The summer of 1976 was full of global events. Bur for me, I had 2 remaining Outcomes to close before heading off to college. First, ironically, I had gotten good enough at Student Congress – an actual NFL event – to qualify for the National Debate Tournament in Colorado Springs. Second, I had been selected as an exchange student for the Lions Club to spend 6 weeks in Sweden. The bad news is that those events overlapped.
High School’s end was rapidly approaching, an Outcome we had all been working towards for 12ish years. Our class was graduating in a momentous year – 1976 – the Bicentennial, so additional press coverage by the newspaper and local TV station was invited. Over 3000 were gathered in the local Junior College auditorium for the event, including my own grandparents from both sides. I was not… I was sitting across the street at a donut shop with a legal pad and a pen….
Wandering through my High School years, I played a bit in politics. It was an interesting use of my ability to speak and think on my feet. I was on the Student Congress as a Sophomore and a Junior. I was not a very active member, but I loved wondering how we could get 30 people to agree to any Outcome. I am never sure who or why, but someone nominated me for a very prestigious event, particularly in Texas: Boys State.
By my Junior year in High School, I had found at least the beginnings of who I was becoming. Now officially on the Debate Team, I spent the summer at a camp for Debaters at TCU. Yes… I am a real nerd who actually spent two weeks preparing, studying, and practicing the debate topic for all of the NFL that season…
Texas is not friendly to mass transportation. A mix of the frontier mentality, setting out to control your destiny, and then floating in oil, everywhere you go is in a car. Particularly as you came of age, you would get your license and head out on the town… which I couldn’t until I was a senior in high school – an Outcome assured when my parents put me ahead a grade way back in Kindergarten.
Coming of age in Tyler – deep East Texas – many things managed my trajectory through this season… and into the better part of my life. My parents didn’t let me “work” so I could focus on my “job” … to get good grades, the doorway to what would be coming. Work hard, study hard, and that will pay off with Outcomes… which, to be honest, were pretty unspecific.
We hear a lot about Outcomes these days, and one of the reasons I wanted to write about Cat is that his career has a lot of ups and downs. As you saw in Decisions last week, he was once again on the upswing. By the end of this week, the Outcomes take a very different tack in his life. The soundtrack of the music and my life rarely sync up so completely, and I remember these albums coming out, and hearing some deep meanings that were obvious… at least to me…
Later this week will be the Spring Equinox – the day that we officially move from Winter to Spring (at least in Astronomy). The sun will be right over the equator at 5:01 am Thursday EDT, and thus within some tolerance, everyone on the planet has exactly the same amount of light and dark. So at least for one day, we all have about the same – The Middle…
Where I was raised in Texas, we didn’t do a lot Surfing…. but we did do a lot of water skiing. As I was graduating from High School, my parents bought a small “fishing shack” on a local lake – including a “ski boat”. It BARELY qualified, and probably by a factor of 10 to 1, I spent more time working ON the boat than USING the boat… but no matter. Like Surfing, the basic principles are the same – a wing gliding on top of the water, and unlike snow skiing, you lean back…
As I started this series on Surf music, today’s song is probably what came to mind first. The song—this version as well as cover versions—has been featured in over 20 films and television series since 1964, appearing at least once a decade since. You may not know the name of it, but the opening and ongoing drums instantly identify it as one of the most well-known songs of that era….
An exercise we did this week was to find a picture of ourselves before 10 – hopefully, around 6 or 8 – before many of the “worlds” voices have had a chance to change the “music” in your life. Pictures were posted of “little kids” invariably smiling, many of them twirling, dancing, playing… enjoying life. The concept is that is your natural self …
As I hope you have noticed, the “talent” that gave us Surf music came from all over. By the early 60’s, globally the availability of relatively inexpensive amps and guitars, along with the popularity of radio and TV created a tidal wave of kids trying to figure out how to put that all together into something that would Surf them into fame.
For this workshop, we needed at least 3 others who would contract to partner with us. “The Pod” had to commit to meet weekly for at least half an hour… and also to check in daily on our progress. At first, this seemed a bit over the top,
We were recently out at a pond with our daughter/granddaughters… and of course, we started skipping rocks. The delicate approach of first finding a smooth, flat rock, and then throwing it sidearm so it would land nearly parallel with the surface of the water came back to me….. after a few misses 😉 Watching the rock bounce 2, 3… 5… 15 times…