Northgate Mall

In the early 1980s, mom worked at the Northgate Public Library in El Paso when I was a kid. There used to be a chess club that met Saturdays 1-3 pm in the auditorium there, and I'd go down there and play a little. I wasn't very good, and I don't even remember the impetus behind going or how long I went there.

But when it was 3 o'clock and everyone packed up the pieces and boards and went on with their lives, I hustled a few bucks from mom and went over to the Detour video arcade across the parking lot. I'd go home with mom when the library closed at 5:30 Saturdays, so I had a few hours to kill. More on the arcade in a moment. 

The library was a separate building in the mall parking lot, next to the old Northgate Twin Movie house (where I saw Red Dawn and Ferris Bueller's Day Off), a GFC Insurance place and I think the driver's license office. The mall was across the lot from these two buildings, and housed The Popular department store, which  was where local Cub Scouts got their accoutrements. I think it was at this store where the famous Talking Christmas Tree story originated. As a wee lad, I didn't realize someone could possibly be using a microphone from a little ways off. I was pretty mesmerized. Anyhow, The Popular also had the old Viewmasters, which had round discs that slid into the camera and showed 3D photos to little kids. Pull the lever and the next picture would come up. It was great.

The mall also had the first Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, which hooked up studious kids with game tokens for stellar report cards. It opened when I was in fifth grade, and we couldn't get enough. Pizza, coke, video games-- man it was great.

Anyhow, back to Detour. The vids of the time were very rudimentary-- graphics were the best we had at the time, but nothing compared to now. Pinball (lots of it), Tank, Atari two-on-two basketball, skee ball, even a trap shooting game that I think I only tried once or twice. An old favorite was the tabletop Atari game that featured 11 Xs against 11 Os. Each side had a track ball (remember those?), a 'pass' button and four offensive/defensive plays to choose from. I liked this game, and it was a good day if I had enough coin to play a little bit.

And then there was the annual carnival that would camp out in the parking lot for a week. I wasn't (and still am not) a big 'rides' guy. Even the tilt-a-whirl makes me nauseous. I liked the midway games, even though the odds are stacked in favor of the house. Favorites were the squirt gun race and the pinball/horse race game.

So I have a few memories of old place.

But when I was home for a few days this month, I saw that the old Northgate/Northpark Mall had been reduced to rubble. I don't really know much in the way of details, but after a few tries at building it back up, it had fallen on hard times and there were fewer and fewer tenants for the place. This pillar of the Northeast, gone, a victim of big honking malls on the east and westside of town. There are those who spent more of their teen years there than I did, so I can't really say I'm disappointed, but I am a little sad. I moved away too long ago to be disappointed-- I've gotten along a long time without it. 

Just kind of a bummer, that's all. 

Cotton Bowl trip, Vol. III

Continuing with the Cotton Bowl Chronicles...

The night before ran a little long, and since Ann was in the throes of being sick, we gradually worked our way into the day. As she stayed in bed, I went into town to see my friend Joel once again, who came with his wife to see us two nights before. He's a life coach these days, and it was really good to see him doing so well. He's even getting me charged up about things.

Anyhow, I got back to base camp and cleaned up, then the two of us went back to Humperdink's a little bit after noon, and I had what turned out to be my only meal of the day. I'm a big fan of microbrews, so I had one with my sandwich. This is pretty much where we stayed until it was time for...

...the famous Jerry World. It's either a very large stadium, or a small continent. Man, it's huge. Tailgate parties were set up, and it would've been nice to be a part of one, but we went into the corporate party area after they did a brisk search for contraband. If it'd been cold like the Pinstripe Bowl last year, then it would've been easy enough to hide things in layers. This year-- temps in the 60s. So no dice. But we went on in and checked the place out, and I paid for my first $8 adult beverage. There was lots of purple there, and I even thought I recognized the tool store guy from Clay Center who'd always record ads via telephone.

K-State band, priming the crowd for the big game

By this time, Ann and I were just kind of itching to get inside and check this place out. We weren't disappointed.

This was about 1 1/2 hours from kickoff, when the sun was still peeking in. I sat in my end zone seat while Ann went to go find (more) friends. The pregame show on the mega-jumbo-tron was a good time killer, done in part by Brad Sham, voice of the Dallas Cowboys and a gentleman whose hand I shook back in 1998. I got my chance to case the joint a little-- but the place was very segmented and it was hard to get from one section to another. Besides, I wasn't sure how long it'd take to get back. So I cut my losses and stayed in the vicinity. There was a ton of room behind our end zone seats, filled with several vehicles for our viewing pleasure. Like I said, the place is just immense. The crowd was about 60-40 in favor of Arkansas. But the Wildcat Nation represented well.

