The Fall of ‘88 into 1989 pretty much ran together. By this point in my life I was moving at full throttle. I was in the TJC Tennis Tech program, on the courts by 7 AM and only came off for classes or food. When I wasn’t playing tennis, I was running absolutely wild with my buddies, Lance Cornell and Anthony Crucial. I wrote about Lance last weekend and have been able to keep up with him over the years but sadly lost track of Anthony.
Anthony Crucial was an incredible tennis player who also was on the vanguard of college cool. We were both in the tennis program and he was a suite mate with Lance. Up until that point I had fancied myself as having a diverse musical pallet and hadn’t yet tuned into the college radio vibe. That all changed with Anthony. He thrived on the cutting edge of college radio and one band in particular he dug was The Replacements. They were starting to get mainstream play but were still flying just under the radar. Along with The Replacements, a few other bands I really began to dig included Love & Rockets, The Smithereens, Camper Van Beethoven, and one of my top favorite bands of all time, Social Distortion. All of these bands had been around a while but growing up in the ’80s your only choice to music was mainstream media that was centered on top 40 radio and the occasional rock stations such as KLOL out of Houston. No station outside of college radio was playing the underground tunes that would soon shape and round out my musical taste. When I first arrived at TJC I thought the blinders from Polk County were off but soon realized there were many more layers to go before I could fully see. I have Anthony to thank for that because now I was listening to a totally new set of tunes. He definitely had an edginess to him that I didn’t possess and along with Lance, we would have an absolute blast tearing up Tyler, TX.
There were many historical events that took place in 1989 such as George H.W. Bush taking office, the tragic Exxon Valdez oil spill, and later on that year, the US invaded Panama. During this period, I was still innocently blind to all that was going on and seem to only live inside the bubble of my world, which consisted of tennis 10 hours a day with a few classes scattered about and then going full party mode nightly.
The realization of my invisibility came to a crashing halt when I received a phone call from my dad letting me know a childhood friend from Lufkin, Gerald Hughes, had been in a car accident and was life-flighted to Tyler. Gerald was the nephew of my step-mother, Phyllis, whom I had known for years. The hospital was only a few blocks away from my dorm so I headed over and remember thinking that everything was going to be okay. How could it not? I mean, we were all living fast and hard and nothing had dented the armor yet. I couldn’t have been more wrong and naive. His family had not yet arrived and I was the first to see him at the hospital. He was unconscious and being kept alive on a breathing tube. His eyes were semi-open and had little strips of tape over them to help them stay shut. I instantly had a lump in my throat, a pit in my stomach and my mouth went completely dry. The shock of what I was seeing had an instant effect on my entire body and state of mind. He had been thrown out of the back of a Bronco, severely injuring his head. The image of him laying there, being kept alive by machines is something I have never forgotten. While I would label it at the time as a “wake-up call”, I would soon again find myself only temporarily taking a break from the wildlife. Gerald passed away a few days later and while I only briefly knew him, it had a massive effect on my psyche. It wasn’t clear if the tears I had that day were from his passing or from the realization that life is so fragile. I’m pretty sure it’s a bit of both.
My intent in writing these “50 Thoughts for 50 Years” was to stay centered on the good memories of growing up. However, I do feel it’s important to call out a few of the harder times that helped to shape who I was to become. There are a few unfortunate events in 1989 but overall I had a great year. I did find myself impatiently ready to grow up and couldn’t hardly wait to get to where I was going. All that said, I still look back with fondness for the unbelievable and great times had with Lance and Anthony. We may have been innocent and naive but we were having the absolute time of our lives.
I hope everyone has a very safe and Happy Memorial Day!
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