Big Joh ... Big Johhhn ... Big Bad John."
Jimmy Dean's passing Sunday at 81 brought that lyric back to mind and some good memories.
Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and buying 45 RPMs at the record store for less than a buck is one of them.
"Big John ... Big Johhhn ... Big Bad John."
If "Big Bad John," Dean's 1961 hit wasn't the first 45 RPM record I bought as a kid, it was among the first.
"PT 109," his 1962 hit about JFK's World War II heroism, was part of that collection.
Think I played "Big John" so much the needle cut a groove in it.
I loved that song.
The lyrics painted a big portrait for a kid like me.
A heroic portrait.
"He stood 6 foot 6 and weighed 245
"Kinda broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip
"And everybody knew ya didn't give no lip to Big John."
It's funny to read how Dean became better known for his sausages than his music.
Not to me.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Lady Luck smiles on Uncle Sam
England 1, Uncle Sam 1.
A great result.
The friends I watched Saturday's World Cup match with may not have understood the magnitude of the final score, but that's cool.
My pal Brian Schultz dozed throughout much of the game.
He's a football-baseball guy like me, but I enjoy soccer, as well.
Especially a tense match like this played on a level like the World Cup.
Did Tim Howard play a monster game in goal for the USA or what?
The way the USA settled down and kept its composure after giving up the early English goal spoke volumes about the side's makeup.
Speaking of volume, we turned our TV down rather than listen to those annoying South African vuvuzela horns that sound like a million bees are swarming the pitch.
Anyway, a gift goal allowed by the English keeper was a lucky, lucky break, the kind a side needs if it's going to advance in the World Cup.
Luck was with Uncle Sam Saturday.
A great result, indeed.
A great result.
The friends I watched Saturday's World Cup match with may not have understood the magnitude of the final score, but that's cool.
My pal Brian Schultz dozed throughout much of the game.
He's a football-baseball guy like me, but I enjoy soccer, as well.
Especially a tense match like this played on a level like the World Cup.
Did Tim Howard play a monster game in goal for the USA or what?
The way the USA settled down and kept its composure after giving up the early English goal spoke volumes about the side's makeup.
Speaking of volume, we turned our TV down rather than listen to those annoying South African vuvuzela horns that sound like a million bees are swarming the pitch.
Anyway, a gift goal allowed by the English keeper was a lucky, lucky break, the kind a side needs if it's going to advance in the World Cup.
Luck was with Uncle Sam Saturday.
A great result, indeed.
Friday, June 11, 2010
When hurricane comes, where to go?
The e-mail was stern.
We have not received your Employee Locator Form, it said.
Uh, oh.
It’s a questionnaire we receive early every hurricane season.
The bosses want to know what your plans are in case a Category 1 to 4 storm has us in its crosshairs.
There are checkboxes to indicate whether we would:
Leave town.
Stay at home until the storm passed.
Be on team duty prior to and during the storm.
The form didn’t mention a Category 5 hurricane.
I think they already know the answer.
Read more in Sunday's Mannix About Manatee.
We have not received your Employee Locator Form, it said.
Uh, oh.
It’s a questionnaire we receive early every hurricane season.
The bosses want to know what your plans are in case a Category 1 to 4 storm has us in its crosshairs.
There are checkboxes to indicate whether we would:
Leave town.
Stay at home until the storm passed.
Be on team duty prior to and during the storm.
The form didn’t mention a Category 5 hurricane.
I think they already know the answer.
Read more in Sunday's Mannix About Manatee.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
No more teachers, no more books
The last day of school.
There isn't a sweeter date on the calendar when you're in elementary school.
It was true when I was that age many, many moons ago, and it is still true today.
Seeing the gleeful faces of our Manatee County fourth- and fifth-graders tells you so.
Not that middle school students don't revel in it.
Or high schoolers, for that matter.
It's just that they'll all get bored soon.
Like Monday.
Grade schoolers won't. Or shouldn't.
The way I remember it, summer seemed like it was going to last forever and you had nothing to do but enjoy it.
Swimming. Playing baseball. Going to "the country."
OK, so there were some chores to do.
But it wasn't like you had to get a job. That's high school.
Oh, to be a 10-year-old boy again on the last day of school.
What a feeling.
No more teachers, no more books.
They have to be among the most welcome words in the English language.
Or any language.
There isn't a sweeter date on the calendar when you're in elementary school.
It was true when I was that age many, many moons ago, and it is still true today.
Seeing the gleeful faces of our Manatee County fourth- and fifth-graders tells you so.
Not that middle school students don't revel in it.
Or high schoolers, for that matter.
It's just that they'll all get bored soon.
Like Monday.
Grade schoolers won't. Or shouldn't.
The way I remember it, summer seemed like it was going to last forever and you had nothing to do but enjoy it.
Swimming. Playing baseball. Going to "the country."
OK, so there were some chores to do.
But it wasn't like you had to get a job. That's high school.
Oh, to be a 10-year-old boy again on the last day of school.
What a feeling.
No more teachers, no more books.
