Emotional Day

It is still a year away, but it is becoming very real, very quickly.

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Last month, on the last day of school, my oldest called me and proudly announced, “I’m a senior, dad!” It’s not like I didn’t think this time was coming, I knew it was. I knew when I held him as a newborn baby that time was going to go quickly. Life already moves quickly, and they say that when you have children, it moves a whole lot faster! I would definitely agree!

First steps. First words. First day of pre-school. First day of kindergarten. First holiday program. First day riding the bus. First day of middle school. First day of high school. First band concert. First awards ceremony. How quickly these firsts fly by. Next year, we begin to see the Last first day of school, the last final exams, and eventually, the last last day of school.

Today, we took my son, Dante’ out to have some senior pictures taken. Times have certainly changed from when I had mine done. 31 years ago, they had the photographer set up in one of rooms in the school. You made an appointment. You got dressed up in a suit and tie and they put you in some ridiculous poses. For those in sports, they may have posed with a football or basketball. I had my trumpet with me in one pose. They allowed you (for a fee) to pose with a friend. I know that I have pictures with my friend Steve and Margaret. You had to pose for one generic head shot (which would ultimately be your yearbook picture). Most of the other poses were just awkward. I have this one of me with the suit coat in my hand and over my shoulder – it looks so stupid!!

Our friend Amy came out and shot his pictures. Prior to the shoot she was clear that the way we would get authentic pictures was to make sure he was dressed comfortably. In other words, if he was not a suit and tie guy, then don’t force him to wear it. She wanted to know his interests so we could get some shots of him being natural and relaxed. We sort of mapped out a tentative plan and did as much as we could (knowing that he would probably get to a point where he’d be burned out).

Dante’ and his friends from school love old cars. He has always amazed me as we drive around town. He can point to a classic and give me the year, make and model of the car. He loves them. He’d been asking to go to a classic car show this summer and today, they had one in Flushing. It was going on while I was on the air, so Sam met Amy and they took some shots near some of the cars of his choosing. They also got some good pictures in the park where the car show was held.

He also loves video games and arcades. There was one in the mall near us, so that was the next stop. Sadly, it was much different from the one that we had been at before. Perhaps there were new owners, I don’t know, but it was more geared toward younger children. I met the group at the mall after work and we looked at the rest of the agenda. It was extremely hot and humid and we could see he was getting tired.

There is a park near us that has a creek, a bridge, and a trail. We decided to go there and see what kind of pictures we could get there. Dimitri had been out in the sun all day on Thursday and was still nursing a bad sunburn, so Sam took him home and I continued with Dante’. We took quite a few shots there and I am excited to see them.

We walked down one of the trails and were looking for more opportunities for pictures. Dante’ was walking ahead of me and I had a flashback. One day the entire family was walking the trail by our old house. He and Dimitri were walking in front of me holding hands (the picture is probably on my Facebook somewhere). It was autumn, and the leaves were changing. I told Dante’ that the trail reminded me of that. Without hesitation, Amy told me and Dante’ to walk ahead of her and just talk. For 5 minutes, I just walked and talked with my son. Welling up with emotion, I put my arm around him and he did the same to me. Amy snapped some pictures of us, and I am pretty excited to see them. It was a very special moment.

There was talk of going to Crossroads Village and Downtown Flint, but it was obvious that he was getting close to being done. Crossroads is a very special place for him because of his love for trains, and the fact that when he was 4, my mom spent the day with him at the Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine. Downtown Flint would have been cool because there are so many cool photo opportunities. Knowing that he was running on empty, we came back to the house.

At the house, Amy wanted to get some shots of him playing video games. This was important to him. He loves gaming and his senior pictures should show that. Amy’s daughter, Skyler, made a very cool sign that was in the shots with his video games that read: “High School – Game Over!” The sign sat next to a stack of his favorite games.

Dimitri wanted a picture of the two of them back to back playing games, so she made sure to get that one for him. She then had the boys sit on the side porch in the rocking chairs and just talk to each other. Nothing forced. Just casual conversation between two brothers. I am sure that these pictures will be awesome!

Finally, we had Dante’ standing on the front porch and we hoped to get some shots there. I think we got one. In a very bizarre weather change, in a matter of seconds, the wind picked up, there was a clap of thunder, and the clouds opened up and the rain came pouring down. Dante’ went in the house and Sam and I stood on the porch chatting with Amy. That was the end of the shoot and it went better than I expected.

