I was immediately earwormed with the Sade song, “Never as Good as the First Time” when I was chalking today’s quote.
Many first times crossed my mind when I sat down to chalk this morning.
When I did something for the first time as a little boy, I would say that I invented it and it drove my Oldman bonkers.
I invented “Now and Later" candy, the Nerf Football, color television, rest stops on the highway, Kick the Can, sausage and onions on pizza.
I even invented tacos.
And my aggravated Oldman would tell me they had “Now and Later” when he was a kid. A company called Parker Brothers came up with spongy pigskins. Color television was here before 1966.
At one point my dad made me explain how I came up with concepts for my inventions. I think this was how I learned how to bullshit my way at an early age.
Eventually I grew out of using the childish term for experiencing something for the first time.
It was about the time when I went into the just completed Sears Tower in 1974. My parents pointed out where our neighborhood was. They showed me where Indiana and Iowa were and my dad pointed out the different railroad lines.
It was an amazing experience, but I was still a John Hancock guy. The Sears Tower might have been taller, but “The Hancock” was my first ever skyscraper and it will always be my favorite.
The first day that I was a runner on the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade might be the biggest life changer. The first opening bell and the rush of buying and selling had me hooked on day one.
I met some of my dearest friends at 141 West Jackson. I even met my ex-wife on the trading floor. She floated past the Ten Year pit like an angel and I knew that I had to meet that girl.
At least I ended up with the Shepkids and JoJo, my Mother-in-Law.
And the Shepkids!
The first time each one of them looked at me with that squishy face in the delivery room. Those three days are the most magical “first times” that I’ve experienced.
Earlier this week when the Islamic terrorist attacked the French Quarter…
…I had a flashback to the first time I walked down Bourbon Street. That was when NOLA became my second home.
The Shepkids and the divorce have kind of sidelined first times at the current moment.
First times in the 2020’s are limited to new restaurants and new friends. It might pale in comparison to the first time in London, the first fast market in the bond room or the first time I had a soft-shell crab po-boy.
BUTT
Meeting new friends is probably the best gift life brings. You didn’t know at that first hello that this person will be in your life for many years to come.
People come and go, but a dear friend is always there. Good friends always bring back that incredible feeling that you have when you experience “the first time.”
How many "First Times" have we made for other people?
What are some of your happiest “First Times?”
Enjoy the first Sunday of the New Year. Go do something astonishingly for the first time!
