2000 Farragut High School Dance

Everyone was going

The biggest dance of the year

It was the peak of the Farragut and Oak Ridge connection

Chris Perry even carries a picture in his wallet to this day of the group picture which featured like 7 couples grouped together in a picture.

Everyone had a blast and it was really cool.

Andy Baksa was a high school mac by snagging superstar Jessica Olson

Here is a picture of the mac



One day at practice Baksa proclaimed,

"I think I'm gonna do something different... I'll wear a blue shirt"

WHen guys went to dances at Farragut

You wore dress shoes, slacks, a button down shirt, and a tie

And you typically see white shirts

Baksa wanted to spice the shit up

You know make V-Day a special one.

Look a little different

Stand out, but not too much

So he's bringing the heat with Blue shirt.


We all plan to meet at Perry house before the dance

Perry house is the community house

The food belongs to everyone, no rules, just good clean fun

So i spread word to everyone and their grandma to show up at Perry House wearing a blue shirt with their outfit.

And because i have mad pull with consumers

Everyone did

And then Baksa showed up carrying a plastic box with Olson's corsage

And I'll never forget the look on a young Baksa face when he saw us.

Maybe 8 of us guys all wearing damn blue shirts.

Despite Baksa's best efforts to make a fashion statement

I made him look like he was just one of the boys

Remember the times

Remember the times

schenanigans

"Hey FU"

'yeah'

"you know who you look like?"

'Who?!?!?!'

"Every other Chinese guy I know"


followed by lots of laughter by everyone

Presentations

2nd grade presentations

2-3 minute presentation on a country

Can't be the USA

Working in teams of 2

This is pre-internet

So you know we're all up in that britanica

Lookin up shit about Norway

My partner is a boy named KB

He never wants to meet or anything.

Says he's gonna do his research

and I'll do my own

We'll come together the day before and discuss

He comes in with a typed sheet of paper

Keep in mind this is 1992 probably

So a typed sheet of paper was a big deal

Especially to a 2nd grader

His typed sheet of paper had the perforated wholes along each side

It was printed in blue ink, size 8 or less font, and huge margins so the text was all in the center in a skinny little column.

KB was very disorganized so his paper was crumpled up on the edges and folded a couple times

I had just a list of facts

He had a feature story paragraph written out.

But it was weak

He had no facts about economics, culture, traditions, etc.

It was all geography, size, land mass etc.

Weak weak weak

So we're discussing how to present it.

KB approached it as a "yours or mine" type scenario

And he was stubborn.

Rightfully so

he had technology on his side

Blue ink, centered text, peforated wholes

I had notes on a piece of paper.

After debating we came to no conclusion

The next day were presentations and we did not talk again.

I didn't know what to expect

Teacher calls out...

"Ok... KB and Willie"

So he says that he's going to go first

I agree.

He struggles through his crumpled up feature story on Norway.

And he pauses for a couple seconds after giving some facts about the population or something.

He is struggling, so I figures I'll help him out and take over

I slide in to say some stuff and I get out...

"And it's really cold there"

He agrees with me

"Yeah, it's really cold there and they have 47,876 square miles of land mass.......blah blah blah"

and he goes on and stutters his way to the end.

And he finishes.

Then the teacher says

"Ok thanks guys"

And I go and sit down and feel stupid

But not as stupid as I do when I watch myself on screen later that day

Our teacher recorded our presentations so we could see ourselves on screen.

We were encouraged to make eye contact with the camera and look up every so often.

And there we were

Me and KB

KB head down reading that size 6 font, never picking his head up

And me standing there staring right into the camera for nearly 3 minutes except for the 1.5 seconds where i blurted out...

"And it's really cold there"

...............STUPID.ME.......................

My close friends and classmates gave me so much shit about that.

Well deserved

Farragut Basketball Halftime

Coach walks in and paces to and from

Lets people get water, go to the bathroom whatever.

Starts jibbering and drawing some junk on the dry erase board

Which nobody can comprehend or understand

Then he might throw down the marker

and say something like

"you know they don't like you all up here"

as he points to the black guys on our team

Trying to get us pumped

And telling us...

"you know... everywhere we go... we get everybody's best shot... everybody plays us at 100% and cheap shots us and does whatever they can to beat us and you know why???"

And then he drags his finger across his chest and says

"Because of what's written right here on your jersey... They think you all are soft... I heard em talking... they said they could rough you guys up a little bit and then you would lay down and fold.....Hell maybe they're right"

Then he would make a grimace and say something like

"you know what... I don't think they are right.... you guys are the toughest group of young guys I've ever had... and I mean that.. I really do.. ....Let's go out there this second half and just wear their young butts out"

He said it with such emotion, power, and outrage.

And when he said the last part.

The "WEAR....THEIR...YOUNG....BUTTS....OUT"

He would overemphasize each word and pause for a brief second when he said it

His face even turned a bit red when he said it.

Maybe even had a little nervous twitch.

And right there he expected us to get pumped up, circle up...

Do a 1..2...3 team and run out of the locker room ready to kill

And sometimes people actually did it.

But i never could

I would always walk back to the court shaking my head and wondering what he really meant and how awkward it seemed to tell a bunch of 16-18 year old kids to go wear out the young butts of another group of 16-18 year olds

Why couldn't we just go try to win and leave it at that

Ohh nooo. I don't think so

Ohhhhhh Nooooo

I don't think so

That's all she said to make me laugh.

You may have already guessed it

......"SHE".........

is a heavy set woman

who just so happened to be shopping in a ghetto Kroger in Indy

late on a Tuesday night.

