Intro--House-by-the-Lake--Williams Bay

A LITTLE PIECE OF HEAVEN...In finding a house by the Lake...

It was August 1970, my Mom & Dad were looking to find a place closer to the lake. My Dad was really high on moving into this modern-style house in Fontana. Sure, it was a great place, on the lake, with its own pier...but you would have to walk down 40 steep steps to get down to the water...My Mom, on the other hand, fell in love with this older, charming house in Williams Bay, in Cedar Point Park, only a mile away from Knollwood...

This very unique house was originally built way back in the early 1920's by a quite distinguished Mississippi Riverboat Captain who loved the wide expansive view of the Bay...The current owner, at that time, was Leonard Kapooli, the Interior Decorator for Marshall Fields. He had also been a one-time resident of Knollwood, like us, and my sister Maureen got a tip that his new place was up for sale in the Bay...

My Mom kept on insisting it was the perfect place, where Jimmy could go swimming everyday. He could just swim, swim, swim, building up some strength to his muscles in his back, she kept reminding. My Dad, however, just looked at the place, and shook his head, He saw it as an old house that would need lots and lots of work. Of course, my Mom, in the end, won out and we put in a bid for $40,000 and waited...

I remember sitting over in the cozy, small park, out in front, on the rickety, worn-torn, old green benches(which still remain there today), glancing over at this very, very cool house, with my Mom...It was so, so close to the water. It was only about 25 steps to the pier that even had a diving board, too.

My Mom had her fingers crossed because we would know in a few days if Mister Kapooli would accept our bid. Those were an anxious few days. It seemed like a dream house to me and my Mom, having our own place, situated between two nice open parks, where I could run wild all day, only a stone's throw away from the shoreline. Wow. Not far from the beach, either...

It seemed too good to be true. Surely, someone would come in at the last second and out-bid us.

Finally, the day came, our $40,000 bid was somehow fortunately accepted. I think everyone in our family was extremely happy, especially after getting to see this new house in Williams Bay. We got to enter the house to get a peek at what soon would be our home...All I can remember was Kapooli had a wild Austin Powers 60's lay-out. He had black veneer wood flooring with a giant white fur rug in the living room. It was like the ultimate martini lounge...

As we walked thru the house, so many things had the Kapooli influence. The colorful, glistening chrystal chandelier in the dining room...was surrounded by the four dramatically covered walls which were a black & white dense fabric that had some kind of elaborate Venetian Canals theme going on...Very wild...

Out in the kitchen, hanging over the windows, were two chalkboard plaques with poems Kapooli had written...One had a caption that started off with...IN QUIET PEOPLE, THERE IS VISION AND PURPOSE...The other poem contained a caption that ended something equally compelling like...WHAT IS REVEALED TO THE MEEK IS OFTEN HIDDEN FROM THE GREAT...

Both chakboards with the enlightening versus remained a part of the kitchen's decor for years and years. It added some character and a little bit of wisdom for one and all to enjoy...

Also, the beautiful and durably strong white wicker porch furniture inside and the two majestic, heavy, white plaster greyhounds, remain here, outside our front door entrance, to this very day.

Kapooli moved out and we moved in. Only a few things came with us from our Knollwood cottage. An awesome Universal Gas Oven & Range-Top, for our kitchen, that my Grampa Griffin, Gampy, gave my Mom. Also, her bleached mahogony dining room set and a couple of living room coffee end tables...my brothers bunk beds...and my old, giant-size baby bed...all fit in nicely...Everything else was gonna be brand new...

We put down blue/green shag carpeting in the living room. It was thick and bouncy. My Mom then stuck up this giant, cosmic, rectangular blue/green shag wall hanging, with a snazzy swag lamp that hung down to really light it up at night...On either side, were two ultra-mod chrome directors chairs with comfortable, white 8-inch leather straps...Of course, over in front of the picture window was a large royal blue couch(which became the first of many blue couches to follow...)...Then my Mom loaded up all the shelving units with all kinds of books and funky knick-knacks...You could say she had her work cut out for her to transform the house from hipster bachelor pad to cool. chic, family, 70's Americana...

