I Ain't Afraid of Dyin', It's the Thought of Being Dead...

1st Inning.

Highlights of the Brew Crew...Jonesboro!  In mid-July I made a weekend 'man-trip' down to Arkansas State University (ASU) in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The trip was to attend the celebration of my college fraternity's 65th year since our chapter (Beta Psi Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon) was founded on the campus. I was an undergraduate when we celebrated the chapter's 50th so I felt the need and desire to be there for this one too. Going back to Jonesboro always brings back some of the best memories of my life.  It is where I met some of my best friends, became a leader, and met my wife.  For this trip, I was the only member of the Brew Crew to go but I was accompanied by my fraternity brother, Greg, and his wife, Laura.  We flew down from the Kansas City area to J-Town (okay, it's hard to 'fly' anywhere in an RV) in what seemed like a few hours (good company always makes things fly by).

The TKE Bell.  Almost as old as the chapter.

When we arrived in town, we hit the first Wal-Mart to check out their selection of Arkansas State Red Wolves gear as I am always looking for new swag.  After picking up a couple of new caps (one in camo of course), we headed to campus and to the RV sites.  Now before I left for ASU, I had been reading comments on Facebook from many of my brothers about how bad the skeeters were this year.  It was severely evident when we were at Wal-Mart and the majority of all of their bug spray products were gone. But, when we arrived at the RV site, and after a quick set up/hook up, there was nary a skeeter to bother us. The weather was cool and overcast and we sat outside under the RV awning for several hours drinking beer and eating grapes until it was time for the evening's first festivities.

The Saturday Goat Roast luncheon.

The Friday evening event was a meet and greet social under a big tent where the chapter's alumni association gathers for football tailgates every year.  Some good food, some good beer, and some good conversation as we all reconnected and reminisced.  It was great to see fellas I had not seen in many years and to see folks I had never seen (always encouraging).  We had a brother from the national headquarters in town for the weekend's festivities and I spent some time visiting with him along with many of our older alumni that had made the trip.

Lavon Wells was a mentor, role model, and brother. I miss that guy.

After the Friday evening official events, a few of us at the RV site stayed up waaaaaaay too late chatting and drinking cold adult beverages. Saturday morning came to early but when my brother Ansel arrived knocking on my RV door, I slowly awakened from my 'old man slumber'. There was an alumni association breakfast at the local buffet restaurant and it was good to see many of the old timers (much older than me).  I fixed myself a plate full of fruit and sat down to try and ease my stomach as I began my day.  Sitting there I was fortunate to have brother Wally sit down.  He is part of the Red Wolf sports radio so we talked about the football program in detail.  I reiterated my theory that the Red Wolves need to schedule Kansas every year that is possible (note-the ASU Athletic Director was a former Assistant AD with Kansas).  With a bit of food in my gut, Ansel and I drove around checking out the town and campus.  In the 12 years since I moved away, the city and campus have grown so much and for the better in my opinion.    

The membership scroll I signed the night I was initiated in October 1996.

Around lunchtime, and after a good nap, Greg and I headed up to the tailgate tent for the annual Goat Roast luncheon (no worries, there were no goats consumed this year). An even bigger crowd than the night before was in, out, and all around the tent enjoying a great lunch cooked by brother Josh.  As an undergraduate and recent alumnus, I had grown custom to a certain group of other fellow alumni that were present at all of our functions with an occasional newcomer.  But this time, it was shoulder to shoulder new guys that had not been around in forever.  I was really overwhelmed with all the new faces and didn't have the opportunity to meet everyone (although I recognized just about every name on the name tags from my undergrad days as our alumni relations chair).

Me and Howl

That night we had our 65th banquet to celebrate the chapter and it's long history.  The organizing committee did an awesome job putting together all the memorabilia that was on display as we walked through the Cooper Alumni Center.  The memorabilia included old pledge paddles, chapter pictures, yearbooks, plaques, awards, trophies, and our membership scrolls.  Along with mingling alumni and their gorgeous wives/girlfriends, Howl the Red Wolves mascot was there taking pics with everyone.  It was cool to see guys in their 60s/70s stopping him to get a pic, so I got one too! The night's event began and we had speakers from every generation.  They talked about how special the fraternity and chapter meant to them.  Just about everyone of them broke down in tears when talking about their TKE days at ASU.  It warmed my heart and was very inspiring.  I felt a renewed sense of purpose that was shared by all of my brothers with two main objectives--a new house and a new board of directors.  I hope to see one day soon a new TKE house on fraternity row.  Sunday saw us get up early, pack up the RV, and hit the road to make the 6 hour drive back to the Kansas City area.  But I am definitely looking forward to the next alumni gathering and seeing the 'new' faces become regular faces as we build the chapter up again.  Love. Charity. Esteem.

