Thoughts From The Townedger-The Busy Season Upon Me

Since I'm at my real paying job I haven't been playing anywhere since last Sunday dueling drummers jam at Rumors and backing up Blue Scratch the night before.  I really enjoyed playing alongside Kim, Jay and Jorgy and maybe hopefully will be able to do that again.  Hopefully with more patrons dancing the night away.

Bob Thurness passed away Saturday.  He was the head coach of the Marion Indians when I was a senior in high school.  To be honest, I didn't care for Coach Thurness. Since I wasn't a jock or went out for sports I ended up being in his American Studies class, during the worst time of my life,  A senior, having to work at a shit job washing dishes and trying to balance six classes in a effort to graduate with the class of 1979.  I was pretty good at Social Studies, but he flunked me, so I ended up going to the alternative class of social studies and opted not to get stuck in Bob's class only to get another failing grade.   I remember a conversation we had during a lunch break and he asked me how I was doing in the other social studies class.  I told him, I was doing the same thing like I was doing in your class, only this time I was getting a B grade rather than F.

That said, Coach Thurness would be a regular at Naso's Pizza and we would exchange pleasantries and be kind to one another. He wasn't a bad guy, if I went out for football he would have looked at me differently  We just didn't see eye to eye in his social studies class.  But back then, I wasn't exactly a pleasant person to hang around with.  40 years ago, I just wanted to get the hell out of dodge but somehow kept spinning my wheels in my life.  I didn't date very much, only Penny Willard was the one I went out with and I didn't exactly treated her like a queen.  I remember her waiting patiently for me for a homecoming dance that my wonderful place of employment wouldn't let me have the night off. The nightmare date from hell, and I was done dishwashing, reeking of stale pizza and greasy hair to fry a thousand eggs, Penny and myself went over to her brother's to watch movies and have fun being together.  That wouldn't last.

I don't look at my time at a high school-er to be the best years of my life, rather they were the worst of times. The constant getting into fights with just about everybody, I couldn't play or sing to sing my soul but at the same time me and my best friend would picture ourselves on stage.  The Quill Show which I saw Lon Washburn tear up a couple of Ted Nugent songs and setting the stage for me to start learning how to play.  It's a shame that I couldn't do that back then.

I gave my heart and soul to a girl that lived up in Michigan and never really got to date anybody outside of Penny.  There was Janice and she had a crush on me in my Sophomore year,when I forgot to take American Studies 1 and ended up having her in my class.  The day, she actually sat on my lap on a dare. I don't think we were made for each other but she made the attempts to wanting to go out, wanting to do things. I guess this is where I continue to mess up with other girls and women 40 years onward.  I was flattered that she looked my way, I just never followed through on asking her out or at least make some educated effort about learning how to date.   Eventually she did find the right guy and has been with that guy for thirty plus years.  Me, I never got out of the record store.  I never reconnected with Janice, it was too late but I did with Penny a couple times. But  it was never the same.

It's not for me to take away the passing of Bob Thurness as sour grapes.  Football players really loved him and those who took notes on his coaching went on to long football coaching careers.  It just seemed to me that the cards were stacked against me when I did take his Social Studies class.  I'm sure he would have made a difference in my life had I reached out to him for help, but in my thinking, I still think had I taken his class all over again, I would have limped out with a D minus or worse being held back a year.  I wanted no part of the class of 1980 since Janice was part of that class.   He's a hall of famer coach and worthy of it, I was a second rate dishwasher.  He will be missed by those who was influenced by him.  In the end a good man.

I suspect these are the things that have  ruin my relationships from day one.  The feeling of being in love one week and then the longer you know the person you begin to see who they are and vice versa.  And then the constant fighting and promises to do better only to do the opposite.  There are guys that will leave one for somebody new the next day.  I tend to go through months and years before I decide on a new date.  I always had good girlfriends.   But I always been a lone wolf.


There's not very many pictures of Julie  and me together on stage.  The best one is the one that  she never posted and I never got the photo of us dressed up and singing Gold Dust Woman. And I guess we'll never see that one ever again.  I'm not too keen on the ones that were taken last december. I had fifteen hairs standing straight up.  I could never get any decent pictures of myself.

I have now outlived Bruce Stanley in this life.  I miss his musical knowledge and talking music.  Since working, I haven't done much practicing songs of late.  I'm sure I'll pick it back up soon, for now, I just going back to my solitude.   It's nobody's fault really.

Dan Hartman had his blue Fender Telecaster stolen from his truck Saturday Night after a gig in Springville, out of all places.  Here's hoping he can get it back soon.

I haven't spoken to Lisa, my long distance GF back in 1999-2000 in five years.  But I have seen recent photos and she hasn't a changed a bit, she still has that long flowing red hair and that infectious smile.  I enjoyed our time together and wished it could have been more but  it wasn't meant to be.  I found out thru my life that going back to X girlfriends do not work.  Lisa doesn't like the winters out here anyway.  Our memories together, tho' brief, are fondly remembered and missed from a distant time.  But I wasn't the right one for her.

I have Julie still around, we're still working on being together.   Ryan is more suited for her, he's more of what Kyle is, except for his extreme right wing views.  I think they have more in common, I am never sure who I am, outside of being an introvert loner who tends to go way off the beaten path in music and life.  There's nobody else I'm looking for.  I did thought about asking somebody out, that was a jam friend but she's now engaged and basically dumped me as a FB friend.   That's out of my control.   Life is short, we move on.  The friends that care the most will be there in the long run.

That's all that matters.