Moving Right Along

I have started to write this post no less than a dozen times already. And every time I did I'd go back and scrap the entire thing without saving so much as a single thought. So I guess it's true when they say, "You never know where you're going until you get there."

It's funny how after all of the rhetorical discourses I've read in my lifetime that I should choose to quote the Three Stooges above all else. That just goes to show ya that no matter how polished I try to sound, underneath it all I'm as simple minded as they come. So it wouldn't make any sense for me to pretend that I'm something that I'm not. I'm not sophisticated enough to pull it off anyway.

What I'm trying to say is that there is an irony to life that I just can't seem to put my finger on. Some things hit me with a strange peculiarity. So much so that they make me laugh even when it is completely inappropriate to do so.

What comes to mind is a casual conversation I once had with an acquaintance while waiting for the Bus on Broadway at the corner of Hancock Street. This happened during my senior year at Everett High. So we're talking sometime around 1971.

I have no recollection as to how it is that I came to know this kid. We were not close personal friends, or anything. We were on a first name basis only. That's about the extent of it. I honestly don't think this kid went to Everett High. Maybe he went to the "Voc" or to “Pope John.” I was never sure which.

All I could tell you about this kid was that he was probably a year or two older than me, and that he was gigantic. He was so big and heavy that you could feel the pounding of his footsteps through the sidewalk when he crossed the street.

In the course of our conversation he turned to me and said, "I'm overweight." I wanted to say, "Well, no ship, Sherlock," but instead I just I burst out laughing.

"What's so funny about that?" You should have seen the look on his face. He seemed so indignant.

"Dude, there are just some things in life that are a given. That's one of them."

Some people feel the need to mention the obvious. It strikes me funny when they do. On the other hand, there are those who find it necessary to offer a little more information than you care to actually have. You know, like when someone walks up to you out of the clear blue and says something like, "I’ve got a giant pimple on my bum."

So it's like I said, some things are just so obvious that you don't even have to go there. There are also some things that are best left unsaid. And then there are those things that are best left to the imagination.

If you want a good example of that third theory then take a ride up to Hampton Beach sometime. You will not believe the audacity on some of the people you'll see strutting their stuff in a skimpy bathing suit. It makes you want to throw a blanket over them.

Believe me, I have no qualms with anyone who chooses to make a fashion statement. There's nothing wrong with that. What I have trouble with is people who try to pass themselves off as something that they're not. Let me put it this way. Once you cross the fifty-yard line do us all a favor and dispense with the skimpy bathing suit, okay?

Which also reminds me of a joke that one of my Everett High School classmates told me some 39 years ago. It went something like this.

... Rico was confiding in his best friend, Tony, as to how he wasn't having any luck with the girls. So Tony suggested that he stuff a rolled up sock in his bathing suit when he strolled along the beach.

A few days later when Tony ran into Rico again he asked how he made out. "I don't understand it," Rico exclaimed. "I tried the sock trick, but all the girls glared at me as if they were disgusted."

"That's funny. It always worked for me," said Tony. "I'll tell you what. I'll swing by the beach tomorrow to see if I can't figure out what it is that you're doing wrong."

So the next day when Tony showed up at the beach he waived Rico over and said, "I figured what you're doing wrong."

"What am I doing wrong?" Rico asked enthusiastically.

Then Tony explained, "You're supposed to put the sock down the "FRONT" of your bathing suit."

Getting back to that big heavy kid I was telling you about, what I wanted to say was that this kid carried his bulk admirably. He didn't try to hide behind baggy clothes, or anything. He just went about his business being himself.

Because he never pretended to be something that he was not, his massive physique fit him well. It all worked into his over all character. His appearance and his personality were a perfect match.

He enjoyed a very pleasant and active social life. So how do I know that? Our paths crossed again some twenty years later. He introduced me to his charming bride, and their three beautiful children.

If I learned anything at all from this it's that it never pays to put on airs, or to pretend to be something that you're not. Just be yourself and everything about you will culminate into your over all persona. People will like you because they'll know the real you.

Even though we're all from Everett, we are all individuals. We cling to one another because of that common Everett thread that runs so true through our veins and binds our hearts together for all time. We enjoy and respect the differences amongst us. It is the uniqueness that each of us brings to the table that makes us all whole.

Telling you all of that now brings me to today's post. After covering such topics as our own individuality, accentuating the obvious, the importance of being yourself, and another use for a rolled up sock, I'm gonna time travel back to my teenage years when I was far less sure of myself (as if I've got it all together now - right?).

