Grocery Store

Okay, so at midnight last night, I got the munchies and decided to make the quick drive to Carr's to grab some chocolate chip cookies.

I get to the check-out and the gal goes to scan the cookies and, lo and behold, there is no bar-code on any of the labeling. The price is CLEARLY marked on the top of the package as $5.49.

There are several people behind me in line.

The girl did not know what to do. She looked at every side of the package about 5 times looking for that danged bar-code. Even though it said $5.49, she wanted that bar-code!

An announcement was made over the intercom system, "Supervisor to Check-Out Stand #2 please." No one came. We stood there for eternity and finally she asked a fellow checker what she should do. The other checker stated to ring it up as Bakery for $5.49.

I could have told her that.

I sorta felt sorry for her but it was comical in a way. She just did not know how to handle the situation.

So I entered my customer number on the keypad and received a discount to $4.99. I paid with a $5 dollar bill and there was 31 cents waiting for me in the change machine. A customer in front of me must have forgotten their 30 cents. I made out on the deal! Well, that is, as long as you don't consider the fact that I shouldn't be eating these things in the first place!

Cat Stevens

So my favorite musician of ALL time is undoubtedly Cat Stevens. His music will always be a part of my life and a BIG part of my memories.

I was fortunate enough to attend a Majikat Tour concert in Stuttgart in May of 1976. To think back and know that I almost didn't make the concert haunts me to this day.

Tammi Williams, Willie and Bobby Cato were going with me and we were going to meet up with Rob Monteith in Stuttgart, then drive to the stadium. My dad was gracious enough to let me drive our car, the infamous Plymouth Fury III, formerly owned by Tammi's dad. (The Fury III can be another post in itself!)

The first reason why we almost didn't make the concert was because Tammi was on the tennis team and she didn't want to miss practice. Looking back, I'm sorry to say we should have just left without her. We had to wait around until after 5pm when practice was done. Stuttgart wasn't around the corner, it took a while to drive there.

We finally got on the road and met up with Rob at his home. Now with Rob in the car, the next issue was finding the stadium. None of us had a clue where it was. It wasn't in the city limits of Stuttgart, but in a surrounding city. After finding the city, we started to drive around looking for a stadium. I noticed a huge soccer stadium with all of its lights on and figured that had to be the venue. Hey, we're talking about Cat Steven's here! He was hot back in the day, especially in Germany.

That stadium was not the right location, there was actually a soccer game going on in the soccer stadium. Go figure!

After driving around some more, we started noticing cars parked everywhere and then saw a big building with lots of people going in. This must be it! We parked, finally got inside to find out that the concert had already started. We actually got there about a half hour late. I was bummed about that but so happy to be there. When we walked into the Sporthalle, Cat was sitting on the edge of the stage with the microphone on the floor. He was so close to the people in the first row. I just thought that was the coolest thing, that he brought himself down to the level where his fans were. We found our seats and I was mesmerized the rest of the show. He came back for a couple of encores and then the lights came on. Everyone was leaving and all of a sudden, he comes back out and starts playing another song. This was totally unexpected by everyone, probably also by his crew! It was so cool. We were lucky to have stuck around.

I remember sitting in my assigned seat the whole time, since this was my first concert and I didn't know the rules! But I do know that Bobby Cato walked up close to the stage and watched him play for a short while.

Up until that concert, I had only pretty much heard his Greatest Hits album. After the concert, I think I bought about 11 albums! I've been a huge fan ever since.

The drive home was a trip as well. After dropping Rob off, I ended up getting on the wrong highway and didn't realize it for quite a while. I think we were headed towards Zweibrucken! Needless to say, we were very late getting home and everyone's parents were waiting up for us. Especially Tammi's! :)

I think I learned a lesson from that experience. My whole life, since then, I've always tried to get to concerts and movies well before they started. I guess it's the thought of missing the concert, which we were close to doing, that makes me arrive early.

So everyone in the world knows that Cat Stevens is no longer Cat Stevens. His name is now Yusuf Islam.

But, I don't consider Cat Stevens to be Yusuf Islam and I don't consider Yusuf to be Cat.

