randy58usa's Blog

Life...it really sucks sometimes.

You ever wake up in the morning and before you can finish brushing your teeth, BAM!!! Life jams a fist into your solar-plexus. Seriously, I feel beaten, battered and bruised by life!  Now don't get the wrong impression, everything that has happened to me is the result of my own hands.  Someone once said that we play the cards we're dealt and I am a true believer of that.  But do I have to be dealt these terrible cards all the time?

Let me give you some background into my misery.

It all started on February 17th, 1958 at what was then known as Beth Israel Hospital in Brooklyn, NY.  I was born to a lovely couple who, 5 years previously, had a daughter.  We were a fine, upstanding family deeply ensconced in the middle-class lifestyle so popular back in the late '50's.  They did not own their own home but rented an apartment on Ave. D near Flatbush Ave. and when I reached the age of 5 was sent to P.S 89 on Newkirk Road.  Kindergarten was nothing special and went along uneventful.  It was the fall of 1964, I was entering 1st grade and was described as a happy, joyful child. Until I met the Queen of Darkness, Satan's Mistress, my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Parker!!! I am sure most of you have really pleasant memories of your early childhood, games at recess, friends, laughter.  You know what I remember from 1st grade?  Mrs. Parker pointing at me with that bony, finger and saying in front of the entire class, "You'll never amount to anything!!"  I know what you're thinking, what did I do to emit such a response from a early childhood educator?  I will tell you, I made a mistake on my penmanship paper!!! HORRORS!!!!! How can I admit to such a heinous thing? WOW, times have sure changed.  Do they even teach penmanship anymore?

Well. I went home and told my parents what had happened in school and they were horrified, they went to school and made a big fuss that my 99 year old teacher should be fired and so on and so forth.  The bottom line is that we were moving anyway so it didn't really matter what happened to the bitch.  And move we did.

We moved into a 2 family house on E. 21st. Street between Kings Highway and Quentin Road. We lived in the upstairs part of the house.  It was pretty big, I remember it had 4 bedrooms, a big kitchen, it was pretty nice and my grandmother moved in with us.  We were one big happy family!  I remember coming home from school for lunch, and my grandmother always making me something great. That is where I first found my love for food. It was strange going to a new school and I admit, tears were shed on that first day of class. 2nd grade at P.S. 197, my teacher was Ms. Rettinger.  What a difference!! Ms. Parker was old and bent, Ms. Rettinger was young and pretty and always smiling!! What kind of strange world have I stumbled into?  It got weirder, I befriended a strange little boy named Stu.  Stu it seemed like to call the teacher by her first name.  He would always blurt out, "Joan!! Joan!!" And he would always get admonished. But I thought he was funny!

So there I was in Brooklyn, Mid-60's and so far life was pretty good!

Jump forward to 6th Grade, that was a year that to this day means so very much to me for so many reasons.

The year was 1969, need I say anymore? But I will.

That was the year that I really started to feel the change within me.  It was a combination of several things; growing up, having good friends with similar interests and the NEW YORK METS winning the World Series!!!

But it was more than that, back in 1967 I remember being sick.  It was probably just a cold or something but as I laid in bed I had a little transistor radio with me and I was listening to WABC radio, probably Dandy Dan Daniels or Ron Lundy, not sure.  I was laying there and I heard this sound, like nothing I ever heard before.  I remember staying up late and watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, this was different. The Beatles were great but they were my sister's favorite band, I needed something of my own, and then I heard this.  This was the greatest song that I had heard up to that point in history! I was submerging myself into rock, all types, all genre, I was a rock geek before the word existed.  But that was not the reason for my downfall into life suckitude, that was still to come!

Back to 1969, I was going to day camp in the summer of 69.  I had started to hear about something that the counselors were all excited about.  I asked my counselor what was going on and he told me about a concert some of them were going to in a small town call Bethel, NY.  He said that it was going to last 3 days, and some of the greatest rock bands would be there.  I immediately ran home and asked my parents if I could go, they laughed.  THEY LAUGHED!!! What was so funny? I asked my then wiser, older 16 year old sister what was so funny. She explained to me that it was kind of far away and it was no place for an 11 year old boy, I was really bummed! I would always look back at that moment and wonder,  what if?

TO BE CONTINUED....