This one just leapt out at me during this season of reminiscing. Since I’m only six days now from closing what will probably turn out to be the golden era of my long life I started thinking about all the great things that have happened over the last ten years.
I won’t even attempt to rank these memories, I leave it to those who know me to rank them anyway they see fit. Instead, I’ll list them chronologically from oldest to newest.
Meeting Limey – January 1994 – When I started at Gettysburg College in the fall of 1993 after an interesting year in State College I lived downtown in a college-owned apartment. No meal plan and a long way from campus, suffice it to say I didn’t feel much a part of the place. Then, only a month after I turned 20 I moved into Paxton Hall, an ex-motel turned dorm right near campus filled with, as it turned out, most of the people I’d pal around with during my four years. Among those was my roomate, a peculiar little ex-Englishman. It’s been an experience but due to mutual love of booze and militaria we’re still friends today.
Reenacting – Spring/Summer 1994 – Somewhere I saw an ad for the 130th Anniversary re-enactment of the Wilderness down around Orange, VA. As is typical for me I decided to road trip down there and see what it was all about. Wandering the camps with a bit of scratch in my pockets I determined to buy my first (very bad) bits of kit and embark upon my very strange hobby. By the end of the summer I’d seen my first battle, smoked my first cigar and begun the wild spending of every last penny on militaria that continues to this day.
The first trip to Kentucky – October 1994 – Among the other weirdness I got into while living in Paxton Hall was the early incarnation of internet chatting. Before the invention of Netscape/Internet Explorer/Mosaic you could telnet to various machines around the country and do text-based chatting. It blew my mind and basically occupied my spare time through the remainder of my college career. I made a hell of a lot of friends and even got pseudo-romantically involved with a couple. One of which was a girl that went to school in eastern Kentucky so I resolved to road trip down there. Long drive down, tons of fun, a freezing cold night out in the woods burning potato chips for warmth, what may have been my first trip to the Waffle House and other events filled the too short weekend. I went down again later in the winter but got rebuffed and ended up heading to Tennessee – which was excellent in its own way.
21st Birthday Party – December 1994 – 1994 was a big year for me, everything pretty much changed overnight. Even drove me nuts for a little while. Still, the birthday party was a blast and started my life-long devotion to drink. Since I described it in last week’s list I’ll refer you there for the sordid details.
Spring Hill – October 1995 – It had barely been a year since my first re-enactment and already I had a complete kit and had decided I was going to try some “hardcore” campaigning. A fellow I met in Gettysburg told me about a western outfit called the Army of the Pacific who were all traveling to the big gig in central Tennessee to recreate a proper regiment complete with ration issue, ammunition issue, guard mount – the works! Off I set with another fellow for the trip not knowing that he didn’t know how to drive and so couldn’t share the driving, nor did he have a rifle so he couldn’t share the fighting, nor did he have any money so he couldn’t share anything else. Still, I had the best time at any event I’ve ever had and have been a campaigner of sorts ever since.
Pals – 1994-Present – I know I’ve mentioned at least one person by name but I wanted to make a sort of catch-all entry to encompass all the oddball people I’ve met through the bizarre hobby of Living History. From people I consider family to large groups of madmen travelling like gypsies from site to site during the summer entertaining the masses and cracking each other up the whole time it’s been a hell of a strange trip. What a hoot.
Graduation – Summer 1996 – Sure graduation was hot and I hadn’t had a shower in at least 3 days. Actually, the real day sucked. Things didn’t even change that much, I still lived for the summer in a college dorm, I still worked for the college but it was an interesting summer and naturally something changes after graduation whether you notice it at first or not.
Re-Discovering Music – Fall 1997 – My musical tastes didn’t change much during college. I didn’t get into all the oddball college rock alterna-pop crap that people seem to fall into. I didn’t like Phish, never liked the Dead, couldn’t dig weird techno or the newer generation of hip-hop/R & B. I stuck with the oldies but goodies, early 90s hip-hop, some alternative stuff, some metal-ish stuff but basically gave up on tunes. Then in late ’97 a pal turned me onto a band called the Dropkick Murphys – Irish punk from Boston. I was hooked. Suddenly a whole new world of tuneage opened up, punk from new to old school, ska, swing, all the bizarre stuff that people keep alive by word of mouth. Now I hit several shows a year in all sorts of places seeing all sorts of cool people playing cool music. It’s a different world.
The Real World – Fall 1998 – This was the big change, this was when I noticed I had graduated. I quit my job of two years at the college and thought I’d head out into the corporate world to see if I could make some money. Ended up back home for a couple of months since I quit before I got a new job but by November I was working as an hourly consultant – something I didn’t particularly like and which led me to another job I didn’t like which leads me to:
Broken Ankle – September 1999 – What can I say? I didn’t eat much all day, got drunk, fell down and couldn’t get up. Trip to the hospital, got fired from the afore-mentioned crappy job and settled into a six month vacation courtesy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Finally started working again the next spring and shortly thereafter settled into a gig at the little slice of hell I work at to this day.
September 11 – September 2001 – Can’t say it changed my life or anything but it’s my first “Kennedy” moment. The “I can remember where I was and what I was doing when . . . ” moment. It did, however, turn me into a news junkie and a bit of a political junkie and eventually gave rise to this site. That ought to be change enough.
Losing Jeff – January 2003 – I’ve written about this before so I won’t bore you with the details but this was the first time I lost a “grown-up” friend and it struck me funny. Losing a pal, particularly one that’s relatively young, is a sight different from losing an older family member. I guess it strikes a little bit closer to the old self-mortality monitor.
Turning 30 – December 2003 – So it won’t exactly happen when I’m still in my twenties but the idea of turning 30 has been rattling around in my head for the last year. One thinks of 30 as a big age, the time to really be a grown up. One hopes to have left some sort of mark on the world, some sort of legacy but one (I) find I’ve done nothing of the sort. No marriage, no kids, no property, stuck in a boring job with no prospects of any kind for the next 50 or so years until I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Not exactly something to look forward to. Still, off we go into my third decade on the Earth – here’s hoping something happens.
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