The early 1960s were a special time for Tekes at Arkansas State University.

2nd Inning.
American History Lesson...Lou Gehrig goes the distance! It was on August 17, 1933 that New York Yankees Hall of Fame first baseman, Lou Gehrig played in his 1,308th consecutive game.  This broke the previous record held by former Yankee, Everett Scott, for consecutive games played. Lou Gehrig would go on to to play in 2,130 consecutive games, a record that would last 56 years until broken by Cal Ripken, Jr.



Per History.com, "He was born, Henry Louis Gehrig, on June 19, 1903 in New  was born June 19, 1903, in New York City, the only child of German immigrants to survive childhood illness. His doting parents stressed education over sports, and he attended Columbia University on a football scholarship and studied engineering. After his freshman year, Gehrig played for New York Giants Manager John McGraw in a summer league under the name Henry Lewis; he lost a year of eligibility at Columbia when his ruse was discovered. Gehrig was then signed by a Yankees scout while playing first base at Columbia, much to the consternation of Giants fans who believed their skipper had let the talented slugger get away. Gehrig joined the Yankees in 1923, but didn’t see any action until 1925. According to legend, Gehrig stepped in at first base when star Wally Pipp benched himself with a headache. Gehrig didn’t miss a game for the next 13 years, and Pipp never made it back on to the field. To this day, to be "Wally Pipped" is to be replaced for good."

His streak began on June 1, 1925 and he would set the record during a road game against the St. Louis Browns. After the first inning of that game, he was honored by both clubs as they surrounded him at home plate while the American League President, William Harridge, presented him with a trophy.  During his career, Gehrig was a beast on offense (even while playing on the same team as Babe Ruth).  As a lefty, he led the American League in RBIs 5 times and had 13 consecutive years of 100+ RBIs.  He also led the American League in home runs 4 times, runs scored 3 times, and batting average once.  While batting cleanup in the lineup (and after Ruth) he would still go on to win the American League MVP in 1927.  He would win the MVP again in 1936.  For his career, he played on 6 World Series Championship teams with the Yankees.

During the 1939 season his health began to affect him so much that he would end up retiring in June of that year.  Doctors at the Mayo Clinic, where he had sought help, diagnosed him with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare degenerative disease, which is often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.  On July 4th, 1939, he would give his famous, "I'm the luckiest man" speech in front of a packed house at Yankee Stadium.  The National Baseball Hall of Fame would have a special election that year and induct him.  He died two years later.        

3rd Inning.

Music...Joe Diffie. Lost Country Stars of the 90s Top Ten countdown #10.  That era of the mid-1990s was busy producing country artists left and right. My final entry into my personal Top Ten list of artists who were getting record deals and radio play time but ended up fizzling out of the national scene is Joe Diffie. Joe, like many other musicians, was born into a musical family in Oklahoma.  He performed in family bands as a youngster while his parents played instruments and sang.  His father's record collection had a big influence on his singing at such a young age.  During his youth, he bounced around several states before graduating high school in Velma, Oklahoma.  While in high school, Joe played football, baseball, golf, and ran track.

Upon graduating high school, he enrolled at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma where he was working towards a medical degree but dropped out after getting married in 1977.  Diffie then worked at several blue collar jobs in oil fields and driving trucks before settling down to work at a foundry in Duncan, Oklahoma.  During his time working at the foundry, his singing career started to gain some ground as he played in a gospel group and a bluegrass group while also building a recording studio and sending demo recordings to Nashville.  The foundry closed in 1986 which also lead to Diffie declaring bankruptcy and selling the recording studio. Shortly thereafter he divorced his wife.  All of these events lead to Joe spending several months in a state of depression before deciding to pick up and move to Nashville where he started working at Gibson Guitar.  It was while he was working at Gibson that he began cutting demos that would later be recorded by Ricky Van Shelton, Billy Dean, and Alabama.  Around mid-1989, he quit his job at Gibson and focused soley on his demo recording career.  It was also in 1989 that he was approached by a record executive about signing to a contract at Epic Records.  He would eventually sign with Epic in early 1990 and release his first album in  