My Dad was pretty busy too...He had this awesome TV antennae installed on top of the house and you could spin it from indoors with an odd circular, electric, dial controller, any which way you would like...You could whirl it NorthEast to pick up Milwaukee...You could whirl it around SouthEast to pick up Chicago...Whirl it Southwest, you would get Rockford...and even whirling it to Northwest would pick up all of the Madison TV stations...There were even some unique circumstances on a clear day where we would pick up Green Bay or Upper Michigan stations. I can even recall tuning into fuzzy channels from Des Moines, Iowa and even ashtonishingly Springfield, Illinois. You just never knew what that antennae would pull in...it was so powerful.

This was long before cable TV came along and we had at least 20 stations to choose from instead of 5 or 6 channels. Milwaukee had the popular Bowling For Dollars...Rockford had Dementia 13, a Friday Night Scary Movie staple...Chicago had all our familiar favorite stuff and the legendary, fright-fest, Creature Features on Saturday Night as well...And all the available sports options from all kinds of baseball games to football games to basketball games and beyond made your head spin, every single weekend, we were up, back then...

Upstairs, my Mom and my sisters would end up creating a fabulous, jeannie bed out of a carved-out alcove bed area, in the guest room. The interior wall was painted a startling rich pink and the bed itself had this wild, cosmic, hot pink, fake fur, bedspread they got from the Borg Fur Factory Outlet in Delavan. They then lined the opening to the jeannie bed from top to bottom, with long strings of hot pink & lime green plastic chrystal-like beads...To top things off...Inside the bed, against the wall was a long row of soft extra furry lime green pillows and extra furry hot pink pillows, which took quite a beating, down the line...

Why...???

Because...Over the early years...Every little boy and little girl...every single one of my sister's kids, always fought over who would get to sleep in the jeannie bed...every night...I can remember playing all sorts of funny card games like Old Maid and Crazy Eights...(I should have had them playing high-stakes, Texas hold-em poker, dammit, they'd all be millionaire Vegas cardsharks by now). It was funny, once, years and years later I would lift up the jeannie bed mattress and see all kinds of old playing cards and kiddie trinkets and baby pacifiers all lying there underneath, covered in dust...as if time had preserved these ancient relics...Hilarious...

Of course, having the neat little hidden alcove lamp light, way back then, allowed me, my Mom and my sisters to read all kinds of children's books classics inside this magical bed to all of my nieces and nephews as they were barely wide-eyed toddlers and up...right before they would nod off to bed. Everyone's eyes always still light up when they fade back and remember the wild, pink furry, jeannie bed...So much a part of all of their Lake Geneva memories...

Of course...looking back...way back at the time in 1970...this was a huge move for us to land so close to the shoreline of Lake Geneva...I think as my Dad finally relaxed, outside on the patio, probably sipping leisurely on a bottle of Pepsi, looking out at the water, he must have eventually realized this was the absolute perfect place for his big family, no matter what kind of shape it was in...What it comes down to...It had been my sister's tip and my Mom's perseverance that would make this house by the lake in Williams Bay our stomping grounds for close to 40 years now and counting...

Quickly, looking at the evolution of the O'Leary's real estate ventures in Lake Geneva. You have to go way back to the 1930's, when my Grampa Griffin had bought two lakefront lots in nearby Lake Como. He then sold those lots and bought the cottage in Knollwood in the mid-1950's. From there, we sold the place in Knollwood for $25,000 and bought the Lake House in Williams Bay for $40,000. Right now, that looks like a less than net $15,000 investment is now worth over a million dollars easy.

I think, for sure, that makes my Mom, hands down, the most insightful investor, in the whole family. Over the years, so many people have come and gone for numerous visits to our Williams Bay hideaway house and walk out onto the patio outdoors, on a nice summer's day and just be totally captivated....It almost has a trade winds of Hawaii, feel to it, blowing a cool breeze off the lake on a hot day or just exuding a quiet, serene beauty where you can become lost without even moving an inch...One of the old owners once came back onto the porch and said he had traveled all over the world extensively and he said nothing matched the feeling he got from standing right there, looking out, staring out, from our vantage point onto beautiful Lake Geneva...

