Tag Archives: Tartars

That Was A Blur

Wander around in your mind and take yourself back to your high school years. Think about how much you’ve changed since then, how differently you think, how you’ve gone through countless experiences–good and bad–to become the person you are right now.

Back in my day, (oh, dear God, there goes grandpa again, reminiscing) there were only two types of schools: Elementary, grades Kindergarten through 8th; and then, off to high school for 9th through 12th grades. Having a September birthday, I was 13-years-old when I first started at Torrance High School and only 17 when I walked the walk and got my diploma that June of 1973.

I can easily remember “Grad Night”, where I had that feeling as I turned in my cap and gown, that now, I was a real adult. I was preparing to leave the nest and head north to the University of Washington that fall, to live away from my parents for the very time and make decisions on my own.

The jolt, the slap in the face is that was fifty years ago. Half a century back in time from when the Viet Nam war was winding down, there were rotary dial phones, one of the newest accessories in cars were the seat belts and so on. In other words, a long-frickin’ time ago.

This past weekend, I attended my 50th high school reunion of the class of 1973 and surrounding classes, as organizers decided to open it up to all graduates of Torrance High that could make it. And, it was a blast!

But at the same time, it was overwhelming. So many familiar and formerly familiar faces, some I hadn’t seen in five decades. Others, I had seen briefly at the many reunions over the years, but I had a hard time remembering who was there and who wasn’t.

I was quite the “rah-rah” as they called it back then, really involved in activities and the student life. I was in the marching band, I played on the basketball teams, I was Senior Class President and A.S.B. Vice-President.

Because of my shy, timid nature, I was asked by the organizers of the reunion to emcee things and keep it going. I said, “Sure”, but as needed. I didn’t want it to be the Tim Hunter show. The most important part of that gathering were the one-on-one conversations, reconnecting with people, or actually talking with the people we stayed in touch with on Facebook. That was the reason we were all there.

But being the hambone I am, I did prepare some lines for the gathering and if you were there, you may or may not have heard these, as attention spans varied. I thought I’d share a few of them I snuck in during my announcements:

Welcome everybody and you know, it’s so hard to believe it’s been 50 pounds ago. YEARS! I meant, 50 YEARS ago.

You know you’re getting old when your wife says, “Let’s go upstairs and make love” and you respond, “Honey, it’s one o rthe other but I can’t do both.”

To all those teachers that said I’d never amount to anything: Lucky Guess!

I don’t mean to brag, but I can still fit into my high school flip flops.

Yes, I’m wearing a Dodgers Hawaiian shirt, but I’ve also got on my Mariners Speedo. Don’t make me show it!

How long ago is 50 years? Seth MacFarlane, Heidi Klum, Neil Patrick Harris, Pharrell Williams, Dave Chappelle, Ichiro Suzuki and Monica Lewinsky all turn 50 this year. Each of them could have been one of your kids!

Two of my favorite stories: When we gave away an overnight at the Torrance Marriott Hotel, the winner pointed to a guy standing in the crowd and was quick to point out that she had invited him to the Sadie Hawkins Dance (where the girl asks the guy) and he stood her up. Way to go, Marla! Revenge, 50 years later.

The second moment was when a couple of guys came up to me because I had cracked them up with some of the zingers and they introduced themselves as “a couple of spouses” and I was thinking, well, that’s nice. But these days, everyone’s free to love whoever they want. It turns out they were talking about the fact they were each a spouse of some Torrance High alums that were attending.

Oh, for Pete’s sake.

I figured Brian Miller wasn’t going to attend the reunion. He was a couple of years younger than me but his claim to fame was being an accomplished drummer, who went on to direct the CBS Orchestra where he met and eventually married Carol Burnett! Yeah, don’t do the math.

The Senior Class Clowns back together again!

Gotta give a shout out to Sal and Andy, along with Debbie and David, who were the work horses in pulling this off. Over a year and half in the planning and it just plain all worked out. They handled the permits and the details, arranged the food and the sponsors, got the prizes to give away and did an amazing job. There was a daytime picnic at Torrance Park and an evening gathering at a local brewery, where Scott Ellis, one of the classmates, and his band wowed the crowd. The reunion was a wonderfully casual, “let’s just hang and talk old times” event.

There were cool kids and outcasts, the shy and the outgoing, cheerleaders and jocks, straight-A students and dropouts, and all were just a glance at a name tag away from a flood of memories. 50 years ago, people, 50 years. Wow!

That was a blur.

Tim Hunter

Time IS Marching By…

I don’t know how I ended up in this particular place at this point, but time is racing along.

Oh, there have been weeks that seem like they last forever. But lately, it seems as though I blink and we’re heading into another month.

As we stand now, November arrives a week from Friday. Really?  Thank God Thanksgiving is so late; but, then again, that means there are fewer days between the end of November and Christmas. OK, quick reality check–Christmas is just 9 weeks from today.

I’d like to circle around to the thought that was inspired from all this: Make it count.

It’s just another day at work–make it count.

Got one more parent/teacher conference–make it count.

Yeah, this is a pulpit I’ve preached from before, but I’m called to remind everyone reading this collection of ramblings: if you do anything over the next couple of years, make them count.

