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24 novembre Long...Bobby Long (Part 1)Ok, so he didn’t make the short list in the hunt for the new James Bond, but I have never met a more interesting person than him. In my mind He was the poster child for the human condition. A broken man who’s soul would shine as bright as a thousand suns if he could lift the weight of the choices he and others have made in his life off his shoulders. I highly encourage you to see a movie called A Love Song for Bobby Long. Our Bobby and the character John Travolta plays are kindred spirits in as much as they reacted to what life has thrown at them in similar fashion. The movie creeps me out and compels me at the same time… I must have watched this movie a dozen times. And while I am not a literate man I hope I can do justice to our Bobby Long as Lawson Pines attempts to for the character Bobby Long in the movie. The only thing missing in the real story is the Scarlett Johansson character (I doubt my sweet wife ever met Bobby Long). Mama’s Pasta and Brew was next to an icon of the Ohio State University, Long’s College Bookstore. A behemoth of a store that sold course material, office supplies, Ohio State memorabilia and just about anything a student could want except food or clothes that didn’t have Ohio State or “Go BUCKS” written all over them. I say “was” because Long’s is no longer the store and icon of my college days. So many of the people who frequented Mama’s have a direct link to this place and business that it’s story is necessary background and the person most associated with it is Bobby Long. Long’s Bookstore was recently bought by Barnes and Nobel and they sold the building the bookstore was in to the Ohio State University development company Campus Partners and moved down the street to be at the corner of the new “Gateway to OSU”.Bobby Long is the grandson of the founder of this store, who was always referred to as “The Colonel”. When I first met Bobby he lived in a House that sat directly across the Alley from the back of Long’s bookstore and it faced 15th Ave. Mama’s is located next to Longs on the south side of the building. He and his ex wife Marty moved to this home that coincidently was owned by the bookstore, when their attempts to become self sufficient on a hundred some acres in Southern Ohio failed. Most of the time I knew Bobby he was either unemployed or working in the family business at the buyback counter for school books. I heard that Bobby moved to a suburb of Columbus after the sale of the bookstore and I have not seen or heard from him in twenty plus years. With this said let’s return to what I knew of him. The Colonel (Frank C. Long Sr.) the founder of Long’s Bookstore had two sons “Doc” (Frank C. Long Jr.) and Bobby’s father (whose name I never knew). My impression of what little I heard about The Colonel is that he was a strict disciplinarian. His first born son “Doc” went to the finest schools and was educated to be a Doctor in Europe and given every opportunity in life. Bobby often said that Doc was the Colonel’s “fair haired boy” and the way he said it lead me to believe he was not referring to his hair color. Bobby says that Doc was in Austria at med school when Hitler walked in. While I don’t know how Bobby’s father grew up it appears that he did not receive the gifts of opportunity afforded to Doc. Instead Bobby’s father took an intense interest in the family business. The following things occurred that had a deep impact on Bobby’s life. When the Colonel died the overwhelming majority of the stock for the family business went to Doc who in my opinion never really cared for it more than the dividend check it gave him. Doc would stroll into Long’s early every morning and talk to the manager about the affairs of the day and sign whatever required his attention and would be gone by 9:30 am. But to be fair at the time I knew him He was in his seventies and was more than likely partially retired. All I had to form this opinion was this observed behavior and what little I could pry out of Bobby which is obviously biased. Bobby’s father died young (in the early to mid 60’s and Bobby was in his early teen’s I think). Bobby’s older brother went off and became a manager of another college bookstore and rarely interacted with Bobby and Bobby rarely spoke of him (I only met him once and his name escapes me) and Bobby basically lived off the scraps that fell from Doc’s table. I was never close enough to the family to know the real story. I can only say that Bobby harbored resentments about what happened and it seemed to paralyzed his life during that time, not willing to forget the past and strike out to build a life of his own. However, Bobby rarely let this show to just anyone, He always lived in the moment and that moment was usually comforted by seeking an elevated state of consciousness through alcohol and social pharmaceuticals. He was the ultimate creature of comfort, seeking to please and be pleased with the company that he kept, striving to get to a social state of being that could pass his personal litmus test… A rhetorical question that only Bobby could utter “People are liking me?” Yes, Bobby this “people” liked you. 22 novembre Sunset in West "By God" VirginiaTerry Fahy had (and more than likely still has) a passion for white water rafting. Every spring and continuing through the summer Terry would take several weekends off and go down to West Virginia and guide tours of white water rafters on the New and Gauley rivers. During the first summer Terry owned Mama’s I went on Mama’s Pasta & Brew’s first Regulars White Water Rafting Trip (I think this tradition continues to this day). Terry would always refer to this area as West “By God” Virginia. And there is no doubt that West Virginia has some