Small Talk: Ughngnggh! Ugghhnnn!

[nachomama]

4 hours ago, Nashville said:

Tater dogs.  Nuff said.

not nearly nuff said. Is this like a tater tot-dog?

I never liked beenie weenies...I don't like corn dogs. My pops used to make some kind of "pigs in a blanket" that was his corn bread but his corn bread was yucko. As in it was just corn meal and hot water, mash it into a round disk and deep fry it. So when he made pigs in a blanket we just dug out the pig and tossed out the blanket

I inherited a Vinnie Barbarino thermos, not the lunch box which had worn out but had the thermos. I believe I had Scooby and the gang. Charlie Brown I'm pretty sure. My sister had Garfield.

Edited March 7, 2019 by nachomama

[Mr. Sparkle]

I definitely had a Peanuts lunchbox. The sheet metal kind. I vaguely recall an H.R. Puffinstuff lunchbox that I got as a hand-me-down. 

[nachomama]

I enjoyed HR Puffenstuff but even as a child I knew that was some fucked up shit, yo. Witchie Poo and the kid with the flute scared me equally. The child catcher in Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang was the scariest thing every to me.

I loved the claymation christmas specials, loved Riki Tiki Tavi, loved Godzilla movies. Puff the Magic Dragon. I used to race into the room to watch the Carol Burnett cartoon, I thought the whole show was just the cartoon cleaning woman that was the credits. Once again, I was not a bright child.

[Mr. Sparkle]

57 minutes ago, nachomama said:

The child catcher in Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang was the scariest thing every to me.

Holy. Shit. So terrifying. 

[Nashville]

8 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Lunch boxes.  When you went to school did you use one?  If you did, who was on the box?

 I had two of them

"The Wild, WIld, West"

The thermos broke when my mom took the thermos which was meant for cold drinks only, and put hot soup in it for my sibling to take to work,

The other Lunch box I had was "Pebbles and Bamm Bamm". 

I had two of the sheet-metal ones as well.  

1. First one was “The Partridge Family”.  The box was painted up like the bus, and actually looked pretty cool.  The thermos, though, had some truly horrifically distorted pictures of the cast - they looked like the Partridge Family got fucked by some aliens, and these mutants were the result.  
2. Second one was “Hot Wheels” - and I think that bitch is actually still sitting up in an attic somewhere.

8 hours ago, nachomama said:

not nearly nuff said. Is this like a tater tot-dog?

Nope; think like a chili dog, but with mashed potatoes instead of chili.  Potatoes were much cheaper, especially if you grew your own.

[nachomama]

ok, tater dog is new to me. I guess weenies, of the beanie and skettios variety were the go-to protein for children.

We usually got the knock off or off brand lunch boxes and toys. Like my Barbie was an unofficial Barbie, and at some point a "home-made" cabbage patch kid which was ugly as sin. Not home-made like my mother made it but some lady in town made them and my mother bought one. We weren't getting the name brand toys. We didn't get a "light bright" but some kind of peg board and we just punched random holes in paper, no pre-made designs. I did get Donnie and Marie Barbies at one point. Santa brought them although there was a note from Santa that Marie didn't make it on the sleigh xmas eve so she could be picked up in town at the western auto store after xmas :D

And hoo boy Donnie and Marie made out a lot because I wasn't quite clear on the brother/sister relationship, I thought they were married. so they had babies and everything. My father did have questions when all the male barbies were walking around with no pants. Basically the first time you bent them over to have them sit on the furniture (couches and beds were made out of maxi pads stolen from the bathroom) anyway, the boys all split their pants so they just wandered around with no pants. Donnie had a purple jumpsuit so Donnie was  more naked than the rest. My father was very bothered by this. . 

[nachomama]

I used to love some kind of cookie that my mom would put in my lunches, it was some kind of Keebler product and it had wafer things, kinda like what's inside a kitkat, then caramel, covered in chocolate and nuts. They kinda looked like a harmonica and I would eat them sideways like a harmonica. I would scrape off all the nuts with my teeth then eat them layer by layer. I was a weird kid and I don't know if those cookies even sound appealing to me now.

Of the girl scout cookies that exist, I would like the formerly known as Samoans and thin mints are ok but definitely the coconutty ones are better. although call me a bad American I do not purchase girl scout cookies because they are a terrible value. you get like 4 cookies for 60 gazillion dollars. I know, I know raising money for the kids blah blah.

[Nashville]

7 minutes ago, nachomama said:

I used to love some kind of cookie that my mom would put in my lunches, it was some kind of Keebler product and it had wafer things, kinda like what's inside a kitkat, then caramel, covered in chocolate and nuts. They kinda looked like a harmonica and I would eat them sideways like a harmonica. I would scrape off all the nuts with my teeth then eat them layer by layer. I was a weird kid and I don't know if those cookies even sound appealing to me now.

