Live onstage with Willie....

Who ever thought I'd be onstage with Willie Nelson? Certainly not me, but courtesy of his ex wife and my friend Connie Nelson....here I am onstage with Willie

Let the fun begin...

It's reunion time! Two classes from Midland High, two classes from Lee High School. I won't devulge what years these are other than to say that I graduated in the last century. Several of us at various points around Texas have been working on this for six months. Sometimes working a whole lot.

But it should be worth the effort with probably 450+ attending. Friday night is an event I organized at the Chaparral Gallery in the Petroleum Museum, Saturday night the big shindig at the Midland Center put together by a professional reunion service out of Houston. Using advanced search engines they found many lost souls. Several of us "googled" up more. I found my class president in the Seattle area. His parents relocated from Midland the year he graduated and he hasn't been back since. He's excited. Many people I've kept up with, many I haven't. I ended up with 90+ classmates on my personal list and most are coming. Too fun.....

I must rest up Sunday after they all depart, because I visit Willie Nelson that night...more fun.

The Hippy Dippy Weatherman....RIP

God Bless George Carlin, 1937-2008

A second chance...

In September of 1995 Willie Nelson performed in Midland at a very nice, relatively small outdoor show on the Courthouse lawn. My Dad was a golfing partner of the father of the show's promoter and so became the recepient of a backstage pass to the show. Graciously, he bestowed the pass on me. Backstage, in this case, meant sitting on the back of the lowrise temporary platform that Willie performed on. For most of the show I sat on the stage right next to Willie's sister, and longtime piano player, Bobbie Nelson. A great show with Willie playing a solid two hours of his greatest hits.

After the show, the pass entitled me to come to the "meet and greet" with Willie. In this case held outside his motor coach, parked on the street right in front of the Petroleum Building, which later became my office. After Willie relaxed for a half an hour or so, he descended from the motor home, shook the hands of we eight or ten fans with passes, brought out some lawn chairs and invited everyone to stay and talk. And that we did until about 2 a.m. when there were just two us left with Willie. As you can imagine it was a rare treat. Except for one thing, which I've regretted ever since...I didn't have a camera with me. I got an autograph, but no pictures.

But now, fate, serendipity or just good fortune is bringing me a second chance. In the past year I've become good friends with Willie's ex wife, Connie Nelson. Connie is a sweetheart of a woman. Kind, caring, talented and very interesting, she was instrumental in the success of our recent Troop Salute in San Antonio, arranging for bands and raising money. Connie also brought her best friend, Phyllis with her to help out. As I was eating dinner with Phyllis the topic of Willie arose. I asked her if she knew him very well. "Well yes," she said, "his sister Bobbie is my step-mother".

So when I found out that Willie will be appearing soon in Odessa, I called Connie. "Hi Connie, Willie is going to be in Odessa on June 29th, I wonder if you could......" That's all I got out before she said, "you want some backstage passes?" And so she called Willie's manager and within a day it was arranged, giving me all the names in Willie's tour group that I need to know and who to talk to about taking photographs onstage. And when I talked to Phyllis this week she added, "I'll see Bobby tonight, I'll tell her about you and ask her to make sure things go OK."

Sometimes we do get second chances in life....and they may even work out better than first chances.

Sam "Steamboat" Mokuahi....

Steamboat, with our two Army Club Tropic Lightning outriggers at Waikiki

Without friends in Hawaii anymore, I hadn't heard the news, two years old, that an old friend of mine had passed away. Sam Mokuahi was a legend in the islands. His dad had been one of the original Waikiki beachboys and Sam Jr. followed in his dad's footsteps. Sam's Newspaper story..

Sam, or just Steamboat, was the guy who introduced me to outrigger canoe racing when I lived in Hawaii. Sam was a nationally known professional wrestler in the '60's and 70's, but his passion was outrigger canoes and keeping the old traditions and customs of their heritage alive. Sam had the idea that the US Army, having a big presence in Hawaii, ought to participate in the local racing events. So he talked the commanding general of the 25th Division into forming a team......and I was chosen to be the commanding officer, such as it was.

Sam spent 6 months of his own time teaching ten novice guys how to get proficient enough to enter the big race of the year, the Aloha Week canoe race from the island of Molokai back to Honolulu. An open ocean race 58 miles in length. We made it, second to last out of 25 boats. Sam kept after us, even providing some of his beachboy paddlers as coaches and the next year, half way through the race, we were in third place out of 35 boats when our rigging snapped in 15 foot swells and we had to withdraw. When the Army withdrew it's support and our team disbanded, Sam asked me to join his private beachboy team.....the only haole [non local] on the team...something I'm still proud of.

Sam was, physically, a huge guy.....but huge also in spirit, gentleness and kindness. I have two canoe paddles from my racing days. One, made of Hawaiian Koa wood, was a gift to me from Sam. A special permit is needed from the state to cut Koa wood and Sam had one to build beautiful paddles and handmade canoes. I'll treasure my paddle all the more now. I loved the last, very fitting, line of his obit article, "A flotilla of canoes will accompany the scattering of ashes beyond the reef". Wish I could have been there.