And to think my Mom's family, long ago, would take the train up all the way up from Chicago to Williams Bay(which was the last stop back in the early 1900's) and settle in for the day and have fanciful, elegant picnics in the park in the Bay that incredibly lies only about 200 feet away nearby, to the left side, behind our house. Me and my Mom, sometimes often wonder if it was my Mom's mother, Annie, up in heaven, looking down, who pulled the strings to get us here where we are....

For a number of years, my Mom had a vintage painting of an olde-time family enjoying a picnic by a lake, decked out in Victorian Era clothes...hanging on our living room wall...to signify the link between the now and the past, long ago...It was a fitting tribute and a sign of how much all of the good times each had shared remained sacred, from her happy memories...of her, long-lost Griffin and Burke relatives, telling her stories...of their fun day trips to Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

There are just so many fun-filled memories about our special house-by-the-lake. And I hope I can capture a bunch of them in the many pages that will follow...As a matter of fact, my Lake Geneva memories, wherever they may be, always have and always will be some of mine and my family's all-time favorites, so stay tuned...

2nd GRADE---Little Monsters in the making

2nd Grade--Age 7--Little Monsters In The Making ____________________________________

HOW COME SCHOOL HAS TO GET HARDER AND HARDER EVERY YEAR...!!!

I think that was the battle cry cry from all of us...every year...

Why couldn't we say something like it was our quest for knowledge that catapulted us forward...

Huh...???...This was Tommy More...Let's be realistic...

At age 7...we'd be all ditching every day...if we knew how...And the fact that my lunch box always consisted of either a boiled ham sandwich or P.B.J. sandwich and two measely oreo cookies didn't exactly make me look forward to our lunch break at any given time...either...

Though...now...looking back...2nd Grade was a no-brainer...we simply added a few things that boggled our minds...First off, we had to learn how to write our names, not print our names anymore. This truly was a bummer...And to add insult to injury...we were instructed to go up to the chalkboard and write our names...so everyone could see...

This was pretty scary stuff...because most of us never saw it coming...Suddenly, a chalk stick was thrust into our hand and we were nudged up to the front of everyone...where we became the runaway train wreck about to embarrass ourselves like never before...Sure, almost all of the girls got up there and made a few graceful strokes...but the boys...they were grinding the chalk...into the chalkboard, making screeching noises and an incoherent mess...At least I fell into this notorious category...I was pretty bad back then...and even today...I still print everything I can...at all times...

The only cool thing about using the chalkboard so much everyday is that at the end of the day, several boys were chosen to go outside with the chalk erasers and clap them together until all the chalk dust was gone...

We'd go off into this outdoor area called the breezeway all by ourselves and we'd have a ball, throwing the erasers at each other, deliberately striking a giant chalk mark on each other's school clothes...We'd be hacking and coughing the whole time because there was a ton of chalk dust coming out of those erasers...

After about 5 to 10 minutes...we'd come back into class...as innocent as can be...except for the giant white chalk stains...embedded into our clothes...which was pretty easy to notice...and got a few chuckles...

I remember this special year in 2nd Grade was my first class year with life-long friends...Slim(Pat Farrell)...and Eddie Bar(Eddie Barkowski)...They both had buzz cuts and buck teeth. And they pretty much acted like The Bruiser and The Crusher...Well, maybe not all the time. But their school photos that year are priceless...By the way, my photo was equally absurd as I was sporting the giant sloth look with one extra long tooth, hanging down, and wearing a burnt orange sport coat, which made me look like some bizarre little mobster....

It also didn't help that I had this funky, looks-like-a-dog-bit-off-half-my-right-ear, going for me, too. Somebody quick, call Junior GQ!!! Ah yes...We were all quite the sight to behold...Don't worry...Our looks would rapidly change...And it really wouldn't be long for our full potential as all-out party animals to come forward a few more years down the line...

