Just In Time

Yesterday, as I promised myself, I was going to make a final pilgrimmage to say goodbye to my beloved New Haven Coliseum. The building is to be imploded in the next couple of months taking with it 30+ years of memories and much of the fun my childhood and adulthood.

As it turns out we got there just in the nick of time.

Doodle and I parked nearby and walked over to South Orange Street where the old building has stood since 1972. I don't ever remember anything else being there. The Coliseum wasn't a beautiful building. I can remember my grandmother looking at it when it was made and said, "Ooh, what a crazy looking place!"

The Coliseum wasn't ever finished actually. The was a small convention area on the inside that was never completed and never used. They ran out of money to finish it and then the area was abandoned with a lick and a promise. The city of New Haven never completely paid for the Coliseum's building and its implosion will cost about a third of how much the building cost 33 years ago.

As we walked toward the building I held out for hope that what we would find there was a sign of life. Something that told me that they could possibly turn it all around at the last minute and change their minds.

But as we grew closer it became painfully obvious the end was near and there was no turning back.

We walked around and everywhere was something that reminded me of something. We took pictures of the building and even managed to get an inside picture of a common area.

As it turns out, they would be the last pictures ever taken of those areas. This morning, little did we know, the very areas that we were taking pictures on yesterday, were demolished today.

We realized we came to say good bye, just in time. We even were able to loosen some parts of the building to take home as souveniers and send one to my Dad, who took me there when I was 9 and it just opened in October 1972.

I tried to think of all the things I went to there and there was no way to remember them all.

I refereed an indoor soccer game there, broadcasted a hockey game, got in a fight, got drunk a few times, caught a hockey puck, saw Hall and Oates for the first time, brought my kids there, had a pro wrestler fall on me, introduced two little girls to hockey, one of whom would go on to become a college hockey player as a result.

I took girls on dates there, including Doodle, met a girlfriend there and even went to church there once! I was nearly arrested there once for getting into it with a security guard and had fun sleeping out for concert tickets when that was the rage.

We skipped school to go buy tickets for stuff there. We hopped the bus and rode downtown to get tickets for whatever we were after.

Saying goodbye to a friend is never easy, even if the friend isn't a person. But I can assure you this friend lived, breathed and was full of life.

I'm glad we went when we did, it wasn't even the same place less than 24 hours later.

(pics in F@DW this week..)

The Latest Big Unit

In a continuing effort to make my ass more productive, I have switched computers for only the 6th time in my 10 year internet career.
Six times really isn't bad when you consider the stuff changes every six minutes but your pay increases maybe only 6 years.
I got away from using a laptop all the time, because when I'm writing, I like big Occupational Therapy keys. My fingers and eyes work pretty much as well as they used to, but smacking two little keys for the price of one, didn't really help me do what I wanted it to do.

You know, now that my house is full of 10 years worth of computer crap, lines, cords, port stuff, modems, old monitors, keyboards, mice, software, hardware, USB shit and of course, semi or non working computers, I find that the newer stuff gets, the more I like the old stuff.
This circa probably 1996 thing I am pounding away on, works better than all the 2005...ok '04...make it '03...things I was using, does just about all the same stuff and I figure I can get thru the next 43 yrs without what I am not missing here.

Its running Win 95, which always worked the best and was the most reliable, its pretty quick and aside from the God awful noise it makes if the cover isn't tightened down, I think I could get used to this thing.

You know, after you've tried all the synthesized crap that can be tried, its still the acoustic stuff that sounds the best, if you know what I mean.
The new stuff is cool to have, but sooner or later, its the old stuff that makes you remember why you liked something in the first place.

Don't Monk With My Head

Friday night watching an episode of Monk with Doodle and Bri. I hadn't seen the new ones because baseball took up my Friday nights.

Everyone insists I'm getting more like this guy all the time.

A lady is telling him and his assistant Natalie a story about her life. Monk has already been told the lady's parents died in a plane crash some time ago.

