Years ago I did watch NFL......I watched enough that I knew who the quarterbacks were, what team they were on, I knew who was a passing team, who had the killer defense and who had the great running game.....it was fun when you know what to watch for and when you had the eye to pick the offside player before the flag got thrown.
I had the privilege of knowing Carl Malone and John Stockton's father during those wonderful Stockton/Malone years with the Utah Jazz. I even had my own seat at the end of the bar right next to the tv mounted high on the wall at John Stockton's fathers tavern in Spokane Washington while I lived in a little cabin on the west side of the narrows of Deer Lake. My office was just a few blocks from the tavern so I would stick around head over to the tavern to watch the Jazz play, while hanging with the gang. The gang was mostly a small group of older guys who could tell stories of John and his brother as kids in the hood. The stories I heard were of two rather competitive brothers, how soft spoken and reserved Johnny was even as a young boy and how much fun it had been watching this young mans basketball career from jr. high to the last years of his professional days.
One of the most interesting things about my first time at the bar was the way John's dad never looked at the tv while the game was going on. He just stood there next to me at the end of the bar right under the tv wiping glasses with a white towel keeping his eye on his customers. I got a few chances to speak with him and found Mr. Stockton Sr. to be a quiet soft spoken man just like his son.
Carl Malone and I had a mutual friend who was quit the painter, he is the one who painted the murals on Carl's tractor trailers.
I can not believe how hard it is to find photos of Malone's semi......at the time he had two trucks done and they were out of this world for the time. The photo above may give some idea of the quality of the painting done on these trucks......the lower photo is a toy, but it shows the full mural.....that is Carl riding the horse. Where John was very low key...Carl was just the opposite , but what a pair they made.
I liked them both as people and I loved to watch the two of them play on the court.... I've never enjoyed the game since they retired.
My friend who painted Malon's trucks painted a a few murals on the walls of the country western bar and dance club I built....it was callled.....crap I had the name in my head when I started this sentence and right now it is GONE!!!! My friend's name is gone from my memory also......UPPER COUNTRY....that's the name of the bar.......it was the largest dance club in Utah's history, had a huge dance floor, we built a mezzanine that could hold hundreds of people who could get up high and watch the bands. I had 27 urinals in the men's room and I forget how many stalls all together but 45 comes to mind. I built 3 different bars along the walls and one of them was 75 feet long......we had all the beer stored in one huge walk in refer and a hand full of guys running around with bottled beer on hand carts.....we sold so much beer......
The bar had national bands......one of my favorite stories is the day the Kentucky Head Hunters.....they were our first band and they showed up early the day of their show. I had just barely finished the bar and was building the tables and chairs by the dozens for our grand opening......I was building them out of 2x4 cut in jigs I had made and assembling them in jigs I made as well.....I had gone out and bought 5 or 6 cordless drills boxes of grabber screws and hired temp labor who were screwing these thiings together like crazed........
When the band pulled up the first thing they asked was if we could ever be ready for the show?
They watched us for a few minutes and the next thing I knew they had rolled up their sleeves and jumped in putting all those tables and chairs together......I was still assembling chairs when they went on stage.
One of the few things the band asked for in their contract was 2 pinball machines??????? Fred the drummer, who at the time was rated as the number one drummer in the world, spent an hour or so warming up on the pin ball......I stood there watching him and he was unbelievable. They all were the most gracious people......what I would give for a video of them helping with the chairs.......
Oh ya, Fred drummed a solo that was mind blowing......I could not understand how anyone could be called the best drummer in the world (?) un till I heard him do his solo.......I stood there with goose bumps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLNmvaACJno
How did we get from football to this?????
Hey it's my brain this is how it works, welcome to my world.....lol !!!
Oh I remember now......stats.....
Last year was my first year snow birding in a rv... I spent most of it with Dean who warched every Nascar race and invited me to join him.......he would set the tv in the doorway of his Scamp trailer
I had never watched much Nascar before that, but did know a few of the drivers and I enjoyed the race each weekend that winter.......I even started recording each race once I got back to Utah and became a fan of Danica, It' easy for me to root (?) for the girls since I had raised a few of them.
I realized this was just what the doctor ordered.......there is a lot more to it than just cars going around in a circle. in fact there is a lot going on every week,,,,,,drivers, cars, crews, tracks, sponsors, team owners, weather and money are just o few of the things that can effect the results of the race......not to mention Danica got divorced and started dating Ricky Stenhouse and as the year went on both of them wrecked the other.....LOL!!!!
I found the process of trying to follow all this did many things for me.....it helped to work my brain, help build memory skills that I needed, it gave me something to be interested in and I find it entertaining and I really enjoy the whole experience.
This morning I watched yesterday's Nationwide race.
This year is fun with two new drivers in the Sprint Cup cars, Kyle Larson and
Kyle Larson
en.wikipedia.org
- Kyle Miyata Larson is a Japanese American stock car racing driver. The 2012 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Rookie of the Year and champion, he was the 2013 Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
- en.wikipedia.org
I started to watch Larson last year....what a driver, I think he will end up being one of the greatest ever and then all the sudden Chase shows up.....both are extremely talented and they have great teams to back them up.
Yesterdays' race was one of my favorite ever....so much happening.....Larson came up from the back of the pack ( 37th )to finish 3rd and it was very impressive to watch him his first time on this very difficult Texas track against all the old pros......
But the real story was Chase......also his first time at the track....he and Larson are both in the running for rookie of the year....... Chase is the son super star Bill Elliott and daughter of Cindy Elliot who was a well know photographer at Nascar before she and Bill got married.
Chase got out front towards the end of the race with a great outside pass on Harvick and from there all he needed was no cautions and to some how out run Kyle Bush.....could he do it.....his mom was there in tears as she put her camera down to her side and held her breath for 16 laps......The 18 year old di it he won his first Nationwide race......folks that is drama!!!!!
Oh ya and it it therapy for my broken brain!!!!!!
Now I'm off to Boulder to check out the Invading of the Dam....it's a VW based car show.....
Thanks for following me along my journeys....
Happy Trails everyone
Hello, just wondering if you know where I could find that toy truck you have a photo of!
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