I think the way coolest thing about the 2nd Grade was the location of our classroom. It was ROOM #8...and it was on the ground floor and it looked out onto the wide expanse of the church parking lot which was also our recess area too...You could peer out at all the older school kids, running wild, having a ball. You could really feel the palpitating energy and excitement, with all of the laughing and shouting and screaming from outside, even though, our teacher, Sister Peter Thomas, tried to keep our attention away from the windows...as much as possible...

I remember my brother Danny said he had his 2nd Grade class in Room #8 five years before...and once they had a fire drill in that same classroom...and he and his buddies jumped out of the windows very quickly and very easily and ran out into the parking lot as the siren rang in the background. They...no doubt...got into big trouble for that...

One funny aspect to 2nd Grade was our advancements into the creative arts world using scissors, colorful construction paper and glue...I think we all set out to use our scissors to cut out the perfect figure, then glue that onto another piece of construction paper. We did have good intentions but the results often ended up looking less than spectacular...As a matter of fact...I think if we saw some of those creations today...we'd wonder what kinda glue were we sniffing that day...

I gotta admit...I was totally, totally into ELMER'S GLUE...It was white...it was sticky...and it even smelled good enough to eat...I would pour a giant glob of Elmer's Glue onto the palms of my hands...spread it around....wait for it to dry...and then peel it off like it was dead skin...It was an extremely unusual fascination, but hey, I was Age 7, and pretty much everything was fascinating at that point in time...to me...

2nd Grade opened up new avenues of friendships with so many girls and boys whose faces I can still recall, vividly...There were just so many kids who were so much like me...We were small but we were catching on so fast to the ways of the world...Most of us still were not allowed too far off of our block we lived on...to play...with all our fun school chums...so hanging out together would have to wait...Yet there was an undeniable bond that would grow stronger & stronger as our years at Saint Thomas More flew by...

First Grade

...FIRST GRADE...AGE 6...THE BRAIN CAPACITY OF A CHIPMUNK...

If we peed in our pants by accident....no big deal...That big wet pee spot would dry out eventually...

Our greatest nemisis...was identifying the difference between A&B, C&D, E&F...and sometimes Y

There were no qualifications to be a FIRST GRADER...You only had to show up...sit down...and let the knowledge sink in...

Our greatest fear was forgetting which locker we left our LUNCH BOX in...

We could barely tie our shoes...We could barely see over the top of our desks...and we couldn't even tell time yet...so the big clock on the wall was some oddity with numbers on it...

Yet we had a slight bit of sophistication towards our knowledge of Crayola Crayons...We were the first 1st Graders to blaze a path with the new giant-size 64 color crayon box...

We actually had the first access to PBS school programming with shows like The Electric Company...and Sesame Street...but...darn...by the time they came on...we were too cool to sit and watch that crap when good shows like The 3 Stooges and Little Rascals were on at the same time...

Our First Grade Teacher inside the hallowed halls of Saint Thomas More was Sister Marie Charlotte...a wonderfully bright and energetic soul who kept us in line with her smarts and her kindness...She could play the guitar wonderfully and she sang beautiful also....

So technically, you could call her THE SINGING NUN of Saint Thomas More. We were truly lucky to have her for a teacher...I can barely remember her short brown hair, always dressed in her nun's habit, yet I will never forget her impact...

Of course...first day of school came and went and no sign of Jim O'Leary...I may have been busy brokering a deal between Nabisco and Jay's Potato Chips so that they could come out with an OREO FLAVORED POTATO CHIP...

Weeks and weeks...would come and go...Where the hell is O'Leary...???...Doesn't he know we are going to be singing KUMBAYA today...???

Then...that fateful day would finally come...My agent had re-negotiated my first grade contract with an open clause that allowed me to choose a FREE CHOCOLATE MILK option. I took it!

As my other classmates had walked thru the door into the first bright little classroom on the left, weeks ago, I had my own flair for the dramatic...I was carried in by my 22 year old sister, Maureen, lugging me along like a heavy sack of potatoes..customized in my retro plaster cast...from chin to waist, covered in a solid, concrete glaze of off-white...