Hmmm... sounds like the Keebler Fudge Sticks - but while I remember some varieties with peanut butter in them, I don’t recall any with actual nuts.

[nachomama]

I am familiar with the fudge sticks, this would have been close but flatter and wider. not skinny sticks. plus the nuts. I wish I could remember their name. I had a "boyfriend" who was in high school...basically a stoner who liked to eat the cookies in my lunchbox so he called me his girlfriend and because I'm not very bright I was convinced I was actually his girlfriend, actually got jealous when he got a REAL girlfriend.

[Nashville]

Some stray thoughts/questions just popped to mind:

1. Who had a “nemesis” in junior high and/or high school?
2. What was their specific method for attempting to make your life a living hell?
3. Did things ever get resolved between the two of you?
4. Any idea whatever happened to them after school?

I have a particular reason for asking, but I’ll share it later.

[walnutqueen]

I don't remember what kind of lunchbox I had over half a century ago.  I DO remember getting sent home with a note to my mother when I was in first grade and had coffee in my lunch thermos.  (It had a lot of milk & sugar in it).  My Mum told the school where to stick it.

[OoohMaggie]

35 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Yeah, I know, "War and Peace" was shorter, but you asked.

My school experience over similar years in the U.K could hardly be described as enjoyable, yet your experience leaves me tearful, please tell me your in a better place now!

Edited March 11, 2019 by OoohMaggie

[nachomama]

Oh no I didn't have a lunchbox in high school, I was elementary school. yes, it sounds super creepy but truly he only wanted to eat my cookies. that sounds even creepier. His name was Beaver Mckinney, like "leave it to Beaver" I do not even recall what his real name was.

I had a mean girls situation, where technically the girl was my friend but we were academic rivals. Technically I think I won because I slept with her boyfriend (it was an accident!) and I was the valedictorian. but I always felt kinda shitty when I was competing with her. She went on the greater things, nice little family, I think they do ok for themselves. Maybe she won in the long run cuz I aint got shit.

Since then I had never had a nemesis, until recently. Some cuckoo bitch who decided she didn't like me. We worked opposite shifts so it's not like she even worked with me or got to know me well enough to hate me, trust me, everyone hates me eventually. She had zero reason to gun for me other than purely throwing her weight around. She was made assistant manager and apparently cried quite often in the walk in cooler but she was determined she was manager material. She eventually got transferred to another store where she was manager, the entire staff quit so she quit.

[Mu Shu]

On 3/6/2019 at 9:30 AM, icemiser69 said:

There is no doubt I would get all bound up eating that.

Kind of reminds of that old joke.  How did the constipated mathematics professor solve his problem?

With a #2 pencil.

I used to eat cream cheese and jelly sandwiches.

We also used to have for breakfast hot popovers with butter and jelly.

OK Richie rich. Popovers!

i would go to peoples house to see kids I didn’t like and stAsh candy and whatever decent food they had in a special hole I made in the lining of my coat. Then I would eat it on the way home.  No one ever caught me, but often I left empty handed.  A lot of squirrel, rabbit, and deer meat.  Headcheese too.  Some of these kids were even pant peers, but it was every man and kid for herself.  

I didn’t have a nemesis really.  Kids at school were assholes and so was I.  Went to one hs reunion and found out that we all got along as adults.  I would fight anyone who stepped up on me like we were in a prison brawl.  So, no one ever messed with me more than once.  

Edited March 11, 2019 by Mu Shu

[Nashville]

Okay - my turn, I guess.

As I may have mentioned before, in my school days I had a big brain and an even bigger mouth.  Stuff that in a small, slight frame (5’1” and 85 lbs through all junior high and the first half of high school) and hang a set of birth control specials across the schnozz.  Now drop the result in the public school system of a quasi-rural county in Tennessee.  Think a scrawny Harry Potter in the middle of Redneck Central, and you get the picture - except that out of survival necessity, I was probably a good deal more violent than Harry.  I learned early on (a) I presented an almost irresistible target to certain classes of bully, and (b) the best way to deal with them was to demonstrate why doing so was a very very decidedly bad idea.  Which isn’t to say some didn’t try.  

I had two primary nemeses, I’d guess you’d call them - one in junior high, and one in high school.  

1. Junior High Guy wasn’t really that big of an issue; once I bounced his head off a cinderblock wall, we actually got along ok after that. 😄   
2. High School Guy was more problematic; a stereotypical dull-witted football jock with about 14” and 100+ pounds on me.  He should’ve flunked out a while back, but TPTB kept him in school because of the football (which I never understood, because our football team was for shit). We had shop class (does that date me?) together, and he took an instant dislike to me - why, I’ll never know - but I learned quickly he’d take any opportunity without witnesses to try to get me up against a wall. This went on until he took a remarkably fortuitous  (and totally unexplainable, ask anybody) spill down a flight of stairs.  He left me alone after that - but we most decidedly did NOT get along.