of the most beautiful scenery in the USA (I know some would argue the world… but since I haven’t seen all of it yet I will reserve judgment). Now that I live in the Pacific Northwest I can say with some (but not a lot) of authority that if you prefer the intricate detail of a perfect 1/3 scale model then West Virginia clearly wins the contest. But as Qui-Gon Jinn says in Star Wars I “…there is always a bigger fish” and I have seen a few of them here, but I digress… I have long forgotten the name of the exact location of where this picture was taken but I can tell you it is a large rock that sticks out of the side of a mountain that is so high off the ground you feel like you are walking on clouds when you stand there. The view from this spot would clearly make you start saying West “By God” Virginia every time you said the name of the state. Terry is standing at the top of this picture which kind of reminds me of Washington crossing the Delaware but in this case he is leading his family and friends to a place he treasures and in this spot at sunset the moment was quite profound as we gazed in awe of a truly special place. Other notable people in this picture are Ma Fahy, Terry’s brother Phil, Terry’s sister Carol, Jay Clukis (again someone save me from my spelling handicap) and Theresa “T” Sneadon. I will have a lot to say about these and other regulars in the future but this picture says so many things to me on so many levels it would take years to explain it all. I think of the Charles Dickens novel Tale of Two Cties when I think of Mama’s “It was the best of times; It was the worst of times…” We fumble through our youth and so rarely see what is really going on. Maybe that is why God gave us all this time after our youth so we can truly access and appreciate what we were, where we wanted to go and the company we kept. George Burns says it best “Youth is wasted on the young”. Who hasn’t wished they could get a second shot at youth with the knowledge they now possess? Here in this picture we look into the future admiring the beauty we see before us with our hopes and expectations fighting like children for the privilege to sit in the front seat of the car that will take them to tomorrow which is just over the horizon. Is it my turn to sit in front? ...Where’s the car? … It was here just a minute ago. Sooner or Later Everyone Returns to Mama'sWell I am taking a second step into the blog sphere. Originally, I set up several basic web pages on the most popular "community" web sites in efforts to help my church evaluate them for a potential community space for our youth. All of which we felt were inappropriate for one reason or another for middle schoolers. And after much deliberation I have chosen this community to hang my hat in so to speak. While my children think mySpace is all that. I find that it is a treasure trove of spamers and people of low character praying on the weaknesses we all possess. This may be an omen that this service will not last or be the "best". But I will leave that discussion for another day. In the last couple of years my business travels have afforded me the opportunity to return to an old haunt of mine when I was in college. What amazes me is this place has not changed much in the twenty plus years since I left Ohio State University (Go Bucks!). It is still owned by the same guy from my college days. And several people I competed with in the nightly 12 oz curl competition still congregate there.
Mama's Pasta & Brew has a motto which is "The World's Worst Location". It is located in an alley near the corner of 15th and High. This area use to be called the "Gateway to OSU". However, Ohio State University has quietly bought up most of the property on the east side of the street and the Gateway moved south about 6 blocks. Over the years the place maintained its "Cheers" like atmosphere and many a picture have been hung on the walls in carefully prepared collages to communicate that. When I was a regular there it was often said "Sooner or Later Everyone Returns to Mama's" as many people would do then what I have from time to time recently.
Lately some of the picture collages have vacated the building under mysterious circumstances. I'd like to think some Presidential wannabe stole them so no one could produce proof that they "inhaled" while in college. As a result I feel like I need to do something before they all disappear. During my “college era” (1978 to 1987) I was interested in photography and took many pictures of the people who frequented Mama’s So I will post my own Mama's album here. I will also add some commentary in this blog as the photo album grows over time (I have to give you some reason to return don’t I ;-).
Today I start with a picture of Tammy Fahy. Tammy is the wife of the esteemed proprietor of Mama's Terry. I worked at Mama's as a short order cook for about six years during my long college career. I have worked under three owners during that time, Terry being the last. Tammy worked at Mama's for a relatively short period of time under the first owner I worked for (Gene Schrones... I know I spelled that wrong but it's been twenty plus years). Tammy went off and became a waitress at another restaurant venture called NanGee’s that Gene started down the street (it is no longer there) and she continued to be a patron for many a year until she married the owner. Shortly before I moved on I showed my photo album to Terry and he was surprised to see this picture of her in it and I knew he wanted a copy of it. So to start off my album I post the picture "Tammy before she became a Fahy" as a thank you to Terry who's contribution to my ability to grasp at memories of days gone by in a tangable and real way can not be over stated. |
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