There was nowhere to put me so they pushed 3 desks together and placed me flat out, on top of the desks...in the back of the classroom...where I would lay wobbling and rocking, back and forth, with bubbling excitement...on a daily basis...

My classmates were unphased by my presence...after the initial shock...and we all became fast friends as time went by...some of them for a lifetime...I especially remember Nancy Turcich who looked like an angel despite having two chipped teeth when she smiled...I think we all were a bit shy at that stage...but that didn't last for long...

These were heady times...where we conquered the alphabet and even flirted with counting up to 100...Damn...there was no stopping us...and to think we had such a long way to go...

It didn't bother me that all the kids would go out and run around for recess...Me, my sister Maureen and Sister Marie Charlotte would chat about funny stuff and just be glad we had a short break amidst such a long day of schooling...

As time went by...in First Grade...I would finally get my ungodly restrictive cast off and walk thru the door like any other kid...

I think the first time I walked in...there was a sense of amazement from my classmates. I think they touched me like I was Jesus, risen from the dead...Yes, I told them, the cast was finally off and I'm gonna sit behind a desk like everyone else and be a normal kid like everyone else...

The only difference, my FREE CHOCOLOATE MILK option was expiring and I may have to go with the flow and drink any kind of milk available...from that day on...

I look back now and I am very grateful for my sister Maureen to carry me around, in and out of school, like a sack of potatoes...She must have developed the biceps of a weightlifter but she also had a heart of gold...as the time just flew by...

All in all, I was a very normal, very happy little kid and my time in a cast allowed me to view the world from outside of the box and helped shape my understanding that adversity has its advantages when it is all said and done...

Onward we go...!!!

ADVERSITY

....I know by now...some of you have had very slight glimpses of the medical surprises that arose during my early years...I've purposely avoided trying to draw you into my trials and tribulations of dealing with scoliosis and what-not...I'm a very, very positive person...I very rarely dwell on the negative...This is a huge secret which I hope to impart on one and all...

...ADVERSITY...comes in many ways, shapes and forms into everyone's life at some point in time....Believe me...you are talking to someone who has faced some horrifically bad situations that most people just could not possibly fathom...In many ways...each time you do face ADVERSITY...you learn something about yourself...The fear alone of dealing with traumatic moments that come our way is always more intense than we think we can bare...But it is the triumph of the human spirit...to hang in there...and somehow manage to cope with the pain and suffering and of course...the overwhelming fear of when will this end....

...I would like to try to emphasize that maybe reaching out to God is a valuable asset when in the midst of facing some personal extreme....It certainly can't hurt and you really have nothing to lose...I know this maybe scares some people who do not have much faith but you would be awfully surprised how well it has worked for me...And I am by no means...carrying around rosary beads or in some constant ferver that only God can help you thru extreme circumstances...

...As I stated above...ADVERSITY...actually makes you a stronger person on the inside...Being pushed to the absolute brink of your physical and emotional abilities is something that you never forget...You can always reach back and tell yourself...I've faced adversity before and got thru it and have every intention of overcoming it once again...

...In some strange way...ADVERSITY...has actually become my friend...I've had to make some major adjustments throughout my life...and I've utilized the knowledge of past adversities to stay strong...stay focused...and to always try to remain positive...

...Recently...I've faced the biggest adversity of my entire life...a seven month ordeal of dealing with pneumonia...which took me to the very edge of life and death...on so many occasions...I cannot break down in numbers or shock levels which I had to endure...I had to depend on my closest friends and family members for inspiration to carry on, day in...day out...with an emphasis on hanging tough...

...It's very true...tough times do not last...but tough people do...

...I guess I am very lucky in the sense that I've faced and conquered so many adversities throughout my years...Really, I am no stronger than you...by any means...We all have the inner strength and inner will if we really dig down...deep inside...

...So rather than ramble on and on...I'd just like to share this with all of you...I realize this comes very early on in my memoirs...but for most of the people who know me best...I think it may be one of my greatest virtues I can entrust upon you...

...Life itself...is such a gift...why not just accept the adversities and the triumphs with equal value...Really, they are one in the same...when it all boils down to it...and the fact that always emphasizing the positive despite all of the overwheliming negatives is probably the best way to lead you back to better times ahead...