To me, Cat is the musician that gave us all of those beautiful songs back in the 70's. Cat is no longer a living, breathing person to me. He's an artist that is no longer. He lives in my heart and in my memories. My memories of Tammi, Willie, Bobby and Rob. My memories of the Plymouth Fury III driving down the wrong highway in the wrong direction.

When I hear a Cat Stevens song on the radio, that's what pops in my mind. Those good times, back in the day. His music especially reminds me of Rob.

I'm thankful for many things in my life. Cat Stevens and Rob are two of those many.

Transition

Big changes for my family this month.

My family moved to Würzburg, Germany in the summer of 1972. My dad taught high school on the army base there and is retiring this coming week. The retirement is due, but it was ultimately decided upon because the base and the school are closing. Actually, the school is now officially closed. The teachers will be there tidying up this coming week, but the seniors have graduated.

It's a big transition for my family. My parents are moving back to Northwest Indiana, where we're from. That leaves my brother Greg in Germany all by himself. When we moved to Germany in '72, he was in grade school. He considers Germany home. He's established a business there and as far as we know, he's planning on staying "home."

Some would think..."Your high school closed, so what?!"

But it's a little different for me as I've been involved in our Alumni group since forming it in 1988. Since then, I've hosted 5 "All-Class" Alumni Reunions and have the next one already planned for June of 2009 in Las Vegas.

So, between the alumni thing and my parents still living in Germany, I was always connected to the high school and some of the teachers that stayed there for so long and were good family friends.

This past year was hard on my parents since most of their friends had already moved on. They weren't able to enjoy the company when they went out to eat at their favorite restaurants. The move home will be good. They'll establish their home base in Crown Point, Indiana and now they'll be able to host those friends when traveling through the area. I know the Renner's also live in Indiana, they're pretty close. Coach Smith is in Ohio, not far away. I'm sure they'll have plenty of visitors to keep them company.

Although our high school is now closed, the memories live on and my reunions help solidify those memories and extend them and, in turn, new memories are formed. New friendships are made. Old rivalries are laughed upon. Apologies are made and accepted.

I remember a gentleman walking up to me, I believe at the 2000 reunion. He asked me if I knew who he was. I looked at him and didn't have a clue. He brought out his yearbook and showed me his picture from back in the day. I immediately thought to myself..."Oh shit!" This was a kid that I tormented in Boy Scouts. Us older and higher ranking kids always picked on the younger ones and I remember that we used to pull some good pranks on this guy. I asked him to forgive me and we just laughed! I was lucky not to get a black eye that night. But that's the way it is, we're all older and wiser and grown up now and things are put into perspective.

Hosting the reunions and maintaining our website over the years has been a pleasure for me. It's satisfying to know that old friends have been brought back together through my efforts. And, a lot of new friendships have been formed as well. There have been romances and even marriages due to my reunions. Maybe I keep on hosting them because I'm looking for that special someone myself??? Who knows. It's been quite the ride though. I've had a blast.

R.I.P Würzburg American High School
1954-2008

Tatum

So here's the deal with Tatum, the gal in the videos...

When I set up the site yesterday, I noticed that I could include YouTube videos. My intention was to include some short family videos that are in my YouTube account. I typed in my YouTube username and up popped 4 videos, all of Tatum. I assumed I would be able to choose what videos I wanted to post, but that doesn't seem the case. I'm thinking it takes the 4 most viewed videos in ones account and Tatum's videos are by far the most viewed videos I have!

I wasn't really disappointed since Tatum is so good looking! Why shouldn't she grace this site?!

She's probably going to wonder what the deal is since I also have some of these videos on my MySpace page. But it's okay. I know her and I'm the one that took the videos. I'll let her know about this site so it's not a surprise to her.

Tatum lives in Eagle River, Alaska and is a swimsuit model who travels all over the world in competitions. She's also a ring-girl at the Thursday Night at the Fights, where I take the photos of the ladies. This past season was Tatum's third or fourth season. I think she started ring-girling when she was a senior in high school. Tatum also sings the National Anthem every once and a while before the fights.

If I ever figure out how to change what videos appear, I may change them to some family videos. But for now, I certainly don't mind Tatum being here. She's a great dancer and definitely fun to watch.