Anyway: a few weeks ago I was out at the cemetery visiting my father’s grave and tidying up around it.  After I finished I was heading back to my truck when I glanced over at a memorial wall - and there was High School Guy’s graduation picture looking back at me from one of the plaques.  I asked around some of my old high school buds about what had happened to him; turns out he went into a deep drug spiral right out of high school, and died shortly after.

I mention all this because when I first saw his plaque I did not feel happy, satisfied, validated, vindicated, etc. - none of that.  Initially I was curious; after I found out how he died, however, I just felt bad for his folks because they lost their son so young, and for something so stupid.

[nachomama]

2 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

  Those students had ran through the woods with the cash register leaving a a clear set of footprints in the snow leading right to their back door.  It was the only set of footprints.

Was Jesus carrying them? :O

Within just a couple years of graduating we had (I think) an abnormally high rate of dead former classmates. Now I do come from the highest blood alcohol content per capita region in the world. We beat all your big drinkers, Scotland, Ireland. So we lost a kid just days before our senior year started, went out drinking with his cousin and somehow ended up on the railroad tracks...then a kid named Nathaniel who was called "Nutty" through high school was dead a couple of years later from alcohol poisoning. Quite a few that just seemed too young, whether they were assholes or not in high school.

We had a lot of dumb names, Nutty coming to mind, We also had a Boogie, my nickname was Joint. hahaha

[Nashville]

8 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

When his son graduated high school, his son worked his way through college as an old school projectionists.  Splicing film when it broke and all of that.   Back in the days of real film, where it took at least two projectors to play one movie.   One day I watched him work in the projection booth.   It was really cool to watch the seamless transition from one projector to the other.  I guess it had something to do with turning on the second projector when a certain number of white dots are seen on the film that is being projected on the movie screen from the first projector.

@icemiser69: that was the job I had in college, and DAMN I was good at it - my changeovers were smooth like butter.  The projectors had sync electronics built into them which automated most of the process (alternating the lamps, switching the audio, etc.); those electronics had a habit of failing on a not-infrequent basis, however, in which case you had to go OLD old school - clutching the ending projector down while simultaneously de-clutching the starting projector AND flipping a toggle switch to shift the audio feed.  We called it a “three-point changeover” because it required simultaneously coordinated use of both hands AND a foot.  😄

8 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Watching movies with him was a chore.  He had seen all of the movies multiple times, and as I was trying to watch the movie he would recite the exact dialogue before the characters said it.  it was annoying, but I was amazed at his memory.

Not me; it was the early 80s, the only image the word “AIDS” invoked was a kind of diet candy, and I was too busy trying to get girls up in the projection booth.  

(BTW - it’s amazing what you can get away with in a dark room in the middle of campus, especially when - or sometimes because of, depending on the girl - some 300-odd strangers are sitting in the audience right outside the projection booth door....)  ;>

[Nashville]

5 hours ago, nachomama said:

Within just a couple years of graduating we had (I think) an abnormally high rate of dead former classmates. Now I do come from the highest blood alcohol content per capita region in the world. We beat all your big drinkers, Scotland, Ireland. So we lost a kid just days before our senior year started, went out drinking with his cousin and somehow ended up on the railroad tracks...then a kid named Nathaniel who was called "Nutty" through high school was dead a couple of years later from alcohol poisoning. Quite a few that just seemed too young, whether they were assholes or not in high school.

I don’t think it’s just your school.  In my graduating class of about 270 (iirc), we lost about 14 in the first 3 years or so after graduation.  That works out to about 5%. Good thing the mortality curve dropped off shortly thereafter, or the 20 year reunion would’ve been down to two people sitting in a Denny’s somewhere.

[OoohMaggie]

An interesting article,

https://ew.com/tv/2019/03/04/game-of-thrones-season-8-battle/?utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=99A887D6-3E81-11E9-8090-45F0C28169F1&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link

[nachomama]

Maybe we weren't unique, we had a class of less than 100 though.

My sister has recently been scheming to reconnect with her past so she wants to go to a reunion this June, our classes were so small that they "combine" reunions, it's like a 10 year stretch so I think she wants to hook me in, then she'd "get a ride" or something. She also plans on staying, as in she'd be leaving and some friend says they can get her a job at the dollar store. hahahahha because this pissant town we grew up in was sooooooo great that I got the heck outta Dodge and aint never been back but now she's gotta go. She currently lives with my other sister and cannot hold down a job. so what happens when she screws up the dollar store job? aint no other jobs. My other sister has already warned her she can't come back. She's been mooching off of her for over 5 years. In January she was hired as a cook at the senior citizens center, she believed God gave her the job and it's her "mission" to feed the elderly ... she was fired by Valentines day. For really stupid stuff, like the old people complained that she didn't let them fix their own biscuits and gravy. Like give them the biscuit, give them the gravy, let them assemble as they wish. But she would crumble up the biscuit and put the gravy on it. Same with strawberry shortcake, she crumbled up the whatever cake part and doused it with strawberries I guess maybe like a trifle? anywho they didn't like it. I like to say god fired her. She was recently hired to work in a laundromat...3 hours a day, 7 days a week, 30 mile round trip, how is that worth it??? Within the first week she left the door unlocked twice. If you catch my drift she aint too reliable. Anyway the reunions I've seen pictures of there are about 15 people and I don't know any of them. I've never been to one, I don't plan on it. I have 3 friends tops that I've kept in touch with and I'd be happy to see them, just not so much in the home town. maybe Vegas? So i don't care about this plan of hers.

