I Was A Teenage Threat

I once had a blind date when I was a senior in high school where the girl and I got along famously. The next week, I go over to the girl’s house to hang out and meet her mother. At this point in my life, I was such a weird and nervous kid there was no way I could’ve possibly been considered a threat. But I must’ve chewed with my mouth open or something because the next week I got a card from the girl that simply read, “Sorry, Rumble. Mom’s a bitch.” That was the last I saw of the girl until we bumped into each other on the street one night many years later. I never did find out what problem the mother had with me.

Fast forward a few years later. Before I met Lynn, I was engaged to somebody else. And when we moved in together, this woman’s father bought us a television set. The day we picked up the t.v. was the first time I’d ever met this guy and the first words out of his mouth to me were, “If you two break up, the t.v. is hers.” This was in stark contrast to the words her mother said to me: “Good luck with that one.”  Yeah, we broke up. Yeah, I helped carry the t.v. out to her brother’s pickup truck. Then I borrowed one of my father’s many spare t.v.’s.

Even Lynn’s parents were an uphill battle. Where my family just accepted Lynn, I had to earn my way. I even had to learn how to play Euchre for fuck’s sake! And I HATE playing cards! So when her dad drove me through all the old neighborhood streets of Bloomington a year or two after we were married, I was scared shitless. I through I was going to get some horrible dressing down. Turns out this was his way of welcoming me into the fold.

Anyway…I don’t even know why this has been on my mind of late. I guess it’s because, hey, I know what I am and I know where I come from. I get it. I’ve never the guy who has projected greatness and that’s because sometimes, for me, it was just enough to survive. I’m a high school graduate and a college dropout (I lasted two whole months) from New England. My dad was an alcoholic and my mother was bi-polar. And I’ve worked retail since I was eighteen-years-old. But you know what? I put in ONE application when I moved to Indianapolis. That was Osco Drug. The company was bought out twice and I’ve stayed on the job longer than most of the managers I’ve worked with. I’m now twenty-nine years in. I’ve never NOT worked for what I have. So, yeah, I may not have been much 35-40 years ago, but I’d like to think I’m doing okay now.