Think back to when you were wandering through the corridors of Everett High up on Broadway. Wisdom comes with age. We know that now. Back then most of us were a bit unsure of ourselves. Everybody else seemed cooler than we were so we'd cop a "tude" to make everyone else think we had it all together. God forbid that anyone should think that we had any doubts about ourselves.

No matter what era you attended Everett High, it had cliques. From this end of the spectrum we now realize how that grows out of our need for social acceptance. We are a communal animal. We need each other. And to fulfill that deep routed need to belong; we seek out people who are of like mind. We surrounded ourselves with people who think like us.

In my day we had sororities, fraternities, athletes, the more academic crowd, those who kind of stayed off by themselves, some who drifted back and forth amongst several cliques, and last, but by no means least, we had hippies. Try to guess where I fit in?

No matter what clique you belonged to, you'd sometimes run up against somebody who looked their nose down at you, or shunned you, because you didn't belong to "their" crowd. These people often rallied others from their crowd to shun you as well because you didn't fit into their clique. That gave them a false sense of security because they belonged and you didn't. It empowered them.

Although we'd be hard pressed to ever admit it, whenever that happened - it hurt. Because of that we were more inclined to keep within our own social circle. You couldn't always do that. Sometimes your heart ruled over your head so you'd cross that line in the sand.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever experienced a romantic interlude that completely knocked your socks off? I'm talking about the kind of incident that unexpectedly comes your way and changes your whole outlook on life. Has that ever happened to you? Well, it did to me. And it happened in Everett.

It all began in the summer before my stint in the 9th grade at the Parlin. I was nonchalantly walking down Foster Street when I took notice of this group of girls coming towards me in the opposite direction. They were laughing and talking amongst themselves. I only vaguely knew these girls. They were not of my social circle.

I gave them little more than a fleeting glance as they passed me by. Then it dawned on me that my eye spied something out of the ordinary. It compelled me to take a second glance. Amongst them walked a creature that I had never seen before in my life.

You should have seen her. God, she was beautiful. To an artist who reveres in aesthetic beauty, she was phenomenal. She had a slight overbite that made her as cute as a bunny rabbit. She had the most adorable long brown hair that fell ever so gracefully about her shoulders. And you should have seen those iridescent eyes. Those were the clincher.

They held every shade of blue, gray, and green, in the spectrum. The best I could think to describe them as were "broken glass" eyes. They glimmered in the sunlight with a colorful brilliance.

So not to make a spectacle of myself, I turned away. After they passed I turned to steal that one last glance. I needed to photograph that girl with my mind's eye. God only knows if such beauty would ever cross my path again.

It just so happened that when I turned to steal that glance, she turned around and looked back at me. Our eyes made contact. I could have sworn we said something to each other with our eyes at that very moment. She smiled ever so sweetly. My heart melted right then and there. She then turned back around and continued on with her friends.

Chances are that I would never look upon that face again. That's just my luck. As fate would have it, several weeks later that girl came strolling into my homeroom on the first day of school in the 9th grade. I was in 7th heaven.

As it turned out, that girl was the sister of a friend of mine who lived in the projects behind the Hamilton School. You talk about the things you never suspect. Why didn't Mikey tell me that his sister was such a knock out?

There's no way on earth that I could ever ask that girl out. We traveled in such different social circles. And besides, if she ever shot me down I'd be so totally devastated. So I did the next best thing. I wiggled my way into becoming her friend.

As soon as the bell rang I'd positioned myself to wind up right behind her in line to change classes. Trying to come up with something new to talk about every forty-five minutes was a real challenge and a half, but I did it anyway. I had to.

Every so often I'd look back at her in class. I just couldn't help myself. Whenever she caught me she'd twitch her nose up at me and smile. She had no idea as to how my heart skipped a beat every time she did. I never had the nerve to tell her so.

We remained good friends throughout our Everett High School years. I'd stop her in the corridor to chitchat at every opportunity. As she turned to walk away one day I snagged a loose strand of her hair and kept it locked away inside the cover of my Beatle's Rubber Soul album.

Never did I imagine that we would one day share a romantic moment together. It just wasn't in the stars. We both belonged to someone else. Even still, that fire burned deep within my soul.

God only knows how it actually came about, but I somehow wound up sitting beside her beneath the pale moonlight out on the rocks at the lighthouse in Rockport. We shared our innermost thoughts and feelings as the ocean waves crashing against the rocks, the seagulls hovered above the horizon, and that easterly breeze scattered that adorable long brown hair across her cute little bunny rabbit smile.

It was precisely at first light, just before the sun came up over the horizon, that we looked ever so deeply into each other's eyes. I took her face into my hands and leaned cautiously towards her. My lips touched hers for the very first time.

