Forty isn't old. If you're a tree. (Ode to Dave Cloutier)

To set the record straight, I'm over 40 years old. Well over. In another year I'll be actually be closer to 60 than I'll be to 40.



Jesus Christ.

How they hell did that happen?
(I just had to run the math in my head to prove it to myself. Unfortunately I was right).

I've got a friend that turns forty. Tomorrow. He didn't want a party.
Obviously he is growing wise in his old age.



I'm not sure if this post is intended to make him feel old...or me feel young.

We'll see.

If it makes me feel young than I should have written it a long time ago, because I haven't felt young in a long time.

Well, not since that night at the Saco River Grange Hall a month ago when I went to see the fiddle festival.
That was actually quite a good time....one of the funnest nights I've had in a long time...but if it wasn't for me, my lovely, slightly younger wife, and 10 year old daughter, the average age of the attendees would have been somewhere between 60 and 80. We lowered it to about 55.



(this is the Saco River Grange Hall)

So back to my forty year old friend.

This was the number one song when you were born.

(Unfortunately my friend just wore that same bright yellow shirt and light blue overalls that the guitarist in the video is wearing to a party last night. He's does a lot of things well, but dressing himself is not one of them).

This one makes me feel young. No way this song is forty years old. I still remember listening to it on my transistor radio and waiting feverishly for it to be played so that I could hit record on the cassette player that I had positioned the microphone in front of the radio speakers oh so carefully.

 

Wait. Now those pictures make me feel old.
Come to think of it, so did the description of how we had to "tape" songs back in the day.

All in the Family was the number television in show when this young buck was born


I remember this show as a kid. (for the record I was 10 years old). That doesn't seem that long ago when I was watching this show....except for the fact that Carrol O'Connor (Archie Bunker) was the same age I am now when he was playing this role in 1974.

That makes me feel old.
As a matter of fact I was probably more interested in the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show on Saturday mornings than I was in All in the Family.


I'm sure that reference is completely lost on that forty year old.
Which makes me feel old.

Maybe he'll google it (if that's what kid's do nowadays to learn about ancient history).

The first car I ever owned (which I bought in 1980) was built in 1974.



That's right. The Ford Maverick.

I can feel the jealously. From all of you.
I'll bet my friend has held up better than any 1974 Maverick has. (Actually I've seen him in shorts. Maybe I'll retract that previous statement).

1974 was when Hank Aaron set the all time home run record, beating Babe Ruth's prior record of 714. He still owns the record , if you ask me.

I remember watching it at Eastern Slopes Campground in New Hampshire...probably on a black and white television with rabbit ears. In a pop up trailer.
  

Those were the days.

Not sure if that makes me feel old or young. That one's a draw.

Here's the decider.

We both stayed up late watching a playoff hockey game the other night.
Probably in bed close to midnight.
He got up at 3:30AM and worked a full day...mowed his lawn...and his next door neighbor's.
I saw him at a basketball game that night. He stood for the whole thing.

Me?

I slept in. Left work early.
...and fell asleep in the stands despite it being a double overtime thriller that both of our youngest daughters were playing in. If it wasn't for the crowd going wild when a girl from the other team hit a no look 60 foot three pointer with .2 seconds left in regulation to tie the game, I would have slept through both overtimes as well.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. I probably would have only slept through one of the overtimes.

Ok.
So I'd say the result of this had to make me feel older, not him.

...and just so you know, the fact that he built your own basketball court...outdoor fireplace...a table built from a full size redwood...re did all the wood work in his house...gives foot rubs to his entire family...makes breakfast every weekend...invented the internet..discovered gravity...and turned water into wine...

I'm not jealous.

As long as I remember the door knob coming off in my hand the last time I walked into your house (and the fact that you didn't install it is a moot point)...

Happy birthday Dave Cloutier.

