Friday May 4th, 2012 – Rosemont, IL
My former ‘Morning Loop Guys’ radio partner Max Bumgardner was in Chicago on a business trip, and pleasantly surprised me with a phone call this afternoon. It’s always a treat to hear from Max, and he said he had the evening free and wanted to see if I’d be able to hook up for dinner.
I just happened to be freshly available as well, as I’d thought I had a date but she suddenly had to ‘work late’ and backed out at the last minute. Maybe it’s true, or maybe it isn’t. My spirits had started to sink more than a little, but when Max called I felt delighted to have gotten blown off.
I can get rejected by women any time - and I often do. Old friends take precedence. She wasn’t even that great, but since I didn’t have a gig tonight I thought I’d better try rustling up something female before I’m too old to do anything about it. My work schedule makes dating even harder.
Maybe I’ll get to be a stud in the next world. It isn’t looking good in this one. Every time I find a woman I like, there’s always some wacked out glitch that comes out of nowhere to destroy our chances of ever getting together to build anything lasting. There’s always some psychotic ex who drifts back into the picture or a kid that gets in the way, you name it. I’m about ready to give up.
All I want is a nice woman who wants to be in a relationship and gets who I am and what I do. I’d prefer one who doesn’t look like a war pig, but she doesn’t have to be a centerfold either. I’m not Brad Pitt, and I never claimed to be. But there has to be SOMEONE out there that I can hook up with for a lasting relationship that’s not a booze hag or gold digger, doesn’t there? Maybe not.
Max’s call made me forget about all that, and remember how much fun we had as a team along with Spike Manton when we worked at the Loop - especially off the air. We were all on the same page, and really got along well. We all genuinely liked each other, and could have had a long fun run together had we been given the chance. It’s never going to happen now, and it still haunts us.
I asked Max if he’d talked to Spike recently, and he hadn’t. Neither had I, but that’s a common occurrence with him. He’s busy in his own world, trying to support his family. We all know that, but when we do get together it’s like we were never apart. I asked Max to call Spike and see if he could make it as well. Max jumped at the idea, and before long he texted back to say it was a go.
We ended up meeting at the Giordano’s in Rosemont, IL. That just happened to be close to the hotel Max was staying in, so it was fine with all of us. I would have settled for the rescue mission sitting next to sweaty vagrants eating cat food for a chance to hang with my two radio brothers.
It really does feel like we’re war veterans or something. NOBODY else knows how difficult it was to go through that year of pain in developing our show. It was hellish in many ways, but we got along so well there were a lot of laughs too. It was the gamut of emotions from top to bottom.
Looking back now we remember the fun times a lot more. We laughed so hard we could barely finish eating. We’ll never get our shot we were being groomed for, and that’s just how life goes. Nobody cares but us, but we’ve made friends for life and it was special to get to see them again.
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