The Last Endless Summer
Anytime I go through a great transition period in my life, I find that I get a bit sentimental. In talking with a very good friend tonight, I got to retell one of the best stories I have acquired in my short life. This is the abridged version. Look for the whole tale on a bookshelf near you someday. Imagine a wide eyed kid in his early 20's, blond hair,blue eyes with no idea what was in store for him. The next ten years of his life being set in motion.
June 22nd 1995
I had been squeaky clean for months. No smoking (of any kind), no drinking, no sugar, no caffeine, no meat, no milk. I gave all of that up in one day on the spring solstice. I had a vision at a meditation meeting and realized that I couldn't do those things to myself anymore. I would fail miserably in the coming weeks, but I was clean at that moment was meditating every day and having the most lucid dreams. I had one a few nights earlier. There was an eclipse in the sky. Two flying dragons, the snake-like Asian type, came out of the eclipse and fly around in circles. Eventually they merged, becoming a bigger and more brilliant single one didn't realize at that moment how significant that dream was...Nor how much it actually told the tale and set the stage of the next decade.
I was at work at PS13 in Queens. My parents car packed with my belongings. The grey acoustic guitar I've had since I was 15, recording equipment, clothes and cassette tapes (this was before CD's had completely taken over). I was looking at the clock the whole day. I said goodbye to the kids. "Have a good summer Mr. Dowd!" "You too Mayuri!" I think that I even did my yearly exercise of taking my hair out of the ponytail on the last day of school. At 1 p.m. I hopped in my car and headed to beautiful Pittsburgh, PA. for a two week stay with my cousin Steve, Aunt Carol and Uncle Bruce.
I got to town the next day after a short stop over in Carlisle. Just to sleep. I drank coffee the whole way down there. When I got in, Steve and I of course, drank some tea as soon as we could. I think it was that night when my Aunt and Uncle went out. I got f.u.b.a.r.'ed.
The following weekend the Greatful Dead were playing at Three Rivers Stadium. Steve had floor seats. We decided to buy me a ticket for the upper deck. Steve would then go in with his friend, and come back with his buddies ticket stub, which I would then use to gain access to the floor. Much better than section 345. We drank tea the whole way down there. Bought some humble county brownies when we got to the concert and just hung out along the banks of the Monongahela River (or is that the Allegheny?I always get them mixed up. All I know...It wasn't the Ohio.) Most of you have heard the tale of what Steve and I call the "Magic Ticket", and how that was the greatest concert I ever attended. I was sure that Jerry Garcia was controlling the universe that day. I wanted to buy a pair of Birkenstocks and a VW van that very day.I will continue that tale in another entry.
Well, the vacation went sour soon after. Steve and I, who according to my Aunt Carol, are "like Salt and Pepper", totally different and totally alike and belong together, started to get on each others nerves. Drinking tea waaaaay too much doing less and less. I hear that can happen. It all finally came to a head on July 8th. He and I got into a screaming match. "Fuck you!" "no Fuck you!!!" fingers pointing. Territorial guy shit. I told him that I was going home to New York. All of my friends were going to great adventure on Monday, and I was going to go with them. He went into the basement. Me to the back porch. After about an hour he came upstairs and said "Tom, I'm going to work. If you have gotten all that you need out of Pittsburgh, then go home". With that he left for work. I thought about what he said and called him at work about an hour later. I asked for his friend Pat's number and said that if Pat would go out with me to the South Side (Carson street is on the Southside of Pittsburgh and has a million bars. The Carson Crawl is a famous thing to do. One beer or drink in as many bars as you can go to before you can't see straight) I would stay one more day. I called Pat. He called me back, and we were off a'drinkin'
We got down there and were going to Jack's, the first bar on Carson Street. We were met outside by a guy who said "Hey you're Steve's cousin right? Don't go to Jack's, go to Dee's, Jacks sucks tonight" We listened and continued down the street. Got to Dee's and walked in. So I got in and ordered a drink. I swished my hair around like a rockstar as if to say "Ladies, love me now". They didn't. haha. We sat near the Jukebox on the first floor. I was facing the corner booth. We were talking.
Then it happened. In the corner booth I saw this girl. She was looking right back at me. It was like in Waynes World "Dream Weaver........", the blue light, stars and all. haha. She had brown eyes, curly long brown hair. Pat's voice quickly became much like the teacher from Peanuts.
