"...YES SIR. NOW, ABOUT THESE URINAL CAKES??"
Every so often I get this urge to sift through old storage boxes in various 'not-seen-for-years' areas of my house .... with the full intention of THROWING STUFF AWAY.
'Outta here! Dumpster City! I'm being choked out by these National Archive type boxes, upon boxes, of wonderful artifacts and, well, ok ... JUNK. But as is always the case,
it becomes a process of not "throwing away".... but rather, "re-arranging", right?
These little bits of the past seem like little 'ringlets' in a tree - 'time-stamped' pages and pieces of long lost treasure. Like I said, JUNK. Carbon dated JUNK. But until
I'm forced to take out a lease on my neighbor's croquet court for storage, I'm keepin' the stuff. Stack it higher, O'C ... UP, not OUT, eh?
Well, I was going through some of this stuff the other day, and boy did I make a "find". I was actually looking for an old market research report my company did on "urinal
cakes" - yes, in the early days, we sunk to those levels required, to allow our struggling business to survive - and this large industrial chemical supplier out of Seattle - with
a lot of money - actually PAID us to test the length of service of various sizes of "urinal cakes" -- and if you don't know what that is, then let your imagination be your guide,
and we'll move on. The very next box over ... was my "find" - some items from when I first moved to that little slice of heaven known as Austin, Texas.
HEY, IT WAS ONLY 40 YEARS AGO!
Yes, exactly. It was September, 1962 when I hit Austin, by train, mind you, for the very first time. The population was just over "100-Large", UT's enrollment was
17-thou counting grad students, and anything north of 51st street was "the boonies" - neckin' country, if you catch my drift. And, to the south, it wasn't Ben White Boulevard yet,
because "Ben White" was still serving on the Austin City Council.
Two things caught my eye in this little treasure box I found. There was a football program from my very first U of Texas game - September 22, 1962 - against Oregon, with a
running back named Mel Renfro. I remember he ran up and down the field, but the Hook 'Em's won, and Mel's now in some Hall of Fame. There was also a September, 1962, newspaper in
the box.
In September of 1962, a black man was appointed to a US Appeals Court - Thurgood Marshall. Another black man was blocked from entering 'Ole Miss, by their Governor. Can you
imagine that? In London, some new group was recording its first-ever 45-record, "Love Me Do", and in New York, Jack Paar ended his reign on late-night TV. On October 1st, NBC
would introduce a new fella' to us, some guy named Carson.
And in Washington, a report was issued about how we, as a Nation, probably shouldn't be involved in overthrowing foreign dictators. It was about the Bay of Pigs, a year
earlier in Cuba. Sure glad we learned our lesson from that, eh? Or ... did we? Hmmmm. Anyway, it was good to touch base with this 'box-from-the-past', and needless to say, I DID
NOT throw it away. Move that wicket, George, I got a box to store.
Oh, and the next time you men are in some restaurant or hotel restroom doing your thing, you can rest assured that those odor-eliminating things in the "facility" have
been well tested for length of service and efficiency. Hell, I had to pay the rent, didn't I? .... To store this box ... Don't'cha know!
HAVE A GOOD WEEK, EVERYONE...
O'C
