Saturday, October 30, 2021

PAUL BUNYON STAYS IN EAST LANSING!

 I'll say the exact same thing I said last year: once again, Sparty has over-achieved. 

Unbelievable the drama in this one, and I will not try to sum it up or make sense of it. I can only attest to the facts that I removed my brother's Spartan hat birthday gift from my noggin at halftime, and then prayed a rosary for our coaches and team members, and then quickly devoured a 64 ounce bag of Lays Cheddar potato chips. I cried every time Walker scored, and just now finished a deck-to-deck conversation with my Spartan neighbor. God is good, and we will praise His Name forever!

For the record, Michigan had drives of 22 yards, 55 yards, 54 yards, and 57 yards that ended in field goals. 

Friday, October 8, 2021

October 1993

 Watching Michigan at Wisconsin from 30 October 1993, and I couldn't remember the name of the Michigan quarterback in that game (Todd Collins). I began thinking back on what was going on in my life back then...

I think I had removed myself from television altogether by this point, so I surely wasn't watching too many games. I remember a conversation with my brother at about that time in my life, he told me that it was ok to watch college football - God told him so. Well, almost 30 years later, I am still taking that advice.

In the fall of 1993, I had just begun my first year teaching at the West Highland Christian Academy in Milford: advanced algebra, 'senior' math, boy's Bible, biology (the one I struggled most with), chemistry, and earth science - with those adorable 7th and 8th graders (the one I enjoyed the most :-). After school coaching for the winter season probably had not started yet, but oh was that to be an experience! 
I had been out of school for six years, living in Cousin Bob's 400 sf cottage on Bitten Lake in Hartland MI. The home had an upstairs with a shower and a huge closet; there was a front room on the main floor with nice windows that I had my desk in - for studying and correspondence. The sitting room had a fireplace, built-in wooden book cases, and French doors out to a screened-in patio partly over-looking the lake down the tree covered hill. 
I had made friends with many of the local kids in the neighborhood, and I remember many friendly snowball fights there. I did not eat the pears from the seven or eight trees on the property, and I did not fish the lake very often. I wrote music, and smoked cigarettes, and prepped nightly for my six classes. I remember being jealous of my cousin who taught AP Chemistry five hours a day in a big public school district. :-)