Remember no man is a failure who has friends.

Tag: SCP (Page 2 of 2)

I Hate Coming Up With Post Titles (76.96.62.17)

 

Watch Your Step

Seriously.  Why do I need to come up with a stupid title to my posts?  I mean, we’re talking about a post that gets saved as an entry in a database table, with its own primary key internally stored, so it can’t be needed, technically.  How about defaulting the title to the date and time the post was created?  That’s what I used to do back in the old days when I simply wrote my thoughts down in spiral bound notebooks.  How about it?  I kind of like the idea, and I’ll give it a go with the next post.

Anyway, it was an interesting weekend.  Woke up early on Saturday to take Will to his audiologist for a routine hearing check, followed by a stop at the Patriots Path Council Scout shop to pick up belt loops and pins for this Friday’s Pack meeting, then drove by the bank to make a deposit at the ATM, then filled up the Lexus at the gas station, and then home.  Hung out at home in the afternoon and evening, watched some of the Winter Olympics.  Woke up early again on Sunday to make 9:00 AM Mass at St. Joseph’s before heading over to Newark with Will for the Seton Hall vs. DePaul basketball game at the Prudential Center (SHU won 79-71.)  Picked up some Valentine treats for Edith on the way home, had dinner and shared Valentines with the kids, put Kate to bed, and replied to an email that I received on Sunday morning from Susan.

I’m not going to get into the details of her email here, nor my reply, but receiving her email was a bit of a surprise; a welcome surprise, at that.  I don’t know, what’s it been, maybe 7 years since I’ve heard from her directly?  I’m not sure.  She’s got a personal crisis she’s dealing with, and as much as I might think I understand what she’s going through in reality I can’t say that I do.  I do hope and pray for things to work out, and who knows, maybe I will hear from her again, soon. In my reply I shared with her my post from back in July (SCP); I mean, what the Hell, might as well put that out there, and maybe, just maybe, Susan will want to break down the walls to open up some dialogue between us, and not keep on hiding behind whatever it is that keeps us from being civil, if not downright friendly, to one another again.

Yesterday was a holiday from work, which was nice. Will had one of his classmates over to play in the afternoon, and they had a fun time together sledding down at the big hill by the elementary school, then playing in the snow in the backyard, playing Boom Blox on the Wii, and finally Lego’s in Will’s bedroom.  Will doesn’t really have any friends in our town, and he gets quite bored without anyone local to play with; I feel really bad for him, since this is such the contrast from when I was a kid where you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a kid my age on the street where I grew up.  He’s enjoying himself enough in Scouts, though.  All in all, he’s a little bit lacking in social development – he’s somewhat reserved, which can be seen as being anti-social, and is very much concerned about embarrassing himself, and with what other kids think of him, to the point where it sometimes prevents him from sometimes doing simple social activities like saying “Hi” to the kids in his class.  It’s something we’re keeping an eye on.

Worked from home today – it was snowing this morning, and although not really sticking to the roads I did not want to drive down the back roads to Princeton and Lawrenceville and find they were slippery.  It’s funny, I used to drive in the snow all the time when I was in Pennsylvania, it didn’t bother me one bit.  I even drove up to University of Connecticut one Valentine’s Day Eve in a snowstorm without blinking an eye (I distinctly remember riding along with the caravan of snowplows on I-84 into Hartford.)  Edith and I used to ski all over New England, and drove through our share of heavy snow on the way to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.  Nowadays, I simply hate it – can’t stand it, and will avoid driving in it if I can help it.  Must have something to do with living the past 19 years in New Jersey and dealing with the dense population of idiots on the roads here.  Anyway, I’ll be back in the office again tomorrow.   Thank God it is less than two weeks left to February, and then not long until the first day of Spring.

Alleluia.

Happy Birthday #48

January 24, 1980:  Thirty years ago, I copied John Tenniel’s drawing from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and presented it as a gift on the occasion of a certain 18 year-old’s birthday.  A long, long time ago…

SCP

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Susan

and the few weeks that we spent, together, one summer, now so long ago,

before she went off to college, and I returned to high school.

My mind turns to her, daily, even if for just a few seconds,

and I imagine myself talking to her,

and hearing again the sound of her voice,

filled with her wit, her insight, her intellect,

or seeing her again,

her red hair, her brown eyes.

Sometimes, as I drive my children home from school, or

as I make myself comfortable in bed at night alongside my wife,

the question that remains unanswered after thirty years finds its way into my thoughts:

what meaning did we have in each other’s lives?

and I wonder why we’re still so afraid of each other.

