SWOOP.....ONE TIME...

This is for the CLASS OF 1996 FROM LINDBLOM TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL

The Chronic, Can I Borrow a Dolla, Whut? Thee Album Sexy Versus, Funky Divas, Hi-Five... 1992
 Enter the Wu Tang, Midnight Maruaders, Doggystyle It Ain't What You Wear. It's How You Play It, Hootie Mack...1993
Souternplayalisticadillacmuzik, Ready, to Die, Illmatic Age Ain't Nuthin But a Number, Blackstreet, Brandy...1994
Soul Food, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Me Against the World, Do You Wanna Ride, Brown Sugar, The Show, The After Party, The Hotel....1995
Reasonable Doubt, Iron Man, ATLiens One In a Million, Dru Hill, Ginuwine-The Bachelor .....1996


 I know you all remember these albums. Hell if you're like me some of them are still on rotation. This was our soundtrack. GENERATION X... remember that phrase... How about New Jacks... That's another. That's who we were. Hell it's who we still are... 20 years ago...


It wasn't until someone mentioned it that it really hit me that it has been 20 years since my freshman year of high school. In the fall of 1992 I met a group of individual who through good and bad we would all form a lifetime bond. One built on a shared experience. 6130 Wolcott... One of the BEST high schools in the city of Chicago at that time. I said it, I'll stand by it and I'll stand on that statement. When you walked under those pillars (Eagles know what I'm talking about) you knew that your life would be forever changed..

It wasn't easy. As a matter of fact it was down right scary getting to LTHS. Very few of us actually came from the Englewood area. Yet, we'd all heard about it. All TRUE Chicagoans knew about Englewood back then. Not you suburban transplants. Those of us who were born and raised in the CHI knew what we were walking into. Yet we did it. We made that walk from Damen or from 63rd. We came from the low end and from the Southeast side. We came. We fought. We soared... As Eagles do.

Just like the music we listened to back then on our TAPE PLAYERS!!!! Oh the memories of those clunky magnetic devices that uses that little black spool of tape to contain our favorite jams. Hell, I know i wasn't the only one who had a duel tape deck in their room, copying music from WGCI.. I know I wasn't the only one on the bus bobbing my head listening to Nuthin But a G'Thang. The music from back then is TIMELESS... Like us.

Yet if you all remember it almost didn't happen for us. We hatchlings almost ended up else where. If you all remember back in 1992 Lindblom was placed on the chopping block. I remember hearing about it shortly after I received my acceptance letter. They wanted to close a school that was doing great things. Especially in one of the poorer neighborhoods in Chicago. They wanted to close a school that while being predominately African American, was still producing excellent members of society. They wanted to snatch our nest before we had a chance to explore.it. The school prevailed. Its doors remained open. We were welcomed... Our journey began...

And for 4 years it was heaven.. It was hell. It was a haven from the issues we had at home. LTHS is where most of us fell in love (or lust) for the first time. Hell some of you have memories of the BACK ALLEY... YOU FREAKS!!!! It was our launching pad. The halls of LTHS molded us into the individuals have become. Both mentally, physically and spiritually. We were "nerds" yet we weren't punks. Fuck with an Eagle and you'd remember it.

We fought the elements, both natural and the neighborhood. I remember them Vicelords (or whatever the fuck they were) looking for me for months cause I wouldn't let them just beat one of my boys down. I remember that bus driver closing the door on my arm while i'm fighting two fools on the street.I remember the police getting on the bus that day wanting a statement and me telling them they were about 2 miles to late. I remember having my Grambling towel coat stolen outta my locker in the middle of a Chicago winter.. (Talk about a cold as bus ride home THAT DAY).

We fought each other... I won't name any particulars here but you all know who you are.. And yet at the end we all came together. Cause 4 years later they tried to do the same thing.. They wanted to take away what we'd fought for. In '92 they put LTHS on the block and once again in '96 we were on the block again.

Remember that C/O'96.. Remember reading the news and them talking about closing our doors forever.. Remember the meetings and marches. The posters and the fights. They tried to clip our wings. And they failed, yet again. We continued to SOAR..

It wasn't always fighting. There were the dances. Winter Ball, Homecoming, Prom. The games, football and basketball. And the lunch room (or drafting). The spades games and the food fights. It was us.

There were tears as well. Class Sing '96. And then again later that year as most of us were preparing to enter college as freshmen. I won't name names but I love them both to this day and I'll ALWAYS remember them. As I'll always remember and love you all.

