Reminiscing

Last week I talked about watching old school sportscenter on ESPN. This week feels like old school for me. I saw Kory up on the roof of the church again. I've been listening to music off my old cassette tapes I bought back in the late 80's and early 90's. I'm finding things from days long gone by as I rummage through boxes filled with my collected treasures. All this is stirring within me old school feelings. These sights and sounds are triggering memories of earlier days and faraway times. Little scraps of paper, certain lines from songs, even seeing familiar sights all help me to remember yesterday; and that only makes it easier to reminisce.

I can't help but be taken back when I go through my horde of collected treasures. Wiley may be the only guy I know who has a greater collection of objects and memorabilia than me, but I still have a large amount of "stuff" that I've amassed over the years. Jodie would like to see me get rid of a majority of that "stuff". When she says get rid she means dispose, throw away, or put in the trash. I, on the other hand, would prefer to see my "stuff" be appreciated by others. That's why I'm selling most of it on eBay. I think my "stuff" could fetch a pretty penny. So far, it's fetching that and then some.

It's hard to forget one's first time stepping into a Banana Republic of the 1980s. A Jeep greeted customers at the door; animal heads and mosquito netting were mounted on the walls; tropical shirts and rugged shorts cascaded out of old ammunition boxes; tusks took the place of clothing hooks in the changing rooms. The store's cool safari ambience was a natural complement to the clothing company’s uniquely illustrated catalogues.

This is the copy I'm using to sell Banana Republic Catalogues. Yes, as dorky as it sounds, I collected those colorful little catalogues with J. Peterman-like writing that described rugged outfits designed for a tropical adventure or an African safari. (Banana Republic Catalogues actually preceded J. Peterman Catalogs for those of you scoring at home.) It's been fun to remember how I decorated my old room with bags from the store and wore those white tee-shirts with silk-screened prints of animals on the front. So this is the kind of reminiscing I'm doing as I list catalogues, comics, flying and compact discs, books, stuffed hippos, and much more on eBay to sell.

What's also got me thinking about past times is hearing my old music collection again. I'm really enjoying the sounds of Phil Collins and Genesis, Sting and the Police, Men at Work, Huey Lewis and the News, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Steve Winwood, James Taylor, Howard Jones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, and others. Then there's my collection of jazz tapes that outnumber all my pop music. I've got Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Harry Connick Jr, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Kenny G, David Sanborn, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Spyro Gyra, and the Rippingtons. The list could go on and on. Even though I haven't heard some of those tunes in over a decade and a half, I can still remember associations I made with the music and where I was at the time or what I was doing all those years ago. I'm reminded of old friends, concerts I attended, late nights in my bedroom, morning radio disc jockeys, eighties movies, time spent on dates, time spent at work, junior high conversations, driving around in the bug, driving around in the camaro, driving around in the mustang. Many songs blend together to suggest a period of time or an event, but some individual ones trigger a memory of a particular time and place. It's exciting to find what memories side A or B of the next tape will hold for me.

Sunday evening proved to be the best stroll of all down memory lane. Kory came back to preach at FUMC Irving and in attendance was Tommy Moon. I can't remember the last time the three of us were together in the sanctuary of that church. (I'll bet whenever it was, Tommy had on a Three Stooges tie.) Kory gave a good message and after the service everyone gathered for a reception in the fellowship hall. It didn't take long for people to start telling stories of the numerous exploits of Andy, Kory, and I through those halls and on the roof of that church. Then Kory received an olive branch from Mr. Flanery by way of a tour of the new steeple's interior and roof. Who would have thought that Les would be inviting Kory onto a roof after that stunt Kory pulled at an afterglow many, many moons ago?

My evening with Kory and Tommy brought back a lot of fond memories of a time I spent growing up at that church. I am who I am today because of that upbringing and because of the influence of those two guys plus my friend, Andy. We were the three amigos and Tommy was our spiritual mentor. The three of us first met in Yvonne Mullin's Sunday School class and not too long after that Tommy became the director of us and all the other youth. When I think of all the times we spent at that church and with Tommy and Sue in their home, I remember good times and bad times; things I'd like to forget and things I'd like to remember more clearly. But most of all I remember a young man who was surrounded by good friends as he sought to find himself and his way in this world.

Those friends still surround me and help me to reminisce about the old times.