You're a hell of a guy and a true friend.

kitty kitty kitty

you bastard

C'mon, I was only ten years old

1974
This was my life....mostly in pictures.
(as best I can remember, so no fact checking needed)
This is how I rolled...my Mom's Dodge Challenger


I remember driving in this car when we heard on the radio (my Mom always had the radio on - but more on that later) that Mama Cass had died.(Disclaimer for those of you under 30...Mama Cass was a singer in the band the Mamas and the Papas...you should know about them, and if you don't, shame on you). We were driving in town Portland, I'm even going to say it was driving up Casco Street or Brown Street heading towards Congress Street....because stuff used to be on Casco and Brown Streets in 1974. After Mom got rid of this muscle car she went with a Plymouth Volare'. Oh, and it was a station wagon. tsk tsk tsk.

My primary means of transportation in '74 was something like this...




That's right, A Schwinn Sting Ray....and yes, it was yellow. Somewhere there's an awesome picture of me straddling my bike in my driveway wearing a matching yellow wind breaker. Probably getting ready to ride down to "the Park", which would be the Sunset Park ballfields at the end of New York Ave in South Portland Maine. I might have been on my way to hit my infamous little league tryouts home run that I've referenced in the past...and probably will again sometime in the future.
For anyone that wants to reminisce with me, here it is...
http://pompatusofpete.blogspot.com/2011/10/strolling-kitties.html

Speaking of 1974 sports (which I just was), I think it was just the year before when my older brother broke it to me that the Harlem Globetrotters were not the world champions of basketball...so I decided to follow the Celtics. Coincidently that was the year that they won the NBA championship. Great team...John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Paul Silas, and my favorite, Jo Jo White. Jo Jo White might have been overshadowed by some of the other stars (although he was an all star himself), I liked him because he seemed cool...and cool was everything to a ten year old.

Coincidentally , I think that's why Rico Petrocelli was my favorite Red Sox player..because he seemed cool. As an adult, I got to spend an entire day with Rico, basically just the two of us (don't recall if I've written about that one before, if not, I've got a feeling it will be coming), and you know what? He was cool.


1974.....
I was in fourth grade at Thornton Heights elementary school. Mr. Northrop was my teacher. Mr Northrop is now a friend of mine on Facebook.




...That's it in the background...couldn't find a decent older photo of it. The library was in the basement...there was no gym...it had a dirt baseball field..and I loved it. 1974 would have been the first time we had a basketball team at school. You see Thornton Heights only went up to fourth grade, and then you went to Skillin for two years, before moving on to junior high. Don't ask me why, that's just the way it was. The point of that prior sentence was so I could point out, our 4th grade basketball team was playing the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teams of the other elementary schools in town, and the scrappers from the west side of the city held their own. Back in the day South Portland had nine or ten elementary schools. I still remember some of my teammates...Joe McHugh -great athlete, Scott Merrill- fastest kid I ever saw (demonstrated in later years by getting chased by the police through the woods at innumerable keg parties), Rick Russell - who broke his arm the next year at Skillin playing buck buck on the teeter totter during recess, Tom Lee - who lived across the street from the school and had the nicest Mom, John McQuinn - strongest kid that ever attended 4th grade(anywhere...ever), Elliot Chamberlain - who now builds "great neighborhoods" here in Maine, Peter Flynn and Tod Douglass - unfortunately neither of which are still with us, and me. My coach (Joe McHugh's Dad...who you can still see ushering at Sea Dogs games in the Summer) gave me the moniker "The Gentle Giant". Not exactly what a 4th grade kid wants to be called, but unfortunately, it was pretty accurate...and my Mom liked it


1974.....1974

1974 was around the time I started getting interested in music. Like I said earlier, my Mom always had the radio on...I had older brothers and an older sister that were listening to the best music of the time. Unfortunately we were listening to it on something like this..


But hey, it was portable.

That music takes me back to times when we'd play outside until the lights came on....to when we'd go sledding up to "the Pits" in the Winter...when we'd build forts out in the woods....when we used to ride in the back of station wagons....eating lunch at A&W....playing Indian Ball down at the Park...having slot car races...banging my knuckles playing with clackers (remember those?)


So close your eyes (or don't) and maybe this will bring you back to 1974 (posting this was actually the whole point of writing about 1974...and it only took me about a thousand words to get here)

Oh, and by the way, Mikey from those Life cereal commercials did not die from eating pop rocks after drinking a Coke...at least, I don't think he did.