Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I’ve Been Tagged

I have been tagged by MN Bicycle Commuter. This means I have to write five unknown facts about myself. This seems a pretty harmless exercise, and bloggers are always looking for ideas to write about; so here goes.

1. It was 1946 in England, WWII had been over a year; I was ten years old. King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth was coming through our town on his way somewhere else. In the days leading up to this event, we made paper flags at school

Whether real flags were not available, or the school was too cheap to buy us flags, I don’t know. But we each drew and colored a British flag on both sides of a piece of paper and then glued it to a stick.

The day finally came, and we all lined up at the roadside. We waited, and we waited, freezing our little asses off, for at least an hour. Finally, here came the motorcade, passing through at about 45 mph. We all started cheering and waiving our little paper flags.

Someone shouted “There he is” and pointed. I think I saw King George VI that day.

2. In 1967 I saw Jimi Hendrix play in Nottingham, England; at the time he was still relatively unknown in America. The show was in a fairly small venue, and was the loudest concert I have ever been to. He had Marshall speakers stacked floor to ceiling. I stood at the back of the room and the sound was pushing my chest in. I don’t believe it was by chance his band was called “The Jimi Hendrix Eperience.”

3. In the mid 1980s the owner of a bike store in Denver asked me if I would make an exception for a very special customer and personally measure him for a custom frame. The customer was the manager of the Denver Broncos football team. (I don’t recall his name.) The team was coming to San Diego to play the Chargers and after the game he would drive up to see me.

The outcome was, the Chargers beat the Broncos, and the team and the manager took an early flight home. (Obviously sore losers.) I never did get to measure him, or build him a frame. Had I done so I would probably remember his name.

4. I am married for the third and last time. I say that not only because I know I got it right this time, but because I believe a person should not be allowed to marry more than three times. If you can’t get it right after three times, you should have your license revoked, or something.

5. I am not a US citizen, but a green card carrying resident alien. I could apply for citizenship as I have lived here since 1979, but it is not one of the things that is high on my to do list. I have all the same rights as a citizen; they let me pay taxes, etc. The only things I can’t do, is vote, and do jury duty; two responsibilities I can live without.

So there it is, five pieces of little known and useless information about myself. Now, according to the rules of tagging, I have to tag five other people. Keep multiplying by five and I wonder how quickly every blogger on the planet will be tagged? I can only assume once you’ve been tagged, you are exempt from future tagging.

I tag:

Howard
Kent
Tim
Jason
Heather


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Dave,

I'm so glad somebody tagged you. I love the King George story... that was hilarious. I envy your experience of the Hendrix Experience.

I have actually already been tagged, a couple times... so I will abstain from this one, though you can read my 5 Things here;
http://masiguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/return-of-5-things.html

Thank you for participating!

Doug said...

Dave, I knew I could count on you for some good stories. Personally I like the Hendrix story the best. I haven't met many people who saw him in person. And nobody that saw him in his earlier stage in England.

I was at a friends third wedding, acting as his Best Man for the third time, when he pulled me aside and told me this time it's for real. And he said, "You know what they say...third times a charm". I then pointed out that it was only the brides second marriage. I recieved a long silent stare. Luckily they are still together after 10 years of marriage.

Howard said...

Augh! Thanks a lot, Dave. Will work on it this afternoon...

Howard said...

Oh yeah, and your Broncos coach story sounds like Dan Reeves. Totally sounds like him alright.