[Nashville]

16 minutes ago, nachomama said:

In January she was hired as a cook at the senior citizens center, she believed God gave her the job and it's her "mission" to feed the elderly ... she was fired by Valentines day. For really stupid stuff, like the old people complained that she didn't let them fix their own biscuits and gravy. Like give them the biscuit, give them the gravy, let them assemble as they wish. But she would crumble up the biscuit and put the gravy on it.

Well, of COURSE God fired her; doing a biscuit and gravy that way is blasphemy.  😄

[theredhead77]

On 3/11/2019 at 2:26 PM, Nashville said:

Some stray thoughts/questions just popped to mind:

1. Who had a “nemesis” in junior high and/or high school?
2. What was their specific method for attempting to make your life a living hell?
3. Did things ever get resolved between the two of you?
4. Any idea whatever happened to them after school?

I have a particular reason for asking, but I’ll share it later.

I was ruthlessly bullied in junior high and high school.

Years later one of the Queen Bee's happened to come into a restaurant I was working at, recognized me and apologized. That was awesome.

A friend of mine is still friends (on Facebook) with many of the people we went to high school with. I have no desire to go to the reunions but she does. She said one of the douchiest guys in our class got hammered and started apologizing to everyone for being a douche. So what happened to some of them after graduation? My friend told me most of the bullies had either grown into decent adults or were the stereotype loser. I haven't gone to a reunion yet. I may go to our next one if she goes.

[nachomama]

My former boss went to an elementary school reunion. I thought it was the weirdest thing I'd ever heard of, either first grade or fourth grade. He absolutely loved it, they got a great turnout. He said he has no interest in high school people but think about it, the most "friends" you've ever had were elementary school. before people turned into assholes. My school would have been the same people from 4th through high school so same difference.

I know that people who are bullies have issues, there's something that drives them to be that way and it can resolve itself later or just continue on a path of destruction. It doesn't mean I have any sympathy for the people who were that way. I had a shitty childhood, I didn't take it out on other people.

I did have a guy try to have a serious talk with me once, and apologize for his behavior. We had "dated" in high school but we never admitted to ourselves that we were dating. Like we did everything you do that constitutes high school dating, he drove me to school, we spent endless hours on the phone doing homework or whatever. We went to the school sporting events. We even made kissy faces and hickeys and stuff. But I think we both always assumed we could do better and thus it was never an official "thing". So here he is apologizing to me a few years after high school and I think to him he thought I pined over him or some shit or that maybe I thought of him as my first love or had some kind of big signifigance and he wanted to acknowledge that he treated me like crap. I was kind of laughing at him, he was never my be-all end-all.

[Nashville]

For teenagers today the entire dating methodology appears to have changed from when I was that age - and no, I’m not talking about the technoshit; I mean the entire perception of what is meant by a “date” has changed.

Then - by which I mean primarily the 70s and earlier 🙂 :

• Dating was pretty much a couple-solitary affair (two people), with the exception of the occasional double-date (two couples); going out in groups was a rarity, except for things like prom and school-related functions.
• Two people going out on a date was a simple (and hopefully enjoyable) social interaction, not a relationship commitment; everybody both male and female “dated around”, and nobody took offense at it.  Dating was the way you got to know somebody beyond their immediate surface, and find out if there might be the possibility of something more; the primary focus was simply for two people to have a good time, though, and the development of any “something more” was a fortunate bonus.  
• Exclusivity wasn’t an issue unless/until things progressed to the “going together” / “going steady” / “boyfriend-girlfriend” stage - at which point relationship monogamy did become the expected norm.

Now - by which I mean from the 90s on:

• For teenagers, going out in groups appears to have supplanted the “couple date” as the initial social interaction - apparently on the premise that if things don’t appear to be going well between a prospective couple, then both can withdraw to a “just hanging with my friends” safe place with a minimum of social awkwardness.
• Couple-solitary dates don’t happen now until the couple is exclusively “going together”, period.  Going out on a date with someone else is considered an act of betrayal or infidelity, and usually results in immediate breakup.

...and only God knows what the hell was going on throughout the 80s.  😄

Edited March 13, 2019 by Nashville
Fixing weird formatting fuckups - thanks, surprise emojis!

