When I was young Memorial Day was just the holiday that ended the school year, the day on which the Indy 500 was run and the day to honor our service men who died defending our country. At that time of my life the first two associations with the holiday meant more to me than the last. I couldn’t wait to be out of school and have fun. Living just down the street from Johnny Rutherford meant you had to watch the Indy 500 to see if he would win the race. Remembering our service men who had died during a time of war was important as well, but when you had no personal involvement, not knowing anyone who had died, it just didn’t have a lot of emotional impact or personal meaning. With the onset of the Vietnam war all that changed in what seemed like a heart beat. On November 4, 1966 I lost my best friend from 3rd grade through high school. Then on March 25, 1967 I lost a good friend and high school classmate. Since then Memorial Day is only about remembrance. The other things pale in significance. I will never forget these two fine young men.
In Memoriam
Thomas Lee Blackman - USN
February 10, 1945 - November 4, 1966
Died in an explosion and fire below decks on the U.S.S. Roosevelt in the South China Sea. Vietnam Memorial Wall - Panel 12E - Line 018
I remember warm summer days when we rode our bicycles all over the neighborhood and dreamed of what we’d do when we were grown. Once you went down the hill on Westwick gathering speed and made the turn onto Almena yelling ‘look, no brakes’. Not to be out done I did the same and wound up on the rear fender of a pickup truck half scaring the driver and myself to death. We had a good laugh about that once we realized that neither the truck nor I had been damaged. I remember winter days spent inside, building model cars and airplanes, talking of what kind of car we would get when we could drive, how we would customize our cars and of course girls. I moved from the old neighborhood, but not too far, as high school started but we remained close and as usual talked of our future. We did not know of Vietnam then, nor how it would affect our lives. We were still innocents, relatively untouched by the world. Yet the Vietnam war will be forever imprinted on our generation. You were the best friend a person could ever have. I believe that somehow we are still close, and somewhere our bicycles are still streaking down the hills of River Oaks. May God bless you and your family.
Gary Ken Newman - USMC - Semper Fi
April 23, 1945 - March 25, 1967
Died during a fire fight in Quang Tri Province when their position was being overrun by VC. Vietnam Memorial Wall - Panel 17E - Line 046
Ken and his sister moved into our school district when we were in junior high. He was a fullback on our football team earning honorable mention all district his senior year. He was also picked as best all around student his senior year. You could always count on Ken for a big smile and being in the middle of the action. May God bless Ken and his family.
Posted in: Out on the Highway.
Tagged: Friends · In Memoriam
When I was 8 years old and out of school for the summer, most of my summer mornings began with me running next door to grandmas after breakfast so that I could read the comics in the morning paper. I just had to read Mandrake the Magician, Blondie, Beetle Bailey and the others. When the paperboy delivered the evening paper at our house I got to read a totally different set of comics. Back then you could get a morning and evening edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and there was even the Fort Worth Press in the evening. Sadly that has changed to only a morning edition of the Star-Telegram which is only a shell of its former self.
We have endured at least four major changes to the paper in the last two years. First they changed the type face and made the paper a “new, more manageable size.” Then they had a round of staff cuts. Next came even more staff cuts and a reorganization of the sections in the paper. Some sections were merged, some were split and placed in non traditional sections making it harder than ever to find the incredible shrinking content. I think the following Pearls Before Swine strip by Stephan Pastis pretty well sums it up.
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis 05-03-09
I know that the world moves on and that change is inevitable but it’s hard to accept the decline of institutions that have been such a great part of my life. Just as party lines, operators and dial phones have all but disappeared from the landscape can the newspaper as we once knew it be that far behind?
Lettin’ out the clutch, steppin’ on the gas and movin’ a bit further down the highway.
Posted in: Out on the Highway.
Tagged: Change · Newspapers · Pearls Before Swine
One of my categories is named CPD Chronicles which isn’t self explanatory so I thought I’d give the full name it represents and fill in a bit of historical background. CPD stands for Coach Patterson’s Dog which is my handle on the Killerfrogs.com forums aka the Frog Fan Forum. Several years ago when TCU was struggling to go 1-10 for the season and the future looked bleak for frog football, I discovered the Frog Fan Forum where we cussed and discussed about what needed to change to revive this once proud program. At that time my handle was Frazzled Frog because my nerves were frazzled by the seeming apathy within the athletic department. As luck would have it we got a new athletic director and a new football coach and haven’t really looked back since. Coach Fran got the football program back on it’s feet in short order and all was well until he decided to leave for the greener pastures of Alabama. We warned him if the Alabama fans were to get angry with him they would threaten to kill his dog among other things. What we percieved as a loss when Coach Fran left turned out to be a major blessing with the hiring of Gary Patterson. So after Fran left and we hired Coach Patterson I decided to become Coach Patterson’s Dog after all we were successful and I wasn’t frazzled any more. Our springer spaniel, MacDuff, is my avatar and online image for CPD. Any time I post about TCU or TCU sports it will be categorized as CPD Chronicles for Coach Patterson’s Dog always has the inside scoop on the latest poop (I wish).