Dante’ thanked Sam and gave her a hug thanking her for a fun day. He had been so worked up about getting the pictures done. I am guessing he probably thought it would mean him sitting and posing like they did for me. His photo shoot, however, was a fun day looking at classic cars, going to the park, and gaming on camera. He thanked me too, and every bit of the emotions hit me. My voice cracked as I told him that I still couldn’t believe he was a senior. He looked me in the eye and said, “Are you crying, dad?!” Yes. Yes, I was.

I went in the house and stood in the window looking at my senior with tears in my eyes. There was the little boy who I sang to sleep each night with Dean Martin songs. There was the boy who waved to me from the bus window on one of many first days of school. There was the boy who was nonverbal and pointed at pictures to tell us what he wanted to eat. There was the boy who stood close to the TV mesmerized by the “Blue Shadows” scene in The Three Amigos. There was the boy who sang “Elmo’s World” with grandma as they watched Sesame Street. There was the boy I coached with his baseball team. There was the boy who played my trumpet in his first band concert. There was the boy who I rushed to the hospital after his tonsillectomy because his stitches broke. There was the boy who I cheered for when he learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Each of those things brought dad to tears. Now here is dad, crying again. Where that boy stood – now stands a young man who towers over his dad. That young man is about to experience the fastest school year of his life.

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I am sure that there are many more tears that will flow in the coming months. I can’t help it. I will cry when I see the pictures that were taken today. I will cry at awards ceremonies. I will cry at his commencement ceremony. I will cry at his graduation party. Those tears are mixed with sadness, joy, and pride. This is a transition for him. It signifies the end of school and childhood, and the beginning of adulthood. After graduation, he plans to go to college and maybe do something with logistics, although he still occasionally talks about working with trains. His future is bright and I will be cheering him on until I breathe my last breath.

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I will do the same for his brother. He’s got 6 more years before he is a senior, but rest assured, I will shed tears of joy for him in the coming years, too! I can only imagine the wonderful things he will be doing in the years ahead, and I look forward to praising him for all of his accomplishments! He will continue to grow up quickly, just like his brother. In 6 years, I am guessing I will be looking out a window through tears at him, too, recounting his milestones and memories. It’s what dad’s do.

Pass the Kleenex – it’s gonna be a long year!

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Some of my childhood friends…

I’m sure if I asked you about your childhood friends, you could easily spout off many of them by name. Me too! As a matter of fact, I am lucky enough to still see and talk regularly with my best friend from elementary school. Yesterday’s blog about Mr. Rogers got me to thinking on my way home from work about some of the other friends I had growing up. These aren’t friends that I met personally, mind you, these are the TV friends who helped me learn my letters, numbers, parts of speech, and right from wrong. Some of them were there to take me on adventures against bad guys. From various kid shows, there were plenty of friends to keep me company on days when we were snowed in, days it was raining, or on days when you were home sick from school.

Sesame Street

“Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street”? I spent many mornings with the gang from Sesame Street! There were so many characters on that show. Many are still there, while some are long gone. The first “muppet” to appear on the show is still there – Big Bird. Early on, he would talk about his invisible friend “Snuffy” Snuffalupogus. We could see him, Big Bird could see him, but none of the humans on the show could. Now, everyone can see him.

Kermit the Frog, long before he starred on and hosted The Muppet Show”, was a regular on Sesame Street. He often showed up in a trenchcoat and reported the “news”. He also popped in on music composer Don Music, who was often having trouble writing a song. Word is Don was cut from the show cause he always banged his head on the piano.

Remember Grover? He was voiced by Frank Oz … who literally used the same voice for Yoda in the Star Wars films! Grover would crack me up as the waiter who always seemed to annoy that one guy who was always trying to order something at the restaurant.

Ernie and Bert were pals. They were much like my friends and me. They could annoy each other, and at they same time, they liked each other. They fished together, they built snowmen together, they each had their own interests and yet, they still got along. Ernie was the trickster and Bert was usually the target.

Count Von Count was probably my favorite. He was obsessed with numbers and counting. He lived in a castle and his thoughts were often accented by thunder cracks and lightning! He loved counting so much, he often laughed afterward. “Two knocks on the door…..ha ha ha (thunderclap)!”