Lady: "Everything was ok until my parents died in that Pan Am jet in '95.

The lady then excuses herself and Monk gets a funny look on his face, the one he gets when he knows something is wrong. I too get that look and said outloud.

"I think Pan Am was out of business by '95."

Monk looks at Natalie and says, "Something is wrong with that story. She said her parents died in a Pan Am crash in 1995. Pan Am went out of business in 1991."

The two of them looked at me and shook their heads. Doodle said the famous phrase many people say around me,

"Only you."

Downtown

I have a lot to do in the next week or so, but when its all said and done, I want to take Doodle and go walk around New Haven for a day.

The city of my youth is changing so much, its hard to recognize it anymore. Going by places and saying, "I remember when this was there" and what not. It just doesn't seem like the same place anymore.

Its gonna break my heart when the Coliseum is imploded in the next few months. There will be so many memories of that building. I want to walk over to there and see it one more time before its gone by Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I can remember walking around at night in the snow Downtown and looking in the store windows while people shopped.

It was two weeks before Christmas and that was the time to START shopping. We felt so safe and my parents were working in Macy's and Malley's wrapping gifts so they could have extra money and a discount to get us gifts.

By early next year, the Macy's and Malley's (already gone) buildings will be gone too.

My grandfather, the REAL Pop Pop, (I'm an imposter I assure you) had his Army and Navy store on Chapel St. Its an XXX rated movie dealer now. So much for another family memory!

I can recall the Petula Clark song "Downtown" and my Mom singing it as we got off Exit 1 on I-91 as we went to Malley's one day when I was a kid. We'd walk around and get lunch there. We'd go to a place called Kresge and get a 1/4 lb scoop of M&M's. They tasted so much fresher than the bag version.

Then we'd get a box of Karmelkorn (fresh carmel coated pop corn, the first of its kind) and get some beads and string at the Merle's record store (still around) to do crafts when we went home.

I don't think Petula Clark would sing about this place now and thankfully Pop Pop never got to see it get like this.

I'm also grateful my father is living far away so he can't see the Coliseum blow up. We used to have so much fun there going to hockey games and then to Clark's Dairy for ice cream afterward.

We went to hockey games in the 60's (the old New Haven Arena), 70's, 80's, 90's and I was hoping for a 5th decade but I don't think its meant to be.

I just want to walk around and remember...

This Isn't Right

Baseball season is done for Yankees fans. It has not stopped raining in weeks it seems like. It is wicked cold and dark. Everyone is depressed.

We have been couped up in here for days it seems. Even something I take for granted like going for a walk hasn't been an option. There is nothing good on TV and we are all barely talking to each other.

However I have good news...I just saved a bunch of money, by switching my car insurance AWAY from GEICO!

Man that lizard got expensive over the years!

Happy Birthday Doodle

RIGHT NOW!

What’s On: Sheryl Crow, “Good Is Good” (“Partydown....with the Crow”...LOL)

Current Mood: anxious

Its that time again! Time to wish a Happy Birthday to my wife Lisa (Doodle), number 46!! We all love hervery much and hope she has a great day.

Many people have asked, “How did Doodle get her nickname?” Well, way back...no WAY back, when we were first married, we were all home on a rainy cold Saturday afternoon and I decided that it might be a nice rainy Saturday thing to make some cookies.

So I looked in some old recipies and found Snickerdoodles. I had all the stuff so I made them, like 4 dozen.After they were done, we all had a few, but when we were all watching TV, Lisa (all 95 lbs of her) kept sneaking back to the kitchen for another one.

Before long, there was hardly any left. After we discovered this, and Bri probably burst outinto tears like he always did then, I told her she was gonna turn into a Snickerdoodle. So for a day or so, I called her “little Snickerdoodle’, which was shortened to Doodle and the name stuck.

Now people all over the world know her as Doodle,which not only pisses her off, but she is mad people all over the world have heard of us at all!

Oh well, Happy Birthday Doodle!!