May 18 53 makes me 63

    I'll be 63 tomorrow and the short version is as Uncle Fremont said I had two good years in 78 and 83. Well 1985 wasn't all that bad and I took in a few City Stages in Bham in the 90s.


   I was gonna go to Rome Ga tomorrow and have a Hoagie Carmichael at Schroeders and see the new tennis courts out near Berry but the weather is not gonna cooperate. So I may celebrate on other days in tribute to the sixth decade of breathing air on the earth.


   Thirty years ago I kissed a few girls and danced a little, played in the burger king tennis tourney and kept the Gaffney High netters overnight in Columbia SC as I was the only one to make the semis. We got to see Little Big Man in the state capitol compliments of me.


   I've read some books and rode my bicycle further than I thought I would in my 40s and did some thinkin while I was ridin. Tried to get Brad Pitt to produce a sure Oscar winner the collaborator and I concocted but had to settle for an interview with Ron Rash that got published in Baps Today.


   I could go on but at some point it would be ridiculous.


   No major regrets other than never able to achieve financial independence. As Paris Trout said you get something (time) you give something up (money).


   I was thinkin about copying two credits from high school annuals; one my friend Rajesh Mehra in my junior year of High School, and the other anonymous from my senior year. She got it about right saying I was the most amazing wonderful person she'd ever met. And Rajesh had some insights too.


    But I left the house without the reminiscin book so maybe next year.


    I remember several 18ths over the years. 8th grade when Tommy Jones and I lit candles in the lunch room at Gaffney Jr High; 82 in Pike County Ga when Momma and Daddy still claimed me, 72 walking through the student center at Furman and then 75 when I thought my days getting thrown in the lake were over and the struggle that proved group overwhelming to my valiant fight right out of the cafeteria one of my most sacred places.


  Bob Dylan helped me celebrate my 50th in Birmingham and I saw Gillian Welch that night too.


   My sister was kind with a party for my 50th though a week late and the Bama delegation was small.


     Three movies tell my story in parts, Joe Gould's Secret, Jude, and another one I cant remember right now.  Maybe it was the novel Stone Arabia I was thinking of had I been West Coast. See those too and know Stevie though nobody can completely know another; that's why people write novels.


   So God Bless Momma and Daddy. I did what I could and to quote Pearl Jam: "I'm Still Alive!"