CPD confers with Super Frog
As long as this is about TCU, I want to congratulate the five TCU players taken in the recent NFL Draft: Aaron Brown, Blake Schleuter, Stephen Hodge, Robert Henson and Jason Phillips. We had more NFL draftees than any other university in Texas and tied for 10th nationally. All this after finishing at No. 7 in the nation in the final football polls further emphasizes how far this program has come in the last decade. I can’t wait for football this fall.
Horned Frogs drafted by the NFL in 2009
Lettin’ out the clutch, steppin’ on the gas and movin’ a bit further down the highway.
Posted in: CPD Chronicles.
Tagged: Dogs · TCU
Maybe I’m the one, maybe I’m the one, who’s the schizophrenic psycho, yeah ~Puddle of Mudd - Bryan Holaday’s to the plate song
This spring we decided to get season tickets for TCU baseball. It’s been a bit of a grind with 27 home games stretching from early March through the first week of May but we have had a lot of fun. Most nights we are surrounded by students who wander in to watch the game, text on their cell phones and talk about their classes. All I can say is today’s student is different from when I was going to school but so is our entire society. Cell phones and lap top computers have made their experience so different from mine. One night a student wanted to talk to another who was a few rows in front of him. The fellow up front said “Just text me and I’ll text you back.” Seems like some students would just as soon text as talk, for myself I’d rather talk… my fingers just aren’t that nimble.
Last nights game with BYU was a nail-biter, tied 3 all after 9 1/2 innings, but in the bottom of the 10th the game turned out to be a Holaday as Bryan Holaday smashed a 2 out, 2 run, walk off home run to propel the No. 15 TCU Horned Frogs to a 5-3 win over BYU .
Holaday Hits A Monster - photo courtesy Keith Robinson
Holaday Crosses The Plate - photo courtesy Keith Robinson
The Winning Celebration - photo courtesy Keith Robinson
The series ends today at 4:00 pm weather permitting. We have about a 40% chance of thunderstorms. I’d like to get the last game in before it rains as we don’t need any more cancelled games. We just need another Holaday.
Lettin’ out the clutch, steppin’ on the gas and movin’ a bit further down the highway.
Posted in: CPD Chronicles.
Tagged: baseball · TCU
Live life to the fullest extent. There are only so many summers. ~Anonymous
I have a subscription to Arizona Highways magazine which has wonderful photography and articles promoting all things Arizona. The current issue, May 2009, has an article “A Better View” by Keridwen Cornelius which I found extremely interesting. Cornelius describes her experiences during a six day Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure from Flying M Air owned and operated by Maria Langer.
The tour starts at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and terminates in Sedona for the first leg. The remaining legs are Sedona to the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon to Lake Powell (Page, AZ), Lake Powell to Monument Valley, Monument Valley to Flagstaff and Finally from Flagstaff back to Phoenix. At each stop Cornelius has time to take local tours of interest, sight see, take photographs and relax with the local people. Not only is she able to cover a lot of ground traveling by helicopter, she also gets a very unique view and perspective of the land that you can’t get at ground level. In fact some things can’t be accessed by ground transportation. I would love to see Monument Valley but a chance to see it from the air would be the icing on the cake.
Monument Valley photo courtesy Maria Langer
I highly recommend this article to anyone that has a desire to travel, have unique photo opportunities and have a lot of fun doing it. If you don’t have easy access to the magazine and are interested in this subject Maria Langer has a blog, An Eclectic Mind , in which she is currently writing and posting photos about a six day tour that is in progress. Today will be the fifth leg of the tour which will wrap up tomorrow. I have enjoyed following Maria and her passengers on this trip around Arizona. My bucket list now has a new entry that I hope I get to check off in the near future.
Lettin’ out the clutch, steppin’ on the gas and movin’ a bit further down the highway.
Posted in: Out on the Highway.
Tagged: Arizona · bucket list · travel