They have to be among the most welcome words in the English language.
Or any language.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Here kitty,kitty? Not this 'cat.
I love animals.
Dogs. Cats. All kinds of critters.
Pet them. Play with them.
I can't resist.
But I did Monday.
There was something about the bobcat getting rehab at Wildlife, Inc., that told me to keep my hands to myself.
Keep my distance, too.
The bobcat was in a secure kennel, of course, but I wasn't taking chances.
He had a growl about him that served as a fair warning.
The look in his eyes said, do not mess with me.
So I didn't.
"He's wild and we want to keep him wild," said Gail Straight, who has run Wildlife, Inc., on Bradenton Beach for 23 years with husband Ed.
I didn't argue.
Dogs. Cats. All kinds of critters.
Pet them. Play with them.
I can't resist.
But I did Monday.
There was something about the bobcat getting rehab at Wildlife, Inc., that told me to keep my hands to myself.
Keep my distance, too.
The bobcat was in a secure kennel, of course, but I wasn't taking chances.
He had a growl about him that served as a fair warning.
The look in his eyes said, do not mess with me.
So I didn't.
"He's wild and we want to keep him wild," said Gail Straight, who has run Wildlife, Inc., on Bradenton Beach for 23 years with husband Ed.
I didn't argue.
Friday, June 4, 2010
A ringside seat for D-Day invasion
The memories appear and vanish for Elvin Mahan.
They are the ghosts of D-Day.
Sixty-six years is long, long ago.
“It just fades away,” said the 90-year-old Navy veteran.
Yet there are moments the visions return. Compelling images for an Indiana kid who had a ringside seat aboard the battleship Texas for the historic invasion.
Everywhere Mahan turned those first few days of June 1944, he saw an armada of 5,000 ships with 155,000 allied troops steaming toward France for a place called Normandy.
“It looked like a big city, all the ships out there,” he recalled. “It was just tremendous.
“You knew something big was going to happen. You just didn’t have any idea what. I was too young to realize the danger. I didn’t have enough brains to be scared.”
Read more about Elvin Mahan in Sunday's Bradenton Herald.
They are the ghosts of D-Day.
Sixty-six years is long, long ago.
“It just fades away,” said the 90-year-old Navy veteran.
Yet there are moments the visions return. Compelling images for an Indiana kid who had a ringside seat aboard the battleship Texas for the historic invasion.
Everywhere Mahan turned those first few days of June 1944, he saw an armada of 5,000 ships with 155,000 allied troops steaming toward France for a place called Normandy.
“It looked like a big city, all the ships out there,” he recalled. “It was just tremendous.
“You knew something big was going to happen. You just didn’t have any idea what. I was too young to realize the danger. I didn’t have enough brains to be scared.”
Read more about Elvin Mahan in Sunday's Bradenton Herald.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
New school, same feelings for Coach McKelvey
Bob McKelvey hadn't been back in a long time.
It was 2000 when he retired from Miller Elementary as a physical education teacher, and just a few years ago they'd torn down the building he'd called home for 38 years and replaced it with a more modern looking building.
"McKelvey's Mile," the homemade track he had built with former principal Chuck Banks' help, was gone.
So was the outdoor hangar, "Coach's Court."
One thing, the most important thing, hadn't changed.
The kids.
They were as enthused and filled with youth as ever Tuesday morning.
So what if they didn't know "Coach McKelvey," this 74-year-old man for whom the new park was being dedicated.
But their parents did.
"And their parents, too," said Banks, looking on during Tuesday's ceremony.
Oh, yes.
Barbara Harvey, Miller's principal for 10 years, knows it well.
"When he would call a student's home, to say the child was in trouble or needed to be congratulated, he knew the parent," said the Manatee County School Board member. "They'd been his students once, too."
A number of them were there for the ceremony.
Wouldn't miss it, said one.
Coach McKelvey's presence brought back memories of their youth.
"Good memories," said Downey Walz, a mother of five.
Their presence did the same for him.
It was 2000 when he retired from Miller Elementary as a physical education teacher, and just a few years ago they'd torn down the building he'd called home for 38 years and replaced it with a more modern looking building.
"McKelvey's Mile," the homemade track he had built with former principal Chuck Banks' help, was gone.
So was the outdoor hangar, "Coach's Court."
One thing, the most important thing, hadn't changed.
The kids.
They were as enthused and filled with youth as ever Tuesday morning.
So what if they didn't know "Coach McKelvey," this 74-year-old man for whom the new park was being dedicated.
But their parents did.
"And their parents, too," said Banks, looking on during Tuesday's ceremony.
Oh, yes.
Barbara Harvey, Miller's principal for 10 years, knows it well.
"When he would call a student's home, to say the child was in trouble or needed to be congratulated, he knew the parent," said the Manatee County School Board member. "They'd been his students once, too."
A number of them were there for the ceremony.
Wouldn't miss it, said one.
Coach McKelvey's presence brought back memories of their youth.
"Good memories," said Downey Walz, a mother of five.
Their presence did the same for him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
