Candlepin Bowling and Bill Chinnock

I came across two things recently that made me remember fondly my youth and teenage years. The first was this feature on "207" about Bill Chinnock, and the second was this article on Boston.com regarding candlepin bowling. I thought I'd share a personal story or anecdote about each and invite others to comment with their stories and or elaborate on mine.
Perhaps the best story, but the one I need help with the most, involves a certain Bill Chinnock concert at the Pittsfield Community Theater, probably sometime in 1979 (one of the very few ticket stubs I can't claim to still have). A handful of us decided that not only did we need to be at this concert but we needed to have flasks or pint bottles of alcohol as well, lest we got thirsty inside. Unlike the famous Dresden ice fishing legend (sorry Chink), getting the alcohol for the Chinnock concert did not involve someone's uncle delivering it to the MCI campus in a black pulp truck. I don't recall where we got it but there's little chance the story is as colorful.
What is most memorable about this concert, aside from getting to see our local music hero, was the fact that not all of us managed to get into the concert with our alcohol intact. Isn't that right, SF? Luckily for us, some of us did! Were we cool or what? If you were there that night, please chime in with any information you have to fill in the story, as my pitiful memory has left me nothing more than what's above.
Regarding candlepin bowling, I'll offer up a couple of quick things. Many of us were on youth bowling leagues or high school intramural leagues at the Pittsfield Bowling Center. Most of my fondest candlepin bowling memories are there, and I'm sure there are plenty of fond memories by others to share. One not so fondly remembered, or better stated as bittersweet, relates to the reward we received in roughly 1972 for winning the Eastern Maine tournament. For whatever reason, that year it was decided that giving jackets was better than trophies. So while my trophies from my glorious youth survived in my mother's attic for many years, that jacket was lost, nay stolen, in less than a year, some idiot 11 or 12 year old having left it on a bench at Manson Park.
Also, any of my MCI classmates who still have the 1980 edition of The Trumpet, go to pages 112 and 113, and in particular look at the names of the teams. Does that bring back some memories? Long live The Zebulons!
I would be very appreciative if you would leave any anecdotes that you'd like to share, elaborate on anything I have said but also if you would please pass this along to anyone who might appreciate it.

No, you're no more American or patriotic than anyone else

Spend some time on websites like Facebook, for example, and you'll see people posting something along these lines: "There are too many people in this country who don't understand what it means to be American, who don't support the troops," etc, etc, and that essentially you don't have the guts or the patriotism to copy and paste that nonsense on your space.

You've seen those posts and you've heard that sentiment around your workplace or in editorials. Did it come as a surprise to you that there are those in this country who get it and that the rest of us don't? Who are these people who get it? Who are these people who don't? Is there a book or manual somewhere that describes what a patriot American does or looks like?

If this sentiment doesn't scare the living shit out of you, well, it should. It serves to divide us. It creates a mentality in people to be watching your neighbors or friends or family for suspicious activity or, even worse, a lack of certain "officially-approved" activity.

Haven't we been here before? Do I have to copy and paste your drivel to prove my patriotism? Do I have to look just like you and think just like you; otherwise, I don't get it, or worse?

I have a news flash for you narrow minded sheep: We all support the troops; we'd all die for our country, be it go to war or jump in front of the President to catch an assassin's bullet. I would've done it for a president who I couldn't have disagreed with more. Would you do it for the current president who was overwhelmingly elected by the people of this country? Or does your holier-than-thou, self-annointed sense of patriotism not cover that?

Get your blinders off, turn off that bullshit echo chamber you're tied into (you know, that one that loves to scare and divide) and get your head out of the ass of organizations that want you to believe there's this huge percentage of unpatriotic people in this country before one of you does something we'll all regret. It takes a lot more courage and patriotism to make up your own mind that it does to follow that little crowd of yours that always tells you what you want to hear.

We're all pulling the same rope and pulling it in the same direction; there's just disagreement about the best way to pull it sometimes. You should be a lot more concerned and afraid of people who want you to think a certain way because it serves their ambitions than to be concerned that your fellow Americans aren't really American enough by your standards.

The most patriotic and heroic people we know are those who do the little and large things proactively, very quietly, never asking for recognition or even support.

So before you run off at the mouth with your nonsense, serving only to help further divide us to be conquered by those who truly don't get it, ask yourself whether you truly know one single person who doesn't support the troops, who doesn't love their country, who wouldn't sacrifice all they have in half a heartbeat to protect, preserve and improve it.

So sadly we've come to the point where it takes guts to say and think we're all together than it does to point fingers at shadows. So let's see if you have the guts to post the link to this.

And don't read this like the ditto-head that you are -- "Wow, that is so true" -- and then put your head back up your ass again...truly think about it and act accordingly in your day-to-day life.

Me? Liberal, atheist, wrote "the blank check" for 8 years and every bit as American as you. I just choose not to use labels when determining whether someone's patriotic or not.