Thursday, March 01, 2012

So the journey begins in 1987... I was a MEASLY little 7th grader and Mike, my older brother was in 11th. Much to my mom's 'disappointment', he started hanging out with Dave. You see, Mom taught CCD (Religion) and Dave was, to put it lightly, 'disruptive'... I remember her coming home and talking about this kid named Dave who was a HELLION! Where was I?? OH YEAH!!! So my brother starting hanging out with Dave and other older kids like Todd Hopkins and they started to allow me to hang out with them. 



I think it was a ‘let’s try to corrupt Mike’s little brother to really RILE UP Mrs. McBride' who they affectionately called ‘Catholic Kate’!!! HA!!! I still use that name, just check out older posts in my blog and it’s plastered all over it when I talk about my mom. Hanging out with the OLDER KIDS was great!!! I was a COOL kid because I HUNG OUT WITH OLDER, COOL ONES!!!! He and the others taught me the finer things in life: like how to tap a keg, how to properly pour a beer without a ton of foam using the grease from your nose to reduce the foam if it had a lot of it. My musical horizons were broadened too!! I can’t tell you how much I listened to Van Halen’s 5150 and OU812 (I made sure to put those in his casket. While crying my eyes out and accidentally blowing snot on his mom, I asked and she said OF COURSE.) WHERE WAS I? They ALWAYS had new music and would let me listen to it so I could soak it in KRIPES! How many of you out there know that a band called Hurricane was the opening act for Stryper because they were on the same label???? I know that stuff because of DAVE!!!!! I was like a sponge and absorbed everything he said and did!!! They ALWAYS asked if I wanted to go see bands up in Buffalo on A BUS THEY RENTED!! Let me say that again, AN EFFing BUS they rented!!!!!!! They took me to an all day festival up at the University of Buffalo and I saw Living Colour before anyone ever heard of them and I got to see the Ramones!!!! How cool is that?! Again, I want to remind you that I was only in 7th-8th grade when all this was going on…. How great of a story it is that I, Andy McBride, can tell people that I was a passenger on a bus they rented to go see the MONSTERS OF ROCK (Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica and Kingdom Come) TOUR at Rich Stadium!?!?!?!?!?!? Oh and FYI, that would go over like a fart in church these days!!! IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! And let’s NOT FORGET about, dare I say, the BEST party EVER on 10-23-87! You remember stuff like births, weddings, touching a bare breast for the first time AND DAVE’S PARTY!!!! MY GOD! So many memories!!!! Dustin (RIP) taking my friend Mark Singer and Billy Miller around and looking for ‘skully’!!!!! Getting so drunk that Dustin and Dan Brill had to get us and sober us up so we could make it home…. When I moved to Charlotte in the summer of 88, I was scared out of my mind BUT I adjusted well thanks to the lessons that Dave taught me. KRIPES!!!! I was an EFFING GOD because I listened to cool music that Dave listened to and I knew what was needed to throw a sweet KEGGER!!!! ALL BECAUSE of what Dave and co. taught me!!!!! Not only do I have fond memories of him but of his family too. I remember his step dad NuNu (his nickname) watching the end of a Bills game in 1987 where they were losing a close game and saying “Boys, this team is going places! They are so good and when they learn how to win games it’s going to be great.”



4 straight Super Bowls later HE WAS RIGHT. Also he said something that has ALWAYS stuck with me. He said, ‘Guys, do you know when the honeymoon is over?? It’s when you and your new bride are in the bathroom together and ya see her on the toilet and say WHAT ARE YOU DOING and she says I’m taking a $#!t. That’s when you know the honeymoon is over!!!” HA!!!!! I’m sorry but I STILL laugh every time I say/write that. His mom called me Eddie Van Halen because I kinda looked like him and I had a SWEET mullet (party in the back and business in the front)!


I know there are TONS of other memories that I am forgetting about and a few that the ‘statute of limitations’ STILL apply to plus NO ONE has proofread this so there might be some misspelled words and grammatical errors BUT I just started typing what came to my mind!!! I’m gonna miss BUCKO!!!!! Feb 2, 2012.

THAT'S WHAT I WROTE WHEN I LEARNED THAT DAVE WENT TO THE BIG VAN HALEN CONCERT IN THE SKY... I went up to his funeral because it was the RIGHT thing to do. I saw some people that I haven't seen in 20+ years, the majority of people it was GREAT to see and catch up with, others (WELL just one person) I have no problem NEVER seeing AGAIN and this is what I and the majority of others think of them... ANYWAYS, it was very bittersweet because I saw some old friends BUT we all were there because we all lost one of our own.
As you can tell, I haven't done much to the house. SURE I did a few things, BUT I will talk about them WHEN the time is right. Besides heading up to NY I also went back up to VA. to the Boike/Mese farm because I had such a good time up there last month. LOOK what I got!!!


It's a skeleton head of a bull!!!! This thing will look SWEET in my garage!!!!!
Oh and HEY do yourself a favor and go to the Air and Space Museum in DC. It is LIKE TOTALLY RAD!!!!! LIKE OMG!!!!!


In other news, Not to make people think that I said “SCREW TECHNOLOGY” and moved to a cabin with no electricity in Montana, I gave up F/B for Lent….. It’s like when I gave up crystal meth, the first few days were hard BUT after awhile you adapt to NOT checking F/B to see if anyone commented on your status, or you feel the need to leave a humorous/smart @$$ comment on someone’s page that will cause them and others reading it to get riled up. I have found that F/B is GREAT for testing my comic material, NOT that I am a comic, BUT it’s been good to temporarily not to be on there.


That’s all I got for ya this month and remember that CRACK IS WHACK!!!!!!

So I don't forget!!!!!!

  My EDDIE Van Halen/ General Lee theory is kinda stupid BUT it kinda resonates with A LOT of stuff in life!   OKIE DOKIE!!!!! Let's del...