The following is from a journal writing I made in the mid 1990's after graduating from college but was reminescing about my cross country career. There wasn't an exact date, but I would guess 1996. The date of my first race was August, 1985.
I was going into my Freshman year in high school and I had decided to hang up my football cleats in 8th grade and move onto the wonderful world of cross country running. I had a lot of my current friends running already and they encouraged me to join their ranks. Mark Bauer, Jeff Johnson, Scott Johnson and Peter Caffrey. They were all there amongst others, and we had fun. The practices intesified leading up to the first meet and I remember that meet vividly. It was the Lincoln Invitational , held at Tuthill Park in Sioux Falls.
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The above care instructions were written by my mom, Mary Susan Simko, for anyone taking care of their cat, Tommy John. This is 100% real and legitimate and NOT ironic. Mom didn't have a sense of humor when it came to Tommy John
The following was a writing that I stumbled upon in a bunch of old journal writings. I kept true to actual writing best I could, although I did have to edit some spellings and a few grammatical errors. Most of these old journal writings were written on my old typewriter and in one quick sitting. Kind of like how I write my other entries except for those old ones, they just went into a folder and were never "broadcast". Well... maybe now I can actually share them. Enjoy!
It was the first day of track practice. Basketball was done and we were about to begin the rigorous training "out on the road"... instead of "in the gym". Out running had become my happy place. I wouldn't have guessed it a few years before that, but by my junior and senior year, I loved to get out and run. Before cable tv and video game or internet, the onset of snow could only mean one thing in terms of entertainment: sledding. There are three particularly vivid places that I remember sledding more than one time and with large groups of people: The Pasture, Bunker Hill & Clay Cliff. Don't look on the map, they aren't there. They are places that we referred to using our OWN references.
Christmas shopping in the 70's was a much simple process than it is now. I know I'm not breaking any new ground with that revelation. Besides the obvious technologies that everybody now has that weren't even a DREAM back in our day, there is the actual process of shopping for the gifts. I don't remember when "Black Friday" crept into our vocabulary. I know we never had a
The cool November air continued it's decline as the light transitioned from a golden yellow into a sort of darker pinkish gray. I was standing alone at the freshly set gravestone of my father, Robert E. Nelson in the Lutheran cemetery of my hometown, Garretson, SD. The grass was slowly giving up the battle to stay green, although the remarkably warmer autumn has been so unusual for the area that flowers were blooming again in many gardens and some people that had put away their lawn mowers and brought out their snowblowers were frustrated when, after a warm spell and some gentle rain, they had to dig their mowers out again and give the lawn another bit of their attention.
"Rosemåling, or rosemaling is the name of a traditional form of decorative folk art that originated in the rural valleys of Norway. Rosemåling is a style of Norwegian decorative painting on wood that uses stylized flower ornamentation, scrollwork, lining and geometric elements, often in flowing patterns. Landscape and architectural elements are also common. Many other decorative painting techniques were used such as glazing, spattering, marbelizing, manipulating the paint with the fingers or other objects." - Wikipedia, Dec. 1, 2016
My mom had a time when she was a rosemaling fool! She was painting all the time. She'd practice, practice, practice and practice. I remember the smell of the oil paint... it was really my first exposure to those art supplies. Her steady hand and beautiful floral patterns mezmerized me and I longed to be able to do it too. I remember taking matters into my own hands at one point at the clearly early age of about 5 and made my attempt at rosemaling with a felt marker, as evidence above. I just wanted to share this as I was thinking about her today and I stumbled across my drawing and thought it was pretty funny. I had a date night with my daughter the other night. We went to RENT. It was her first time seeing it and my second time. (I don't include all the times that I've watched the movie or the dvd of the Broadway show.... "IN PERSON" is all that counts when keeping score.
My first time seeing it was in New York a few years ago. I unfortunately missed seeing it when it was in it's big run on Broadway, but luckily for me, An Off-Broadway production of it had just opened and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity. |
AuthorI'm just a creative guy that's looking to throw all this spaghetti onto the wall and hope something sticks. Archives
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