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| Famous prankster in baseball: Moe Drabowsky |
Some of the meaner stuff might have been well-intentioned. It can misfire and cause pain. Pranks can definitely fall into the category of mean-spirited. The perpetrators might claim that their intent was benign. But we all know how complicated personal relationships can be. Well, I do. Many relationships can have a love/hate quality or be tainted by professional jealousy, paranoia and self-interest. I never again would have anything to do with a workplace that engenders the qualities just cited.
I remember coming back to the Sun Tribune office one night and finding my bicycle was up on top of a cabinet. This was after Jim Morrison had left, a new regime had taken over and I wasn't certain of the motives. After feeling out certain people, I became convinced, really, that it was benign. Newspaper offices of "the old days" could bring out quite a coarse relationship among people. It wasn't always bad but it was far from being good most of the time.
I'm sure this environment has become more tame and relaxed, partly because the quantity of product has been so greatly reduced. And my goodness, the digital age has created efficiencies and shortcuts and reduced the amount of tedious work required. The preponderance of tedious work can bring out the worst aspects in interpersonal relationships.
I can remember some obviously benign pranks going back to many years before the bicycle episode. We had a printer with the initials R.K. who was fond of prank humor. Overall I had a good relationship with him but still had to watch my back sometimes - most of you know what I'm talking about. An example of R.K.'s humor: arranging for a couple of vehicles to park on opposite sides of the "victim's" vehicle, so close that the victim wouldn't be able to enter her vehicle. (I'm thinking of the victim being someone with the initials J.R.)
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| (Farmers Almanac image) |
Room for a little nostalgia?
I have no doubt that people at all newspaper offices today are 100 percent squeaky clean and professional, not a hair out of place as it were. We might greet this new reality with relief. We all want people to behave, right? But I think a part of us, especially those up in years, miss the less-structured times a wee bit, times when we might laugh in a raucous way over untoward stuff, perhaps as we consumed alcoholic drinks in a bar.
I would sometimes meet our bookkeeper at 5 p.m. Friday at the Eagles. We talked in an irreverent way about lots of stuff. There was plenty of backbiting in the old days at our hallowed Morris Sun and Tribune. Say what you want about us, we produced a nice big thick product twice a week for years and years. I delivered the bundles around town after our custodian retired.
Some rough edges, maybe
I think I projected sort of a "cowboy" image, unrestrained and with a bias or two known among the public. Well, I had certain biases and I felt they were so well-grounded, so based in logic, they should not have been considered biases. In my mind the opposition came not from logic-inspired people but people with a purely political wellspring - they associated with certain other people or "friends" in the same way I met for a drink at the Eagles.
My opinions were based on what I thought was right, not on who my friends were, or how I might score points with a politically powerful local group. The biggest bone of contention was our public school. I get the impression today that everything is tidied up with our school. The proper parameters of authority are recognized and policies/decisions are based on the right motivations, not politics, certainly not teachers union politics.
The newspaper is no longer known as the Sun Tribune. I fail to see why a change was necessary. It's called "Stevens County Times" but it's inconsistent with how it bestows attention, as it seems to bend over backwards for Hancock. A friend tells me this has not changed of late - I personally haven't seen the Morris paper since the pandemic circumstances set in.
For the record, I think I could perform a few duties for the paper today because I'm perceptive enough to know how the workplace and society in general have changed. #MeToo has imposed a total prohibition on even the most harmless-seeming comment on a woman's "looks." One's love life must be kept entirely outside of work boundaries. It's an adjustment for older men like me who grew up in a culture where "objectification" of women was considered totally normal! We probably knew it was tacky but we were given a pass. No pass today.
Nothing escapes music!
I wrote a song some time ago that conjures up "the old days," not only in terms of a lecherous approach to women, but also the bar scene. The milieu of my song would have been considered pretty mainstream once, just like the "Shriners conventions" that actually inspired a Ray Stevens comedy album. The Shriners have always done admirable things. Today I suspect they have erased a lot of the extracurricular foolishness.
We no longer laugh about people stumbling along "drunk." I'll remind you young-uns we once did. So, I'm fully aware of the new reality.
In theory I could function within the new reality, albeit with a sense of "withdrawal" sometimes. Suppress irreverent and cynical thoughts! Keep them locked up in your head. I loosen the lock as I write this blog post today.
I cannot conclude here without sharing my song "Laid-back Lady." Some background: this song originated in my head as a melody only. It was with the kind of sound characteristic of Herb Alpert in his 1980s phase. What a master of commercially successful music: Herb Alpert! Does it get any better than "This Guy's In Love With You?" He sang on that one. His trademark was his understated trumpet, the opposite of Maynard Ferguson. As I get older, I appreciate more the understated stuff.
So, I composed the main melody for "Laid-Back Lady" imagining a relaxed trumpet. Quite some time later, I came up with lyrics and eventually wrote a bridge. I emphasize that this is a dated song with P.C. challenges, to say the least. However, anyone who watched the old "Dean Martin Variety Hour" would think there was no problem with this! The vocal range is a little wide but the right singer could handle it.
"Laid-back Lady"
by Brian Willliams
I could fall in love
When that laid-back lady smiles
She is what it's all about
Laughter on her lips
And a sparkle in her eye
How can there be any doubt?
CHORUS:
When I see that laid-back lady smile
I could fall in love
I could swear I was dreamin'
When I'm near that laid-back lady's style
It's a cut above
Anything I have known
Faceless in a bar
I just watch the world go by
I'm just like a grain of sand
Then I see her face
Feel her gentle countenance
Now I'm so much more a man
(repeat chorus)
BRIDGE:
Get it together
You know you can
Make it forever
She needs a man
Take it one drink at a time
Make it a double
I do not care
Seein' her leavin'
I could not bear
I could take whiskey or wine
I could blow a kiss
And undress her in my mind
She just makes me salivate
I just make her smile
And enjoy that reverie
Could I make her take the bait?
(repeat chorus)
Addendum: Moe Drabowsky might have been the greatest old-fashioned "prankster" in baseball history. Read his bio and you'll get a feel for the antiquated charm w/ this stuff. He was also a great pitcher, achieving his "15 minutes of fame" in the 1966 World Series for the Baltimore Orioles. He had a lengthy skein of strikeouts. Changes in culture do not entirely explain the antiquated nature of the pranks. Hey, it's our litigious society! Hurting someone with a prank could have regrettable consequences.
My podcast message for today, July 18
The Sundays go by and we must continue to adjust to the pandemic circumstances. Shall I try the drive-in option? I invite you to click on the permalink below for my "Morris Mojo" podcast for 7/18, pondering this and some other things.
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Whither-church-on-Sunday-egu1f1
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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