Mitch Hedberg was one of my favorite comedians of all time. His timing wasn't the best, he was very uncomfortable on stage, but his delivery and the jokes he told made up for it. He didn't dive into politics or current events much if at all, but his humor was still topical and like the joke above, something most people could relate to. I wish more people got to see him before he died, and wish more people would seek him out.
Today's post has nothing really to do with Mitch, but that quote sort of does. I've been busy this week and just plugged in my scanner. Knowing I'll likely watch the Chiefs game tonight, I thought I'd do a post. I wasn't sure what to discuss, but I was talking to a friend earlier and mentioned a photo I had of us, and so I looked for it. I never found it, but I did find some others that I scanned. I posted some to Facebook, but thought I would post some here just to show you a little bit about me. This isn't meant to be a throwaway post, I still have plenty of cards to show, but today I thought I'd go lite since I haven't posted in a few days, and it allows me to get some more scanning done later. So here we go.
When I was a freshman in high school I was in an organization called FHA. It stood for Future Homemakers of America. When I graduated my senior year the name was changed to FCCLA or Family, Career, Community Leaders of America. There were many reasons I joined, and I even told many people this at the time, but while many thought it was funny I joined a "girls" club, I actually recruited a few guys into the organization where I was a Regional Officer. The pitch was simple, when I was asked "why join a girls club?" the response was... "because there is 9 girls to every 1 guy!" What amazing odds. I could go on and tell stories of hookups and such, but that's not my point. There were many other reasons to join, legit reasons, and really by my senior year, I took the club serious. I can't remember if I got yelled at over this or not, but before a set of meetings one day I told some fellow members if they didn't want to sit and listen, then go. We would go on many trips and we had to sit through a good amount of meetings. Though they seemed boring, they actually were informative, and it made me mad when people didn't pay attention.
I sat all that up for this first picture. One of the earliest trips I was able to attend was on in Louisville, Kentucky. My sister was a chaperone which at first glance kinda sucked because it was my first trip away from home, but on the flip side we did manage to sneak away a couple times to walk around and we managed to get the photo of the Belle of Louisville. It's hard to believe its been 20 years since I've been there. I really hope to return there one day and visit and look around again. Maybe this time I'll go on a tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum instead of a Distillery which we did... ON A SCHOOL TRIP!
The Belle of Louisville partially sank about a year after this photo due to sabotage. However, it was saved and restored to it glory. A few years ago it collided with a dock while turning around. It again was replaced and returned to service. In 2014 the Belle celebrated 100 years!
In the summer of 2001, I won tickets to a music festival in Joplin, MO. It was a really nice one, but unfortunately it was the 6th and final one (thanks to a lot of political undoings and money disappearing). While I had tickets to all the days, I went with my best friend and my cousin and we went for one day. A lot went on that weekend, but one of the highlights was seeing some bands I loved at the time including the Gin Blossoms, and the Spin Doctors. After the Spin Doctors set, I went to their merch booth to meet them. In the photos above, the left is of lead singer Chris Barron, and the right is of bassist Mark White. While I was getting a Frisbee signed (a local TV station was throwing them out and I caught one), Mark noticed I took his picture and asked, "hey, don't you want to be in the picture?" Sure I thought, but selfies weren't invented yet and I'm not trusting of people with my disposable camera (oh the heartaches we went through, lol). But I decide, YES! let's do this.
and I was very happy that "the dude in the Spin Doctors wanted to take a picture with me". Little did I know that Mark White had actually left the band in 1999 and had just returned a few months earlier after what was to be a one night reunion. What I also just found out was that originally John Popper was in the band but left to join Blues Traveler. Once he left, the band found and hired Mark White who bass playing inspired them to take a different direction musically and that was the sound that people grew to love.
Another band I got to meet was Sponge. Three of the members are shown in the front including lead singer Vinnie Dombroski shown in the middle. I am right behind him in the middle. Beside me on the right is my friend I traveled down with, and on the left is another friend who happened to be there. As it turns out a classmate of mine also won tickets and a few of his friends came down too. My friend on the left I ended up going to quite a few other concerts with and while I haven't talked to him in a while, he is one of the nicest guys I know. His wife is currently battling cancer and I pray that she gets better. She is also one of the nicest people I know. I tend to say that a lot, but those two would give their shirts off their backs to help anybody if they needed it.
Speaking of my friend I traveled down with, at one point we had to stop the car because my cousin was freaking out about a bug that was on the outside of the car. IT'S FRICKING HUGE!. So my friend pulled over and used my cousin's shoe to kill the bug. I've said this to them a few times, but this was really the road trip experience that I think everyone should have at least once.
My friend and I did a lot of stuff together, and since I already posted them on Facebook, why not here.
The top photo is from one of our years at Prom. I believe its Junior year because either I had someone take the photo, which I kinda doubt, or I swiped it from the photo closet during Yearbook class. I did that a few times not because I really wanted the photos, but because they kept them forever and tried to sell them for a dime a piece, and no way I'm buying a photo of me. Also I did it because I didn't like my Yearbook teacher and she didn't like me. She once gave me a detention (which until that point I never had one) on a day I wasn't even at school. So whatever, she was the only teacher I really didn't like in all my years. Some I didn't care for, but I didn't have a problem with, this one I did. Anyways.
The bottom photo is from my Graduation. To me it is one of the best photos ever. My sister took it, and it is perfect because it not only shows me but in the background is my friend that went through it all with me. I believe there were only 4 classmates who started in kindergarten together and made it all the way through, and were were two of them. Years later I look back and think of all the times we had. He is my friend that I mentioned a few weeks ago that I gave my A-Rod rookie to because I thought Alex Gonzalez would turn out to be a better player.
I wasted a lot of disposable film on selfies. I don't really regret it, but I can admit it now. What is interesting is some of the photos I took make it appear I have wild hair colors. This somewhat looks like I had purple hair. I didn't I assure you. I can only think of two time I did something to my hair. Once I tried to dye it blond, and I didn't leave it in long enough and my hair looked somewhat orange. It worked out okay because it didn't last long and it was close to Halloween. I might have even dressed as Chuckie from Rugrats for school that year. Another time I had something called "hair mascara" which basically let you put some sort of streaks in your hair, and I did that on a way back from a trip and I had a bit of blue hair. I have a picture I'll post another time. It wasn't much, only on the very front, but it was fun. I have thought about dyeing my hair again sometime, but I don't really let it grow out as much anymore, so it would be pointless.
So with that I'll end this Throwback Thursday. I needed to scan these anyways, so thought I'd post. Now I can scan cards and get back to business. Thanks for reading and hope everyone has a great night.
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