Speaking of counting, anyone who watched Sesame Street remembers the pinball count. It was your typical jazzy, funky music where an animated pinball rolled around in the machine counting to 12. You can sing it right now, right? So many great other songs were on this show: I Don’t Want To Live On the Moon, The Alligator King, The Ladybug Picnic, Rubber Duckie, It Ain’t Easy Being Green, C is For Cookie, and of course, Mahna Mahna!

I also remember Sherlock Hemlock (who solved mysteries like Sherlock Holmes), Roosevelt Franklin (an African American Muppet who was cut from the show because they felt it was too stereotypical), The Twiddlebugs (who lived outside in Ernie’s window box), and Guy Smiley! There’s a name! Guy Smiley!

The Electric Company

“Hey, you guys!” was often heard shouted by the great Rita Moreno in the opening theme. This was just a “cool” way to learn! While there are many different segments aimed at teaching kids things some of them stand out far more than others. For example, the Soft Shoe Sillhouette, as they were called, featured two people in silhouette pronouncing a word. The first would say “Sh” and the other would say “ip”. They would say it over and over until eventually, they would say “Ship”. I remember how much that helped me learn to read by sounding out words.

As far as my friends from the show, well I have to start off with Easy Reader. He was played by none other than Morgan Freeman! He was so cool and he thought reading was cool. If reading was cool enough for Easy Reader – it was cool enough for me!

Another character who helped me learn to read was Otto the Director, played by Rita Moreno. She would try so hard to get the actors to remember their lines. They would always forget the one word they had on the cue card.

Then there was Spiderman! Yes, Spiderman was on the Electric Company! Spidey’s Super Stories featured Spidey on an adventure and he never spoke, well, audibly anyway. He “spoke” in balloons, like in the comic books. The audience had to read what he was saying. Eventually a comic book called Spidey’s Super Stories was produced by Marvel comics.

Captain Kangaroo

“Good Morning, Captain”. The show would begin with a montage of celebrities and non-celebrities saying “Good Morning, Captain” and eventually, there he was – Captain Kangaroo – saying “Good morning” to you. In an interview once, Bob Keeshan said the show was kind of like a “nice visit to your grandparents house”.

Some of the friends on this show included the farmer. “Mr. Green Jeans”, “Mr. Bunny Rabbit”, and “Mr. Moose”. Mr. Moose was my favorite. He always seemed to tell some kind of knock knock joke which led to a bunch of ping pong balls falling on the Captain.

One thing I remember about this show was the cartoon Simon. It was a British cartoon about a kid who had a magic piece of chalk. With that chalk he could create all kinds of things for some sort of adventure. What I remember about it was the theme: “Well you know my name is Simon, and the things I draw come true…” Mike Meyers did a sketch on SNL based on this with Danny DeVito…a must see if you remember Simon.

The Kroft Super Show

So this show was one that I had kind of forgot about. I was reminded of it after discussing some of the other shows with a friend. I don’t recall what network it was on, but I seem to remember it being on before or after Land of the Lost.

Do you remember Dr. Shrinker? Cheesy 70’s programming at it’s best! Dr. Shrinker is some sort of mad scientist who shrinks a bunch of teenagers and they spend the entire episode running away from him and trying not to get caught by him or his henchman, Hugo. Hugo was played wonderfully by the great Billy Barty! What I remember most about this was how they had these huge oversized props behind the actors to show how “tiny” they were.

You thought Batman 66 was cheesy?? This show introduced us to Electra Woman and Dyna Girl! Electra Woman was played by Deidre Hall and Dyna Girl was Judy Strangis. There were two crime fighters who posed as news reporters when not fighting crime. They wore these huge things called ElectraComs on their wrists that allowed them to speak to each other and it also served as a gadget that got them out of pretty much any situation (just like Batman’s utility belt). Dyna Girl was basically a female Robin and instead of yelling “Holy (fill in the blank)”, she would yell “Electra Wow!” LOL!

A highlight of this cheesy show was their scientist friend, Frank Heflin. He helped them by staying at the Electra Base (like the Bat Cave) and operated the CrimeScope (like the Bat Computer). He was played by the great character actor Norman Alden. He was in many movies, and provided the voice for Aquaman and Green Arrow on the Super Friends cartoon. He also was the café owner in the café where Marty McFly meets his father at in the 1950’s in the classic film Back to the Future.

Next time … The Parts of Speech, History, and Musical Math …