Why I Oughta...

The last time I posted a #TBT photo of my youth soccer team it was the core group of guys that I played with for almost ten years .  Today's photo is of the same team, technically.  But it isn't all of the core boys.  There are some guys like Tom, Loran, John, Ted, Matt, Chris and Russ in here, but we supplemented with a few older/different guys from what I can best describe as a 'different soccer dimension'.  They were skilled players, but from a different club scene. This photo is from either my seventh or eighth grade years, so I was 13 or 14 years old and I had the pouty teen thing down, right? We're playing in Ireland in 1991 or 1992 and you can see the sign in the back reads Pike Rovers Football Club .  We were representing the USA in some fashion (not officially), but we were wearing French National jerseys because they were pretty close to what the US Men's National Team were wearing at the time - but the US ones had the colors only on one should...

This happened a while back, but I just came across it again in Google Photos.  It is Businessolver - a benefits administration company based in West Des Moines, Iowa - showing up on a Times Square billboard.  Since it is Thursday, let's call this #TBT (but it is really more like a #latergram if it is anything...)  They're an Edelman client (I've tagged this post #client for full disclosure.) and we did this in the early winter.  Posting this here in my online diary to remember that time we were involved in a Times Square billboard.  (Hey kids reading this from the future if this post is still up:  these were a *thing* that brands used to do.)

Those were the days.  I was going through some of my personal effects and came across this piece written by Tony Scott at the Kendall County Record (I think?!) that covers some of the shenanigans we were up to back in the early aughts.  I made some of the strongest connections of my career during these JoinCross.com blogging days as Chris Rhodes.  Pretty incredible to think back at how far the Boss let us go with the blog.   Today?  They're probably right to be a bit more careful with their political image.  And who's blogging today anyway?!? Here's post from the archives here on the blog from Dan Johnson-Weinberger that talks about the same thing Tony Scott says :  those were some heady days of GOP blogging. 

With my parents cleaning out their place in Michigan, I have recently come across a few photos.  One of them was the Dan Hampton picture I posted back at the beginning of August .  And above, is another one featuring my long-time soccer teammates and coach Mike Mural.  From the looks of it, we won a trophy of sorts? And, I was wearing two pairs of shorts?  Was *that* a thing? Some of these guys I still see and stay in touch with, while others have faded away.  Oddly, I lived with two of these guys in college?!?  But, I still can name every one of them in the photo. There were a few others (Russ, Ted, Tom) that are missing, but...this is the core of the crew that I spent likely thousands of hours with practicing, traveling and playing.   And having the time of my life.  I can only hope that my kids find a group or tribe that they, too, can grow up with and learn the joys of playing team sports together.

I spent a few minutes digging through some boxes in my parents' garage in Michigan recently and came across this framed photo that I *think* came from my Dad's office at Governor's State from back in the day.  That's me on the left right next to my Dad and my sisters Vic and Linda are in there, too.  Along with both Aaron and Matt Levy. And the big guy in the middle in the Cosby Sweater?  That's the Danimal.  Dan Hampton. I TOTALLY remember this day.  There was a brand new grocery store opening in Frankfort called Apples.  And they were having a sort of raffle of some sort.  I don't totally remember the logistics of the contest, but I *do* remember what you won:  Dan Hampton, of the Chicago Bears, was going to deliver a few bags of groceries to your house! And, it turned out that a friend of my parents won and we weaseled our way in there to get this photo - and from the looks of something I'm clutching - an autograph or two. That day ha...

Today's "Throwback Thursday" post is the latest in the series here on the blog featuring some photos that I recovered from Flickr and transferred to Google Photos recently.   You can see the details here, including a photo of Da Mare and myself at the Joan ! These photos in this post are from October of 2005 and are from a fundraiser that was for my campaign for re-election to the Frankfort Village Board held at Die Bier Stube in Frankfort.  As you can see, the 'guest of honor' that night was former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson.  Yeah...pretty cool, right? How this came about is an interesting story about my time in politics - both at the local level as a Village Trustee, and in State politics as the driver and digital hack for Tom Cross, the then House Minority Leader in Illinois. Over the course of a few years and during dinners, time at the GOP convention, and assorted other what-have-yous, I was able to get to know The Governor and his right-hand-ma...

