howeenterprise.com
Monday, September 28, 2015
Page #13
The Best Of Times? Really?
By Chris Campbell I’ve reached the age where I can walk from one room to another, and in the span of that five second walk completely forget why I was making the journey. Calling for one of my children sounds like roll call in school as I desperately search for the correct name. I forget where I laid my keys; I forget where I put my wallet; I forget where I parked my car at Wal-Mart. The uncanniness of my forgetfulness is mind boggling…ALMOST as mind boggling as the things that I remember…AND why I remember them.
Every Saturday she was there making that trip around the rink, with seemingly the eyes of every guy following her as she went. As she would skate by I would turn to my friends and declare, “One day Jill Cox will ‘couple skate’ with me!” They were hardly encouraging, falling all over themselves laughing at me, as they knew I didn’t have the guts to even talk to her. I was offered multiple games of pinball as a wager for completing the daunting task, but not even that could help me muster the courage. In 1981, the rock band Styx released an album called “Paradise Theater.” It was played non-stop at Rollerland. When the DJ at the rink would announce it was time for “Couple Skate” one of the songs he inevitably would play was a song from the album called “The Best Of Times.”
It was a cool Saturday in early spring when that exact scenario played out. The DJ announced, “This is couple skate – couple skate only…” and then the familiar piano chord played, and Dennis DeYoung’s tenor voice bellowed, “Tonight’s the night we’ll make Case in point: I was dropping my youngest off at football practice this history…” past week. As I was doing so I overheard two moms talking about And I was filled with a resolve that would not be swayed. a vacation they had taken that summer to which one of them remarked, “Those were the best of My buddies all had fear in their eyes as I skated towards where Jill times.” Cox was standing with three I was instantly transported back in friends. I rehearsed my simple request in my mind repeatedly as I time to 1981….Fort Worth, drew closer to my destiny. She TX….Altamesa turned from her friends and Blvd….Rollerland….couple Photo by Loretta Anderson towards me as I skated to within a skate… few feet of them… …and Jill Cobb. …and that’s when my skates flew out from under me and I landed I was only eleven years old, but I knew a pretty girl when I saw one. flat on my back. Jill was fourteen years old and way, Her friends laughed hysterically. way, WAY out of my league for more reasons than just the fact that She giggled then asked if I was she was a teenager. She had pretty okay. The breath had been totally knocked out of me, so I uttered no green eyes with thick, flowing brown hair and a “Coppertone” tan. more than a groan. I then rolled onto my stomach and armyI, on the other hand, was pale, crawled back to Dork Land and the dumpy and buck-toothed with a chili-bowl haircut that would make friendly confines of my amused friends…with the words of Dennis Moe Howard jealous. She was DeYoung singing “…all memories definitely the prettiest girl in the joint as well as being a mighty fine of yesterday will last a lifetime…” Now…where did I put those skater (she could even skate keys…? backwards!).
IN KIND DONORS Wal-Mart, 20 briskets Bill Smith, Howe Mini Storage, $300 Metal Masters, $1,000 Great Days of Service, labor and supplies Keep Howe Beautiful, labor and supplies The Siding Man, Inc., $2,800 AAA Guardian Foundation Repair, $2,500 Brice Harvey, bbq cook Dick Smithwick, bbq cook Don Anderson, auctioneer Howe Enterprise, advertising Van Alstyne Leader, advertising Herald Democrat, advertising Loretta Anderson, Texas Farm Bureau, 125 cups Darren Foster, Texas Farm Bureau, 125 cups Donna Wormsbaker, beans for BBQ dinner Bev Martin, bread for BBQ dinner Mary Jo Wrenn, bread for BBQ dinner Georgia Caraway, tea and coffee for BBQ dinner Jean Norman, coleslaw for BBQ dinner Mama Suzy’s Sweets and Eats, 8 doz. sugar cookies for BBQ dinner Mary Stonebarger, 8 doz. chocolate chip cookies for dinner Sherry Folks, potato salad for BBQ dinner Sunny Delight, 200 drinks Grayson County Blood Bank, radio ads Howe Fire Station, use of building for BBQ dinner Ronnie Morris, labor on benches FINANCIAL DONORS: Collins Memorial, $24,350 Howe Historical Society, $14,500 Georgia Caraway, $2,880 Oscar Blankemeyer, $1,420 Nortex Field Services, $1,000 Jerry and Patsy Kelsoe, $600 Advantage Business Machines, $200 Anonymous, $200 Waldo Funeral Home, $100 Scoggins Funeral Home, $100 M.E. Curtis, $100 Monty Ulmer, $100 Carolyn Monroe, $40 Children and citizens of Howe, $205 Ray Selby, $20
