From CHS to UND to GMC
"It is pleasing to be pointed at with the finger and to have it said, 'There goes the man.'" Persius: Satires
Before I got into my father's trucking business, all I knew about his business was that he was in the trucking business. I mean, I was in high school and had other stuff on my burners. What chance did my old man's business have of entering my mind when I was a five foot seven inch Ernie DeGregorio, leading the Tri Valley League (basketball) in scoring my senior year, and thinking about nothing more than how many females being the leading scorer could get me? True stories: when our team walked into the girl's locker room of a rival school, where visiting teams changed, on the chalkboard was an ego boosting, "Let's go, Gary," written, I later found out, by a girl from that school that I occasionally dated. And after another away game in which I scored forty points, another girl I occasionally dated met me at the team bus and gave me a huge congratulatory kiss in front of our coach who, thirty-six years later, still reminds me of the incident. Who wanted to think about tire pressure and oil change intervals when you were a major sports celebrity on the TVL high school circut?
THAT WAS WHEN I WAS TRULY COOL. BUT...
...everything changed the first week at the University of Notre Dame when I crossed paths with Mike McCoy, six foot six inch, three hundred pound All American defensive tackle for the Fighting Irish. It was the first of many epiphanies during my pedestrian four-year stay at ND. As we approached each other I couldn't take my eyes off him. Hell, it was Mike McCoy! Hadn't I seen him on television two years earlier in the memorable ten-ten tie against Michigan State. When he was in next to me I said hi to him, just like students used to say hi to me at CHS. Mike nodded his head and smiled at me, just like I used to respond to each student--smiling because I did not know that student's name, but knowing that that student damn sure knew mine. It was at that moment, immediately after we passed each other, I realized I WAS NO LONGER A CELEBRITY. The TVL was just another league among the thousands of leagues across this country. And I was just another five foot seven inch high scorer among the thousands of high scorers in the thousands of leagues across this country. At Notre Dame every student was an all star in high school. Every student had been a celebrity, if not athletically, then scholastically...and then there were the Mike McCoys.
AND THEN I FELL IN LOVE WITH A HOMETOWN GIRL.
AND GRADUATED...WITHOUT A JOB.
AND MY FATHER SAID TO ME, "WHY DON'T YOU WORK FOR ME UNTIL YOU FIND SOMETHING BETTER?"
FROM CELEBRITY TO MEDIOCRITY.
FROM CHS TO UND TO GMC.
Before I got into my father's trucking business, all I knew about his business was that he was in the trucking business. I mean, I was in high school and had other stuff on my burners. What chance did my old man's business have of entering my mind when I was a five foot seven inch Ernie DeGregorio, leading the Tri Valley League (basketball) in scoring my senior year, and thinking about nothing more than how many females being the leading scorer could get me? True stories: when our team walked into the girl's locker room of a rival school, where visiting teams changed, on the chalkboard was an ego boosting, "Let's go, Gary," written, I later found out, by a girl from that school that I occasionally dated. And after another away game in which I scored forty points, another girl I occasionally dated met me at the team bus and gave me a huge congratulatory kiss in front of our coach who, thirty-six years later, still reminds me of the incident. Who wanted to think about tire pressure and oil change intervals when you were a major sports celebrity on the TVL high school circut?
THAT WAS WHEN I WAS TRULY COOL. BUT...
...everything changed the first week at the University of Notre Dame when I crossed paths with Mike McCoy, six foot six inch, three hundred pound All American defensive tackle for the Fighting Irish. It was the first of many epiphanies during my pedestrian four-year stay at ND. As we approached each other I couldn't take my eyes off him. Hell, it was Mike McCoy! Hadn't I seen him on television two years earlier in the memorable ten-ten tie against Michigan State. When he was in next to me I said hi to him, just like students used to say hi to me at CHS. Mike nodded his head and smiled at me, just like I used to respond to each student--smiling because I did not know that student's name, but knowing that that student damn sure knew mine. It was at that moment, immediately after we passed each other, I realized I WAS NO LONGER A CELEBRITY. The TVL was just another league among the thousands of leagues across this country. And I was just another five foot seven inch high scorer among the thousands of high scorers in the thousands of leagues across this country. At Notre Dame every student was an all star in high school. Every student had been a celebrity, if not athletically, then scholastically...and then there were the Mike McCoys.
AND THEN I FELL IN LOVE WITH A HOMETOWN GIRL.
AND GRADUATED...WITHOUT A JOB.
AND MY FATHER SAID TO ME, "WHY DON'T YOU WORK FOR ME UNTIL YOU FIND SOMETHING BETTER?"
FROM CELEBRITY TO MEDIOCRITY.
FROM CHS TO UND TO GMC.
posted by The Highway Reporter at 10:15 PM
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