In another of the continuing series of #Throwback Thursday moments that are here courtesy of the migration of my old photos from Flickr to Google Photos, here is this photo of me and Joel Murray and one of his kids.  This is from 2004 or 2005, so it is 12 years ago.  (The date didn't stick with the Flickr download for some reason.) Joel Murray is a working actor .  And he's a super great dude, too.  We have a relation to him through my sister and her husband.  Won't go into the whole thing, but that's how we ended up here.  Nat and I - before we had kids - stayed in the Murray's pool house for a few nights in Los Angeles.  I have a very vivid memory of this trip with Nat.  It was pretty early in our relationship and this was just.one.of.the.many.things that cemented my feelings about her and made me fall deeper in love with her.  I still remember that trip - this being one of those stops and how it fueled our relationship by building up t...

This photo - which like last week's was rescued from my old, abandoned Flickr archives is from September of 2005 when I was a Village Trustee in the Village of Frankfort and I was about to dominate the annual pie eating contest.  Yep...two time winner is *this guy*.   I don't remember if I won in 2004 and 2005 or 2005 and 2006.  But, as you can see by the kid next to me, it wasn't super top-notch eating talent.  And, if there's one thing I can do well, it is eat fast.  That's nothing new.  It was just being in a position to eat banana cream pies in a competition that brought out that talent.  I remember smelling banana pudding for a long time after these things.  I also remember the winning award:  a year's worth of pies from Enrico's.  Natalie and I used to go in there once a month, pick up a pie and bring it to my folk's house.  My dad loved those banana cream pies!

A week or so ago, I came across this story on Wired entitled: "How to get your photos off Flickr (and where to put them)" that made me try to figure out how to get into my long-ago-abandoned Flickr account.   Once I gained access, I found that I had a few thousand photos there that I'd long forgotten about.  Ranging in dates from January of 2002 all the way up until October of 2008.   Flickr has made it *somewhat* easier to pull them down.  You can batch download them, but if you get too greedy and select too many photos to download at a time, it gets flaky and the whole thing grinds to a state of constant stalling.  But, after a few trials/errors, I found a good groove of pulling down a few months at a time, unzipping those folders, then using the Google Photos Uploader to put each batch up to Google Photos.  There's a bunch of stories that go with the photos that I've unearthed and because what the kids are doing these days are #Throwback Thursdays, ...

From the Elmhurst History Museum Facebook Page comes this photo above of the Elmhurst City Centre in the early spring of 1975.  Besides the cars, there's a bunch of details that come to life when you look closely.  First...there appears to be a signal just north of the tracks.  See those three cars sitting north of the Union Pacific West train tracks while the yellow car crosses First Street?  That just feels like an accident waiting to happen.   Also, see the lack of gates/crossing gates on the north side of the tracks and by the sidewalks?  'Just go ahead...walk across!' On the right looks to be Stones Shoes where you could buy 'Nunn Bush Shoes' where the LW Reedy Real Estate office is on the corner.  And two signs north, the red sign on the east side of York Street reads "Chop Suey" where I think the York Furrier location is today. Also, check out the banner hanging across the street up where the Plass Appliance building is (was!) today. ...

This morning, I found myself sitting at my sister's desk up in her office and noticed this black and white photo of my Momma on her wedding day.  Looks like she's carrying a bouquet of long-stemmed flowers.  Don't see that happening today, right? Not sure where Vic and Equation Boy got some of the photos around their house, but they have some sweet ones of our family from back in the day - including a few of me as a little guy.  Maybe I'll share some of those here on the blog at some point...