92-96 were pivotal years in our lives. And just like the music of our high school years we shine brighter than all the rest. We're CLASSICS!!! Who else had to pray to attend the school of their choice and then 4 years later have to fight again to finish the journey we started there. Good music soars over all else..So do Eagles..So does the C/0 '96 WE ARE TIMELESS!!!!!

SO LET ME HEAR YOU CLASS OF '96

ONE TIME

SWOOP!!!!!

I Do, (Until You ___)

WARNING

From this point on you've consented to read this message. So whatever you read its your own damn fault.

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I, (name), take you (name), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.

No matter what version you use, no matter how you word it. When you get married this is what you're in for. THIS IS YOUR CONTRACT!! So what does this mean. Well, you're literally saying that You take the other person to be your mate for life. Through all the good times and all the bad times, when they've got money in the bank or bill collectors on the doorstep. When they've showered and when they've got that three day binge drinking hangover breath.to love and cherish till one of you dies.. THAT'S IT!! That's what you agree to when you say I do. That's what all the women fight for and all the men run from. Sad reality is we need more folks running in general. Cause marriage ain't easy.

Next month I celebrate 3 years of blissful matrimony. Now some of you reading this will be like hell, it can't be that bad if you got married and are STILL HAPPILY married. Especially given my penchant for being an overall asshole. All I can say is, the Mrs understood what she was getting into. She was warned SEVERAL TIMES by friends and family. Hell people still apologize to her simply because they know how I can be. Yet she still loves me. Through the good and bad. That's what it's all about.

I know marriage isn't easy. Hell I'm the product of a happily married couple. My folks have been married for 50 years this month (if my math is correct). I heard the arguments. I heard the discussions. I've seen the love that trumps everything else. It's what holds them together. They grew up in a time when marriage wasn't taken lightly. They raised me to understand that and to understand that when you say I do, you should mean it.

Not the way some of these fucks mean it. Its gotten to the point that I do has a caveat in small print that says (I Do, until you're broke, fat, ugly as a swamp rat, or you swap bodily fluids with another person). That's how folks are treating their vows these days. Frankly it's sickening. Yea I said it, its fucking sickening. The problem is folks want to be married but they only want the good and the somewhat bad. Folks aren't in it for the long haul.

Chad and Evelyn... this shit was doomed from the start. Simply because, he's a washed up football player and she's a whore.. YEA I SAID IT. She's a whore.. (click the link and check out the third definition). She's a media whore. No I've never watched that bullshit that she's on and I never will. The fact that I know who the fuck she is just from social media and news outlets is enough. (Ladies, don't get caught up in the word whore. It's a universal term.)

She found a condom receipt in a car and he headbutted her... And that's the end of their union that they were so happy to create... SERIOUSLY!!!! No extended argument, no heated explanations, no calls to the others friends trying to find out where they are cause you still love them and want to work it out.. A condom receipt and a headbutt and then divorce.. I'll say this and I'll stand by it. There was NO LOVE IN THIS MARRIAGE FROM THE START!!!

I'm not saying anyone should ever lay hands (or head in their case) on another individual. Yet mistakes do happen. Hell I'll say this, I think the head butt was accidental. Simply because I've never seen anyone THAT pissed off that they lean over and head butt another individual. I have seen it happen when that person is all up in someone else's face and during the screaming their heads collide. And give her history, I'm sure she was ready to fight when she saw the condom receipt.

What I'm saying is, this was the BAD that was talked about in their vows. Infidelity should not be the end of a marriage. If it is, at least attempt to find out how long it happened. If it was a series of events then I can see divorce being an option. If it was a one time thing you should attempt to work it out.

Having an affair is bad, but its not murder. Close your mouths, you did just read that correctly. An affair is bad, but it shouldn't end a marriage. Not one in which love was truly there. You agreed to be there through the good and bad... If this isn't bad, what is?


I've known folks that are fighting to get back to square one due to infidelity. I commend all of you. Simply because you're fighting to save the love that you have for each other. Lives should not be destroyed due to one indiscretion. Now if you on some Tiger Woods type shit BE GONE BEYOTCH!!!!!

I've written all of this to say, if you're thinking about marriage or you're about to get married stop and think about it first. It's so easy to love a person when they're smiling and being all lovey dovey with you. When they're spoiling you and putting you on a pedestal every day. Yet can you love that same person when they make a mistake. When they are yelling at you cause they've had a bad day at work. Are you willing to stick with them when they get laid off and are depressed cause they don't have a job.

It ain't easy, yet when two work at it. I mean REALLY WORK at it, marriage is so rewarding and satisfying..

SHOUT OUT TO MY FOLKS FOR CELEBRATING THAT BIG 50