Ramblin' with Roger

ALBUM: Adieu False Heart, Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy. I was really looking forward to this album, especially after hearing them perform on a Prairie Home Companion in June. I LOVE the Cajun tunes, usually with Ann as lead and Linda as harmony vocals. And the unexpected cover of “Walk Away Renee”, originally done 40 years ago by The Left Banke, really works. The other songs I enjoy as well, and they’re growing on me more with every listen.

BOOK: I got this e-mail from the author asking me to write a “short review of a new Christian ebook called Land of Canaan: Ancient Hope for Future Peace by Paul M. Kingery“. It turns out to be a 649-page PDF about the coming Apocalypse, using not only citations from the Book of Revelation, but Old and New Testament texts as well. First, I did not read it all. Second, I’m not much into this sort of book, with all of what I would consider its proof texting. That said, you may want to skim through it to see his argument that seems to suggest global warming (chapter 13) and the recent (current?) Middle East conflict (chapter 6 and elsewhere). I was also stuck how, in the last days, “Jesus will return to a high mountain refuge in what is now being called Kurdistan, near the banks of the Tigris River.” If you don’t know your world geography, that’s Iraq, folks. After a 30-page index, there are nearly 20 pages of photos in and around Dohuk, Iraq, where, presumably, the Lord will be coming back.

TELEVISION: The Tonys. Do I mean the awards that were given out on June 11? I do. Carol and I FINALLY watched them over two days this week, and even though I remembered some of the winners, it was still fun to see the production numbers. Also, Jersey Boys’ John Lloyd Young, the “Frankie Valli” character, who recently signed a TV contract, and who was ABC News’ Person of the Week back a couple months ago for going from being a Broadway usher a year ago to a Tony winner, gave the sweetest acceptance speech about himself and his father.

My grade school was Daniel S. Dickinson. Actually, I was there from kindergarten through ninth grade there, before moving on to Binghamton Central.

I got the notification of my reunion of my high school class – 35 years! – with some trepidation. I don’t recall enjoying my 10-year reunion – although the afterparty at friend Cecily’s more than made up for it. I didn’t go to my 20th, I didn’t even hear about my 25th, and I found out about the 32nd (?!) only after the fact.

Yet, I had a really good time at this event. With no disrespect to the others, I think it was based on three factors, well, four:
4) time
3) the group of people from the January 1971 class, thanks to the grand effort of Susie, the only one of the five on the reunion committee not from the June class
2) the group of people from Dickinson, such as Mike, who lived less than three short blocks from my house, and Donna, who practically lived just behind my grandma’s house

Mike and Donna

BUT #1 had to be the group of people who I started kindergarten with at Dickinson in February 1958 and graduated from BCHS with in January 1971. There were eight of us, and SIX of us showed up: Karen, who’s been to six continents; Carol (not my wife), who’s done lots of work with AIDS; Bill, an engineer who isn’t engineer-type geeky; Bernie, the retired fireman; Lois, who, in addition to her job, is a zoo docent, and me. Only Irene and Diane didn’t make it. Given the fact that we spent 13 years together in a relatively tight environment (16 in our 6th grade class, 16 in our 9th grade class, and less than 120 in our graduating class at Central), it was the first time we had all been together since we graduated. (Though five of us, all except Lois did get together at Bill’s in 1982.)

Carol, Lois, Karen, Roger, Bill

There is a lot of stuff that people who know other people for 13 of their first 18 years of their lives get to know about each other. After all these years, I’d recognize these people anywhere. Well, all of them except Bernie, who was the most mild-mannered kid you ever wanted to meet and who is a tad more animated.

Carol, Lois, Bill, Bernie

Cecily dropped me off at some club on State Street called Boca Joe’s/Flashbacks. The place was ALSO having, in a separate room, the BCHS class of 1966 reunion, which caused some confusion. I won’t give you a play-by-play, except to note that, at some point, wife Carol and Lydia, showed up. There was a colored light dance floor which Lydia and I danced on for a bit, joined by friend Donna. By then, all of my Dickinson compatriots were there, but I didn’t get a good chance to talk until Carol took Lydia home. The event was supposedly from 5 to 9, but we were all there, eating greasy pizza, dried-out spiedi meat and unremarkable chicken wings, and talking about old times and current lives until well past 11.

