· I remember how beautiful my wife looked on our wedding day and how I felt as I saw her walking down the aisle toward me.
· I remember how excited we felt when we landed in St. Thomas for our honeymoon – it was like something out of Fantasy Island.
· I remember shopping for a live Christmas tree every year when I was a kid. It seemed like we always picked the coldest day of the year to do it and it seemed like we had to go to about half of the tree lots in West St. Louis County before finding the right tree.
· I remember when MTV actually played videos, back when the surest way to become a big music star was to have a killer video on MTV.
· I remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.
· I remember when Bill Murray was funny.
· I remember when Kenny Rogers still looked like Kenny Rogers.
· I remember when almost all stores were closed on Sundays.
· I remember how excited I’d get as a kid when my parents would take me to a Cardinals game. Seeing the field and the JumboTron, smelling the hot dogs, hearing Ernie Hayes on the organ…it was always so exciting. I hope my kids experience that same sense of excitement and wonder when I take them to Cardinals and Blues games.
· I remember going to my first college football game. It was in 1987 and it was Mizzou playing….of all teams…Baylor. I knew nothing about Baylor at the time, so it’s funny to think that I’d be going to Baylor almost 5 years to the day later.
· I remember how excited I’d be when we had a snow day when I was a kid. I’d wake up on my own (rather than my mom waking me up) and I’d look at the window and be so excited I couldn’t go back to sleep. I couldn’t wait to go sledding or go play out in the snow.
· I remember the Blizzard of 1982, when the St. Louis area got inundated with almost two feet of snow. We’d had a couple of families over for dinner/socializing the night the storm hit and they were all stranded at our house for a couple of days. We didn’t have school for almost a week.
· I remember my first real rock concert: Stryper at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis in January 1989. It was the “In God We Trust” tour and we had backstage passes and got to meet the band after the show. The highlight of the concert had to be the encore when, during “To Hell With The Devil,” Robert’s Sweet’s drum kit (which was situated above a wall of speakers) began to rotate. As a 14-year-old kid, that was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.
· I remember how I felt when my parents dropped me off at Baylor for my freshman year of college. Watching them drive away for the first time…it was a mixture of excitement and fear and I’m sure that many of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
· I remember Looney Tunes on TV on Saturday morning.
· I remember “Mikey Likes It,” “I’m a Pepper, You’re a Pepper” and the Pepsi Challenge.
· I remember “Tastes Great, Less Filling,” “Give Me a Light. No, Bud Light” and Spuds McKenzie.
· I remember “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” “Growing Pains,” and “Who’s The Boss?”.
· I remember “The Dukes of Hazzard” on Friday nights.
· I remember when all of the girls were in love with Duran Duran and it seemed like they each had their favorite band member. It was the big bangs and leg warmers version of Beatlemania.
· I remember when all of the girls in St. Louis had a crush on Tommy Herr.
· I remember Garry Templeton flipping off Cardinals’ fans and literally being dragged off the field by Whitey Herzog. He was traded for Ozzie Smith a few months later and the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series the following year.
· I remember when Glenn Brummer stole home against the Giants. We were listening to the game on KMOX and Mike Shannon called the play.
· I remember summer evenings, listening Jack Buck and Mike Shannon broadcast the Cards games on KMOX while we played catch or whiffle ball in the back yard with my parents.
· I remember playing in the basement after dinner while my parents played ping pong.
· I remember Baylor Homecoming my freshman year. We beat Georgia Tech in a game that featured a reverse, flea flicker touchdown pass from J.J. Joe to Melvin Bonner. That was also the same game when BUGWB and The Baylor Line cooperated to steal the helmet of a Georgia Tech player.
· I remember beating Texas in the season finale my freshman year and rushing the field to tear down the goal posts.
· I remember beating Texas on Homecoming in 1997 and watching the students tear down the goalposts and carry them all the way from Floyd Casey to the SUB, where people signed them. My name is on there somewhere.
· I remember driving around Central Texas at night, singing along to whatever tape was in the cassette player.
· I remember a bunch of friends crashed on the floor of our apartment, waking up to find Sesame Street on the TV and my hat somehow on someone else’s head. And, believe it or not, there was absolutely no alcohol involved.
· I remember Rock-n-Bowl on Saturday nights from midnight to 2 in the morning, followed by trips to Whataburger or IHOP or Taco Cabana (for tortillas and queso, of course).
· I remember a group of about 12 of us going to the Hootie and the Blowfish concert at Deep Ellum Live in Dallas. We got back to Waco at about 3:30 in the morning on a Monday morning, after the obligatory late night stop at Whataburger. I had a test at 9am the next morning. I didn’t do very well on that test.
· I remember Roscoe and Nellie.
· I remember Sweet Pea and Bunnykins.
· I remember the APO office, decked out in all of its colorful glory during pledging.
· I remember Red Rules, Yellow is the Color of Jaundice and We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal, We Win
· I remember finishing up Big Sib Hunt at a rickety old roller rink alongside I-35.
· I remember standing on top of the Baylor sign on University Parks (next to Hooper-Schaefer) dressed up like a cave man during Big Sib Hunt.
· I remember service projects at Animal Shelter and LaRue’s Learning Center.
· I remember initiation at Armstrong-Browning Library, which was named America’s most beautiful library last year. The toast song always sounded better there.
· I remember the first time I met my wife, the night I finally got the courage to ask her out and the first time we kissed (which just so happened to be the night my window AC unit blew out the fuse and knocked out my power.)
· I remember ringing in the year 2000 with a party at our apartment that involved card games and lots of interesting nicknames.
· I remember everybody freaking out about Y2K, which wound up being much ado about nothing.
· I remember 9/11 and how surreal it was to watch the towers fall.
· I remember how excited and scared I was when my son was born – after my wife was in labor for 25 hours.
· I remember how emotional I was when my daughter was born. We didn’t know what we were having and when we found out it was a girl, I started bawling. Happy tears, mind you!
· I remember when I thought 30 was old and 40 was ancient. I don’t feel that way anymore.
· I remember now that I have to go, so I think I’ll stop. I’m sure I’ll have more I will remember and will do this another time…
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