Five Years Ago Today

[[old] Bore Da!]

Brian,<br /><br />Took some guts to post that.<br />Your a good man.<br /><br />Chris, Taff Attack

[[old] brianric]

<!--QuoteBegin-raymond botha+Jan 6 2006, 02:46 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(raymond botha @ Jan 6 2006, 02:46 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I don't know how people that drink can cope with the challenges that face us daily. I have had the odd temptation but always remembered the regret that followed ... Booze takes more than it gives. <br /> </td></tr></table><br />It’s funny how you cope with the ups and downs. I recently applied and did not get a job in QA where I work, which is a nuclear power plant in south west New Jersey. My job as a procedure writer is on shaky grounds, (although that changed today with a new 200 procedure backlog). I was quite depressed, and a few people were concerned that I stop at J-Tees on the way home and get some beer. The following Monday I was asked by my co-workers how was my weekend. I said, “I had Frankie and the boys over to cheer me up”. Then I told them I fought so hard to get that monkey (liquor) off my back. Why in good God’s name do I want it back?<br /><br />Frankie and the boys is a coded sentence. My mother died of cancer at forty in 1964. I was fourteen at the time. My father then became cold and distant towards his children. He remarried in 1965, and the home that I lived in became a house. It was the second wife who got all the fancy clothes, jewelry and furniture. The dog was banished to the cellar. My mom had nothing. Her dresses came from a discount store; she had costume jewelry, and beat up furniture. The living room carpet was worn in spots, and the couch had seen better days. The dog had the run of the house when it was house broken. It was a home; I’m not bitter towards that, as that what life dishes out to you. My dad became abusive after my mom died. I was very lonely, hurt and confused. On Saturday morning I would do my chores around the house. In the afternoon I’d go downstairs to the cellar and play my music for hours on end. A lot of you reading this probably do not know of my favorite singing group, but it is Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. My father never crossed that line and tell me to turn the record player off or turn it down. When I listened to my music nobody or nothing could hurt me. I was at peace with myself. I would listen to them when while I was working as a security guard as I was earning the money to go to college. I saw the original Four Seasons in a concert at the Billerica Forum in 1965. They played at my college my freshman year. Even though the original bass player and singer left, it was the best concert I have ever seen them perform in the five concerts that I saw them play. The Four Seasons brought the house down that day, two forty five minute segments. The school made a mistake putting the Animals on after the Four Seasons. There was no way the Animals could compete after the Four Seasons finished playing. I had my Four Seasons’ music when the USS Eisenhower and Nimitz deployed on the two Mediterranean cruises. It was a God send when CDs came out in the early 1980ies. I replaced most of my scratched up Four Seasons LPs with CDs. I ripped their music into MP3 format, and listen to them today on my iPod. When I do my charity walk each year and get myself in trouble, I think back to the days when my music gave me inner peace and think of their music, and somehow my pain goes away. As long as I have my C2 and Frankie and the boys, I’ll never go back to drinking. <img src='http://www.brianric.com/2002pix/4seasons.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' /><br /><br />The funny thing about my music took place Christmas 1978. I was home on leave before the Ike was due to make her first Med cruise. My dad wanted me to go to his company’s Christmas party with him. He said free food, all the liquor to drink. They were going to have an eighty seven pound pix roasted on a spit. I remember driving his car to Boston with him, The AM radio station was playing an old Four Seasons song, and my dad was whistling to the song. Here I am thinking damn, I thought I was driving up a wall when I was a kid. I wound up only drinking one beer that night, because my dad was out to get drunk. I won $750 playing poker because I was the only one sober that night. The old man puked in his car on the way home. All in all, an enjoyable night.

[[old] eyespliced]

wow brian. thank you for shareing that.