CLEAR DOWN RANGE NEW MEANING

The first time I heard the call of “CLEAR DOWN RANGE” I was laying in the dirt with the guys, Fort Ord dirt, and trying to fit three bullets inside the diameter of a quarter.

The best I got was two in with a stray nearby.

The rifle range targets were a head and shoulder silhouette propped up in front of a berm.

That was the clear part of the down range territory, and it’s been down range ever since.

This is coming from fifty years later:

I knew what I was going to do from listening to my dad talk about changing jobs, quitting the insurance business to teach school and coach.

He had a thing about coaching that trickled down to three sons, one a softball state champion coach, one a youth-league coach, one a National Hall of Fame wrestling coach.

The closest the old man got to coaching was smoking cigarettes above the sunken practice field below the junior high with the other dads while we ran around to the tune of a coach’s whistle.

But his dream took root. Every son went to the same college. Two out of three graduated on time, one with a masters.

That’s where I learned about changing things up, or at least thought about it.

My view after one year was not clear down range, which led to laying around in that Fort Ord dirt cuddling an M16 the next September.

 

About Those Fifty Years Since 19

I’m convinced we all respond to current events based on our age at the time of the event.

Birthday parties for people in their forties always seemed grim and forced with the birthday boy\girl trying to forget how old they felt.

Or, it’s the last party on the Titanic and the floor is tilting faster and faster.

If you’re at either one, just be glad you were invited.

It’s not the same if someone invites you to a protest, a march, an event.

“Hey, what are you doing today? There’s a protest downtown. Wanna go?”

The correct answer from my keyboard is no, because if you were invested in the cause for the protest, you’d already be there.

“Hey, wanna go get your ass kicked when the peaceful demonstration gathers violent instigators?”

Again no, and here’s why:

I saw an old guy, probably younger than me, join a downtown Portland march where he veered off to talk common sense to the security guys and got clubbed in the leg for his effort.

Maybe you remember his double-bird salute?

Or the old guy in Buffalo on the ground in the top image. He wanted to explain things.

That looks about right for me.

A lady I know went down to the same series of Portland protests in my father in-law’s wheelchair because she’d broken her foot and some guard guy shot her in the other foot.

That looks about right?

 

Still Not Clear Down Range Like Promised

There’s a dream shared by many, lived by few, and that dream is living in a perfect community with a perfect routine in a perfect climate.

Assisted living professionals work toward those goals for their clients.

If you’re not in assisted living, then you have to work things out on your own, or with your partner, then there’ll be two of you worrying about everything possible.

Don’t call me the downer here, but if the ‘Good Life’ you’ve seen in magazines isn’t your life, it’s because it’s not supposed to be.

But maybe just a little bit is enough?

That’s what fresh flowers in the house do, every house.

I’m a fresh flower kind of guy. Ask me and I’ll tell you I think fireworks exist because of fresh flowers, otherwise it’s just an explosion.

The last time I brought fresh flowers home to show support for the ‘Good Life’ my wife had an allergic reaction.

It was still an echo of elegance and grace out on the deck.

Flowers give us a special boost with their dewey vitality, their prime, than their fade and eventual rot.

House keeping tip: take them out before they rot.

The wife and I love tulips. Me because they are fresh flowers in the house and I’m a fresh flower kind of guy, as you know.

My wife: I like the way they droop and drop petals. I like the way they die.

Me: That’s nice.

Wife: Why do you like them?

Me: Because I like flowers?

Wife: If you had to choose, would it be roses on a piano, or tulips on the organ?

Me: Yeah, tough choice.

 

It’s moments like this, Dear Reader, that signal clear down range.

Laughs and hugs and jokes smooth the path.

If you can kick a few rocks out of the way for someone, swing your foot.

If you want to give a word of encouragement, but you’re uncertain of what to say?

Read more BoomerPdx.