Happy Halloween!!

This is for  my Leto High School  friends who attended Alexander Elementary with me. Halloween is the anniversary of my first concussion. At Alexander, we used to make paper hats in class and have a "Hat Parade" around the school for Halloween. In 1963, I was in Miss Waterhouse's class in the fifth grade.

When our class walked out of the room to join the parade, I was one of the last people out the door. As we started down the walkway, a class of sixth graders came out of their room behind us. There were several boys in the front of their group. A couple of boys in the group yelled something. I paid no attention, as "bullying" did not exist before millennials were born. Someone came up and pushed me into one of the steel poles that supported the roof over the walkway. How hard did they push me? There is still a small chip out of my skull beneath the scar. Anyway, with my head lacerated, I stumbled into the first open class room door. I remember seeing a female teacher, who apparently had never seen a boy with blood all over his face, and she started screaming.

When I awoke, I was on a couch in the school office with Mr. Raines, the principal, and my mother looking down at me. After a few minutes, she took me to the hospital where they stitched up my head and told her that I had a concussion. That's a tough way to get an extra three days off from school.

What's the moral of the story? The first is that the guy who I think pushed me died several years ago.

That took one shot off my "bucket list". The second is that I never did another Halloween parade.

Happy Halloween!!

Thoughts on the NFL

1. I have spent my life in the restaurant business. We don't allow our employees to do something that will anger our customers. If you are doing something wrong, you get counseled and if it continues, you get terminated. The NFL tells their customers that they need to understand the employees. Raise your hand if you think that this will work.

2. NFL players work about seven months a year and minimum wage is more than $400,00 a year. Is this the social injustice.in question?

3. Blacks account for less than 15% of the population in this country. They account for about 70% of the players in the NFL. Tell me again about social injustice.

4. Lots of people oppose the proposed merger of AT&T and Time-Warner on antitrust grounds. They fear a monopoly and are asking the federal government to prevent this merger. Please give me the names of the other professional football leagues in this country other than the NFL. Monopoly can be spelled with 3 letters, NFL.

5. The NFL keeps telling us that players have a right to express their opinions and to protest. I want to see a player carrying a Confederate battle flag on the sideline and see what the NFL does. You can bet your ass, they won't tell you he has a right to protest.

6. AT&T announced that "customers" can cancel their Direct TV NFL packages if they desire during this time. Why are doing this? They don't want to lose customers. The NFL doesn't understand that their fans are also customers. If you have a customer who buys a $100 ticket, pays $20 to park, and buys a $6 hot dog and chases that with an $8 beer, you better be working to keep him happy!!

7. More than 40 years ago, I worked for Quick Foods, at the time the largest Waffle House franchisee. Our VP was talking about customer service at a meeting one day. He told us, "You don't need a survey to find out if your customers are satisfied. They will vote with their feet. Their feet will take them to somewhere other than our doors." If only Mr. Criss were here to talk to the NFL owners.

8. I could annoy liberals and point out that the basis for the entire protest is without factual support. But, why argue with an idiot late on Sunday?

9. If the NFL ratings continue to drop at their current rate, by Week 12 the NFL will be paying PBS to broadcast their games!! There go the Sunday afternoon cooking shows on UNC-TV.