Time stood still. All of the stars lined up perfectly behind her in the heavens above. Everything in the universe was so perfect. No other moment in my life would ever equal that one. I never knew love like this before.

Such a moment inspires an artist to step beyond his comfort zone to let his creativity run riot. It inspires a poet to pluck words out of nowhere to express feelings that were once indescribable. And it inspires a songwriter to write a song that only his or her heart understands.

I was living up on the second floor of that house we moved to on Foster Street at the time. It's the one depicted in the illustration above. While sitting out on those front steps with my Epiphone 6-string acoustic I penned two songs. Those songs, although rather simplistic in style and form, came from my heart and were inspired by that girl.

Not only did I write those songs, but I also recorded them on my Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder. Because of that, I have captured the sound I created in 1971 that was inspired by the most romantic interlude of my life. If you care to share in that moment, all you need do is "click" your "Right" mouse button on the underlined titles below, and then choose "Save Target As" to download those MP3 recordings to your computer.

Seance Chant

Carol's Song

In case you're wondering what ever happened to that very special someone, we lost track of each other after high school and went our separate ways. I've often relived that Rockport moment in my mind's eye. That is especially so whenever I questioned my seemingly insignificant place in this ever expanding mechanical universe.

It just so happened that our paths crossed again some twenty odd years later. The timing was so right. Within the course of our lives we had both fallen in and out of love with other people. We both had suffered through failed marriages.

The moment our eyes met again I could feel the magic. This time we did not belong to someone else. So this time, I married her. That girl from Everett is sitting right across the room from me at this very moment.

Not in a million years did I ever think that I would grow old with that girl. This is the very person I always wanted to share this journey with. So don't ever think that your dreams can't come true.

That girl and I have been through hell and back together over the years. Our relationship works because when adversity rears its ugly head we grab a hold of each other, support each other, and weather the storm together as one. She is my other half. She makes me whole.

At this very moment our household is in a bit of an uproar. Everything we own is disappearing into boxes. As we while away the hours dodging torrential rains and tornadoes out in the middle of nowhere we do so with both fingers crossed in excited anticipation. We're waiting for a very special phone call.

That phone call will tell us that our place is ready and we can come home. We're moving back to New England by the end of this summer. We're coming home after a decade of feeling land locked twelve hundred miles away from the crashing ocean waves.

We can't wait to sink our teeth into one of those flaky pastries that only east coast bakeries do so well. You'd have to spend some serious time out in the middle of nowhere to feel the excitement we're feeling about so many of life's simple pleasures right now.

We miss things like sidewalks, quality fruits and vegetables, and real shopping malls. Local cable access channels that tell you what's going on in your community, taxi cabs that show up when you call them, and hopping on a bus to actually go somewhere are also amongst the many things that we're looking forward to. Harvard Square, the Kangamangus Highway, and the lighthouse at Rockport are right up there on our list as well.

Most importantly, we're looking forward to strolling once again up and down the sidewalks of Everett. So keep a sharp eye out. We may come wandering through your neighborhood sometime soon. Leave a light on for us, okay?

Because of these recent developments I've got so much to tend to over the next two months. Just don't panic. All of our web sites will remain intact throughout this transition. We'll postpone updating new content until we've made the final move.

When that time comes you may loose email contact with me for about a week or two. You can still email me, but I won't respond until we get everything set up in our new home. I'll let you know when that happens. In the meantime, we're going to enjoy some "classic" posts that got lost from our archives when I moved everything over to our own domain.

For those who are interested, I've posted six new songs from my Everett High School days to replace the original ones on the "Meet Your Host" page of our "Growing Up Everett" web site. Everybody's downloaded the original ones by now, I'm sure. They've been downloaded more than 12,000 times in the past three years.

Let me take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have contributed to our Nostalgic Everett Store. Your contribution helps support the "We're from Everett" project. We’d also like to thank those who have shared their experiences of growing up in Everett with the rest of us, those who have generously shared their photographs in our Picture Archives, those who have commented on our posts, and those who have emailed me to get in touch.

To those of you who sit quietly on the sidelines, I just want you to know that I appreciate your being here as well. The hit counts alone tell me it's all worth the while.

Thank you for being our friend. Sharing this journey with you is more than we could ever have hoped for. I would love the opportunity to meet each and every one of you in person. It could happen.

Just remember that when life gets you down, that you belong to a lifelong fraternity of family, acquaintances and friends. And don’t ever forget that none of us ever walk alone because –
“We’re from Everett!”