David,
So, I’m up in the mountains of Colorado having a glass of wine at an upscale kind of eating/drinking establishment near Aspen, Colorado, one evening this October. It’s a great place to be on the earth. Near the wildness of the West and far enough from Denver to feel like Jeremiah Johnson may be over the ridge roasting that ‘fine rabbit’ that he and Will Geer quickly dispatch.
So, after a few…more…reflections on by contentment, albeit usually brief at 51 with two teen age sons, unfortunately…
And after a few more (many?) Ferrari glasses of good red and World Series on TV… and not much to distract me in the immediate vicinity, as Dave Kacena only can interpret, I’m wondering who is this interesting semi-unkempt, yet maybe semi-out of place, for lack of a better description, visitor to this establishment, and WHY on earth does he seems to be either someone remembered deep in my past or, an actor selling beef, ‘it’s what’s for dinner,’ Sam what’s his name. Wasn’t that guy also in the Patrick Swayze movie, Roadhouse?
Anyway, so, he sits beside me at the corner of the bar, after his hearing that I’d just been to Iowa City to take my son to an Iowa game in which I had the great fortune to not only see a great Purdue Homecoming Victory, but also to see the 9th wonder of the world, Linda Vedepo, I hear him mutter, that he’d once lived in Iowa. Hmmm….
So, OK, I ask where? He says his parents taught at ISU. So, I say, OK. And I ask him, and it’s like prying some of those western cactus thorns out of my ‘parts’ on a hot Arizona golf day when the cart is parked right on top of a deadly ‘buzz killer’ plant, where did you live?
And he says…again like I’m a DEA agent, “Iowa City.” So, I ask, and where did you go to school? And he says, well, Iowa City West, ‘but I didn’t graduate.’
I’m getting it now. I’m remembering the voice, the mannerisms, the sublime and sarcastic yet honest down to earth real person that I remember that could only be the one and only …
Yes, here’s his picture….do you remember?????
God Bless Us Everyone…We Had A Great Start There, Didn’t We All?!
Merry Christmas!
Mark