Bolus

Georgia Brown is Still Sweet

As we drove to the game, i had two questions thrown at me with 12 year old pre-teen attitude:  1) I didn't know you liked sports teams? and 2) why do you keep whistling that song?  I was about 7 years old back in Michigan when my grandpa whistled that same song on our way to Cobo Arena.  Unlike my daughter today, back then I knew exactly what it meant...

brother bones

While "that song" had been sung before (by anyone from Bing Crosby to Louis Armstrong,) ol' Brother Bones taught us long ago that Georgia Brown was sweet enough that you only had to whistle it  Served Bones well as his nickname back in the day, when he was a Long Beach CA shoeshine boy, was "Whistling Sam" because he whistled while he worked.  Since then, the Harlem Globetrotters claimed Georgia as their mascot / theme song and have brought the sweetness of Miss Brown to over 120 countries and 20,000 games.  Oh, and they've won more than a couple of them too....

I bet my daughter a dollar (and i'd give her ten dollars if i lost) that my team, the Globetrotters, would win.  "You really don't know about sports," she taunted back at me with a grin as she agreed to the bet.  I just whistled some more as we pulled into the San Jose Pavilion.

1968 program

By the time I made it to my first game, the Globetrotters were well known stars that everyone knew. Curly and team were all over the airwaves when i was a kid, helping Scobby Doo and crew solve mysteries, getting trapped on Gilligans Island, and  showboating prime time in the "Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine" variety show (that had players like Fred "Curly" Neal and "Geese" Ausbie singing, dancing and acting along stars like Bill Cosby, Sally Struthers and Dom DeLuise.)  In the 70's, you could clearly identify a star by who they hung out with and the way they dressed....

scooby doo

gilligans island

70's Ballers- Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine!

Tonight at the game i got a chance to meet "Curly," as he was attending as a special guest.  Even got him to sign my daughters ball-- even though she wondered why i wanted the old guy to sign it.  (Jeez, kids these days...)

chicago's savoy ballroom, 1927

first game as the "New York Globetrotters," 1927

The Globetrotters didn't even come from Harlem. In reality they started in Chicago playing at the Savoy Ballroom in 1927.  The teams owner, Abe Saperstein, first called them the New York Globetrotters because he wanted them to seem as a world traveling team from the city.  He then went with Harlem Globetrotters so that everyone would know they were coming to watch a black team (i guess not to disappoint rednecks who wanted to come see a serious basketball game-- which i'm sure they thought only white boys could play...... lol, im picturing a white boy layup in my head.)  After initial success locally, the Globetrotters packed into Saberstein's old Ford Tin Lizzie and traveled the country.... and soon the world.

germany, 1955

As the game started in San Jose, my daughter thought she caught on and thus just knew that the bet wasnt fair and the game was fake.  I had told her that the Globetrotters won the game my grandpa first brought me to, and that's why i thought they might win this one too. Well, and also because they've won over 22,000 games in 120+ countries over the years-- with a win ratio exceeding 98%.  Those poor Washington Generals never have a chance.... Maybe it's time to replace that sneaky old coach they have?

In the end, I won the bet....

We had a great time...

And the tradition of Georgia Brown continues.  My daughter was whistling it as we got out of the car back at home.

-scott noteboom

Running fast from the world out there.

New Years (especially this one) seemed like a good  time to go on a long walk (we went camping in the Santa Cruz Mountains,) kick some cans, and shoot some bb's with the old Red Ryder. As i look at this picture, I think of Stand by Me. Yep, just like in the movie, i was on a journey to get shit figured out-- i guess you could call it sorting out my New Years resolutions.  And, just like the movie, we even (really) found a body (kinda) out there on our journey...

2008 was a tougher year for me.  Couple rounds of layoffs at work.  Some health problems that put me in the hospital. Struggled with some demons. Our country is in a tough spot.  I say FUCK 2008, and the best way for me to fuck it is to shake things up differently for 2009...

OK, New Years resolutions may be lame to many-- but for questionable nuts like myself, I actually need any opportunity I can get to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL on myself.   Part of my routine has to be shaking up my routine, or else i get depressed, go stir crazy and feel like rinsing my mouth out with a pistol.  What can I say, my parents should have just gotten me a Pepsi, like Mikey wanted in the song, because it doesn't seem like those trips to the psychologist during my youth ever worked.  Don't worry though,  I'll be ok-- I've always done pretty damn good at figuring it out myself.

What better way to shake up life, than to shake up where you live?  I've had the pleasure of living in a gamete of places through the years-- in the city like East Hollywood/Los Feliz, in Michigan rural farm country, up in the mountains in Big Bear, and currently in suburbs of San Jose.  Right now, I'm sick of the suburbs. I'm sick of living in my cookie cutter box of a house there.  This house was our first home purchase and, even so, there is really nothing about it that excites me.... it's really just got no soul, brother. So, it can just kiss my black ass goodbye.

With the economy fucked and common sense suggesting one save their money to avoid potential disaster, I've decided to do the opposite and spend it.  Housing is cheaper now, i've always wanted an older house, and the devil on my shoulder is telling me that i gotta move. Thus, we've been working on buying a "new" house:

This baby is an un-restored 1890 built Queen Anne Victorian Cottage in downtown San Jose.   Right now it's uninhabitable and about everything needs to be redone. That said, it has the best attribute to find in a project-- it's neat and nobody has fucked with it, so it's a mostly original lost soul (bank repo) that i think is a good match for us.  The wheeling and dealing is done, offer accepted and i'm in escrow.  If this beast isn't haunted, I surely will be after working all nighters fixing it up.  I'm stoked about it.

In addition to how and where you live, I also like shaking up  the "how you get there" part... During some time off recently, I also finished up some rides that are slightly different than the cars i normally work on:

END OF YEAR PROJECT #1: My wife wanted "an old bike" for Christmas.  After some hunting, i found a good starter that needed a bit of work that i got done-- it's a 1948 BF Goodrich Schwinn ladies cruiser (Schwinn invented the fat tire cruiser in the 30's and 1948 was the same year that the founder, Ignaz Schwinn, died:)

Yeah, i know that i've got the wrong era seat on it, but someday i'll find one that matches right.  And no, i'm not that gay-- it's a coincidence that the colors match the new house project.

END OF YEAR PROJECT #2- My daughter had been begging me all year to "fix the scooter" because she loves for me to take her out on rides w/ it.  Being that the old motor died a long painful death, i pulled it and put in a brand new LML 150 engine so that i won't have mess with it much-- kinda like slapping a crate motor in a Chevy. Also put on some whitewalls, a white faced gauge, rebuilt the brakes and redid all the wiring & cables.  Now it rides like new and hauls ass compared to before:

The above resolutions demonstrate the best two ways to run away from my problems:

1) Run from them like you're trying to ditch the cops.  Run fast, hop some walls and change up direction quite a bit. Move from what's comfortable and routine-- to a new, better hideout.

2) Build car, motorcycle, scooter or bike type projects and just haul ass, leaving the problems in the proverbial rear view mirror (or lack thereof because mirrors don't help you go fast, so they should be taken off.)

Fight or flight, baby.  Yep, many times i take the latter and run from my problems that i don't think i can't beat in a fight.

Happy New Year.  I'm back from my blog break.

-scott noteboom