Pat: "Mwa, Mwa, mwa"
Tom: not listening and staring at the girl "yeah"
Pat"mwa, mwa, mwa"
Tom:"The most beautiful girl in the world is sitting in the corner"
Pat was sickened as I was playing the eye version of footsie with the girl. She was into me! Finally she got up and walked over towards me. She went to the jukebox behind me. I turned around. Ready to make my suave move.Like most guys, I thought I was suave but really came off more like a chimpanzee. I turned and said "Hi. What are you playing?" This girl turned and gave me the coldest, if looks could kill look of all time... and then walked away without a word. I mean, what the hell did I do?!? She was giving me the eye. "Right Pat? Right?"
A little while later, she came back with a friend. The friend turned to me and said "Hi, I'm Mary, what's your name?" I said "Hi, I'm Tommy, meet Pat *turning towards the friend after pawning Mary off on Pat* what's your name?" She said "Nicole"
We spent the rest of the evening together. A day or two later we went on our first date. I saw the tattoo on her arm, the eclipse from my dream. She thought I was a lying freak when I told her so. We spent the rest of the summer together. I left in late August.I moved to Pittsburgh months later. We moved to New York the next year. We got married, five years to the night that we met.
Nicole and I will have known each other 10 years on July 8th 2005. Kinda makes time seem different. A lot of time seems meaningless up against a decade, a lot of time seems bigger.Things are just what they are. It's like our teachers used to say, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. Life has a funny way of putting you exactly where you need to be on the night you need to be there.
1995 was my last endless summer. The year I stopped being a child and started being a man. My life was formed that year, it changed everything for me. Some days I feel like I still have a lot of growing up to do, but I know that summer was one of the truly perfect moments in my life. No worries. Calm and love were the rule of the day. They ruled the kingdom well.
Songs of the day-
Little Guitars-Van Halen (It makes no sense but it is my favorite summertime song.I heard it on my way down to the Burgh' in 95. Beautiful sunny day, windows down, Jersey Tpke singing at the top of my lungs)
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me-Culture Club (Heard it at dinner this evening.Made me think of "The Wedding Singer"
P.S. I just read the lyrics to those two songs. Funny what I was saying about things popping up at the right time. hahaha. Little Guitars now makes sense and I now have more respect for Boy George, who made me scratch my head saying "That's a man?" when I was in the 5th grade at P.S. 113 in Glendale Queens.I have never read his lyrics before. I have sang those Halen ones a million times, but today I finally understand them.
Later Gators and congrats to those of you that made it all the way through this. You are troopers for putting up with my over-blogging.
June 22nd 1995
I had been squeaky clean for months. No smoking (of any kind), no drinking, no sugar, no caffeine, no meat, no milk. I gave all of that up in one day on the spring solstice. I had a vision at a meditation meeting and realized that I couldn't do those things to myself anymore. I would fail miserably in the coming weeks, but I was clean at that moment was meditating every day and having the most lucid dreams. I had one a few nights earlier. There was an eclipse in the sky. Two flying dragons, the snake-like Asian type, came out of the eclipse and fly around in circles. Eventually they merged, becoming a bigger and more brilliant single one didn't realize at that moment how significant that dream was...Nor how much it actually told the tale and set the stage of the next decade.
I was at work at PS13 in Queens. My parents car packed with my belongings. The grey acoustic guitar I've had since I was 15, recording equipment, clothes and cassette tapes (this was before CD's had completely taken over). I was looking at the clock the whole day. I said goodbye to the kids. "Have a good summer Mr. Dowd!" "You too Mayuri!" I think that I even did my yearly exercise of taking my hair out of the ponytail on the last day of school. At 1 p.m. I hopped in my car and headed to beautiful Pittsburgh, PA. for a two week stay with my cousin Steve, Aunt Carol and Uncle Bruce.
I got to town the next day after a short stop over in Carlisle. Just to sleep. I drank coffee the whole way down there. When I got in, Steve and I of course, drank some tea as soon as we could. I think it was that night when my Aunt and Uncle went out. I got f.u.b.a.r.'ed.
The following weekend the Greatful Dead were playing at Three Rivers Stadium. Steve had floor seats. We decided to buy me a ticket for the upper deck. Steve would then go in with his friend, and come back with his buddies ticket stub, which I would then use to gain access to the floor. Much better than section 345. We drank tea the whole way down there. Bought some humble county brownies when we got to the concert and just hung out along the banks of the Monongahela River (or is that the Allegheny?I always get them mixed up. All I know...It wasn't the Ohio.) Most of you have heard the tale of what Steve and I call the "Magic Ticket", and how that was the greatest concert I ever attended. I was sure that Jerry Garcia was controlling the universe that day. I wanted to buy a pair of Birkenstocks and a VW van that very day.I will continue that tale in another entry.