Warren F. Stewart 1961-2007

I met Warren in the Spring of 1978, when I was a sophomore at Bishop Egan High School, in the old Torvian yearbook office. At that time, I had been involved in the Drama Club, CSC, and a few other clubs, but I was just a 15 year old kid with no particular ambitions, flying under the radar of the attention received by the more popular and well-known kids.

Warren, along with Marty Bergen, had just been named as Editor-in-Chief of the 1979 yearbook, and was prepping the office for its takeover by the new administration; my sophomore classmate, Joe, introduced me to Warren, and right away I could tell that Warren was not your typical high-school student. He was amazingly worldly and intelligent, and possessed an incredibly sharp and acerbic wit.

1979 Torvian Staff The Five Finalists

It should be mentioned that I was a “techie” – a student who attended both BEHS and Bucks County Technical School across the street. At that time, the stereotypical profile of a “techie” was of burn-out of below average smarts, of someone facing a future in the trades and making a living with their hands, and someone certainly not capable of gaining admission to a 4-year college. Upon learning that I was a “techie”, at first Warren believed that I must meet that profile, but as I spent more and more time in that Torvian office with Warren, he was able to see that I was not your typical “techie”, and he grew to appreciate my own worldliness, intelligence and wit. Although Warren used to joke with me many times about my being a “techie”, he also inspired me to go beyond the “techie” stereotype, to become a valuable contributor not just to the yearbook but to life at BEHS as well.

In the Fall of 1978, Warren named me as the Art Editor (and pet “techie”) for the 1979 yearbook; I worked closely with Warren to help deliver a quality yearbook (those are my Egan eagle drawings at the beginning of the different sections of the yearbook…) and I was eventually nominated in the Spring of 1979 by Warren to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of 1980 Torvian. Thanks to Warren’s ability to see past the “techie” stereotype, I was able to co-chief, with my friend Roger, the 1980 Torvian. I even took over Warren’s job at the Bucks County Free Library when he left for school at Penn in September 1979. I eventually graduated from LaSalle University in 1984 with a degree in Computer Science.

I learned so much from Warren, whether it was joining him in a protest after Spirit Day 1979 outside of the Courier Times offices on Route 13 after a scathing article was written about rampant drug use at BEHS, or journeying to Valley Forge Military Academy to better our journalism skills at the annual Press Day, or even attending an Elvis Costello concert at the Tower Theater on a Saturday night with Warren, Joe, Ed, Gina, Susan and a mob of other friends. It is strange to imagine, but I can say with certainty that my own life would have turned out very differently had I never met Warren Stewart.

The last time I saw Warren was in the summer of 1981. Jbubs moved away with his family to Chicago in the summer of 1979 (at one going-away party for Joe, Warren let me wear his gila-monster costume, as seen in the top right photo on page 86 of the 1978 Torvian) but had returned to visit two years later, and we paid a surprise visit to Warren at his family home in Thornridge. We sat with his Dad on his living room couch watching ‘Jeopardy’ on the television, but before long we had to leave. I’ve thought about Warren many times since those BEHS days, and often wondered where his life took him. Now I know, and I wish we had remained in touch. I am truly saddened to learn of Warren’s health struggles and untimely death, and I’m now finding myself thinking about his memory and missing him more than ever. My prayers go out to Warren’s family and friends.

Warren’s Grave Site
A Warren Memorial Blog
A Warren Photo Album

Jon Mullane’s column in The Courier Times

June 9, 1979

Saturday. June 9. 1979. Cutting the lawn in the morning. Susan’s graduation party in the evening. 51 Fairview Avenue. “Heroes” I think I may have picked up a ride home with Zsoka? Too many years ago to say for sure…

June 2, 1979

Saturday. June 2. 1979. SAT in the morning. jbubs’ 60’s party that evening. 16 Kenmore Drive. Daisies and flower children.

May 25, 1979

Friday. May 25. 1979. 91 Fairview Avenue. Roxy’s graduation party. A bunch of LP’s left at Roxy’s house (to be returned some days later the next week by Susan)…

May 11, 1979

Friday. May 11. 1979. jbubs, Ed, Roxy, Susan, me. Morrisville Drive-In. Dawn Of The Dead. Tootsie-Roll Pops. View the May 9, 1979 journal entry here.

May 4, 1979

Friday. May 4. 1979. 05-04-79. jbubs, Kenny, Roxy, Susan, me. Road trip. Lahaska. Twenty Eight years. Unforgettable. View the May 9, 1979 journal entry here.

Jimi takes the S.A.T.

June 2, 1979 – took my one and only SAT that morning at Woodrow Wilson High School. Later that evening, jbubs held a “60’s themed” party at his house on Kenmore Road; E. Wagner arrived dressed as a white Jimi Hendrix. Scuse me, while I kiss the sky…

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