Grandpa's Lived A Life

“Well, it looked like you were thoroughly enjoying yourself.”

Yes, yes I was.

That photo was taken, oh, probably around 1984 perhaps? It was a ‘Sunday after a gig the night before’ party, an infamous ‘Melonhead’ gathering that my good friend and fellow bandmate Don Myers and then wife Kathy were known to concoct. Working several hours per week at Rieman Music, then gigging 4 to 5 nights a week in bar bands opens the doors to such things to blow off some steam.

Ah, 40 pounds lighter, a full head of hair, and scraggy beard to boot. Plus, jean shorts - a fashion item that I swore off decades ago. You kids and your modern fashion sense, I tell ya. Check this shit out, will ya?

Donny sent me this picture in an email over the weekend, and some instant memories came back. I mentioned we were all lucky enough to play music together and survive that era. Yep, we were all just young ‘chillen’, making our way in whatever means possible.

Favorite quote of the day comes via my friend bluesman Bob Dorr, who posted a Yogi Berra pic with a famous Yogism: ”The future ain’t what it used to be”. Isn’t that the truth?

Global recession looming, stock markets crashing, and folks commenting on ‘bringing it back to the USA’ when basic business knowledge predicates that it will take any company 3 to 5 years to set up manufacturing here, at most. I digress, because that’s what this blog isn’t about today (for politics, science, social commentary, and such, check out my Medium blog).

At this age, sometimes you need a smack over the head to realize some things that you’ve accomplished. We look more towards losses at this point because they are tougher to take, it seems. The grump in me looks at lack of people these days to share my acquired skills with - students, gigs, repair work, etc. It’s been dwindling for awhile. Such go trends and the way of the world.

Sorry, a small and petty mindset, I get it, yep. But you know, you get there sometimes. I still get amazed at folks who I encounter with the rigid outlook of ‘white picket fences, two car garage, and the perfect family unit’. that defines success. You don’t live up to those standards, well, too bad. Sorry folks, it doesn’t exist. Yet, that’s okay.

I helped raise a kid who’s still accomplishing things, got a great daughter-in-law, and a cute-as-a-button grandson. My wife and I have been together since 1990, still growing, still figuring it out, with lots of love to share. I’ve got to live in different parts of the country, start some home-based business, continue to hone some skills over the course of 50 to 60 years, meet a bunch of folks who have become dear friends along the way, and had the usual ups and downs.

Sometimes we need to get out of our own way and realize that we have lived a life - raw, profane, joyous, and otherwise.

It doesn’t always go how we drew it up, that’s for sure.

I put on a good front, with my supposed Zen outlook. meanwhile, the cogs and gear are trying to mesh inside my brain as I nervously look to figure it all out daily. Anyone else with me?

Grandpa has lived a life, though, I tell ya.

Next month, I’ll head down to my old hometown of Des Moines for a reunion of some good high school buddies of mine. We played sports together, partied and hung out, and formed a band of sorts that have a fairly large discography, by no fault of our own.

Later on in the year, I’ll head up north to the lakes to get inducted in the Iowa Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. All in all, not a bad run going on here.

All this is not as sexy as a trip to Europe or sea cruise around Africa. People that can afford that, great and more power to you all. But one thing that got reinforced during my newspaper days was the fact that everyone has lived a life and has a story to tell if they think so or not. And dollars to donuts, it’s more interesting than what we think.

Any balloon animals that I can wear to work today?