When I was getting off work today it was on my mind to get a haircut, a task I ended up not doing. But before I ended up not getting my haircut I had a flashback of getting my haircut when I was young. Back then guys went to a barbershop, and barbershops had a very distinct smell. I think it was the stuff the barbers smacked on the back of our necks when they were done, but I don't know that for sure. One thing I do know is barbershops smelled the same in Gatesville Texas, Ft Benning Georgia, Ft Bragg NC and Ft Campbell KY. I guess when I got out of the army I found out pretty girls gave haircuts too so I didn't hit as many true barber shops as salons..I guess that is 25 years of wasted great smells because I never dated any girl that cut my hair.
So I ended up thinking about smells. Kids are missing out nowdays with the whiteboards because I love the way blackboards and chalk smell. Erasers too I guess, but I wasn't talking about the big rubber erasers we had on the first day of school. I do not like the way hospitals smell but that never would stop me from holding hands with a nurse if the time was right. I do not mind the smell of gasoline if I am mowing the grass or filling up but really don't want that around if I am eating pie with my hands. Oh the smell of pie is good, even if I am filling up or mowing grass. To me the smell of cut grass is the smell of playing highschool football, the second favorite smell of my life. Speaking of that, a football has a very distinct smell, and i love it. The smell of a football puts me in a "guy" mode instantly. I do not miss the smell of the 70's and 80's hair spray but I do kinda miss the look. If a person reads alot books do have a smell.. Yea, I am a fan. Not so much of a wet dog. I do not like the smell of tires, or oil. I do like the smell of wood burning and sawdust. People that have never been to a western wear store are really missing out on a great aroma not to mention the sight of cowgirls walking away! Locker rooms stink but what I wouldn't give to be apart of one again. I hate the taste of coffee but love the way it tastes. I hate the smell of beer but....I like to smell a horse but not so much a stupid cow. I do like the smell of gunpowder and to a lesser extent bleach. the best smells....
Well the best smells I know, not being food just because, are...When I am two stepping and a girls hair is right there and clean smelling...oh my
To me the best smell in the world is walking in to a small movie theater and that fresh popcorn smell hitting me! It is me at 16, it is theGatesville drive-in, the best time of my life...
Friday, March 22, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
things that change your life
The early part of my life I grew up on military post in the '70s. On base there were many things to do. Swimming pools, places to learn arts and crafts, day centers where kids could shoot pool or play basket ball or foosball. To acess all these things a kid had to have a military dependent ID card, the only catch was a little dude had to be 10 years old to get one. When I was eight and nine years old I figured once I received my ID card I would be a man of the world. I did reach 10, much to the surprise of some, and the ID card did set me free! It changed my small world.
In 1976 my dad informed me that we were moving off base, to the country. I had never lived anywhere except on an Army base except summers I spent on my grandpa's farm. To help me adapt he bought me cassette tapes of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Tom T Hall. He told my mom to buy me some boots, but that is another story-think dingo boots not cowboy boots. So we drove on, and on. I remember rounding a corner and my parents informing us...that is it on the hill. So we went from a duplex on a crowed street on Ft Hood Texas to 7 acres in the middle of central Texas, 50 miles from the nearest Mcdonalds . That kind of change does alter your world. So did going from a class size of 20 people to my graduating class of 8.
Has your mom ever warned you about running with the wrong crowd? Well that year 1976 she drug my butt to church in Gatesville. Our Sunday school class was Me and Larry, Jim Caldwell, Sheri Wright and Sheri Gordon, and Lou Langston, and if you don't know these people let me say this: among these I was the wrong crowd. Oh and every time I though I was done with church or Sunday school Sheri Gordon would bring Dyanna Adair and I was a regular again! That was church, three time a week. I went to Jonesboro highschool five times a week and you really cannot lose yourself in a class of eight or nine people. Through the years we had a person or two come or go but me,along with Heather and Lisa ( these girls deserve the medal of honor for putting up with us) Wayne Wallace and Thomas Everett Hill who we called Tom Tom because face it a class this small can have only one Thomas. Mark Breeden who despite trying hard to be a screw up ended up graduating from Annapolis. Ricky Helms fought me very hard to graduate 8th in our class but I am pretty sure my 2 in geometry put me at the bottom of our class. I hope he dosent read this since he has had a long career in law enforcement and might slap me in the slammer! A guy that was there most of the time but moved on named Robert Henson showed me that you could be a highschool tough guy without being a highschool bully. And Carl Beechly I still cant talk about much but I always said if I had a boy he would be named Carl. I met all these great people the year I moved to the country and being around really good people rubs off on a guy.