I'm on record as saying that this is one of my favorite things-- band pregame. Fight song, alma mater, Wabash Cannonball, etc. I can't get enough and still watch the youtube video on occasion.

Obviously the game didn't go as we wanted. My hope was that we'd be able to stay on the field with Arkansas, and we did, but I didn't think it was hard to tell who the better team was. A few things went our way toward the end of the half and into the third quarter, but it just didn't come together. I cheered and yelled as best I could, but my poor wife could only sit next to me, since she still wasn't feeling well. The folks to my right were from the Wichita area. It's never hard to have a new friend for a few hours during the game, but the father of three to my right wasn't really interested in banter. Oh well-- it didn't interfere with my enjoyment. Final score-- Arkansas 29, Kansas State 16.

After adjourning to the hotel, I stayed downstairs for a nightcap or two with Ann's friends as she went upstairs  to rest. I really felt bad for her, since she really wanted to stay with us, but just couldn't. Razorback fans that we spoke to seemed surprised that purple seems to travel so well, even though all you have to do is pay a little bit of attention to know how well Cat fans travel to bowl games. It's not our first rodeo.

So with that I went off to join my wife. It had been a big day-- one I'll always remember. But there was still plenty more where that came from. We were scheduled to leave on a jet plane the next day.

Cotton Bowl Trip, Vol. II

Continuing with the cotton pickin' theme I seem to have started around here...

My wife and I were in Dallas/Fort Worth for the 2012 Cotton Bowl. Our first full day in the metro was Thursday, January 5.

After a quick run/workout at the dungeon that passed for a hotel fitness area, we drove to Frankie's in the Sundance Square area in Ft. Worth, where we once again witnessed an establishment underestimate the droves in which Kansas State fans travel. The place was packed for Thursday lunch, mostly with purple. That said, the service and food were both decent. During the meal, Ann heard from some of her bowl friends. Seriously-- she stays up with these folks she sees basically only during bowl trips. Anyhow, we met them at Humperdink's, closer to the stadium, for a beverage. Our plan was to congregate there in preparation for the pep rally. I made some new friends and Ann reconnected with some old ones, since she goes back over 15 years with these folks.

Following some refreshment from some unseasonably pleasant January weather, we adjourned to Rangers Ballpark.

This is what became a crowd of about 20,000 Wildcat fans. For a pep rally the day before the game. Not all Cat fans had made it to town yet. The band, cheerleaders, and Classy Cats all found the travel much easier than they did for last year's Pinstripe Bowl. As I've said before, this is the only in-person dose of KSU football we get, so we were both really excited. After an hour and a half of videos (including stadium renovation projects and Wildcat bowl highlights set to Brooks and Dunn's "Proud of the House We Built"), player interviews, a talk from Coach Snyder and general purple merriment, we went on our way. Ann was pleased that the former President of K-State did not speak, as I hear he could be a little, um, windy during these events.

Then the group of what became about 20 was off to Cattleman's in the Stockyards-- a good old-fashioned steakhouse in a neighborhood where you'd expect to find one or two really good ones, of which this was one.  I think I had an eight-ounce steak, baked potato, salad and rolls. Very good eats. A late (about 8 pm) and very filling meal, but well worth the time.

Something we also had to do-- play hard. It was on this day when Ann caught a cold that morphed into a ear infection. We got her some drugs after the pep rally then went and ate. She wore it very well and played very hard and didn't seem interested in this ruining her good time.

We'd done a lot, seen a lot and had a damn good time this day, and the best part of this leg of the trip was still to come. Tomorrow was gameday.

Cotton Bowl Trip, Vol. I

The First Lady and I have settled back into our daily routine after getting back home from our trip to Texas to see Kansas State play in the Cotton Bowl, and to see my parents and commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary.

We hit the road right at 3:15, after I worked my retail shift and loaded up the car and headed west on I-20/59. Our first stop was in Jackson, Mississippi (pronounced Missippi by the locals) for food, and we camped for the evening in Monroe, Louisiana. Following an early start and lunch in Kilgore, Texas, we got to our hotel about 2:30.

