Mayhaps I should wait till March 25th, the 28th Anniv of this event, and as those playing along at home already know by now: your 28th birthday is the same day of week as day of birth, 'cause calendar just straight up analogs every 28.
So, I'll be sure to write 'bout this then, too.
Today I'm writing about it for a couple reasons:
a) Because it's me being me, which is what Penelope is talking about in today's post.
And, after all: Ain't that why y'all tuned in?
b) It should be a nice springboard to tomorrow's post: The Coolest Job I've Ever Had--Big hint: It's referenced in the earliest days of this blog. What makes it the coolest? Well,you'll just have to come back tomorrow to find out.
Film at 11 . . .
c) OK, this is more than a couple things. Tip o' the Pin, as Griffy says, to you literalists out there. But this is the Reader's Digest condensed version. Whoops! There I go again, skewing 1962!
Let's at least bring it to 1979, when Neil Young releasedRust Never Sleeps
--a quintessential lyric from which co-names this post.
Wikipedia tells us it was released June 22, 1979, a day I found myself in Okanogan, Washington--and here's the education/training/career connection--getting fired from my job with Longyear Extraction for securing myself to my safety belt rather than immediately throwing the drill bit down to my boss/coworker below. There was a pulley involved, so throwing may not be the most accurate verb. (Got a better? Send it along!)
It was a Friday.
I was picking apples by Monday. Thinning them, to be precise, for too early in the growing season that far north. Thinning involves popping three or four off a cluster of 5 or 6, in order to give most room to the biggest, most promising young fruit.
I wasn't terribly quick about it, so received my hiking papers Thursday, on the road Friday, Seattle-bound: The Return Tour.
But I digress.
Therefore I am.
Point is, though released in June, I didn't find out about Neil's watershed album till October.
And it's October, 30 Years Later. Happy Anniversary, Rust Never Sleeps!
Anyway, by spring '82, Rust Never Sleeps, with its half folk/half hard rock dichotomic delivery, stood as Neil's signature album.
The death of John Belushi--and my status as unemployed sandwich maker--convinced me that ". . .the time ha[d] come / To give what's mine," and so headed for New York City to become the next Not Ready For Prime Time Player.
Got the interview, not the job.
But in Washington Square,
lunchtime next day, I jumped, jived and wailed one of Neil's most trenchant lyrics:
"Sedan Delivery is a job I know I'll keep / It sure was hard to find."
Guy came up to me, handed me a buck.
Most honest dollar I've ever earned.
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