Happy New Year…
…Well sort of. I grew up in an academic family; my father taught at Allegheny College, and when I was in the 7th grade my mother began teaching at Meadville High School. So for me, the Autumn is my favorite time of the year and a return to a routine in which I am most comfortable. I have always viewed the 1st of September as my New Year’s Day. (The difference being that I am rarely hung over. I’ll leave that for the 1st of January.)
I was driving back from Boston on Sunday and saw these trees just off Route 202 in Pelham. I went back last night to take this photograph. For you lovers of Summer, I know this isn’t such welcome news, but for me it was nice to see some early color. “For every season”, etc, etc.
I have always liked this XTC song. Pretty much sums it up.
Meadville, PA
I am in Meadville sitting in a Tim Horton’s. It is the only open café with WIFI and I wanted to do a quick post before I head out of town.
My dad died in 2007 and in memorial to his time teaching at Allegheny College the family decided to plant a tree on the campus. I wanted to check on it to see how it was faring and was happy to see that it is in good shape.
My sister Karen knows a lot about trees and gardens and she suggested a Winter King. Here’s a link describing it and it seems an apt choice. (It is cool that the link goes to Penn State’s Extension program as dad got his doctorate in German Literature there.) I especially like how the bark peels off; it kind of reminds me of a sycamore which is a tree I also like. I have been thinking about a long post about my dad which I hope to get to in the next few months. He was a very interesting guy.
Soccer (Football)
I have always liked soccer. As a kid I first played it at Camp Dudley and then in high school. My junior year at Kiski the JV coach was Ed Schuster and at the end of the season I didn’t travel to the last game. He told me that I was the only kid he ever coached that went from starting at the beginning of the season to being at the bottom of the roster at the end. And I honestly couldn’t figure out why. Another case of me not being able to understand some of the adults in my life. I didn’t play in college but continued to follow the professional game. / Jürgen Kracht was a (very cool) colleague of my fathers at Allegheny College and in the summer of 1968, he and some of his friends asked me to join them to go to Municipal Stadium in Cleveland to see Pele’s Brazilian club Santos play the Cleveland Stokers in a friendly. It think we went in his lovely little red Fiat 850 Special. It was a memorable game in that the Stokers won 2-1 in what seemed a massive upset. Looking it up on the net I found the exact date to be 10 July of that year. We sat quite high up in the stadium, and even though capacity was around 80,000, I seem to remember it being mostly sold out.
Peter is in DC doing an internship with DC United and he was able to get me a ticket for Saturday’s first round playoff match with the Red Bulls at RFK. It was a pretty good match; ended up 1-1 and the crowd at the stadium was really rockin’.
Salvatore is the “12th man” and moves around the ground beating on his drum. I just love the matador get-up. I was hoping to get a shot of him looking at the camera, but I think he was leery of a flash going off. The return match is scheduled for this Wednesday at 8 (NBC Sports Network) at Red Bulls Arena in Harrison, NJ. Go United!
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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