Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The Football Game
Question from Facebook friend: How will RP Panthers do against Roselle tomorrow? Still 10:30 a.m. (or so) game? Home or away?
My reply: I haven't the slightest idea. I'm from Balikpapan, Borneo. Oops, changed it to Blackpool, England. (After I began receiving friend requests from Borneo.)
I haven't been to a Roselle Park football game since the Thanksgiving the season after I graduated high school. Roselle vs. Roselle Park was the game.
Here's the thing about Roselle Park. Over the course of 25 years at WFMU I received no phone calls from anyone in or associated with Roselle Park when I talked about the town. When I mentioned Linden & Rahway NJ, towns I resided in while doing radio, I did occasionally get calls from people in those places. Rahway had a cluster of WFMU listeners.
During periodic megalomaniac phases, I'd conclude that no one as a cool as me could possibly come from Roselle Park. Was I abducted by aliens & implanted with false memories? Two other substantially cool people did indeed spend significant youthful years in R.P.: radio DJ & personality Vin Scelsa, acknowledged as one of WFMU's Godfathers; & versatile, Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Alan Pasqua, both of whom I knew slightly. Neither makes mention of their hometown on their websites.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
My reply: I haven't the slightest idea. I'm from Balikpapan, Borneo. Oops, changed it to Blackpool, England. (After I began receiving friend requests from Borneo.)
I haven't been to a Roselle Park football game since the Thanksgiving the season after I graduated high school. Roselle vs. Roselle Park was the game.
Here's the thing about Roselle Park. Over the course of 25 years at WFMU I received no phone calls from anyone in or associated with Roselle Park when I talked about the town. When I mentioned Linden & Rahway NJ, towns I resided in while doing radio, I did occasionally get calls from people in those places. Rahway had a cluster of WFMU listeners.
During periodic megalomaniac phases, I'd conclude that no one as a cool as me could possibly come from Roselle Park. Was I abducted by aliens & implanted with false memories? Two other substantially cool people did indeed spend significant youthful years in R.P.: radio DJ & personality Vin Scelsa, acknowledged as one of WFMU's Godfathers; & versatile, Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Alan Pasqua, both of whom I knew slightly. Neither makes mention of their hometown on their websites.
Labels: culture, growing up, WFMU
