Opinion: Sometimes I just don’t get it
Calling all Coyotes! The Madera High School class of 1969 is organizing an all-class reunion open to anyone who went to Madera High School. On Saturday, Oct. 2, 6:30 to 11 p.m. at the VFW Hall, 2026 North Granada Drive, will be an all-class reunion dance party. Tickets are $35 per person and include heavy hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and dancing to the sounds of The Gaylords featuring special guest star Tommy Simonian.
Simonian is an accomplished musician whose garage band The Eboknights played at many MHS after-game dances in the 1960s. Tickets are limited, and I understand selling out quickly.
Those interested should send the $35 per person to Dwayne Burns, 19345 Farallon Road, Madera, CA 93638. Put the words MHS Reunion Dance Party in the memo line of the check. Include names, email address and contact cell number.
According to the flyer, a confirmation text or email will be sent upon receipt of payment. There will be a list of ticket holders at the door. Hope to see all you Coyotes there.
The older I get the more I realize there are things I just don’t understand.
Fashion fans such as multiple piercings, wardrobe choices, and especially tattoos. Vast amounts of body ink appear on people of all ages. Several people I love dearly have tattoos, so I hesitate to criticize them too hard. I’ve heard getting tattooed is addictive and the desire to get a second, third or even more tattoos is strong.
I will admit in my 20s I had a deep desire to get a pair of Harley Davidson wings tattooed either on my arm or back. I am extremely glad I was never drunk enough and in the vicinity of a tattoo parlor for that to happen.
That goes back to the advice I received from my former employer when he said my values at age 20 would change. Change to the point where I wouldn’t bother to walk across the street, even if they were giving them away by the bucket full for free.
Never my biggest fan, the late Mario DaSilva, of all people, told me I’d be sorry someday if I ever got a tattoo. He had one from his time in the military and regretted it. He managed the Madera Valley Inn when it opened and for many years after that.
Funny story about him. When the state wanted to build a prison in Madera County, one of the proposed sites was catty-corner from our five-acre place in Dixieland. I wrote a lot of letters and gave a lot of speeches back then and for a while I even answered my landline “No prison for Madera County!” Freaked a few people out because it appeared our resistance movement was more than just a handful of my neighbor ladies and me.
At that time, DaSilva told me if the prison were to build across the street from our house maybe I could sell our place to the state and then I could afford to buy some decent shoes! I was wearing a pair of Birkenstock sandals at the time. I think it was Stan Oberti who pointed out to him how much my shoes must have cost. Paying that much for a pair of sandals didn’t increase his regard for me at all.
At the time I considered the state’s choice of an alternate site for the prison a case of “fighting city hall,” and winning. Looking back, as I often do, I should have encouraged the state to build the prison across the street from our place. I never dreamed Fred would be willing to sell the property he inherited from his mother and move into Madera. Had we been able to have that five-acre parcel rezoned commercial, we could have commanded a much higher price for the family farm. Live and learn.
Just as it looked like the COVID-19 crisis was coming to an end the Delta variant rears its ugly head. It looks like we will be wearing masks for the foreseeable future. We’ve been fully vaccinated and yet we still have to worry about a new strain of the disease.
Have a blessed weekend.
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Readers may contact Tami Jo Nix by emailing tamijonix@gmail.com or following @TamiJoNix on Twitter.