...You might want to print this out or put a bookmark on this page...You really aren't going to get a more poignant view on ADVERSITY than this testimony...

The Advent of COLOR TV

....It is so unusual to realize you actually grew up at a time when COLOR TV was just coming onto the scene...By no means were the O'Leary's the first ones with a color set...The original color sets were very expensive...and like most people...we could only flock to the TV section at Sears to actually catch a glimpse of what all the buzz was about...

...Eventually, my Dad had landed a policeman's discount from the Zenith factory out in Melrose Park along route 294...He brought it home around Noon on a Saturday in the early fall of 1968...I'm guessing...He did not tell anybody...It was going to be a huge surprise...

...I think he got one of my brothers to help carry down the huge, heavy, brown Zenith box and began to unwrap it slowly...It was a beautiful set...It was actually a nice mahogony wood casing with about a 24 to 27'' screen...It was truly top notch all the way...We connected the antennae wires in the back and then slid it back into place against the wall, facing the couches in our basement...

My Dad turned it on and.....WOW....It was so magically bright and colorful that it made your eyes water...You would just be wiping away tears as you tried to adjust to the intensity of what you were viewing...It was so dazzling...just nothing comes close to those first initial moments...I guess for the younger generation...you could make a comparison to it being like seeing HD for the first time. The Zenith motto back then was: The Quality Goes In Before The Name Goes On...A very catchy yet very relevant statement...They boasted of their advances in technology to make the colors pop out in Technicolor...which was some kind of higher resolution...unknown to TV's up to that point...

...But this was way, way beyond that to our eyes...I know for certain...the first thing we saw on our new color tv was a college football game between Michigan and Ohio State on ABC with Keith Jackson doing the commentary...It was pure sports heaven...

...Days would pass and you actually found yourself turning off your old favorite tv shows that were being still run in black and white and tuning into something projecting out the colors...Eventually, this phase would end and you got used to flipping back and forth between color and black/white programming...

....I can remember going up to Knollwood for the summer and being stuck watching our old black/white set up there for 3 months straight months...Then, when you finally arrived back on the South Side...I remember running downstairs immediately to catch a glimpse of that new color tv and the love affair began all over again...

...So there you have it...I know for some of you this brings back the memory of your first color tv...and to others much younger...it is glimpse of what new technology was just emerging during our era...It is pretty darn funny...no matter how you look at it...

Did they really put a man on the moon...??

....This is kind of an odds and ends look at some of the actual moments in history I was fortunate enough to remember...Call it my FOREST GUMP MOMENTS...!!!!

...First up...I was actually 6 years old, completely wrapped up in a plaster cast from neck to hips, lying in a hospital bed placed in our basement in front of our tv when I first witnessed a hisorical moment...It was about 2-3AM when I was actually woke up by a bee sting of some sorts....It scared me out of my sleep and I couldn't figure what had bitten me...I awkwardly rolled back and forth trying to regain my composure...As I looked down at the TV...something very bizarre was occuring...Neil Armstrong was about to walk on the moon...I was just startled that this amazing moment was occuring at 3AM and I was the only one in my house awake to witness it...Of course, by the next day I was more fascinated by a rerun of the Addams Family than I was of some silly little moon walk...but it was always something that would stick with me...and I would come to appreciate this unique experience...and how a bee bite...would allow me to catch one of the most hallowed moments in American history...

Down the line...I was always an addict of Monday Night Football on ABC...One special evening, well into the 3rd Quarter of some game...announcer Howard Cossell, suddenly stopped talking about the game in progress and just began mumbling in disbelief that John Lennon had just been shot in New York City...I could tell Cossell was very shaken because only a year back they had John Lennon in the booth with them and they were having a ball...going at each other. Lennon admitted he had no idea about the rules of American football but he enjoyed the spectacle surrounding the event...Spring ahead a year later...As the broadcast continued, Cossell came on with the news that Lennon had been pronounced dead...He just sort of cursed at how could this possibly happen...It was a very strange moment where sports took a backseat to reality and it kind of left you numb that such a tragedy like this could ever happen...

