May 25, 2023
The Last Day of School
Iditarod
Russell Middle School
Perfect Weather
“Dazed and Confused” dir. Richard Linklater (1993)
My face lit up like the Moon Tower when my man Boji texted me and asked me to Q West Omaha’s newest AO: Iditarod
In thinking about my Q this week, I noted that it would coincide with the last day of school for many kids in Omaha. That feeling of the last day of school from my childhood is one I vividly recall. I can’t remember have a feeling like that as an adult – the end of something with a new beginning; that feeling of freedom and accomplishment; growing up, but still feeling young. Those memories bring just a tinge of pain to my 40-year-old self.
But the movie “Dazed and Confused” always makes me smile. It covers the last day of school for an ensemble cast in Director Richard Linklater’s 1993 classic film. A Dazed and Confused trivia beatdown? Alright, alright, alright…
I arrived at 4:52 a.m. to see Chippendale dawning a some literal and figurative “lit” gear. I dropped my clipboards and a light at the bottom of the hill and returned to give my man T-Ball a hug and see Boji planting the gorgeous ShovelFlag for Iditarod (T-Claps to Bayside!). Boji brought along his 2.0, Primetime!
Boji, Primetime, Picasso, and I started a slow and steady run, while Sugar Rays T-Ball, Chippendale, and Barn Door speed away quickly (BD recently set the Apex record for the fastest 2-Mile run – beast!). Speaking of beasts, I wish I was as tough a kid as Primetime when I was 13 – this shorty ran over two-miles up some gnarly hills. Keep accelerating!
The parking lot was filling up quickly. We noticed Mac…anudo’s truck had a completely flat tire! (More on that later). Scoober kindly brought his speaker for me to play some great tunes from one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. The sounds of Alice Cooper filled my ears and it was time to rock!
INTRODUCTION
I hit the mission statement, credo, and core principles. Professional disclaimer provided. No FNGs. T-Claps to Primetime for finishing the 6th Grade!
I mentioned today’s movie trivia topic, to which Ketchup responded with a nice “Alright, alright, alright” – that brings me to my first trivia question!
Q#1: Name the actor that played the character Wooderson that uttered those famous words.
A: Just about everyone knew this: Matthew McConaughey; but Scoober sounded first, so he led us in BOBBY HURLEYS x 9
BROGA
We did a lap around the school and set up for some Broga on the grassy knoll by the front of the school. In between our poses, I quoted the movie as many times as I could – including telling Boji it would be a lot cooler if he had something on him… Trivia question number two!
Q#2: Dazed and Confused features three Oscar-winning cast members: Matthew McConaughey for his role in Dallas Buyer’s Club; Renee Zellweger has two Academy Awards, so who is the third?
A: In his best voice impression of Bear Grylls, T-Ball was first with the correct answer: Ben Affleck (neither award was for acting – just sayin). I turned to ask Bear to lead us and he looked at me like I just asked him if he was cool, man.. T-Ball led us in BOBBY HURLEYS x 9
THE MOON TOWER PRE THANG
With the prethang at Pickford’s house cancelled, we mosied over to the wall facing the track for a brutal pre thang:
AUSTRALIAN MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS X 5
CHICKEN PECKERS X 10
DONKEY KICKS X 15
BTTW X 20
TEN COUNT
BTTW X20
DONKEY KICKS X 15
CHICKEN PECKERS X 10
AUSTRALIAN MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS X 5
Exhausted, I tried to ask the third and final question:
Q#3: The movie is set during what year?
A: Bogey was first to say 1976 – happy birthday America! He led us in BOBBY HURLEYS x 9
On to The Thang
DAZED AND CONFUSED 4-MAN GRINDER
I explained how this Thang was intended to be hard and confusing. So I did a few examples of the unusual exercises that made its way to the AMRAP sheet. With that, we had two PAX at the bottom of the hill doing an exercise, while two others Bernie Sanders up the hill to do 10 Monkey Humpers IC.
DRY DOCKS
AIR SQUATS
ZOMBIE CRUNCH
ELBOW to KNEE (right)
DOLLIES, LOW
ALABAMA ASS KICKERS
NOLAN RYANS
DIPS
CAPTAIN MORGAN
ONE LEGGED BURPEE
NORRIS, CHUCK MERKINS
FLUTTER KICKS
U-PICK or BURPEES
SUMO SQUATS
ELBOW TO KNEE (left)
DAN TAYLOR
My group had these guys: Chippendale, Big Unit, Mufasa, and Ketchup. As our legs were destroyed, we had some great mumblechatter. Mufasa shared that he has that “last day of school” feeling every time he takes vacation. I took this with a grain of salt, however, since Mufasa dropped out of school in the 5th Grade.
I saw that some PAX made it all the way to the Chuck Norris Merkins before OMAHA was called.
Back to the grassy knoll!
NAMEORAMA
Lots of new faces, and some old ones too – great group of 22 PAX today!
Primetime, Boji, McKraken, Oscar, Ditty, Lost, Mac…anudo (Re…spect!), Tonight Show, Barn Door, Brad Pitt (Respect x 2), Picasso (check out his VQ on Memorial Day at Mission Forge!), Thomas, Mufasa, Big Unit, Chippendale, Ketchup, Scoober, Bogey, T-Ball (Bear was now doing, his impression of T-Ball!), Yodel, and Gator
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND PRAYERS
Brickbulder June 3!
Prayer’s for Chippendale’s friends that are dealing with illness, Ditty’s friend, and Blades of Glory.
COT
By the time I was in high school, I had seen Dazed and Confused enough times to know the most important lesson of the movie: do not have the kegs of beer delivered to your house before your parents go out of town. That’s a lesson I closely followed when it came time for me to throw my own keg party. (I actually paid for the “premium beer” and we ended up with Red Dog).
Black garbage bags on the windows, cars parked in the backyard, and many other precautions to avoid getting caught. The party was epic and my parents were none the wiser. With graduation from high school, the statute of limitations expired. I had gotten away with it.
Years later, I was visiting my folks. My Dad dropped an envelope from a one-hour photo place and said “We found one of those old wind-up Kodak cameras and got it developed.” There it was in full Kodachrome: me doing a keg stand in my parents’ living room. I looked at my Dad and he said “Whatever happened to getting a couple of six packs?!?”
But there were no consequences for me. I was an adult now and beyond my parents’ jurisdiction. One of the few times in my life that I have been caught in act of dishonesty and not paid a price for it. At the time, I thought it was pretty sweet to have gotten away with it.
But as I got older, I realized this was nothing to be proud of. Over time, I began to understand that even if I got away with something, I still knew about it. I didn’t like that feeling. As I’ve tried to be a better man, one thing I focus on is integrity: doing the right thing, even if no one ever knows it; doing the right thing, even though it’s hard; not doing the wrong thing, even if you know you won’t get caught.
It’s a struggle to always do the right thing – if it were easy, then everyone would do it. As high impact men and leaders of our community, we should strive for integrity. Even if that means forgoing a keg of Red Dog.
With Gratitude,
Gator
P.S. How many F3 Omaha PAX does it take to fix a flat tire? You could ask Mufasa, but he was a little dazed and confused (he thought the spare tire was for the front wheels only and that there had to be a different one somewhere for the rear. I think he left early to try and go find it.)