[Nashville]

1 hour ago, nachomama said:

My former boss went to an elementary school reunion. I thought it was the weirdest thing I'd ever heard of, either first grade or fourth grade. He absolutely loved it, they got a great turnout. He said he has no interest in high school people but think about it, the most "friends" you've ever had were elementary school. before people turned into assholes. My school would have been the same people from 4th through high school so same difference.

Same here.

[Anela]

On 3/11/2019 at 2:26 PM, Nashville said:

Some stray thoughts/questions just popped to mind:

1. Who had a “nemesis” in junior high and/or high school?
2. What was their specific method for attempting to make your life a living hell?
3. Did things ever get resolved between the two of you?
4. Any idea whatever happened to them after school?

I have a particular reason for asking, but I’ll share it later.

They are all happily married, some to second husbands. I don't know about the few guys who bothered me. One girl kind of sexually harassed me a couple of times, you could say, just something she did where she put her mouth on me, right in the middle of my chest, like she was biting the middle bit of my bra. Just weird. 

Several of them have children who are bullied, which is sad. The parents, of course, suddenly don't understand how kids can be so mean. As much as I would never want to be around them again, I'm not happy that their kids are bullied. 

[nachomama]

There are 2 people who I think I would still owe apologies to if we should ever cross paths. This one poor girl, Shelly, damn she was tiny and just tried so damn hard to fit in and in gym class she demanded that I punch her in the stomach. So she could prove she could take it. Our gym teacher had a thing where he said someone should be able to stand on your stomach. Like your muscles should be able to hold up if you clenched and someone stepped onto your tightened abs. So she wanted to prove how strong her stomach was so she pestered me for days to punch her. One day I did. She cried I felt terrible. cuz you know I wasn't even the best puncher.

And Doug Gurley, I owe him one hell of an apology. I projectile vomited at the back of his head. My mother sent me to school even though I said I didn't feel well. A 30 minute bumpy school bus ride didn't help so YAAAARP there I went. Poor Doug, his face as he turned around thinking it's just water pistol or shenanigans. I was 6-7 ish, he was a freshman, You know he never lived that shit down.

I have an alarming number of stories that involve throwing up.

[Anela]

I was consistently harassed by the "cool kids". It started to calm down in my first senior school, and they were accepting me for some reason - probably because I'd continued to be nice to someone they threw out of their clique, when we could have lorded it over her. When she was accepted back into the group, they started to be nice to me. They even defended me against a "frenemy" who was rude to me one day, at the end of class. I couldn't believe it.

So, of course, my mother decided we had to move, and it started all over again at the new school. By the time I dropped out, I was suicidal - it was either that, or drop out, and my mother agreed when the head of year wouldn't do anything about it. Parents got back together, we moved to California, and I was homeschooled until I graduated. Much better.

[Nashville]

2 hours ago, nachomama said:

And Doug Gurley, I owe him one hell of an apology. I projectile vomited at the back of his head. My mother sent me to school even though I said I didn't feel well. A 30 minute bumpy school bus ride didn't help so YAAAARP there I went. Poor Doug, his face as he turned around thinking it's just water pistol or shenanigans. I was 6-7 ish, he was a freshman, You know he never lived that shit down.

Oh damn.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess his nickname for the remainder of high school was “HURL-ey”...?

[AngelaHunter]

3 minutes ago, Anela said:

I was consistently harassed by the "cool kids".

Funny, the other day I was thinking of kids who were ostracized or picked on at elementary and high school because they were different in some way. Even though I never was unkind to them, I feel terrible remembering that and thinking of one girl in particular. Kids are cruel - it's their nature and in those days there was nothing anyone could do about it. But I can't help thinking of them, wondering whatever happened to them and knowing that even if they moved past that and made successful lives, they would carry those horrible memories forever. 🙁

[nachomama]

I was thinking about that with some of the gay kids that we went to school with. Clearly a very rural town, long before anyone dared to think gay shouldn't be a slur. We had this poor kid Tracy, who in retrospect, was quite clearly transgendered. He liked to dress up like a woman on weekends. We went to a wedding once and he just happened to have the perfect earrings for me in his pocket. I know his life was hell. I know I never gave him shit but I also didn't stop anyone else. I have no doubt he's somewhere living as a woman whether he's had surgery or not.

There was another kid in my history class and the jocks gave him a lot of shit for being gay. One day I guess he had enough. Someone was rocking his desk with their foot, just kinda thumping the little book rack underneath, I don't think they were intentionally trying to irritate him but it had come after a few under the breath comments so he stood up and smacked the kid with the foot on his desk. Utter shock all around. But it was enough and he wasn't bothered anymore.

[Nashville]

43 minutes ago, nachomama said:

I was thinking about that with some of the gay kids that we went to school with. Clearly a very rural town, long before anyone dared to think gay shouldn't be a slur.