I also may or may not have been pulled over just on the outskirts of D/FW, doing 76 in a 65 mph zone. The state trooper spent more time calming me down than telling me what I did. I was just wanting to follow the playbook-- you know, keep my hands where he can see them, etc. But he and Ann both noticed that I seemed to be freaking out. And it doesn't always pay to be completely honest: like when he asks, "have you ever been in trouble," it's not always proper to respond, "well there was this one time..." This caused him to ask if I'd ever been arrested. This time I put my shovel down and said no. He also asked me to take my rear license plate frame off, since it blocks the state name. So I drove the rest of the time without my UTEP Miners representation.

Anyhow, the hotel, such as it was, was a few miles away from Cowboys Stadium, site of the game, and under renovation. Our room, on the only unrenovated floor, had no functioning A/C unit, so we got a second room with a nasty bathroom. The third room measured up to lukewarm status, so we rested a spell.

Our first stop was a local watering hole for happy hour, then off to the Gaylord Hotel. The place is kind of like it's own separate city and you could well get lost and spend several days there without getting claustrophobic. This where the team stayed, and we went to be amongst friendlies and watch our men's basketball team play KU. We also caught up with an old college friend who lives in the Metroplex. Good food, good times and good conversation.

Following the game, we hung out for a spell and went back to the room. It had been a big day and a long day as well, and there was much more to come.

Down and Clear

Our week-long football bowl trip, family excursion and tour of Texas is complete, and the First Lady and I got home Tuesday night around 5:30.

The only bad thing to say is that Ann picked up an ear infection on our first full day in Dallas/Fort Worth, so we had to scale things back just a little bit. We did get the chance to reconnect with some old friends, and in my case, make some new ones.

Obviously, the football game didn't go as we'd hoped. Cowboys Stadium is everything people say. It's incredible. We sat in the end zone, so we didn't have one of the obscenely huge replay boards, but we did have one staring at us (and in turn, us staring at it) when play was at the other end of the field.

Following the game, we flew to El Paso to commemorate my folks' 50th wedding anniversary. Had a great time seeing family, some who lived near and some who traveled from afar, as well as friends I'd not seen in years, and in a few cases, decades.

We flew out Monday and stayed the night in Longview, Texas to watch the Crimson Tide beat LSU, driving the rest of the way yesterday. Total mileage driven and flown is approximately 2,024.

Now, it's back to some semblance of normalcy, as Ann has begun teaching for the spring semester, and I return to work tomorrow.

There were no negatives at all during this trip, and I hope to spend the next little while going in depth into some facets of our trip.

50 years

December 30 is a very important day for me. For one, it's the day back in 2007 when I proposed to Ann and she accepted. Nothing really fancy about it-- we'd just come home from dinner in Clay Center. We got inside from a crisp, clear night and I just asked. No drama, no theatrics.

December 30 is also the day my parents were married. In 1961. So two days ago marked their fiftieth and golden wedding anniversary. I've only been around for 18 (and some change) of those 50 years, but I truly can't get my head around it. 50 years. Dad got some leave time from the Army and he and mom ran back to First Presbyterian Church in Mt. Gilead, Ohio to tie the knot. They didn't know where they'd wind up or how things would go.

But they're here. It's truly remarkable, given all the bumps and bruises along the way. I've been away from the family now for longer than I was at home (and it predates me by ten years), but I know the gist of the story. And that's the part I don't get. With the places they've been, things they've seen and what all has happened over the last half-century, mom and dad have put one foot in front of the other and have made it this far.

Happy anniversary, y'all.

Resolutions

So 2012 is here, and the old is once again replaced with the new. Spent the evening eating good food, talking, playing dominoes and watching fireworks and football. The rest of the crowd left about 11:15, but we stayed to see the new year in before going home. Ann and I love this crowd and look forward to every chance we get to spend time with them.

I don't recall it as a topic of conversation last night, but resolutions are always a hot topic this time of year. A few years ago, I decided to quit making resolutions, and it seems to be going pretty well. I understand why we make these choices, since a new year gives us a chance to start over.

But what I don't get is why wait til the calendar changes? Perhaps we make a change without all the fanfare and attention. It's definitely something I try to do. We don't really have time to wait to make ourselves better. My guess is that most of us set our minds to doing better all the time, just that the decisions don't get the publicity that comes with a New Year's resolution.

With all that being said, I've come to understand that I've accepted my limitations. that I can't do something because I've never done it before and I won't be any good at it. It's something that I'm learning through my marathon (Feb 12) training-- finding out what I'm capable of. Running faster and longer has taught me that I'm more able than I thought.

So I'm resolving to not accept these boundaries and test them whenever possible. And to do a little bit better of a job each day, whether it be at work or at home or in the other things I need to be doing.

Happy new year!