Category: Uncategorized

Outside of Christmas, my birthday, Halloween, Easter and Thanksgiving – The Last Day of School was the best day of the year! That feeling of elation of being done with school, learning, teachers, the other students, and the start of Summer vacation, is an experience that, try as I might, I can never recreate. I worked for a conservatory and a college, and the last day of classes at those institutions never had that same feeling either. When I was a kid, the last day of school was and final end point – a clearly defined conclusion. Working at a school on the last day of classes, all we could think about was getting ready for classes to resume. I tried piggybacking off of my kid’s last day of school, but the feeling I get is that I need to come up with things for her to do over vacation. No real elation in that.

But maybe, we adults aren’t supposed to regain that feeling? Like, no matter how much fun I have with my kid around Christmas time, I never feel like that eight-year-old kid that got a Star Wars AT-AT Walker from Santa. For one thing, kids are the center of attention at Christmas, and my role changed to parent – and as such with a different role, then I should expect to have a different experience. No real revelation there, right?

As I get older, I am wary of trying to “recapture” an old feeling. Everything in life changes, and so do feelings. When I revisit places of past glories and happiness, the feelings that come over me are twinges of sadness, lightly salted with the acknowledgement of the joy I had once encountered there. Melancholy isn’t to far away either. I keep thinking that full-blown happiness will come back to me in those situations, but it doesn’t. What I left with is the feeling that I want to move on. And even then, it is still had to say goodbye to the places of your past.

But as I was reminded today by an old friend, moving forward, getting out there and trying for new experiences is the only way to keep alive and connected.

(I’m still on the line…)

My daughter had her Field Day at school yesterday, and I was glad to see that the level of excitement that this event inspired in me when I was her age, was represented in my kid’s enthusiasm as well. The other thing that our Field Days had in common was that the ultimate event of the afternoon was the intra-class Tug-of-War. I dare say that this is the last non-PC competition left in today’s modern and self esteem conscious Field Day. Don’t get me wrong – Field Day when I was growing up was a dog-eat-dog, Lord of the Flies, nerd humiliating event that could leave deep emotional scars if you embarrassed yourself on the yard. Today, it’s more geared to fun and inclusion for everyone, with classes competing against each other, rather than individual students. But man! That Tug-of-War is still a brutal event, with the loser class being dragged across the grass, then taunted by the cheers of the winners. Yeah, and my kid’s class won the Tug-of-War, so there’s that.

Anyone remember The Ritz Brothers? I was watching an old, like 2nd Season episode of MST3k, and Crow made a joke referencing them, and like a lightening bolt, I remembered who they are. The fast answer is that they were a comedy team of brothers who worked from the 1920’s up to the 1970’s. They were more of a nightclub act, but they did make some movies and film shorts, along with a few TV appearances. It would be easy to compare them to The Marx Brothers, but that’s not really fair once you see their form of comedy. Sadly, I think they are slowly fading away from the American Comedy lexicon which is unfortunate. Anyway, check them out.

And a Happy Father’s Day out there to all the dads, and to my friends who are dads, and especially to my Dad. May we all enjoy our day celebrating our Father-stature, but we all know that you never get a day off when being a dad. But, I’m cool with it.

My heart wasn’t in it today. I know I need to push through it, and write even on the days when it’s tough.

But my daughter wanted to reorganize her doll’s closet. I had some idea that I thought would work, so I saw them through.

I’ll try writing tomorrow.

Flying on a plane sucks. It’s not fun anymore, and is more akin to being crammed on a busy bus. It is the necessary evil for vacationing which makes it a chore to accomplish, rather than part of the fun.

But who I really feel bad for is my daughter. She lives in this age of airline hassle. Some of it might be needed, like the security checks, but most of it is just an inconvenience.

We tell her about how there used to be space on the plane. And that people could meet you at the gate when you arrived. Her great grandmother used to go to the airport and just watch people at the terminal because you could just show up and walk around without a ticket.

I know things change and old people, like me, always think things were better in the past. But in this instance, I do fault the airlines for putting profits, and the theory of seeing how far they can push us with nickel and dime inconveniences with ruining the joy of air travel.

See you tomorrow…