Misty Morning on the Black Warrior River

There will always be change, nothing ever stays the same. It is amazing how as I age this becomes more and more true. When I was growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s network television was still pretty much in its infancy. Local stations produced and filled huge blocks of air time with local programming.

CBS in Buffalo was channel 4 on the dial of our first TV. They filled the late afternoon Monday through Friday airspace with movies. The films they aired were not the blockbuster movies of the past, but rather the “B” films that played as the second features of double runs. The ones I can remember by name would be the "Dead End Kids" series which starrd Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall along with "Frances The Talking Mule".

One movie that sticks in my mind is a “college” flick from the 30’s or 40’s that would compare to today’s “Revenge of the Nerds.” The plot centered on a big rowing race. The good guys were on the underdog team. (naturally!) The underdogs were behind the well heeled frat boys in the race. The quick witted wise-guy coxin started to issue threats to black mail to individual rowers during the race. The thought of infidelities being revealed to girlfriends prompted the rowers to new peaks of strength and endurance to win the race! I can see in my mind the facial close-ups of these rowers as they first had a horrified look and then grim determination and exertion to protect their honour.

Why does something like this stay in my mind for over 40 years? I don’t think I want to know!!

Well, I’m now playing the part of coxin with our women’s racing team. It is very intimidating to have eight rowers following your orders. Remembering the drill sequencing, steering the sweep, constantly checking for obstacles in the water, and trying to make sense of the readings on the cox box has given me a lot of respect for the coxes. This is really a learning experience for us all.

Last night I won my E-bay auction for a dandy fire hydrant. This is going to entail a quick road trip to Michigan to pick up. To any “normal person” this appears as total insanity. Perhaps it is…but as crazy as it seems, these acquisitions and the freedom to travel at my will were the things I daydreamed about for years working in the factory. Those dreams were got me thorough in one case a 10 year stint of working the same process day in and day out. I practiced “delayed gratification” so now I’m retired I can cash in some of those chips.

A few weeks ago I attended a union meeting seeing people I have not associated with in many years. So many of my old co-workers have turned into “slugs”. That is a term we coined back in the shop days to describe those who had no ambition or purpose in life. It was unnerving to see these people who have no real passion just getting older and decrepit.

If anything my eyes were opened as to how and why things worked out in my life to have brought me to where I am today.

Enough of this, there are errands to run errands and then the “Y”. I need to erg extra hard again today as I did not row……

The newest addition: A 1902 Michigan Brass and Iron Works fire hydrant.