Now that I've mentioned Thursday Night at the Fights, I suppose that should be a future post. I've been fortunate enough to be invited by Jim Patton and Jerry Miller to help out with the photography and videography of the ladies and the fights. I'll keep it at that and talk about it in more detail in another post.

So take a gander at one, or all, of Tatum's videos and enjoy. And, eat your heart out, as I had a front row seat right behind the video camera!!! :)

The First Message

What should be posted in a first message on a first blog? Something deep and thought-provoking? Or something light and humorous? Hmmmm!

Over the last couple of days, I've been remembering, and reliving, something I was fortunate to experience this past Friday night.

An Elton John Concert.

Alaska is one of five states that Elton John had not visited yet in his career and he stated in an interview last year that he was determined to visit all five of those states this year.

When I heard he was coming to Anchorage, I was happy to hear it, but I had decided not to purchase tickets.

One problem was the physical act of purchasing the tickets. I certainly am not interested in camping outside of a stadium to be the first to buy tickets to a concert. Since the tickets were going on sale at 9am, the other dilema was that I was at work at the time. I couldn't sit at my desk and keep dialing a phone number in hopes of getting a ticket. And, I certainly couldn't sit at my desk and deal with trying to order tickets on the web. I knew my brother Tim was going to purchase some tickets, but I had forgotten to tell him whether I wanted any or not. So I was resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to get any tickets.

The tickets sold out in less than an hour!

The first concert was this past Wednesday in Anchorage. There were over 8,000 fans that packed themselves into the Sullivan Arena. Elton was by himself. Just him and his piano. The reviews were excellent and I was feeling a bit sad about not being in the crowd. (Note: I didn't take this "Daniel" video, I found it on YouTube.)

The next night he wowed the crowd in Fairbanks. Then it was back to Anchorage for a Friday evening show. This show was added after the Wednesday evening show sold out so quickly.

Friday afternoon, I received a call from my brother Tim, who happened to have two tickets behind the stage. The seats were not together. I thought about it for about 30 seconds and agreed to buy one of the tickets. I realized it was behind the stage and wouldn't be the best seat, but just being in the Arena to share in the experience was enough for me. I was happy.

When I arrived at the Sullivan Arena and found my seat, I was overcome with excitement. This seat was THE BEST. The only place better would have been the first couple of rows right in front of the stage. But my seat behind the stage was only about 20 steps away from where he would be sitting at his piano. No one was in front of me, as I was in the first row. Since I was on the end of the row, I would only have one person sitting next to me. It was roomy and perfect.

Elton came out at 8:15, waved to the crowd, sat down and when his fingers hit the piano keys, I knew this was going to be good. The sound coming out of the piano was so clear and so loud. Then he started singing "Your Song." The sound was great. It didn't hurt that we had speakers right in front of us just for our backstage seats. (Note: I didn't take this "Your Song" video, I found it on YouTube.)

After each song, he stood up and walked the stage, thanking everyone in the crowd. Quite often, he pointed to specific fans in the crowd and said thank you. He paid a lot of attention to us behind the stage as well.

This went on for 2½ hours. Hit after hit. Most concerts I've attended have not lasted that long, even with an opening act!

When I look back over the years, Elton John hits have been with me since my teenaged years. I've grown up listening to Elton John. I still remember the summer when "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was the big hit. Every time I was in a car, I hoped that song would begin playing. And it usually did. I spent that summer in Indiana. It's funny how certain songs define a time in ones life. Some of those songs take me back to my hometown, when I spent the summers there. Others, to this day, take me back to my days in Germany attending high school in Würzburg.

Elton is already down in Las Vegas doing his Red Piano show, most likely playing as I type this.

I have come to realize that I should not procrastinate when such a star comes to Anchorage again. I need to just get the tickets so I won't regret not getting them. Life is short and we should enjoy our time on this earth.

It was an excellent show. I'd rate it up there at the top of the list, and I've seen A LOT of concerts in my life.

The very top of the list is the Cat Stevens Majikat concert that I attended with my friends Tammi, Bobby, Willie and Rob in 1976. I almost didn't make that one either, for a couple of different reasons. That's another story for another time.

I suppose the next post should explain who "Tatum" is, since there are so many videos of her posted here!!! :)