Shakesthegrounds Rumblings

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Well 420 is what the fish and game people would have used on their radio to report Jack passing Ennis a joint. So when there is a day that numerically is the same number........I forgot where I was going with this...what were we talking about? 

[Shakesthecoffecan]

So another weekend, another road rocket ride away from home. I have a meeting of my college alumni ass(ociation) tomorrow morning. I fully expect the president to come in an announce the school is closing, I have been waiting for that news for 20 years. www.vic.edu

Beautiful spring day today. I decided to minimumize my time on the interstate and drove thru the country, Rt. 58, ever westward, the towns growing smaller and smaller, Hillsville....Galax.....Mouth of Wilson......finally at Rugby 58 took a sharp right, and I continue-get this- I went straight- on Rt16, Past St. Clair's Bottom, beautiful country, a national forest. I past the sight of the old WOLD, the radio station made famous by Harry Chapin, and came out on I81 at Marion, just down the hill from where Sherwood Anderson is buried.

I decided this time insted of staying in Bristol where my college is, I would go to Johnson City, Tennessee, about another 20 miles. Johnson City has a gay bar, New Beginings, and I want to check it out. http://www.newb.com/

When I was in college "the bar" was another one, The Connection, a hole in the wall in another part of town, now just a memory. I only went in it a couple of times toward the end of my college career, armed with liquid courage. New Beginings I visited once, in 1990, 17 years ago this month. Where does the time go?

I am curious to see a slice of gay life in East Tennessee. New Begingings offers me a conveinent look, but only one aspect. There are men and women in this town living their lives openly who have never set foot in there I am sure. Anyway, I hope the music is good, I need to dance.  Staying in these motels always makes me homesick sort of.

[Wayne]

Have a great visit Shakes!    Interesting how you west(ern) Virgina / east Tennessee folks seems to share a common culture ... Nice!

[ifyoucantfixit]

   Well Truman, go for it...Cutloose everybody just go footloose..Kick off your sunday shoes,,,,,have a good old cowboy time..   see ya when you are back with the story to relate...              go for it. goforit....janice

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Well......

I went over to the bar at 11 pm, it was crowded. I would guesstimate the average age of the people there was about 19 or 20, college kids. A hand full of guys my age, and the guy taking the cover charge I am sure was the same man who on my only other visit there asked "now you know this is a gay bar".

The demographs were about 50/50 m/f, 99% Caucasian and they all seemed to know one another. They were having a drag show that night, both male and female impersonators. Everyone was Reilly into it, everyone but me. I have never really cared for drag shows. I wanted cowboys. Owell. I stayed long enough to have a beer and went back to the motel and dreamed about umbrellas with "Sam Adams Beer" on them.

The following day I went to my alumni association meeting. The majority of the alumni are older women as it was a girls school until 1972. The grief was evident was the president told us that they could not make the next payroll. It is a shame and an outrage how the place has been run, robbing Peter to pay Paul. I have volunteered to send out an appeal to my class mates, an appeal that I myself would not even buy into. A hundred and twenty two years and it comes to this........

Had a wonderful spring lunch with friends at an outside table at the nearby pizza joint we used to frequent. So strange how you can sometimes just pick up where you left off. I left here and headed to Blackburg, to Virginia Tech, and another world. I am posting some pix over on the thread about the shooting in Current Events.

[ifyoucantfixit]

          Sorry about your school Truman..  Isnt it odd how we can get so attached to inanimate things.

At least you got to visit with your friends.  Hope you had a great time, and I know they were happy to

see you...                                                                                                                        janice

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Yes we can get attached, but the real gifts to be enjoyed at the intangible ones, the times with friends and the memories we make.

BTW, congradulations on your wedding anniversary! Hope you will have many, many more!

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I stopped by the Sconic Drive In today to see how "Lisa's" reunion with her daughter went. They met each other for the first time in 42 years last Friday.

"Lisa" was back to her normal looking self. She met not only her daughter, but her three grandchildren and her great grandchild. The daughter has been married 4 times, has been in rehab, lives with her adopted parents and is a cook at Pizza Hut. Lisa admitted she had been hoping for a doctor or a lawyer rather than someone who would ask her to cosign a loan for a car.

Still, after all this time she is glad her daughter has all her fingers and toes.

There is no wind that can make an apple fall far from its tree. The apple has to want to land someplace else.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Tonight's YouTube reccomendation: Miss Virginia Hensley Dick:

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[loneleeb3]

Wow. So cool to see you writing about places i know so well. Galax, Hillsville etc.
I know ri ght where you were and where you were going. I sure miss being home.
I talked to some friends from up home yesterday. They said the whole wrea is just devestated over the shootings. My Cousin works in the New River Mall. She said it's just aweful. People walking around in a daze and crying.
Well, Thanks for writing about your trip. It put a smile on my face to see those places and remember all the times I have been to them. I used to go to Newport and Gray alot when I was younger too.