...One day while having lunch at this giant Greek restaurant that was kind of a cafeteria, a block away from DePaul's downtown campus...I'm guessing around Wabash & Addams...I was in the cafeteria line looking at the various entrees and what-not...Suddenly we looked up at a TV screen above us about 7 feet away and the Challenger space ship was taking off...It was really no big deal...We've all seen so many blast-offs over the years...As the rocket rose about 30 seconds into its lift-off...it just blew up and disintigrated in a flash...We all just kind of waited for some kind of picture showing the rocket going further up in the sky...But instead the camera began to descend lower and the smoke and flares were all that remained of this horrifying moment...it was pretty bizarre trying to make sense of what had just happened...

...When I had moved to Williams Bay in the early 90's...I kind of got hooked on late night talk radio that was just exploding on the scene...Larry King...Tom Snyder...many, many others would bring on controversial individuals and let them vent their radical views on the public...For some reason I woke up one morning and the radio was still on...A somber voice came on and announced that famous blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn had disappeared after a concert at Alpine Valley when he was last seen flying off in a helicopter...Later on, they found the wreckage and all lives were lost and it would literally mean the end of the hey dey of Alpine Valley being a prime destination for all the famous musical acts...In so many ways...it was very, very sad...

...Finally...one morning I was up early...not too early...but some plane had just crashed into the Twin Towers in New York...I had on the NBC Morning Show with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric and nobody had really been able to put together any notion of all the events that would rapidly occur in succesion as the morning moved forward...I wasn't so shocked because it all seemed like it was all part of some hoaky action movie...Towers collapsing...clouds of smoke everywhere, people just running for their lives...As the day progressed...so many other networks each had a unique perspective of all the chaos that had ensued...It was just totally unbelievable...I'd be switching back from CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC...and on and on and on...It actually seems like such a long time ago...and everyone really wants to forget about that day...But it truly was...one of the most terrifying days in American history...

...So as you can see...there are some moments of historical events that I can reach back and recall very vividly...Most of them I wish never happened but you really can't change those moments in any way...There are always going to be some shocking moments in history that will be a part of your life whether you like it or not...

Clarifications & What-Nots

...I'm coming to a point here while writing...where I've gotta add some retractions and make some things a little clearer...I want these Memoirs as close to 100% on the mark as can be...

...First off, the butcher knife I handed my brother Dan was actually more like a giant steak knife. I just had a hard time figuring what the exact measurements were but we are talking 40 years ago, and I just remember it being the biggest knife in the drawer...Funny thing is, back in those days, they would sell these giant knifes and people would bring them home and they wouldn't even slice butter...My Dad was in his glory when he brought home an electric knife made by Sunbeam...It had a dual blade system that would saw both blades in opposite direction and give you an extremely clean slice every time...These knifes were very, very loud...You could not hear anything but the roar of the blades churning while in progress...My Dad took great pride in slicing up our meats to perfection whether it was a roast beef rump roast or a Thanksgiving turkey...You could just see him light up when my Mom would ask him to pull out the electric knife...Of course, I watched in wonder as my Dad would be in action, carving away...I just found it utterly fascinating...

Second, I'm not sure if my brother Joe was at the ND/Michigan game...I thought for sure he was with us but I only remember me and Danny out on the field after the game ended and the place was up for grabs...No big deal, Joe got to see the Chicago Bulls win a title game at the United Center during the Jordan era...so he has his own awesome legendary sports moments also...

...Third, and finally, the station wagon that crashed into the Knollwood tree was actually hurtling backwards down the hill...and caused damage to the back end...The actual cause was someone actually released the emergency brake...My sisters were running next to the wagon as it went downhill and kept yelling at Danny to get down and cover up...I've just got the clarification on that story.

...No big deal...all the stories remain relevant and I'm glad everyone has the inside scoop on some of the wacky nuances that come to light as these Memoirs roll on...