Oh god yes.  😞  Give you one guess what a gay student’s scholastic life was like in my ‘70s-era semi-rural Bible Belt high school.  Nobody was formally ‘out’ - that quite possibly would’ve been a death sentence in the community, especially on Friday or Saturday nights should the local drunk ‘n rowdy redneck contingent catch you out alone - but one guy was pretty much de facto ‘out’, and his life had to have been hell.  I can still remember our graduation practice, when they went through the process of calling everybody’s name to cross the stage to receive their diploma - he was Q-catcalled all the way across the stage.  After he graduated, I bet he left skid marks in the parking lot getting the hell out of our town forever.

Funny thing, though; there were about a half-dozen or so other kids in my class who were friends of mine and who we all knew were gay, and nobody really gave a shit.

[nachomama]

It never fails to amaze me to hear stories of 2 guys in high school and if they were beefing about a girl or whatever stupid thing and then they fight and then they're best friends. I don't get that. Two of my friends and I was shocked as hell that the smaller one, the quieter one, seemingly the less powerful in that face off was the one who "won". 9 times out of 10 the instigator is all bluff. One of those that counts on his friends to "hold him back" so when push comes to shove they got nothing.

And just so you know, there is a woman behind me who insists on singing loudly with the radio or whatever she's listening to. AND ITS FUCKING ANNOYING. I'm at work, this isn't the bus, this is get your ass on the phone and quit singing some stupid ass shit about denying your baby mama. I actually though she was making it up as she went along. There's some really stupid music out there these days.

[Nashville]

7 hours ago, nachomama said:

It never fails to amaze me to hear stories of 2 guys in high school and if they were beefing about a girl or whatever stupid thing and then they fight and then they're best friends. I don't get that. Two of my friends and I was shocked as hell that the smaller one, the quieter one, seemingly the less powerful in that face off was the one who "won".

Not surprising at all; the small quiet ones tend to bottle everything up inside until they get to their tipping point, then the more extroverted instigator (read: obnoxious blowhard) who kept needling them until they popped gets a dose of concentrated rage they’re frequently not prepared to deal with.

[theredhead77]

On 3/10/2019 at 12:43 AM, nachomama said:

I used to love some kind of cookie that my mom would put in my lunches, it was some kind of Keebler product and it had wafer things, kinda like what's inside a kitkat, then caramel, covered in chocolate and nuts

Flaky Flix?

[Nashville]

Ok - but before anybody calls me a liar, please keep in mind I’m now an older guy whose job had him living on the road for a substantial portion of a quarter century.  So I got around - a LOT.

Having said that:

Have you ever met anyone famous?

Depends on your criteria as to what constitutes “famous” - but here’s a few who may be moderately well-known:

• Douglas Adams
• Garth Brooks
• George Clinton
• Alice Cooper
• Gene Cotton
• Harrison Ford
• Leo Gallagher
• Al Gore
• Faith Hill
• Warren Hodges
• ADM Grace Hopper
• Michael Jordan
• Stephen King
• Nancy Pelosi
• Steve Perry
• Branscombe Richmond
• Carrie Underwood
• Steve Wozniak

Have you ever been to any concerts?  If so, what ones?

Oh, lord.  I had to number this list just for my own curiosity - and this ain’t near all of them, just what I recall moderately quickly:

1. 10,000 Maniacs
2. Adam Ant
3. Alice In Chains
4. Asking Alexandria
5. Avatar
6. Cage the Elephant
7. Clint Black
8. Black Flag
9. Boston
10. Breaking Benjamin
11. Garth Brooks
12. Chevelle
13. Circle Jerks
14. Cowboy Mouth
15. Creed
16. Dead Kennedys 
17. Depeche Mode
18. Disturbed
19. Dixie Dregs
20. Drowning Pool
21. ELO
22. English Beat
23. Eurythmics
24. FEVER 333
25. Five Finger Death Punch
26. The Fixx
27. Flogging Molly
28. Foo Fighters
29. Peter Frampton
30. Godsmack
31. Greta Van Fleet
32. Halestorm
33. The Hives
34. John Lee Hooker
35. Hootie & the Blowfish
36. Billie Idol
37. In This Moment
38. Incubus
39. Journey
40. B. B. King
41. Korn
42. Madness
43. Muse
44. Papa Roach
45. P. O. D.
46. Psychedelic Furs
47. Queens of the Stone Age
48. R. E. M.
49. The Ramones
50. The Romantics
51. Seether
52. Sevendust
53. Shinedown
54. Sick Puppies
55. Skinny Lister
56. Smashmouth
57. Soul Asylum
58. Steve Miller Band
59. The Struts
60. Tesla
61. Three Days Grace
62. Trivium
63. Van Halen
64. X
65. XTC

...and THAT’S just the ones I remember.  😄

Have you ever been to any professional sporting events?

• Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB) - multiple games.
• Nashville Predators (NHL) - too many to count.
• Nashville Rollergirls (WFTDA) - too many to count; daughter used to skate on the team.
• Nashville Sounds (Minor League Baseball) - multiple games.
• NASCAR - don’t judge.
• NHRA - multiple times
• Tennessee Titans (NFL) - too many to count; PSL/Season ticket holder.

