in my Senior Citizen days...and it appears I have opened a new chapter, can of worms,  especially with the bloated "Bean Counters" in the officiating office of the OHSAA.

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That is the Next Chapter...PRH vs The Dictators and their Toadies in the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

Photos:  A "selfie" from a couple of years ago, showing my attitude for all to see.  1969 @ Nha Trang Air Base RVN October 1969.  In Wausau, Wisconsin, in February 1979 with first child, daughter Anissa, at Wausau South Hospital.  Working the plate during the Sectional Baseball Finals at Lima Shawnee in 2013...and the Logo of the bloated self appointed Ruler of Ohio School Sports...

3 comments:

Sam said...

Looking forward to the next installment .

Unknown said...

Very informational, interesting to know you better.

PRH said...

Noel...having been a good/excellent Basketball Official and seen the OHSAA in action first hand back in the day...I figured you might enjoy...in fact, the official lack of "leadership" reminds me of John Coe back when you worked for WCSM when I was program director in the early 80s :)

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