The Family---Part 2---My Brothers

...Thank God I've only got 2 brothers to cover instead of 5...Egad...This should be a little easier...My brothers Joe and Danny were absolutely hilarious to be around growing up...It's true there was a huge difference in our ages...Joe was 9 years older than me...and Danny 5 years older than me...but we always seemed to get along...in a strange brotherly way...

...I can remember my brother Joe being about 15 and Danny 10 when they would have one of their all-out donneybrook battles of hockey in our basement....Somehow, Joe had gotten Danny so mad that he had lifted an entire couch off the floor and had Danny pinned underneath, as Dan desperately tried to squirm out of this choke-hold and come out swinging again...Well, minutes would pass, and Danny would not give up, he had this relentless determination, a ferocious competitve spirit...that just would never say die...As Danny was turning blue and sputtering out of breath...he told me...Jimmy...to run upstairs and get the biggest knife I could find in the kitchen drawer...I ran upstairs...and sure enough grabbed a huge butcher knife and ran downstairs to Dan...Joe got a little scared and was yelling...Don't give that to him!!!...But here was Danny...almost regaining his second wind...with the thought of having this knife to turn the tables...I gave Danny the knife and it was an all-out colossal battle once again...

Suddenly, one of my sisters ran down and started yelling at my brothers...Quit fighting and clean this basement up or I'm telling Dad!!!...This just sent a shockwave thru both of them...As bad as it might seem that they were entwined in an immortal battle...The thought of my Dad coming home and just crushing them with his blustery temper...put the fear of God in them...

...It was always like that...Plus...Another great hockey moment was when they played this game called SLAPSHOT...I was more or less, put in the corner of the basement where the steps led upstairs to the kitchen...which was one of our so-called hockey nets...My brothers then would put all kinds of layers of protection on me...I'd have like 3 winter coats zipped up on me...my Dad's work boots...and a catcher's mask and huge goalie knee pads...Next, they both pretended they were Bobby Hull, the superstar player of the Chicago Blackhawks, who had a blistering slapshot, and my brothers began unwinding shots directly towards me...Some of the shots were so wild that they would fly 20 feet to the right and crash into the glasses stacked behind our bar...Some of the shots were so hard, that they would actually knock out a huge chunk of tile that lined the steps that led up to the kitchen...Some shots I actually stopped but most of the time...the tremendous speed on the orange plastic pluck just blurred by me into the net...

...As time rolled on...me and my brothers grew apart...It was just a natural transition because of our age differences...Joe was at Notre Dame...Danny was at Brother Rice high school and I was having a blast at Tommy More...We seldom got together but whenever we did...it was a great time...

...I guess the one moment that sticks out when we were all together was for a Michigan/Notre Dame football game back when Danny was in college...Somehow, the game came down to a final field goal attempt by John Carney of Notre Dame to try to win the game...It would be the longest attempt in Notre Dame history...over 50 yards...I remember me and my brothers had all met up in the end zone...and would have a clear vantage point of the kick as it flew thru the air...

...It was a very tense moment...but as the ball was snapped, hundreds of Notre Dame students came running onto the field...screaming and screaming...Almost everyone in our end zone section began running out onto the field also...It was absolute pandomonium as the football hurtled upward from the kicker and finally made its way right down the center of the goal posts...

...It was not only a tremendous moment in Notre Dame football history...but for us...it was just a truly amazing sight to behold...It's too bad we didn't have more wild moments together like that but me and my brothers did get together for my brother Danny's bachelor party held at my DePaul area apartment years later...I don't think that crazy party ended until 7am the following day...

...Over the years...my brothers remain a vital part of my life...We talk on the phone when we can and I think it is very funny how we all have mellowed out over the years...Of course, they have their kids and their jobs that occupy most of their time, now...but essentially we still will always be brothers thru thick and thru thin...

...You really can't choose your brothers or sisters...You are more or less stuck with the lot that you are drawn...But over the years...I have been blessed with some pretty good siblings who have come and gone, in and out, throughout my life...So essentially...there you have it...a little more insight to some of the people who have shaped my life...There are many more people and many more moments to come...so hold on tight...because my wild and wooly years lie right around the corner...