Three Beautiful Things 07/24/15: Bench Warmer Reporter, Hall of Fame at Knott's Landing, Class of '75

1. This afternoon, I dropped by Knott's Landing to drop off a couple of six packs of Payette Brewing's excellent North Fork Lager for this evening's Hall of Fame of Great Guys get together and Don and I popped open a couple of North Forks a piece and got in some early yakkin' before the official event started at five. Don had some issues of the school paper from high school.  I was such a crappy basketball player my sophomore year, that, sitting on the end of the bench, I watched our games and wrote up recaps in a non-opinion column called "Sports Replay".  It was fun reading some of those columns again -- they were harmless-- but not as fun to remember all those games I spent as a spectator with a uniform on.

2. Byrdman, Donnie, and Ed and I were the first charter members of the Hall of Fame of Great Guys to arrive.  Later, Pat Kenyon visited us for a while and, still later, Abby came by. Byrdman provided the music with great music from the 70s, so we shot the breeze and knocked down some barley pop to the sounds of the Allman Brothers, Queen, Don McLean, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and other superb music from forty years ago.  Donnie not only provided the patio for our get together, he also cooked up some first-rate chili and accompanying hot dogs. It was an awesome night with friends I've known for over fifty years. This is the best part of getting old -- getting together with friends I've known forever.

3. Ed and I took a break from the goings on at Knott's Landing (aka Penny Lane) and strolled down the street to Eddie Joe's where the KHS Class of '75 was having the first night of their class reunion. After some conversation with Mark Absec, I got to have a much longer conversation with Kevin Edwards (Class of '71, married to Kay Hoskins, Class of '75).  I hadn't seen Eddie for at least forty years and it was fun talking about what's up these days and talking with Kay, as well.  I also talked with Marilyn Listoe, Pat Kenyon (again), and Einor Larsen (Class of '73), and then Ed and I made our way over to see Buff, talk for a little while, and we made our way back to the Hall of Fame.