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Important celebrities like us fellers don't do interviews - Date with fate post 86
This entry was posted on 1/4/2012 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
It was a small fraction of time - an instance - maybe only 45 seconds, but I have thought about it off and on for 40 years. Some thing or an other, will jog my memory out of the blue and there it is again. It does not help that I have kept an interest in football for all these years since the..., instance. I had also returned to college in my 40s near the scene of said instance, at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. And nowadays, to add insult to injury, in my old age, I have tinkered with "media" for the last few years; both, academically and in practice. It was a perfect storm to keep churning that 45 seconds of memory for ever.
We had just won our second conference championship two years running. This was a big deal in those days as at that time, The Southern Lakes Conference was a power house of teams. They were big tough teams made up of kids from farming communities southwest of Milwaukee and northeast of Rockford. It was the "lake country," and "farm" country, and the heart of "industrial" country.
The fact that I had just played my last high school football game was wafting around in my pea brain. The bus had taken the team back to the high school as the game had been played down at the huge University stadium.
My now faded memory has the bunch of us having some strange "affect" regarding our experience. There were moments of celebration woven with moments of that aforementioned reality that this was probably the last time most of us would play organized football.
After a couple of team meetings with "Coach," and us putting ourselves back together in the locker room, various cliques started to head their various ways. There was some talk of meeting at the burger joint up the road from the school. And, my girlfriend du jour had a bug up her butt so she was not in the picture for any celebratory activities.
On game day, in lieu of parking way out in the school lot, we could park our cars in the big school bus circle that girdled the back entrance to the big school. We could pop right out of the back door to the locker room, head up the hall, and be right out to our cars.
As we scattered to our cars that night there was a black fellow waiting by my car. I say "black" because in the context of our world in those days, we had no black students at our school. He knew me for some reason.
"Hey, Bob Keith," he said. "I am with the University newspaper..., The Royal Purple. Do you have a second or two for an interview?"
Something snapped in my head. Was it the fact that someone had actually sought me out of a crowd of much better players than me and I was embarrassed? Was it because this guy was black? Was it because he was a couple years older? Was it because I was sometimes known to slump into bouts of being an introvert? Was I miffed in regards to girlfriend du jour? Was I just a dumb conceited football player? Was I simply an ass? Or, was it a bit of all of the above?
Like Tourette's spilling out of my pie hole, I said, "I don't do fuck'n interviews, man!"
Holding his pen and pad in hand, the guy said nothing as I piled into my old '66 Fairlane. He looked hurt, but also he had a look of recognition that he had just confronted a rude prick.
Would an interview in the large regional college paper about a peripheral player on a team of all-stars have boosted said rude prick's chances at some better opportunities in college..., or even life?
We will never know. But, every so often that fellow's incredulous expression pops into my head. And until some meeting with the end of my life finally prevails, I have come to expect his face in my mind to visit me from time to time.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army National Guard Master Sergeant Brian Keith Naseman, 36, Racine, Wisconsin, died on Friday, May 22, 2009 in Taji, Iraq. Naseman's death is listed as a non-combat related incident. Master Sergeant Naseman was assigned to the 108th Forward Support Company, attached to the 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Wisconsin Army National Guard, out of Sussex, Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned that Brian Naseman was a native of New Bremen, Ohio. At the time of his death his home was in Racine, Wisconsin, were he lived with his wife and children. He had previously been deployed to Kuwait from November 2005 to November 2006. Before his current mobilization, he functioned as a full-time National Guard soldier.
The Web site militarytimes.com using information from the Associated Press notes that Naseman was remembered for his comic personality. The Web site went on to say, "Brian Naseman grew up in Ohio and met his future wife at a barn dance, where he taught her to line dance." They had been married for 10 years. He had originally been in the Ohio National Guard and later transferred to a Wisconsin unit. The Web site also mentioned that the Taji region of Iraq where Naseman died is about 20 miles north of Baghdad.
The Sidney Daily News out of West Central Ohio in the area Naseman grew up, mentioned that Brian was a 1990 graduate of New Bremen High School. He had been in the Boy Scouts and earned several awards. In high school he had been in the Spanish club and also was a member of Future Farmers of America. He played baseball, basketball, track, and ran cross country. Brian also played on the American Legion League Baseball team for a few years after high school. He attended Wright State University and The Ohio State University studying a degree in Education. In his younger years, he had worked on dairy farms and later for a forklift manufacturer and also metal fabrication company. The Sidney Daily News also noted Brian Naseman was born on July 13, 1972. He was married to his wife Peggy in 1999.
An article in the Racine Journal Times said that Naseman and his future wife had a three years of long-distance courtship traveling between Wisconsin and Ohio. They eventually settled in Racine where Peggy grew up.
An obituary from the Racine Journal Times posted on legacy.com says Naseman enjoyed fishing, camping, golfing, and shooting archery with his sons. He was remember as having, "an outgoing, compassionate character...and being a true family man."
At the time of his death Master Sergeant Brian K. Naseman was survived by his wife Peggy; his sons Cole and Carter; his parents Richard and Diane Naseman; his sisters Lori Buroker, Christy (Jason) Eilerman, and Sandra (Scott) Wendeln; Peggy's parents Shirley and Carl Chmielewski; brother-in-law Jeff (Kandie) Chmielewski; sisters-in-law Cindy Becker and Kristine (David) Ricchio; nieces and nephews Jennifer, Lisa, and Andrea McGregor, David Buroker, Danielle and Hannah Wendeln, and Alayna Eilerman; uncles and aunts Jerry (Tex) and Nick (Pickles) Schmitmeyer, Judy (Wayne) Krebs, Karl (Sally) Naseman, Maurice (Doris) Naseman, Pauline Otting, and Rosemary and Jim Gianguzzo; and, friends Scott Krebs, Scott Toutant, Danny Toutant, Scott Seymour, Colin Hackney, Patrick Ball, and Nick Hamilton. Master Sergeant Brian Naseman was laid to rest with Full Military Honors at West Lawn Memorial Park in Racine, Wisconsin.
Army National Guard Brian K. Naseman is the 104th military service person that has been identified by Cool Dadio Media as having Wisconsin connections and that has died in Iraq since the Spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
104,547 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented).
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,487 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1863 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
984 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.
32,226 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
592 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.
15,157 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
192 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
36 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.
151 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
22 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org .
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