Now - aren’t you glad you asked?  😄

[Mu Shu]

I have met three famous people.  Matt Dillon, who I didn’t believe was Matt Dillon and I was mean to him, Nell Carter, and some porno director who begged me to kick him in the ass, so I did. Oh, and Teri Weigel. 

After I met MD, I felt bad about being a jackass.  He was pretty drunk but nice.  After I met Nell Carter, I felt that she was supercool.  The other two porno people, well I just thought they were as expected.  Naked porno people.

That story about crumbled biscuits and getting fired from the dollar store is the best thing I’ve read today. 

Edited March 17, 2019 by Mu Shu

[walnutqueen]

Went to a lot of concerts, back in the day.  Led Zeppelin played a lunchtime gig at my high school.

[nachomama]

Compared to Nashville we are all gonna seem lame. First concert, Indigo Girls.

I've seen Dixie Chicks 3x

Alison Krause 4x

Hootie and the blowfish

smashmouth, Harry Connick jr.

couple others.

Not really met anyone famous, stood behind Josh Lucas when he was in town filming a movie and most idiot girls thought he was Matthew McConaughy. I met David Sedaris and he liked my hair. I believe I served coffee to Joel Silver (producer dude) he was filming something and came in and ordered some cappucino vanilla blah blah blah and I just said "Where do you think you are? Seattle?" We held out a long, long time and had no Starbucks until way late in the game. This woulda been 1993 ish. Someone told me afterwards that was Joel Silver.

No sporting events. zip zero nada

[nachomama]

My sister got me, found me on facebook and sent me the link to the reunion. It's open to "all classes" but organized by '82-'85ers. My sister was '88 and I was a few years behind her. So I don't know these people, SHE don't know these people. She even posted some stupid garbage about buying dessert at Chi-Chi's which is a defunct restaurant chain since 2004! How smart does my sister look now? Plus, not sure if I mentioned this my sister doesn't have front teeth. No clue where her teeth went and she's still a bit young for dentures but girl aint got no front teeth but she's so damn happy to be trying to go to this reunion. This will not end well, this is worse than Romy and Michelle's high school reunion cuz at least they had a plan. My sister can't claim she invented invisible front teeth.

I may have been bitten by a radioactive spider over the weekend. Housesitting for a friend so I came home from work at 6 am and passed out on the couch. Woke up to a dog french kissing me, like licking the hell outta my face and some weird bite on my shoulder. Looks like multi somethings. I don't think mosquito because of the multiple bites, not sure if ant or spider but I'm pretty sure I'll either die or have super powers.

[Nashville]

4 hours ago, nachomama said:

Compared to Nashville we are all gonna seem lame.

I don't think it's a competition; if it was, though, I'd have had several significant and unfair advantages: 😉 

1. I'm probably a good bit older than most of you - which simply translates into several years' worth of extra opportunities.
2. I've spent the vast majority of my life in middle Tennessee, which music-wise is a venue-rich environment.  In my pre-marriage/college years (in the early '80s), I freakin' lived in the clubs and concert halls on the weekends.  Besides the extra chances to see shows, that also translated into some of the "meeting famous people" stuff - they hung out in the same venues before they got famous.  Faith Hill, for example: when I met her, she hadn't yet "made it" - she was splitting time between secretary/receptionist for one of the Music Row publishing outfits, and working at a McDonalds. 🙂
3. Also back in the '80s: I attended college at Middle Tennessee State University, which (at the time - not so much now) hosted one of the larger concert venues in the MidTN - Murphy Center - and I also worked for the University program which booked and worked the concerts.  So many of my shows/meets were in the way of working the events.

Like I said - unfair advantages.  So you'll understand why when @icemiser69 posted up these questions, my initial response was, "Oh, SHIT."  😄 

[Nashville]

47 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Is there any music you don't like?

I am a universe; I contain multitudes.  ;>

47 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Were you disappointed in any of the musical concerts?

Not really; that’s why they sell alcohol at the venues, donchaknow - if they suck, you drink until they start to sound better.  Which also gets back to the essential core of my earlier “and THAT’S just the ones I remember” comment - but I digress....  😄

47 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

I like NASCAR.  I haven't been to a race, though imagine it would be quite loud, and the smell from the cars burning rubber would probably make me puke..

NASCAR is undoubtedly the least on my list.  I was a big Richard Petty fan back in the day - nowadays, though...?  Since Sterling Marlin retired, not so much.

[nachomama]

I have not been to a Nascar race but a guy I used to work with went with his wife, he of course loved it. She was not fond, loud? YES smelly? YES and not to be forgotten you come home with blackface. As in there's enough burnt rubber in the air that you come home sooty and greasy. You can wipe it off with your finger. She was disgusted.

