I feel like I am making a movie like, Rocky 16. This movie has drama. This movie has conflict. This movie has tragedy, and it could have a happy ending.
The tragedy has just happened, so let’s look at how it happened:
1. Late in the game I saw two different Beavers go out of bounds when they could have gotten a first down with one more step. I saw another Beaver go out of bounds when he should have stayed in bounds!
2. We are back to tackling like the other teams are greased pigs. 3. The special teams are faltering at key times. One extra point missed, and two tries for two points missed. If one of those had been successful, game over.
4. I would swear I saw some ball placements by the officials that helped Utah get first downs. I can’t say that though since I have officiated football for 25 years.
5. This is another one of those games where we had better statistics in almost every department, but still lost the game.
6. The crowd was almost as loud as we were when we beat USC, which caused us to have 5 or 6 false starts.
7. I can’t blame the offense for this loss, but the defensive secondary must have gone to McDonalds to eat during the game. We did have an interception by Al Afalava that resulted in a touchdown, but other than that Utah was wide open many times for passes.
So, where does this leave us? I will go from game to game for the rest of the year, and suggest what might happen:
The next week, Arizona State is coming to town! Coach Erickson will be hunting for Beavers! The fact is that it is at home. I suggest we may win it in a close game.
· Our next game is with Washington State at home. They are probably the worst team in the PAC-10. Any questions?
· Then we play Washington at their place. We should win that considering that their start quarterback is out with an injury.
· Guess who’s coming to dinner the next week end? You got it! Coach Erickson and Arizona State. They are a pretty good team. I think if we can play good defense, we could win that one.
· We travel to UCLA the next week. We have had no luck at beating down there for years. BUT! This year they have started out awful! They lost to BYU 59-0. If we can keep them with less than 21 points, we will win big.
· We then play Cal. We seem to play well against Cal. They are coming to Corvallis this year. They are ranked, but we can win this one if our defense doesn’t falter because our offense will score points.
· We then travel to Arizona. That could be a very tough game. They have started out fantastic. I can’t come up with a good suggestion here.
· THEN, the Ducks come to say hello to us. We are on a roll with them. We have beaten them the last couple of years. Can we make it a threepeat?
Somewhere in there we have to beat either, Cal. Arizona, or Oregon. It can be done!!
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There will not be this long of a newsletter coming in the future. This is long because I am trying to get the rest of my trip back east done.
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Let’s finally get to Boston, from the traveling I did when we went to the Penn State game!
When we got to Boston, it immediately transformed our thinking to the beginning of our country. I will be giving you the highlights in short sentences, or very little comment. There was just too much to write about. I am pretty sure you will know what I am talking about when you read each sentence.
· We drove by a tavern called, Bell in Hand Tavern. It got that name because the town crier owned the tavern. There was a nice gentleman that lived upstairs making candles during this time. His name? Ben Franklin.
· I was at the spot where Paul Revere gave his signal that the British were coming.
· We drove by the spot where the Boston massacre happened.
· We saw a Golden Kettle sign. The oldest sign in the United States. It was a place to come and drink tea, I suppose, since it had steam coming out of the tea kettle. It is now a Starbucks!
· We went by a grave yard that had Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and the parent of Ben Franklin buried there.
· John Adams was the first to say, “Everyone has the right to a fair trial.” He said this while he was defending a man no one liked.
· We drove by the John Quincy Adams, and John Hancock homes.
· The term “Mutual Funds,” was first said in Boston. A man that needed money to invest in the Market, contacted several men, and they had a “mutual,” agreement to pool their money together to invest.
· We drove through the oldest residential area in the United States. It even had some of the original gas lights.
· We went by the home of JFK at 722 Bowdon St.
· There are tall spires with clocks on them on churches all over the city.
· The oldest church in the U.S.A. is in Boston. It was there in 1723, 53 years before 1776.
· We went by the infamous Boston Commons, the oldest park in the United States. I say infamous, because there were people hung there because the people thought they were witches.
(A side bar, to list some interesting observations, but do not need comments.)
1. Went by the oldest library.
2. The oldest fire station.
3. Largest Apple Computer store. I mean huge!!
4. Saw the Old South Church where lanterns gave people signals.
5. Gas prices in Boston when I was there: $3.49
6. Saw the home of Phillip Brooks. He is the one that wrote, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.
7. Saw a church that had real Tiffany glass in its windows.
8. Went by the original, Cheers Bar, on Beacon St. “Where everyone knows your name.”
9. Saw where the Boston Tea Party took place.
10. I was able to see something I would rather not have seen. We drove by the spot where the Coconut Grove night club was. Remember it? That is where a fire broke out and no one could get out.
11. We rode the first double decker bus in the U.S.A. We were on top of course. “Front row seats!”
12. Drove by the oldest underground railway. There is still an entrance that leads to nowhere.
13. Saw the Bunker Hill tower. That is the spot where 1,000 British were killed in one day. They eventually still won the hill.
14. There are 260,000 students in the city of Boston. (Boston College, Harvard, and many other colleges are there.)
15. Speaking of Harvard, there is a grammar school that is just across the street from Harvard. The people that graduate from there can say they graduated from Harvard.
16. The first anesthetic was invented there. (I know about that stuff!!)
17. There is a hotel remodeled from an old jail. It still has the bars on the windows.
18. When Harvard first opened up in 1636, it was a divinity school for future ministers.
19. Harvard has the largest college library in the world.
20. There was a store selling Tiffany glass. It was wired by Thomas Edison.
21. The first barber shop was in Boston.
22. Saw Longfellow’s home.
Back to some longer thoughts:
· In the Civil War area, there is a sign that says, “Here lays the arm of Stonewall Jackson.” He had to have his arm cut off. He wanted it buried right outside of where he was operated on. Wouldn’t that be a strange tombstone?
· The owners of the Boston Red Sox, and the New York Yankees were drinking buddies. I saw the bar where the Boston Red Sox owner talked the Yankee’s owner into buying the contract of Babe Ruth for $100,000 dollars, because the Boston Red Sox owner needed money to fund his play called, No, No, Nanette. The play was a success, but it was a very bad deal for the baseball team.
In the next newsletter, I will finalize my trip with my thoughts while standing on the deck of the USS Constitution. I could feel the drama that happened on that ship. When I went down below, I imagined the Captain shouting, “Man your cannons! This is not a drill!”
Please remember that this newsletter soon will be going only to the people who have subscribed. Take time right now to sign up by going to www.dougbolton.com click on newsletter, and subscribe.
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OUT!!
