What would the old man think?

I don’t know how true it is, but I’ve heard an urban legend that the father of Billy Joe Armstrong (the lead singer of Green Day) died on September 1 Armstrong was just seven years old at the time. The child was allegedly so distraught that he locked himself in his room crying. His mother pounded on the door, pleading with him to open up. He told her “wake me up when September ends“

I have heard Armstrong say in an interview that to this day, he cannot sing the lyrics “here comes the rain again falling from the stars / drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are“ without at least getting choked up. So I can only assume that the song is at least semi autobiographical, about Armstrong‘s father. I bring all this up because I’m looking at the calendar and thoughts of my father on my mind today as well

It’s Labor Day today here in the United States. Traditionally, Labor Day is considered the unofficial end of the summer season here in America. It’s also September 1, which would’ve been The Old Man’s 79th birthday.

I tend to get reflective and think a lot about him on both his birthday and Father’s Day. And I don’t know if I’ve written about this particular topic before, but with him being gone for 10 years, this past February, I wonder what the old man would think of the world in 2025.

The Old Man was a career police officer. After retiring, he got something of the second career working as a teacher. He was almost kind of an odd contradiction, politically speaking. As a veteran, and someone working in law-enforcement, it’s not terribly surprising that he historically voted Republican. But I’m pretty sure that he would not have voted for Trump, either time. I think the Donald Trump would’ve been the political line in the sand for the old man. I think he would’ve looked Trump and said “this guy is not a republican. There’s nothing conservative about him.”

In fact, i remember having a conversation with The Old Man several years back, where he was looking back on the 2000 election and admitted that had Bill Clinton been eligible to run for a third term, old man probably would’ve voted for him. His rationale was that the country was doing pretty good. The Old Man took practicality to a fault. I can easily see him saying “if the country ain’t broke right now, why fix it”

I know that he would be absolutely ecstatic to see how well the Tigers have been doing not only last season with this season as well. There’s a part of me that likes to believe that if there is a such thing as Heaven, that’s The Old Man is looking down from up there, maybe calling in some favors, and see how far this team is gonna go this fall. I’ve already made the decision that, should the Tigers win the last game of the season, I’m going to drink a beer at his grave.

I think the old man would’ve really loved having Jimmy John’s Field and the USPBL situated just 10 minutes from bus house. I remember one time shortly after the week started playing, I’d actually had a dream where the old man came to visit me, and he took me on a walk through some woods to Jimmy John’s field. At that point, I’ve never been there; nor did I know that there was a park adjacent to the stadium. I’m sure that he would’ve probably had season tickets to the ballpark; especially during the Tigers lean years

The Old Man was fairly tech savvy and his own rate, but he never wanted to get a smart phone. He never made the plunge into social media. In a lot of ways, I wish I followed his lead on that one. But I have to wonder what he would think now, especially After Covid and the lockdown, and how people have probably retreated even more to their electronic devices than ever before.

I’d like to think that the old man would be proud of me right now. Yeah maybe I haven’t achieved “the American dream” but I’ve got a steady job that pays pretty well. I’m spending as much time as humanly possible with both of my boys. She would be peeing with pride I killed one right now. In fact, he probably be switching over to Wisconsin gear like I am. God, I wish he could have met kid 2. more than that, I wish the kid 2 could’ve known him.

I wonder what my interactions with the old man would be like with me being in my 50s myself. People have told me that as I’m getting older, I’m starting to look more like he did. In fact, I remember X2 saying, more than once, that my dad was a good looking older guy. She went as far as to say something along the lines of “if you end up, looking like him when you’re older, I’d be really happy”. Of course, that was a whole different lifetime.

He’ll be on my mind all day today. of course, it’s not like I don’t think about him a little bit at some point every day.

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