Most kids cant wait to get off work so they can go play. Me and Larry worked at the Town and Country Drive( still open called Last Drive in Picture show), so we never wanted off. And we never took off very often. The drive in was owned by Gene Palmer and run by his brother Don. If I was going to be caught in the Ground Hog Day dream I would just pick any day at the theatre and relive it day after day. Gene and Don and Cheryl treated all of idiots so good it really did change my life. Good times or bad they treated us good because that is their character. The Palmers did't have to try, or remember to treat people good they just did it. I think with out working for them I would be like that goober from Hell's Kitchen..I worked at the show until the day I joined the Army.
Many other things have changed my life but I have to wake up at 4am so I guess those are tales for another time. Why am I writing this tonight. In about an hour and 15 minutes my little boy turns 13. At times in my life I have been mean. I have been bad. Been broke. I have had good times and pretty low times, but since March 15 2000 I have been a dad. It truly is the only thing I have every taken seriously. I have had two marriages and divorces and both times I can take the blame. But I do have a love story that will last forever.
Happy birthday to my boy Carl Jordan Butler...eat cake!
In 1976 my dad informed me that we were moving off base, to the country. I had never lived anywhere except on an Army base except summers I spent on my grandpa's farm. To help me adapt he bought me cassette tapes of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Tom T Hall. He told my mom to buy me some boots, but that is another story-think dingo boots not cowboy boots. So we drove on, and on. I remember rounding a corner and my parents informing us...that is it on the hill. So we went from a duplex on a crowed street on Ft Hood Texas to 7 acres in the middle of central Texas, 50 miles from the nearest Mcdonalds . That kind of change does alter your world. So did going from a class size of 20 people to my graduating class of 8.
Has your mom ever warned you about running with the wrong crowd? Well that year 1976 she drug my butt to church in Gatesville. Our Sunday school class was Me and Larry, Jim Caldwell, Sheri Wright and Sheri Gordon, and Lou Langston, and if you don't know these people let me say this: among these I was the wrong crowd. Oh and every time I though I was done with church or Sunday school Sheri Gordon would bring Dyanna Adair and I was a regular again! That was church, three time a week. I went to Jonesboro highschool five times a week and you really cannot lose yourself in a class of eight or nine people. Through the years we had a person or two come or go but me,along with Heather and Lisa ( these girls deserve the medal of honor for putting up with us) Wayne Wallace and Thomas Everett Hill who we called Tom Tom because face it a class this small can have only one Thomas. Mark Breeden who despite trying hard to be a screw up ended up graduating from Annapolis. Ricky Helms fought me very hard to graduate 8th in our class but I am pretty sure my 2 in geometry put me at the bottom of our class. I hope he dosent read this since he has had a long career in law enforcement and might slap me in the slammer! A guy that was there most of the time but moved on named Robert Henson showed me that you could be a highschool tough guy without being a highschool bully. And Carl Beechly I still cant talk about much but I always said if I had a boy he would be named Carl. I met all these great people the year I moved to the country and being around really good people rubs off on a guy.
Most kids cant wait to get off work so they can go play. Me and Larry worked at the Town and Country Drive( still open called Last Drive in Picture show), so we never wanted off. And we never took off very often. The drive in was owned by Gene Palmer and run by his brother Don. If I was going to be caught in the Ground Hog Day dream I would just pick any day at the theatre and relive it day after day. Gene and Don and Cheryl treated all of idiots so good it really did change my life. Good times or bad they treated us good because that is their character. The Palmers did't have to try, or remember to treat people good they just did it. I think with out working for them I would be like that goober from Hell's Kitchen..I worked at the show until the day I joined the Army.
Many other things have changed my life but I have to wake up at 4am so I guess those are tales for another time. Why am I writing this tonight. In about an hour and 15 minutes my little boy turns 13. At times in my life I have been mean. I have been bad. Been broke. I have had good times and pretty low times, but since March 15 2000 I have been a dad. It truly is the only thing I have every taken seriously. I have had two marriages and divorces and both times I can take the blame. But I do have a love story that will last forever.
