Traditions

I guess I don't have any.

Well maybe one. I tend to summer at the family cabin at 5,000 ft elevation in the mountains north of San Bernardino CA at Crestline/lake Gregory. It's a little bit west of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. It might hit 100° during the summer but I don't need to run air conditioning because the cabin is shaded by a huge California oak tree that gives the cabin 90% shade. Whereas my house in Arizona You GOT to run the air conditioning during the summer. So I actually save money on my electric bill by hanging out at the cabin. and its only a two and a half hour drive to Tijuana. (That is if my timing is good to avoid the rush hour traffic.)

Plus it also more convenient to the OC Vietnamese coffee shops.

The view from the back porch at the cabin.

^ If that is the view I get to retire to I will consider my life well-lived.

Ski remember when they put that cocksucker on the cover of rolling stone?

Ugh this is depressing to me because some of my traditions have died.

1. Townie night - for almost 25 years my friends and I would go out the night before Thanksgiving and then all crash at my house. It got so big I had it catered a few times. One year we even rented a limo. Then the bar we always went to got sold. People got married, people had kids, and it died.

2. Went to breakfast with my dad and his friends on Christmas Eve, then we wound up in one of his friends garage admiring his new motorcycle and drinking. That was 29 years ago. That started a tradition of a garage party happening on the weekend before Christmas or sometimes Christmas Eve. All those guys are in their late 70s now and two have passed away. Still do the party every year but it’s much tamer than they used to be. Sons and grandsons have been coming to it for years.

3. I started playing basketball once a week with this random group of guys when I was 23 years old. Eventually it grew and I brought in several of my close friends. That went on for a decade. Eventually the school where the gym we played in was bought and torn down and we all lost touch with each other.

A few years later a guy who lived down the street from me said he was playing basketball and brought me one night. I was shocked, 3 of the guys I played with before were in that gym. Most of the rest from the original group had moved away. We still play to this day, only taking a break in 2020 and part of 2021 because of COVID. We all have given each other COVID twice (2 breakouts, one in 2022 and one in 2023). One guy plays that’s 83 years old, but we also have a few high school kids that come that are on the high school team (2 have scholarship offers at small colleges nearby). I’ve become close to the 3 guys from the original group even though they’re all at least 10 years older than me. We do several activities outside of basketball now too.

1. Used to go to Vegas every year for March madness with my buddies unless March madness site was close to us. That went on for almost 15 years and it died too.

2. Lastly my wife and I go on vacation to the same place every year since 2008 (with exception of 2020). We broke down and bought a timeshare in 2021. Great decision and we have no regrets at all being locked in.

^Sounds like a great life. Question: are you from Massachusetts? I only ask because the night before Thanksgiving is a serious local bar tradition in Eastern Massachusetts. Also, the basketball story hits home because in 1984 I started an informal Thursday night basketball game. I golfed with an old friend a few weeks ago who was in the league back in the day and he told me that when I left in 1994 the game continued for years, he kept playing and ended up playing with the grandchild of one of the originals. Thanks for the memories.

lol not from Massachusetts. Mid Atlantic region.

“Thanksgiving Eve” is the 2nd biggest bar night of the year, behind New Years Eve. It’s even bigger than Halloween. Reason being is a lot of people move away after high school, and they come back in the visit family at thanksgiving. They go out on Thanksgiving Eve to see old friends and often becomes a tradition for many in their 20s thru early 40s.

The bar I was talking about was a college bar. I live in a college town, and even with that, Thanksgiving Eve (aka) townie night was always their busiest night of the year even though all the college kids are always away for Thanksgiving break during that time.

I have a couple college friends who I have been seeing at least once a month for over forty years and a sister I always have Christmas dinner with and visit with regularly. I enjoy the familiar and am not the type of person who is always moving around. I have lived here in Indiana since I was born here 69 years ago, have worked at the same place for forty years and lived in the same apartment building for fifteen years.

I go on a baseball trip with 4 to 6 high school buddies to see an out-of-town Phillies game every season. Usually do a long weekend. The game is almost an afterthought. We bar hop, tour breweries and eat at steakhouses. One other guy frequents strip clubs, so me and him usually do one late night monger tour after the rest of the low-testosterone old farts are in for the night.

I've been clubbing in Vegas annually for 14 years straight (exclude COVID).

That's as personal as I get on here!