Well, the vacation went sour soon after. Steve and I, who according to my Aunt Carol, are "like Salt and Pepper", totally different and totally alike and belong together, started to get on each others nerves. Drinking tea waaaaay too much doing less and less. I hear that can happen. It all finally came to a head on July 8th. He and I got into a screaming match. "Fuck you!" "no Fuck you!!!" fingers pointing. Territorial guy shit. I told him that I was going home to New York. All of my friends were going to great adventure on Monday, and I was going to go with them. He went into the basement. Me to the back porch. After about an hour he came upstairs and said "Tom, I'm going to work. If you have gotten all that you need out of Pittsburgh, then go home". With that he left for work. I thought about what he said and called him at work about an hour later. I asked for his friend Pat's number and said that if Pat would go out with me to the South Side (Carson street is on the Southside of Pittsburgh and has a million bars. The Carson Crawl is a famous thing to do. One beer or drink in as many bars as you can go to before you can't see straight) I would stay one more day. I called Pat. He called me back, and we were off a'drinkin'
We got down there and were going to Jack's, the first bar on Carson Street. We were met outside by a guy who said "Hey you're Steve's cousin right? Don't go to Jack's, go to Dee's, Jacks sucks tonight" We listened and continued down the street. Got to Dee's and walked in. So I got in and ordered a drink. I swished my hair around like a rockstar as if to say "Ladies, love me now". They didn't. haha. We sat near the Jukebox on the first floor. I was facing the corner booth. We were talking.
Then it happened. In the corner booth I saw this girl. She was looking right back at me. It was like in Waynes World "Dream Weaver........", the blue light, stars and all. haha. She had brown eyes, curly long brown hair. Pat's voice quickly became much like the teacher from Peanuts.
Pat: "Mwa, Mwa, mwa"
Tom: not listening and staring at the girl "yeah"
Pat"mwa, mwa, mwa"
Tom:"The most beautiful girl in the world is sitting in the corner"
Pat was sickened as I was playing the eye version of footsie with the girl. She was into me! Finally she got up and walked over towards me. She went to the jukebox behind me. I turned around. Ready to make my suave move.Like most guys, I thought I was suave but really came off more like a chimpanzee. I turned and said "Hi. What are you playing?" This girl turned and gave me the coldest, if looks could kill look of all time... and then walked away without a word. I mean, what the hell did I do?!? She was giving me the eye. "Right Pat? Right?"
A little while later, she came back with a friend. The friend turned to me and said "Hi, I'm Mary, what's your name?" I said "Hi, I'm Tommy, meet Pat *turning towards the friend after pawning Mary off on Pat* what's your name?" She said "Nicole"
We spent the rest of the evening together. A day or two later we went on our first date. I saw the tattoo on her arm, the eclipse from my dream. She thought I was a lying freak when I told her so. We spent the rest of the summer together. I left in late August.I moved to Pittsburgh months later. We moved to New York the next year. We got married, five years to the night that we met.
Nicole and I will have known each other 10 years on July 8th 2005. Kinda makes time seem different. A lot of time seems meaningless up against a decade, a lot of time seems bigger.Things are just what they are. It's like our teachers used to say, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. Life has a funny way of putting you exactly where you need to be on the night you need to be there.
1995 was my last endless summer. The year I stopped being a child and started being a man. My life was formed that year, it changed everything for me. Some days I feel like I still have a lot of growing up to do, but I know that summer was one of the truly perfect moments in my life. No worries. Calm and love were the rule of the day. They ruled the kingdom well.
Songs of the day-
Little Guitars-Van Halen (It makes no sense but it is my favorite summertime song.I heard it on my way down to the Burgh' in 95. Beautiful sunny day, windows down, Jersey Tpke singing at the top of my lungs)
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me-Culture Club (Heard it at dinner this evening.Made me think of "The Wedding Singer"
P.S. I just read the lyrics to those two songs. Funny what I was saying about things popping up at the right time. hahaha. Little Guitars now makes sense and I now have more respect for Boy George, who made me scratch my head saying "That's a man?" when I was in the 5th grade at P.S. 113 in Glendale Queens.I have never read his lyrics before. I have sang those Halen ones a million times, but today I finally understand them.
Later Gators and congrats to those of you that made it all the way through this. You are troopers for putting up with my over-blogging.
posted by TD at 12:47 AM
2 Comments:
I want to fall in love the way you did with your ex-wife. I can only hope that a guy will describe how he feels about me, the way that you did about her. You rock.
Hey there Linz. Thanks. It was a place and time that was pretty magical. I've been lucky enough to experience that a few times in my life. The moment where your feet fly off the floor and everything seems perfect. Good times. Please keep in mind though that I am describing this after a year of seperation, lots of heartache and another failed relationship. hahaha.
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