I was just a nerdy kid who left a Lutheran elementary school and found himself in a public school with very few friends. That seems like yesterday.

I ended up a pretty popular high school student, who played on the basketball team, dated the girl of his dreams and was Senior Class President, ASB vice-president and Senior Prom King. As Walter Brennan used to say, “No brag. Just fact.”

Off into the real world I went and I can easily come up with a handful of moments where I wished I had “made them count.” But instead, I let them pass, figuring there were lots more opportunities like that in the future. That isn’t always the case.

I remember Al, the overnight security guard at KOMO radio & TV, who I befriended during my radio days there. He just wanted friends. At one point, Al had to be hospitalized and so I thought, I’ll get down and visit him eventually. He never returned.

There was a girl I was dating my senior year of college that I pretty much disbanded. I thought it was just too darn early to settle down and it probably was, but she was a quality human being and I was a young guy trying to get it all out of his system. I owe her more than an apology, but I’ve offered that and she said it wasn’t necessary.

So, people move on. Maybe I’m the one hanging on to things I should let go. I’m seriously convinced that everything that happens in our life has a purpose, maybe even a lesson attached. Geeze, I’ve learned a ton of lessons during my years on this rock and I’m grateful for all of them. I’m also big on “everything happens for a reason” in that, where I’m at today is an accumulation of everything I’ve experienced before.

And here we are. I’m here, married to an amazing women who cares about the things in her life more than I could ever dream. Oh, I love my wife, my kids, my mom and sisters, and all the relatives I stay in touch with. I really do appreciate you. But the curse of being a perfectionist is that you review what you did–good or bad–and continually reevaluate if it was the right thing to do.

And because of that “everything happens for a reason–good or bad” philosophy, I’ll have to assume my choice was correct.  In putting a high value on time, it seems like its wasteful reliving things that have already happened. They had their time, as that precious commodity disappears so quickly.

So do whatever it takes to slow it all down. Don’t be in a hurry for it to all be over. Let it breathe, enjoy the ride and while I’m at it, thanks to everyone who has been a part of my incredible journey.

And as your ride continues….make it count.

Tim Hunter

       I still remember posing for that picture

Hug ‘Em While You’ve Got ‘Em

You may have gotten up this morning and had a slightly stiff neck you’re going to have to deal with all day. Maybe later, you’ll accidentally spill coffee in your car, some jerk will open up his door into your car or your boss is in an uber-bad mood.

Life is loaded with ups and downs. We think things like the above-mentioned challenges are ‘downs’. Actually, they’re just part of life.

For every dropped glass there’s a beautiful sunset. For each time you do battle with a cold there’s the giggle of a baby that makes you smile. The key is to focus on the goods and just let the bads pass. At least, that’s always been my philosophy. Live is balance.

I look back on my high school days as jam-packed with lot of goods. I managed to win over the girl of my dreams (at the time, they were young dreams), played basketball, had some great friends, did the popularity thing–it was just all in all a great experience for me.

Among the good ones I met along the way was Mike Duarte. Mike was just a solid guy and while we didn’t hang around often, whenever he saw me, he’d say hi. We’d exchange pleasantries. He was a super-athlete. Mike was a 3-sport athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball with intensity. I still remember that husky voice and chiseled good looks. You could just tell this guy was going places and had a bright and beautiful future ahead.

So it didn’t surprise me when I heard later at a reunion that he had gone into law and was taking on the L.A. gangs. These days, he’s the Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County. I understand that he and his wife Barbara have a couple of kids: Mikey, who picked up dad’s athletic jeans and is now in the Chicago White Sox farm system, and a beautiful daughter, Christiana, who goes by the name Chrissy. She was a recent graduate of the University of Arizona and had just landed a job in the marketing department of the L.A. Kings.

Both kids, just like their father, seemed to have a tremendous future ahead. But Chrissy’s life will remain forever frozen in time. She will always be 22. Her incredible smile, the playful pictures she took, the singing voice some friends were lucky enough to hear was silenced. Chrissy was one of the 58 victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting.

I haven’t spoken to Mike in decades but it’s just heart-breaking to see something so tragic happen to a family of really good people. It just eats me up that this tragedy will become the latest high-water mark for a deranged mind in the future who will feel the need to randomly shoot even more innocent people. The gun debate will be revived for a short time, it will fade away and nothing will be done to make our world safer. We’ll all just wait for the next event, which continue to get progressively worse, praying we won’t lose a family member in the process.

There will come a tipping point when people feel enough is enough. The gun debate is a war of extremes.  As more and more people lose their children, their family members and their futures to senseless gun violence, there will be a solution. I just wish we’d get there sooner than later. I would think that if you have loved ones, you’d have a pressing desire to make simple things like going to a country music concert non-life threatening.

I can’t imagine the horror of what the Duarte family is going through, but it’s amazingly easy to think of how many ways that tragedy could have been prevented.

Last Thursday, the LA Kings honored Chrissy by having all the players wear CD helmet stickers.

There is a GoFundMe campaign to help the Duartes with all the expenses involved in burying a daughter that was taken from them way too soon.

Another senseless act serving as a reminder: hug ’em while you’ve got ’em.

Tim Hunter