I've been at a disadvantage music and concert and sports wise my whole life. I lived in the middle of nowhere New Mexico for the first part and we don't get great stuff here now. There are no professional sports teams here or there. I could be a Jacksonville Jaguars or Atlanta Hawks fan but either is still several hours drive.

When I was in high school Bon Jovi was in Albuquerque and we ditched school and hauled ass to try and go but it was sold out. So we rented a motel room and got some dude to buy us beer and we got trashed. My friend James was about 6'5" and decided to get in the shower fully clothed so he's completely wet, we put him in the back of the car and drove home about 6 am. His mother was utterly confused at the pile of wet clothes. He kept mumbling "will you still respect me?"

[Nashville]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

Van Halen?  That must have been David Lee Roth.  Not Sammy Hagar.

Oh hell yeah; their VH II album tour.  It was a great show - what I remember of it, anyway.  All we could afford were the really really cheap seats, see, and the ones we got were right in front of one of two air conditioning intakes for the entire theater, so.... everything past the first 20-30 minutes is pretty fuzzy.  We had to carry Daniel out afterwards; he was passed out cold.  😄

[Mu Shu]

I can beat every last one of you.

Juice Newton.  And I saw the poop  on TV.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Mu Shu

[Mr. Sparkle]

On 3/17/2019 at 1:29 PM, Nashville said:

1. Black Flag
2. Dead Kennedys 
3. John Lee Hooker
4. The Ramones
5. B.B. King

I'm totally jealous of these! 

[nachomama]

My mother kept in touch with a lot of her high school friends although she was old and they did an old fashionedy thing like write letters. My mother was a great letter writer and an even better phone talker. I remember the good old days when she would set a clock to call at the right time for the cheap long distance and a timer to shut herself up. My mother attended her 20th high school reunion and I had just been born, so I guess I went. Most of the rest of the kids were grown or teenagers so I was a novelty. So my mother had a grand plan for me to drive her to her 40th reunion. That would have been cool I suppose, she was from Iowa and I hadn't been there since I was a baby. She died about 2 years short of the reunion. Someday when I retire and start traveling like old farts in an RV it would be fun to drive to her home town. I'd take a peak at her address where she grew up, I don't think I'd knock on the door and try to get a tour of her childhood home just a drive in her neighborhood or something.

I doubt I'd ever spark up an old high school romance. When I think about it I thank Jeebus every day of my life I didn't end up with some of those weirdos. I wasn't a great prize but holy crap, one guy may or may not have set his dad's house on fire with his dad in it. One guy has about 16 baby mama's

[AngelaHunter]

3 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I am not on Facebook, so I don't know much about it

What - you don't want to share pictures of your dinner and post a zillion cutesy memes replete with sappy Hallmark sentiments? You clearly don't know how to live.

Edited March 19, 2019 by AngelaHunter

[nachomama]

I don't understand the emo facebook. Where you post nothing but selfies with weird filters and post sad poetry memes. Cuz you just broke up with your boyfriend and you alternate between loneliness crap and "I'm broken or imperfect but doggonit I'm the best thing that ever happened to him" stuff. I'm required to cyber stalk my neice and I always know when she's broken up with someone. Didn't know for over a year that she had a baby but boom endless "you never know what you've got til it's gone" and a lot of pics of the kid that I had to look through several SEVERAL before I could determine that this kid does not have Downs Syndrome.

I think there's a very fine line on facebook where you're legit sharing something for family and friends and then just spilling your guts and tmi. I watch divorces happen over facebook, they're arguing back and forth over facebook. I post almost nothing that's real life. I do random goofy memes and sometimes just odd stupid crap. I will never fight with you, whether it's politics or toilet paper, I will not get into a facebook war. I do not have my real name on facebook and it didn't help me hide from my sister. I have never taken a selfie in my life and I never will. I practically break out in hives if I accidently end up in someone's photo that they post. If group photos are taken I stand in back and duck when they click. :D I tell people I'm in witness protection or that I'm native american and the camera steals my soul.

[nachomama]

If I thought there were any lessons being learned I wouldn't mind it. But there is no learning. She breaks up with the same dude and gets back together with him 4 minutes later. She's throwing a public pity party on facebook, if the lesson is "don't spill the tea" on facebook then yes learn away.

My mom was on the phone 24/7 and nope didn't go across the street. My sister actually had an excellent vocabulary very young mostly because she listened to my mother talk endlessly with her friends and didn't get baby talk. My mother even published a weekly column in the local paper about the "news". We lived in company housing, not in a town, everybody worked at the same place and everybody had exactly the same cookie cutter house. "Town" was 30 or more miles away. When we lived in Utah "town" was 90 miles away. You basically had this teeny micro-cosm petri dish where nothing ever happened and yet the women could gossip endlessly. Now my mother's column was "Earl Dowd's brother came to visit with his kids and they all had a splendid time at the company picnic" but the phone time was "research" I suppose. And very early on we had "party line" phones so you picked up the receiver and could literally eavesdrop on everyone's conversation.