“Think I’m going down to the well tonight and I’m gonna drink till I get my fill. I hope when I get older I don’t sit around thinking about it, but I probably will. Yeah just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of. Well the time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister, but boring stories of …. Glory Days.” We all know people like that right, have friends like that, or hell, maybe we’re like that ourselves?, at least at times, especially when the drinks are flowing. Myself, I can name a few guys right off the top who love to harken back to the days of their youth every chance they get. Sharing stories of when they were the studs of the high school campus, either running for glory on the gridiron or dominating on the basketball court. And hey, perhaps if my growth wasn’t stunted until when I was almost 17, I too might be the doing the same thing now as well? But my glory (well, I may be pushing it quite a bit by inserting the word “glory” here) would not come till well after we had all parted ways after graduation. And looking back, that actually was probably for the best, at least for me?
Don’t get me wrong, I could hold my own back then in competitive sports, somewhat athletic and was a decent basketball player. But more times than not, I was always the shortest one on the court, as the height on my first driver’s license at the age of 16 would attest (all 5’3 of me back then). And I was even a starting split-end on my 8th grade football team because I could catch just about anything thrown somewhere in the general vicinity of me (which isn’t really saying much since 95% of our offense was running plays). But once my freshman year of high school hit, my growth decided to play a cruel joke on me – and stopped (que the screeching sound). So as all my friends, schoolmates and yes even some girls, continued to grow taller, thicker and stronger, I was left behind. Which meant I got to be a punching bag for those hallway bullies (every school had them right?). I mean what childhood antagonist didn’t love to bully on all the short kids?, easy pickins’ as they say! But it was my fault, and knowing what I know now, I should have fought back & not just stand there and take it, then go straight home after school and cry in my bed. Maybe had I stood my ground then, and gotten my ass kicked just one time, perhaps I would have earned their respect finally?, and the bullying would have stopped? But no, I was too scared of them and that proverbial ass-kicking. But what I didn’t realize then, all those years ago, as I was hating them with all the rage I had, wishing some vicious death upon them at the time, that maybe their own home lives could have been tragic as well? Who knows what their family life was like?, an abusive dad perhaps?, or parents who either fought all the time or just didn’t care and showed them no love or affection? And today as I look back, I have no idea how their lives did eventually turn out?, if that very short period of time was indeed their “glory days”? If so, that truly is sad, and I really would want to feel sorry for them today, had they not made the days of my adolescence so damn miserable. And yea, I can still remember their faces at times now even, just not necessarily all their names. Later in life when I would run into some of those youthful tormenters of mine (which was bound to happen in a small town), they would always be very nice to me and carry on like we were lifelong friends. And there was probably a good chance that they didn’t even remember what they did to me back then, but I never forgot (and no, I never reminded them either). Several I never saw again after high school, a few I heard went to prison for whatever crimes that they may have committed, and sadly a couple have even passed away by either health reasons or suicide.
So now as I start to get closer to the 4th quarter of my very own life (hopefully they’ll be an overtime?), I now realize that I was very fortunate to not have experienced my personal “glory days” back in school. I actually sorta like how my life has turned out. Two beautiful college educated daughters, a great career in media that I really didn’t deserve but feel so lucky to have fallen into, several notable friends in high places, somewhat of a name in the social standings (again, not deserved and really not that notable), money in the bank, and most importantly of course, inner peace and happiness. Now the only thing missing in my life is to find love again, but I know she’s out there, somewhere. But until then, “I think I’m going down to the well tonight and I’m gonna drink till I get my fill”, and toast to everyone’s glory days!