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WHAT I LEARNED BY STARTING A RANGE FIRE

Like how to put it out. During a high school sports trip a team in two vans drove through Wyoming. If memory serves, Wyoming was the closest state to Oregon selling fun fireworks like bottle rockets and firecrackers after a lifetime of sparklers and Piccolo Petes. Since we were high school guys in both vans, […]

WHAT SORT OF PARENT DID YOUR PARENTS WARN YOU ABOUT

    Did you become the sort of parent your parents warned you about? Are you surprised? We had stern warnings growing up about kids from unsupervised homes, which meant anyone different than us. Those were houses we weren’t allowed to visit. It was supposed to be a vaccine against hard partying high school nights. […]

KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU, (UH HUH)

    Knowing Me As a young child in an unsupervised moment one of my playmates decided to ride his trike. I hopped on the back axle where there was room to stand and gave him a big push. Except he pulled back on the handle bars just as I pushed and popped a wheelie […]

FATHER’S DAY REMINDER: WHO’S YOUR DADDY?

  When my kids were young we played a game of ‘Who’s Your Daddy’ one Father’s Day.   It started and ended with one question: “Who would you rather have as a dad than me?”   I had their answers all planned out. Of course they’d favor me?   Instead of a simple “You” as […]

DONALD TRUMP, JUST ANOTHER SMALL TOWN BOY?

    By paying attention and listening harder, I’ve learned what it means when men are who they say they are, and when they aren’t. All gets strained through a small town filter of right and wrong, good and bad, the perceived values of small town life where everything happens on the front yard.   […]

POWAY WRESTLING, HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING THE RIGHT WAY

    High school wrestling in Poway, California is a calling. It’s the same calling kids felt in North Bend, in Newberg, Crater, Roseburg, and Burns, Oregon.   Call it tradition, or answering a challenge, just don’t make the mistake of calling it less than what it is. All Poway High School wants is all […]

A TIME LONG AGO AT A HIGH SCHOOL FAR FAR AWAY

North Bend Oregon High School, class of 1973. What’s so special?   Like later generations staking their claims to, ‘the first digital generation’ or ‘the first paperless generation’ or ‘the first generation raised on video games,’ the generational niche of 1973 is ‘the first modern generation.’   Born of the roaring ’50’s with TV dinners […]

APACHE TEARS HAPPY ENDING

    “Let’s meet one of my facebook friends,” I said one day during a Mesa Arizona visit.   “You met someone on facebook and you want to meet them?” she asked. “You never want to meet anyone.”   “Yes, I do. We’ll go prospecting. He knows where to find Apache tears,” I said.   […]

High School Football Explained For Better Understanding

    It doesn’t take a genius to understand the risk of playing high school football. But if you need a genius to explain football from top to bottom, ask retired Baltimore Raven John Urschel.   He’s enough of a genius.   At the old age of twenty six he hung his jock on an […]

HOW HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING PAYS THE BILLS

No matter how you see the video of President Trump fighting a CNN bobble head, it’s not high school wrestling. It’s not Olympic wrestling. Is it yard wrestling? Not even. Instead it’s a demonstration of what happens when a man finds himself in a situation and wishes he’d been on a high school wrestling team. […]