His debut album, 'A Thousand Winding Roads', was released in late 1990.  Singles from that album that reached #1 were 'Home' and 'If The Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)' while 'If You Want Me To' and 'New Way (To Light Up an Old Flame)' both peaked at #2 on the charts.  His follow up album, 'Regular Joe', was released in 1992.  The singles released on this album reach Top 20 status, with his most notable single (in my opinion) being 'Ships That Don't Come In'.  Diffie's third album release, 'Honky Tonk Attitude' (1993), saw several hits with the title track, 'John Deere Green', 'Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)', and 'In My Own Backyard'.  The title track and 'John Deere Green' both reached #5 on the charts while 'Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die) hit #3.

In 1994, Diffie releases his fourth album, 'Third Rock from the Sun'.  It was his highest charting album with #1 hits, 'Pickup Man' and the title track and a #2 hit with 'So Help Me Girl'.  Diffie recorded a track for a NASCAR-themed album in 1995 along with releasing a Christmas album.  He also released another CD, 'Life's So Funny', in 1995 which had hits with 'Bigger Than the Beatles' (the last #1 hit of his career). Between 1996 and 1998, he released another CD that failed to chart any singles in the Top Ten and a Greatest Hits album.  He recorded his final CD for Epic in 1999 and saw little success.  Diffie would go on to release a few additional albums over the next several years but none of them had the success he achieved in the early 1990s.  In 2012, Jason Aldean released his song, '1994' which name drops Diffie and uses several titles of his songs as lyrics.

I remember owning 'Honky Tonk Attitude' and 'Third Rock from the Sun' and enjoying those songs as well as his earlier hits.  My favorite was probably 'Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)' as it incorporates both his styles of slow ballad and up tempo honky tonk. What was your favorite?  A video is below.  Enjoy!




4th Inning.
Park Maintenance Memories...With summer upon us I felt it relevant to share memories from my summers after graduating from high school spent as a temporary employee with the Grandview, Missouri Park Maintenance department doing the grunt work but having some fun with a buddy that worked there too!

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I was the newbie with the Park Maintenance staff but I had the joy of being partnered up with my good buddy, Billy. There were many days during those hot summer months where we were looking for something to distract us from the monotony of our jobs.  One of those distractions usually took place during our Monday/Friday trash pick up days and occurred in the Meadowmere Pool parking lot.  You see the pool had a nice sized parking lot that also doubled as a 'race track'.  We would start in front of the pool and circle the parking lot in that old 80s model Chevy pickup trying to set a new land speed record (This was only done in the early mornings before any patrons had arrived at the pool).  I'm not sure how we didn't flip that truck doing high speed turns around that lot but we did have fun!      

When we were not racing around parking lots in old pickups, we also had duties that required cleaning the local community hall. The community hall was wedged between store fronts along Main Street and was nothing more than a room with tables and chairs with a little kitchen in back.  We were required to sweep, mop, and clean the bathrooms.  Well, before any of that began, and with another 2-man crew of summer temps present, a child's bouncy ball (that for some reason was in the building) became the soccer ball for a game between crews.  Things could get heated and the rivalry would continue for the rest of the summer as we worked towards the next match.  Oh, and we would sneak cold drinks out of the fridge as the championship prize.  Good times in an air conditioned building were always a delight.

There was an occasion where we learned about CB radio etiquette.  That day we were tasked with moving a barrel of pool chemicals which was an extremely important job that required safety, safety, safety.  Billy and I were done moving it and we reached out to our boss on the CB to ask a question.  Well, one of the full-timers, who was a know-it-all-tell-you-what-to-do-wanna-be-supervisor chimes in from her CB basically repeating everything our boss told us.  Billy in his ever charming and best truck driver voice gets on our CB and let out loud a 'That's a BIG 10-4!'.  That afternoon when we returned to Park Maintenance Headquarters, our boss was there to give us a lecture about how to properly use the CB radio as all city officials can hear our chatter.  Bad summer temps!  

I will wrap up my Park Maintenance Memories in my next post with the 71 Highway stories.



5th Inning.

