A lot of times when the wife and I are conversing about pretty much anything I always find a way to make us both feel old. For example, we will be listening to the radio and a great song from say, I don’t know, The Outfield comes on and I will be like:
“Man that is a good song. Haven’t heard that one in a while. You know when that song came out? 1985! Holy crap, that was 23 years ago! Damn I feel old!“
Does anyone else do that? It really surprises me that all of this time has just rushed by me. I am still in awe over the fact that I just had my 34th birthday. That just does not compute. Well the other day I was doing this thing again with the years and how old stuff is when it occurred to me that this summer is a milestone for me of sorts. Twenty years ago this summer, my family moved from Hudson, New Hampshire all the way to Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.
I did not want to move. I was pissed about the thought of moving. There were all of my friends that I had known and I was about to start high school. We were going to a place where I knew NO ONE and everybody talked funny and there were going to be gun racks everywhere you looked, and a severe lack of teeth and shoes and not to mention the inbreeding! Oh my God what were my parents doing to me?
Yes, that is how lots of northerners (that’s spelled Y-A-N-K-E-E-S here in Tennessee) see the south. It is terribly incorrect but it is true. So anyway, I was rebelling against the move from the beginning. My parents and sister came down as soon as the school year was completed. I stayed up in New Hampshire with my grandparents and would come down later. I spent many weeks with them and hung out a bit with my best friend Keith. He had been my best buddy for a few years and I hated that I was leaving.
After a few weeks Keith and I flew down here to Tennessee to finish out the summer. I remember that year we did a bunch of swimming. We learned all the words to the following CDs/tapes: Lita Ford’s Lita, Def Leppard’s Hysteria, Poison’s Open Up And Say…Ahh! as well as Bon Jovi’s New Jersey. I went to my first concert that summer at Starwood (a moment of silence) which is no longer around. We saw a band called Blue Murder open up for the aforementioned Bon Jovi. We spent endless hours at Opryland (another moment of silence…why did we need another mall?) trying to pick up girls. I think Keith was successful once, but that didn’t surprise me. We also trekked to Mud Island and saw Graceland.
All of these activities were great to have a final blowout with my best friend and to get me to forget the impending doom of starting high school in a redneck town where I knew absolutely no one. Not a soul. I hated this place and nothing would ever change that. A funny thing is though, that eventually I did learn to like this place. Of course I was sad when I watched Keith fly back home and thought I would never have another best friend again. What did I know? I was a stupid 14 year old kid. Obviously, school was scary at first but I managed to make some good friends. There was Dave Dittrich. There was Jeff Anderson. Then there was Buckles who intoduced me to Shae who were both friends with the G-Man.
So when I think back about our move now 20 years ago (holy crap!) I think of it as a positive. Sure some less than pleasant stuff has gone on in my life over the last 20 years but honestly it isn’t Tennessee’s fault. It was all because I was a moron. If I hadn’t moved here I would have missed out on some good times that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Here are just a few reasons that Tennessee is the best place on earth (I can’t believe I just wrote that):
I know today is Memorial Day and maybe I should have written something about America or the military but this was more appropriate for me. I guess that I am, though. Without the dedication and love for freedom that some of my relatives (and yours) had for this country then I couldn’t be thankful for the things that I have. Anyway, even though 20 years ago I was dragged kicking and screaming to the land of Volunteers I couldn’t think of a better hunk of the US to have been stranded. I would just be a totally different person and I am pretty okay with the one I am right now.
Oh, and in case you don’t know anything by The Outfield take a listen to this:
