Timmy's big race yesterday, the only one he does now, because it is free for him....he scores well enough to qualify for the "elite". He starts training on August 1st, no more beer, two trips to the gym every day, tries to eat less junk food, etc. It is quite a sacrifice for an effort that lasted exactly one hour, 35 seconds - his time. Coming in 84th with over 1900 runners is quite an accomplishment. The woman standing next to me at the finish line, saw Timmy, and said, "Here comes an old one." And I told her that it was Timmy. So he came in first in his age group, 65-69.
The race to me is kind of like Christmas, all the preparation, all the shopping, the wrapping, the Christmas card list, the stockings to buy for, and then PUFF - it's all over, with just a bag full of ripped wrapping paper to burn. And a feeling of relief. And the race does remind me that Thanksgiving, and then Christmas is just around the corner.
We go to the awards ceremony that seems to take forever,. starting with female 15-19, male, 15-19, and on and on until he hits the 60's. Vince runs the show, and actually got Timmy to run in it when he met Timmy at the Kingston Classic, and was looking for strong runners. He yelled to Timmy at 7am when we got to Schenectady for the race, "Hello Mr. Haley" - that's the kind of guy he is, knows his runners and can tell a little about each of them. So there was Timmy standing with the other two finishers, he was in the middle as the first one in, and pictures were being taken. It looks like a lineup at the police station, and Timmy looks like the guilty one right in the middle. An older woman (she had just won in the 65-59 age group) was sitting next to me, and I heard her say, "I like that Tim Haley". Made me smile. And Vince made a big deal of Timmy's time and saying how he runs every year and that he is from Tivoli. Nice way to finish up the race for the year.
So now on to the real Christmas.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Back again, Halloween has inspired me. Last night I shared a beer with Maria, Margaret and Patty, all of us used to go into Tivoli, Baileys on the porch one year, and the Black Swan a couple of times. It just isn't the same without them.
I didn't even go up into town this year, but Sabra took Henry and said there was a man dressed like toast, that was standing in the middle of the road. That gave me a memory of many years ago, when Tivoli became famous on Halloween, but not for any good reason.
Tivoli used to have a clean up day - it was great - you could put out anything, appliances, old furniture, etc, and they took it all to the dump. But the year I am remembering, it wasn't carefully thought out. Clean Up day came a few days before Halloween, and the local kids took advantage of it. On Halloween night, it was a Saturday that year, the kids turned the center of Tivoli into a house. There was a kitchen with a refrigerator, table, a living room with couches and chairs, and everything else that had picked up before the Village. There was a picture in the newspaper of the mess, and as I remember, Laura and others were sitting on the couch, big smiles on their faces.
Monsignor Kane was vivid the next day at Mass. Driving to church, the town was in disrepair, an outhouse remained at the four corners, and toilet paper was hanging from every telephone line. There was no sermon that morning, just how terrible our kids were, why weren't they supervised, how could a firetruck or ambulance get through that mess, on and on. But actually, I was thinking about Halloween in Beacon when I was a kid. We threw eggs, soaped windows, and tied threads across the road, tree to tree. A car going through the threads made a terrible noise, and the drivers would stop and get out and look at their tires, while we hid behind the bushes. Phone pranks were another thing we did: "Is your street light on?" and after they came back to the phone and said "yes" , we would say, "Then blow it out." That's when trick or treat really meant something.
I didn't even go up into town this year, but Sabra took Henry and said there was a man dressed like toast, that was standing in the middle of the road. That gave me a memory of many years ago, when Tivoli became famous on Halloween, but not for any good reason.
Tivoli used to have a clean up day - it was great - you could put out anything, appliances, old furniture, etc, and they took it all to the dump. But the year I am remembering, it wasn't carefully thought out. Clean Up day came a few days before Halloween, and the local kids took advantage of it. On Halloween night, it was a Saturday that year, the kids turned the center of Tivoli into a house. There was a kitchen with a refrigerator, table, a living room with couches and chairs, and everything else that had picked up before the Village. There was a picture in the newspaper of the mess, and as I remember, Laura and others were sitting on the couch, big smiles on their faces.
Monsignor Kane was vivid the next day at Mass. Driving to church, the town was in disrepair, an outhouse remained at the four corners, and toilet paper was hanging from every telephone line. There was no sermon that morning, just how terrible our kids were, why weren't they supervised, how could a firetruck or ambulance get through that mess, on and on. But actually, I was thinking about Halloween in Beacon when I was a kid. We threw eggs, soaped windows, and tied threads across the road, tree to tree. A car going through the threads made a terrible noise, and the drivers would stop and get out and look at their tires, while we hid behind the bushes. Phone pranks were another thing we did: "Is your street light on?" and after they came back to the phone and said "yes" , we would say, "Then blow it out." That's when trick or treat really meant something.
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