(It was that night that Cecily, John, and wife Carol, dealt with the bat.)

Night #2 was at The Relief Pitcher on Conklin Avenue, in a strip mall with an Eckert’s drug store. It was in a separate room from the rest of the building and was a better venue. We ate, much better food than night #1- chicken, ziti, salad, roast beef, sausage and onions. But mostly we danced. Karen couldn’t come because she was going to a family wedding. Friend Carol had another obligation, but she ended up coming late, and she, Bill, Lois and I dominated the dance floor. Others joined in, notably Donna, but the four of us probably danced at least half the dances, and would have danced more, except the band leaned heavily on the late 1950s and early 1960s, rather than the late ’60s and early ’70s. At the end, we all stood in a circle and sang along, at someone’s request, to American Pie, friend Carol took me to Cecily’s, again close to midnight. (I haven’t come home close to midnight two nights in a row since I married my wife Carol, I’m fairly certain.)

Bob and his wife. He thought he’d get great Italian meals from her when he met her. Instead, he gets great Afghani meals.

FAVORITE FEMALE SPORTS STAR – TOP-10 RANKING

1: One book that changed your life: Probably mentioned before, but “Lying” by Sissela Bok. I’ve stolen outright this Amazon review, because it captures the book so well: “Sissela Bok challenges the reader to consider the effects of lying on the individual, relationships and society. The author systematically covers the spectrum of lies from ‘little white lies’ to avoid an unwanted dinner invitation to the arguably moral lies required to survive in a totalitarian state – taking the reader step by step through a journey of increasingly complex moral questions. The book argues that lying, as it is often conducted in society, often lacks the moral basis of those few cases where it can be justified.”

2: One book you have read more than once: When I was a kid, I had this “I Spy” novelization I read repeatedly. It was where I learned the phrase “hoist by his own petard”. There was also this 1931 sports anthology called “Play the Game”, which featured Rogers Hornsby and others on baseball, Red Grange and others on football, legendary writer Grantland Rice on golf, plus a whole lot more. It’s 350+ pages, and I still have it, though I haven’t read it in decades.
As an adult, the ONLY book I’ve read all the way through more than once is the Bible, and I don’t know if that counts, because one time was the King James and the other time was the Revised Standard Version.
I assume we’re not talking about children’s book, since Scott said he didn’t have any, and I suspect he’s read the same stories repeatedly to his son Nigel. A children’s book I’ve read a lot BEFORE Lydia was “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” by Dr. Seuss.

3: One book you would want on a desert island: Almost assuredly, the Bible, the NRSV. Quoting Scott: “Considering I would be there quite a while and have time to think, it would a good opportunity to try and digest all of it.”

4: One book that made you laugh: I have four Doonesbury anthologies, trade paperbacks. Maybe one of those. Although I remember borrowing one of Erma Bombeck’s books from my mother on a visit, maybe “Septic Tank”, and finding it surprisingly more entertaining in the collective than her daily column, even though the book was culled from them.

5: One book you wish had been written: “Growing Up” by Russell Baker. I always liked his style.

6: One book you wish had never had been written: Probably some neocon diatribe, but truth is, I tend to shut them out of my mind rather quickly.

7: One book that made you cry: I’m sure there have been some, but none come to mind.

8: One book you are currently reading: “The Genesis of Ethics” by Burton L. Visotzky. Our former pastor, Joe Shook, was giving away many of his books, and this one intrigued me. It’s about why a bunch of not-necessarily-religious folks got together to read the first book of the Torah.

9: One book you have been meaning to read: Only one? “The Gnostic Gospels” by Elaine Pagels is one on my bookshelf.