A time long ago

 Thursday night September 10th, 1964

With all my will power I tried to shut my eyes and get some sleep but sleep was distant.  Tomorrow we started our football season at home against Ashley.  We had beaten them last year on a fourth quarter field goal by Todd.  I did not know how many seniors they lost but I did know that we lost most of our starting lineup.  It seemed to me that we had some good players coming back BUT did we have enough to have a successful season?  We lost our starting backfield including our quarterback Jack who was good.  We lost some linemen and our left end Bob who scored several touchdowns in our 6-1 season of 63 which gave us the title of co-champs.  But here we were with a very young team and as captain I questioned some of the talent.  Friday came and with it one would encounter many football jerseys as the team mostly wore them on game days during school.  The afternoon seemed to drag on and on but finally the ending bell rang and as I started for the locker room players from Ashley were getting off the bus.  

I had a good feeling as we warmed up even though I, at the time, had little confidence in our new coach.  Coach Hanson had left at the end of the school year to take a job some other place.  I felt our line was pretty good and they had some experience and Todd, who was our quarterback, was not only smart but a good athlete.  I was actually surprised as we scored on our first possession and then held them to only one first down.  The game ended with us up by a score of 26-6 and things looked good.  

However, the following Monday the season took a dark turn.  Todd fell in practice and Tuesday came to school with his arm in a sling--for two months!  On Thursday Dan, who was our best lineman, injuried his foot and the doctor said it would take several weeks to heal.  Well our veteran football players were short handed to begin with and now no Dan to anchor the line and who would be the quarterback.  We really had NO backup.  The rest of the season saw little positivities in any way.  Of the remaining 6 games 3 were blowouts and three were close but but no cigar!  It was not the best way to start my senior year.  In high school the studies were OK but sports were my thing.  Serving as captain was a downer for sure. 

It goes without saying that brother Ronald's death came into play.  It clouded our family for much of the year.  AND on a private level I wanted to do well my senior year as I knew we would be playing basketball at Klum where he and Glorine were teachers.  I would be starting on the BB team and I wanted to do good in front of the person whom I admired so much but it was not to be.

Well actually basketball ended up on a not good note also but the season was successful on my part.  We ended up well about 500 so that was good.  The social part of my senior year--we do not want to go there. OK I will say it was OK but some decisions made by me were not the best.

So here I am 57 years later and even though the memories are not all good I would say my high school days were a fun time.  IF I had been more mature they certainly could have been better but when it takes a person maybe 50 some years to kind of mature what does one expect?  To this day I marvel at how naive I was way back then.  I know one has to grown up but for me I took way way too long in my mind.  

Anyway I am taking up time on a Sunday PM as for some reason the start of NFL football does not interest me.  Terry was awake for a few hours but now has her eyes closed.  I usually check into the bedroom once or twice an hour.  As I peeked in several minutes ago I almost gasped as she looked so frail as she lie there on the bed.  

Time to stop writing and get some things done.