Random Facts...Lottery winner!  A few things I would do if I were to someday win the lottery:  Set up a scholarship at Arkansas State University in my name...Make a large donation to St.Jude Research Hospital...Build a large cabin in the woods with wi-fi...Season tickets for my Royals, Chiefs, and Red Wolves...Upgrade to a Google self driven RV...Take the wife on a cruise ship 2nd Honeymoon ...Sponsor an annual softball tournament where proceeds go to Alzheimer's research...Reserve my seat on that Virgin Galactic spaceship...Have Def Leppard perform a private concert for my birthday...


6th Inning.
Cool/Funny videos...

I'm not sure how I missed this, probably because I don't follow soccer, but it is hilarious!


Everyone loves a ballad song but how about one about G.I. Joe?



7th Inning.

Firearms corner...Famous Firearms.  Firearms can become famous for the right reasons and also for the wrong reasons.  This usually involves Hollywood as well as infamous criminals.  Generally, Hollywood drives gun popularity after one is used in an action film or a tv show.  Back in the '50s/'60s, with all the western shows on tv and films in theaters, you had quite a bit of special firearms that the public admired and craved to own themselves.  A fellow blogger, Mr.Ed., did a great job at chronicling these here. Such firearms from that era include Steve McQueen's Winchester Mare's Leg from 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' or the Winchester 1892 model rifle with large loop that was used by Chuck Connors on 'The Rifleman' or just about anything John Wayne touched from his single action revolvers to his Winchester lever action.  Folks saw those and wanted those and the manufacturers obliged. What is interesting is the continued popularity for some of these firearms, especially lever guns.  In recent years the Mare's Leg type firearms have seen a resurgence thanks to manufacturers like Rossi and lever action rifles are still popular even with the expansion of bolt action rifle offerings and the modern sporting rifles.

In the '70s, you had the modern police/action movies which would include Dirty Harry and his Smith & Wesson Model 29 or Charles Bronson from his Death Wish movies and the plethora of firearms used in that movie franchise.  When the '80s hit and Stallone and Swarzenegger became box office hits, you could bet on them showcasing many firearms that would become popular once again for the civilian market such as the Winchester 1887 lever action shotgun Arnold used in Terminator 2 or the M60 E3 (not really for the civilian market) used by Sly and Arnold in Rambo and Commando.  Then in the 1990s we have the emergence of the Glock as a standard movie/tv fixture thanks (in my opinion) to 'U.S. Marshals' and Tommy Lee Jones.

But let's not forget about ole James Bond and his Walther PPK, which after being used by him and the image of him in a tuxedo always seems to look goofy when held by some ordinary fellow like me.  Then you have the movie 'Enemy at the Gate' which I hold responsible for the popularity (good or bad) of the Mosin Nagant M91/30 which was used by Jude Law.  A list of some of these firearms can be found here.

Not all movie guns have a 'real' counterpart that the public or governments can buy but they are memorable for their parts in movies/television.  A few of those are listed here.  Some of the fantasy firearms we would all love to have are The Noisy Cricket used by Will Smith in 'Men In Black'; the DL-44 Heavy Blaster used by Han Solo in 'Star Wars' (he did shoot first); and the Good Samaritan used by Hellboy.

A video from Tommy Lee Jones on Glocks is below.  Enjoy!



8th Inning.
FFL Factoid...From the National Shooting Sports Foundation's ATF Q&A page:

Q: I have a customer who has commissioned me to special-order a firearm I do not have in stock. By special-ordering the gun I will be invoiced, and the firearm will become part of my inventory when it arrives at my business premises. To prevent the possibility of not being able to sell it to this customer if he does not pass the NICS check, may I conduct a NICS inquiry at the time that he orders the firearm?
A: No. The licensee may conduct the NICS check only after the transferee (buyer) has completed Section A of the ATF F 4473, including signing question 16 and indicating the date of certification in question 17.


9th Inning.
Baseball video..."When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch."--Ty Cobb




Extra Inning. 10th Inning.
Remembering Robin Williams...I grew up watching Mork & Mindy, I remember catching his HBO special from the late '70s (probably shouldn't have as it was not kid appropriate), and I remember seeing him in his first movie "Popeye" (it was one of the first VHS movies we ever rented).  I always wanted to see his movies and see his interviews on the late night talk shows as he was so unpredictable and funny.  Then later in his career his dramatic side started to shine and I really enjoyed those roles as well.  I have a feeling ole Saint Peter had a heckuva time interviewing him at the Pearly Gates but I know he is making them all laugh in Heaven now...