30 in 30: Day 10 - Old Photo Day

[fivecats]

Tom at Bobs
circa 1980, Washington, DC
____________________________________

Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago

So, that's me back around 1980. It's the face, the physique and the physical shape I still expect to see in the mirror every day and it's becoming an ever-greater shock to me that it's definitely not what I see.

You'd think by now I would have come to accept what I am, what I have become, but there's still that part of me that just doesn't get it. I don't understand how I've come so far in such a short period of time.

Anyways, about this photograph:

In the autumn of 1980 I left Maryland to move to Madison, WI. I was, of course, following a woman who broke up with me as soon as we arrived in town. I tried desperately to get a job in a town overrun with PhDs who loved Madison so much they were willing to work in a bagel bakery instead of doing something with their PhD. After two months of rejection and a deepening depression, I moved back to Maryland.

I started working again at The Kite Site as the night manager. During the days, on a suggestion from my mother and really more on a whim than anything else, I started working in the county public schools as a substitute teacher. And, because I was broke but missed being able to afford my favorite ice cream, I got a one-night-a-week job at Bob's Famous Homemade Ice Cream in the upper-most reaches of Georgetown.

Slinging 'scream was a fun gig. For five hours on Sunday nights I'd fill ice cream cones, eat handfuls of M&Ms and down a free cup or two of coke to keep myself going. The place was bright and colorful, the staff and the customers were all very laid back and cool and, of course, the ice cream was fantastic.

I think I even still have that Kite Site T-shirt somewhere.

...

Comments

So what was your favorite flavor?

[droozle.livejournal.com]

I know that picture! Don't worry -- some of us also think of that face. I heard Garrison Keillor interviewed by the BBC just yesterday, and he quietly argued that he wasn't any older than the interviewer. "We're all twenty, twenty-two in our hearts." I'm not sure I even got that far.

And Bob's was great, an antecedent of Steve's and Ben & Jerry's and other just-how-interesting-can-you-make-ice-cream? shops (although the BBC again informs me that the record for ice cream variety is held by Heladería Coromoto () in Venezuela. Two words: smoked trout). But you're right -- the Bob's vibe was really the important thing. I remember you leading the customers in a sing-along with the radio, so consider that you were an important part of the character that brought people there.

Anyway, been lurking for quite a while, and this finally kicked me into wishing you and yours a happy year ahead.

Re: So what was your favorite flavor?

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

favorite flavour? easy: Mozambique. Cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves, balanced just right. The perfect compliment to M&Ms, chocolate of any sort, etc. it was such my favorite that i made my own version of it several times in the wayback past.

bob's never went overboard with the flavour selection, but it did have a few interesting ones. to their credit, they tried to build their reputation on a high quality product, not gimmicks. i think bob (a DC-based lawyer, as i recall) really liked ice cream, tried steve's in boston and decided he could do the same thing in DC.

i don't remember leading WHFS sing-alongs, but given the atmosphere of the place and my attitude working there, i guess it doesn't surprise me much.

and thanks for de-lurking. i greatly miss staying in touch with you.

...

[bardcat.livejournal.com]

Your photo journal has been very interesting. I guess pictures tell us something about our journey, what we're thinking. I particularly liked this one and knowing a little more about your history. Thank you/jeff

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

photographs tell me where i've been, what i've seen and what i've thought was visually interesting and/or what i had never seen in just that way before.

or, they're just more pictures of the cats i love so dearly.

i'll post some other, older pictures of me in the coming days.

...

Parrallel Lives

[sakkijarvi.livejournal.com]

I remember having ice scream at Bob's a number of times . . . don't ever remember being there when you were there . . . what happened to it? . . . is it still there? . . . given the ways of the economy, would be surprised to hear that it is.

"In the autumn of 1980 I left Maryland to move to Madison, WI."

In the summer of 1986 I let Maryland to move to the Dallas-Fort Worth area (roomed witha friend in Irving, Texas).

"I was, of course, following a woman who broke up with me as soon as we arrived in town."

I was, of course, following a woman. We didn't break up because we never dated. Spoke with her on the phone, but never actually saw her while in Texas in 1986.

"I tried desperately to get a job in a town overrun with PhDs who loved Madison so much they were willing to work in a bagel bakery instead of doing something with their PhD."

I tried desperately to get a job in a state that, bucking the national trend, was in the midst of aregional recession that had brought the local economy to a near standstill. Having no marketable skills and a college degree in nothing (Bachelor of General Studies) from an out-of-state diploma mill were major drawbacks too. The closest I came to finding work was as a valet parker, until they asked "And can you drive a standard?"

"After two months of rejection and a deepening depression, I moved back to Maryland."

After three months of rejection and a deepening depression, I moved back to Maryland. And then, in the last week of December 1986, walked into the Air Force recruiting station in Iverson Mall.

Re: Parrallel Lives

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

for the life of me, i still cannot fathom what made you go into the recruiting station.

...

[amlaped.livejournal.com]

Love this photo. That's the Fivecats I see in my mind's eye, too.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

the one in the mirror looks more and more like my father, only with my mother's jowls.

...