At some Krogers, they have tons of checkout lines.

Here they have like 4 or 5

And it doesn't matter if you are there on Tuesday 10 minutes before close, or just after church on Sunday afternoon...

1 of them will be open.

Just 1

So i'm in no hurry and i turn the last corner of the store and head to check out with my girl Phyllis behind the counter.

Decent line already, maybe 3 or 4 peeps.

I see a heavy set woman coming from the opposite direction and she has a lot of goodies up in her kart.

We were about equal distance from the line and I coulda put in a few quick steps to establish myself as the first one in line

But I've been listening to Erykah Badu too much

And I was in chill mode

So i let her have it while I was just striding it out

Stride it out stride it out

Stride it out like an usher

If you step on my shoe.

I just might cuss ya

Ok enough of that.
.....

So i let her have the spot....

But we've both got another 15-20 feet to claim that next spot in line.


And in the meantime, out of NOWHERE

Racing down the middle aisle of the store.....

An Asian boy in glasses comes in and swoops the spot from both of us!!!!!!

He had like two things in his cart

The lady was pissed...

The Asian guy secures his spot in line,

Then a light bulb goes off in his head.

He darts towards the ice cream aisle in a mad dash to get one last item.

The heavy set woman who looked rough said

"Ohhhhh no.... i don't think so"

Loud enough for everyone within 15 feet to here...

Then she violently pushed his kart out of the way and slid into his spot.

The Asian guy came back carrying a pint of ice cream and didn't even know anything had happened.

This happened maybe 3 weeks ago and i've thought about it every day since.

I like this story on so many levels and I can't even begin to tell you why

A real conversation I had at the gym

My words will be posted in red

The crazy man's words will be in green

My thoughts will be in white along with some normal stuff


How many sets you got left?

2 more sets

ok, i can wait

You can work in with me if you want

Nahh, I'll just hang back and relax for a minute, I just got done doing some pulls. I need a break anyway.

Ok.

30 seconds goes by.

You want a spot there partner

Sure, why not

Lifting.... Lifting.... Lifting.....

Good lift

Thanks

This place is kinda packed tonight huh

Yeah... it's always like this at the beginning of the year, with all those new year resolutioners and crap

Yeah... how long does it usually take till they stop coming

Ahh till we get a big snow probably

Got ya

So you're not from here... what brought you here

Grad School

What do you study?

Philanthropy & Nonprofit Business Management

HAH... I can tell you about owning a nonprofit business

Yeah?

Yeah I own my own company and we make no profit

What kind of company do you own.

Ohh i own a little printing company and _______ (I forgot), but let me tell you... after you pay people something they can live on, buy some decent equipment, you start to turn a profit, then the government comes in and taxes you out the ass.

Really

Ohh hell yeah... you start to think you're doing good then the government dips their hands in your pockets and just takes your damn money. And they go give that money to some piece of shit who didn't get off his ass and do anything. Then Some Joe Blow out there is layin around his house gettin high on your damn money.

"please stop talking soon, I need to lift again"

I mean look at you, you're someone who got off your ass and tried to do something and the government is just going to take your money and give it to some lazy ass. And the f*cked up thing about this is that they're not just stealing your money, they're taking your hard work, your time, your education along with it. Everything you worked for you when you got off your ass. I'll tell ya, capitalism has generated a lot of wealth for a lot of people, but it still sucks. Ya know in Russia they've got a flat tax. 15% that's it... doesn't matter who you are.

cool... spot me real quick

ok

Lifting.....Lifting......Lifting.

And I'll tell ya, i've been on both sides of this shit. I used to work in the corporate world for 30 years and it is what it is. It was nice when it was a family owned company, and then towards the end of my time their, they sold the company and these hot shots came in and changed everything. They didn't give a shit about anybody. But I mean you can make a lot of money in that world, but they don't give a shit about you. Then you try to do something for yourself and they just take all your money from you.

And the thing that pisses me off is that they say they're doing what's best, they don't even let you decide. I mean my wife and I, we give tons of money to charities and shit.. And that shit is all worthy causes and shit ya know... But when they go and take all my work, and time, and disperse it how they see fit, I get pissed when i see Joe Blow getting his check every month and blowing it on weed money and shit.

YEah i hear ya.

Well i'll let ya go, i bet you're tired of hearing all my shit.


You're right about that.


Some people are just looking for any opening to tell you about their shit

Dreaming Me

I have this recurring dream

Well I don't know if that's what you call it.

But it happens like once every year or two

And it gets more and more specific each time

I wake up sweating and frantic every time

It starts out like i'm walking at the back of my grandma's house

And she has these little windows near the ground that you can peak into her basement that looks kinda like a dungeon.

IN the dream, i peak in there and see a realy nice bright blue watered pool with sand around etc.

I go in through some trap door that doesn't exist and i'm in..

Except it was all a mirage

Once i get in, it's all dark and the ceiling is like 4 feet tall and the pool looks dingy.

SPiders are everywhere.

The water is freezing.

Yet every time, i hop in

And every time, the sharks chase me and I swim for my life.

And when I look up in desparation to the sky i see the ceiling and a bright light shines

And i'm hoping to see some sign of hope or something

But all i see is that white crackly looking ceiling paint stuff that's everywhere in suburbia

And that's when the sharks are just about to clamp down

That's the point where I wake up sweating.

And I always wonder why i jump in with the sharks

Or why i never check the water good for sharks

Who knows