Happy birthday to my boy Carl Jordan Butler...eat cake!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
what is important?
I just got off the phone with a friend arguing about what is important in a quarterback. Well this is my blog so I am saying I won. To me it is not about touchdowns, or stats or ratings but about leadership and winning. Winning when it counts. That s football one of my favorite things. I also love God, America, Texas, bar b q and beer. They all seem to be the top. The best. That's why I watch so many shows about high achievers and how they got there. But that is not what is on my mind.
I remember a year or so when Apple's Steve Jobs, one of the most successful people on earth died, people close to him said he wished he had spent more time with his kids. Earlier today I watched a bio on Jimmy Johnson from the Dallas Cowboys fame and he regretted not spending time with his boys so when his mom died he discovered what was really important to him was his boys so he retired from a multi million dollar a year job to go fishing with his kids.And just now now I watched the bio on Tom Coughlin the NY Giants head coach and he was starting to fail until he reconnected to his family.
I am a truck driver. I don't run Apple or the NY Giants or my beloved Dallas Cowboys. I do have a pretty dang good relationship with my boy. When I check my phone it is for his calls or messages not some cute thing I met . A great Saturday night is not something I will tell my buddies about Monday, but us watching a guy movie eating pizza and setting on the love seat in our living room. Sunday we go to church then usually to my moms to eat or sometimes the three of us out. Most Sundays we play catch with the football.Sometimes we go to a movie or Old Chicago where they know him as well as me. He asks me for a fish or a dog or a game almost every week end and usually does not get them but he dose not gripe. We talk about Corvette's and other things I cannot buy at this time.When it gets time to go we both get feeling funny. Sometimes Teri comes to get him and we stack all of his stuff by the door. Sometimes I drive him 25 miles back to his moms house in Jones. In that case we stop by 7-11 and grab a couple of diet Mt Dews. I dont drive fast and usually we dont listen to the radio. I love that drive and hate it . Every week.
After I drop off Carl I stop by Old Chicago on my way home. Almost every Sunday for 5 years. That hour or so is my worst hour of the week and the girls there know it and are good to me.
I think I may be living a success story in reverse. I have the family thing down but the professional thing....To talk the truth I dont care. I am not worried about next weeks check even though I should. I am not worried about the girl I would really really like to see during the week. I just hope I get Carl Friday instead of Saturday.
I remember a year or so when Apple's Steve Jobs, one of the most successful people on earth died, people close to him said he wished he had spent more time with his kids. Earlier today I watched a bio on Jimmy Johnson from the Dallas Cowboys fame and he regretted not spending time with his boys so when his mom died he discovered what was really important to him was his boys so he retired from a multi million dollar a year job to go fishing with his kids.And just now now I watched the bio on Tom Coughlin the NY Giants head coach and he was starting to fail until he reconnected to his family.
I am a truck driver. I don't run Apple or the NY Giants or my beloved Dallas Cowboys. I do have a pretty dang good relationship with my boy. When I check my phone it is for his calls or messages not some cute thing I met . A great Saturday night is not something I will tell my buddies about Monday, but us watching a guy movie eating pizza and setting on the love seat in our living room. Sunday we go to church then usually to my moms to eat or sometimes the three of us out. Most Sundays we play catch with the football.Sometimes we go to a movie or Old Chicago where they know him as well as me. He asks me for a fish or a dog or a game almost every week end and usually does not get them but he dose not gripe. We talk about Corvette's and other things I cannot buy at this time.When it gets time to go we both get feeling funny. Sometimes Teri comes to get him and we stack all of his stuff by the door. Sometimes I drive him 25 miles back to his moms house in Jones. In that case we stop by 7-11 and grab a couple of diet Mt Dews. I dont drive fast and usually we dont listen to the radio. I love that drive and hate it . Every week.
After I drop off Carl I stop by Old Chicago on my way home. Almost every Sunday for 5 years. That hour or so is my worst hour of the week and the girls there know it and are good to me.
I think I may be living a success story in reverse. I have the family thing down but the professional thing....To talk the truth I dont care. I am not worried about next weeks check even though I should. I am not worried about the girl I would really really like to see during the week. I just hope I get Carl Friday instead of Saturday.
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