37 today, and I find my collection is strangely devoid of baby pictures. So I commemorate today with this peek at my childhood. This would be the first day of school, circa 1973, I suppose. Already, I have absorbed two things: the importance of accessorizing (a snazzy lunch box) and the importance of lunch.
Happy Birthday! May your day be filled with warm sunshine and cold margaritas.
I recently turned 38 - and have never really felt old until this past weekend when I took my children to see a matinee concert - and now your comments about lunch boxes and lunch have emphasized those thoughts.
I had the great opportunity this weekend to see an old friend, whom I have not had the opportunity to visit with in nearly two years, and meet him and his 3 year old daughter along with my 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son at the "Farmer Jason" matinee concert at Casbeer's in San Antonio. This was one of those fairly regular children's musical performances where the singer/song writer takes on a fanciful charater and dresses in costume and sings songs that children can dance to and sing along with. We all had fun - the kids got to sit in the front and make animal noises and dance like puppy dogs and pretend to be tractors - and the dad's got to listen and visit with each other and after the show even get "Farmer Jason" to autograph a couple of albums.
The particular thing that made me feel old and bring this incredible longing for a much younger age and simpler times, was the time reminiscing my and and I had about the first time we had seen "Farmer Jason" perform.
I have really only had about four or five real seminal rock -n- roll moments in my life. The first being the time I saw Devo perform for the first time on Saturday Night Live in the yellow jump suits, the third being the time that I saw the True Belivers play live with their 3 guitar attack, the fourth being the time that I saw Brian Brain play live at a very small ice-house (bar that serves only cold beer and soda's in Texas vernacular), and the final was the first time I saw the Butthole Surfers play live at a punk rock bar in San Antonio, that could hold no more than 50 people.
The second seminal moment was probably the greatest and the reasoning for my reminiscence - in the spring of 1983, three friends and I (including the other dad) went to go see the Ramones (our current and my still most favorite band) play live at the Bohnam Exchange in San Antonio (right across the street from the Alamo). Like any studpid 16 and 17 year olds we got to the concert the minute the doors opened making sure we did not miss a minute of the Ramones and because our parents did not understand why we would leave the house after 8:00pm to go out on a Saturday night. Although, it was incredibly fortunate that we did show up in time to get a position close to the stage and to see the opening act "Jason and the Nashville Scorchers". Jason and the Nashville Scorchers aka Jason and the Scorchers was/is an alt-county- psychodellic-cowpunk band that fused old country standards, late seventies and early eighties punk rock and a bunch of Niel Young influence to make some of the coolest music and most well written rock songs I had ever heard. Classics like Absolutely Sweet Marie", "Broken Whisky Glass" etc. were some of my teenage favorites and I became a life long fan who owns all of their recordings and even several of the Jason Ringenberg solo cd's. We liked Jason and the Scorchers so much that we lied to our parents about a class mates birthday party and road tripped to Austin the next night and caught them and the Ramones a second time.
And if you have not guessed by now - Jason of "Jason and the Scorchers" and "Farmer Jason" are both Jason Ringenberg. I sitting in a hamburger joint 21 years later with my same friend and our young children singing "The Tractor Goes Chug Chug Chug" made me feel every bit of 38 and really upset my kids when I would not let them listen to the "Farmer Jason" CD on the way home, but instead listen to Jason and the Scorchers. And now I want to go buy a lunch box -and peel the Jason and the Scorchers sticker off my old cowboy hat that I wore to Farm Aid in 1985 (where I saw Jason and the Scorchers play for the 3rd time) and put that sticker along with my new "Farmer Jason" sticker on my lunch box.
Happy Birthday and tell E. hi for me.
bob
Posted by: bob dobalina on March 31, 2004 12:53 PMHenceforth, should I be known as the ultimate accessorizing decision?
Posted by: Eric Sinclair on April 1, 2004 02:28 PM