Rant #2,669: Solid

Today, I want to talk about things that are "solid."
 
"Solid" like a rock.
 
I am going to draw two disparate things together, and they will be somehow linked together by the word “solid.”

Here goes--

 
One of those things is my marriage, an incredible union that my family and I celebrated yesterday as my wife and my 28th wedding anniversary.
 
Back in 1993, I was the father of a daughter, and I had met the girl of my dreams about three years earlier on a blind date set up by a dating service.
 
We went out for about two years, got engaged, and lived together for a year, and everything was copacetic.
 
We were married on June 6, 1993—not only D-Day, but if you juggle the numbers, it was 6-6-, and then 9-3=6, so our marriage date was in the devil’s range of 6-6-6—and as the old fables go, we lived happily ever after.
 
We had our son a little more than two years into the marriage—in August 1995--and through it all, our marriage is as solid as can be, through car wrecks, illnesses, unemployment and other ups and downs that every marriage faces.
 
Even 28 years later, my wife remains the girl of my dreams, and I tell people that sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that I am not dreaming, and that I am actually married to this woman.
 
And I am!
 
Boy, am I fortunate!
 
I feel like I am the luckiest man on earth, and I feel like that each and every day.
 
I love my wife, she loves me, and I have to tell you, she is the best thing that ever happened to me … nothing else is even close.
 
Now that we have talked about the first subject of today’s Rant with the common “solid” theme, let me tell you about another one, a lesser one to me but to the general public, a way more important one.

 
We lost Clarence Williams III this weekend, and if ever an actor exemplified the word “solid,” this guy did.
 
He will forever be etched in our memory as one of the young ruffians who somehow, through the magic of television, became a law enforcement officer—or a cop … or a “pig” in the era’s parlance—on the incredibly successful “Mod Squad” TV show.
 
This was a groundbreaking show for the time, the confluence of the late 1960s-early 1970s “hippie” attitude with the more traditional TV cop attitude, and somehow, it worked, and worked for five “solid” seasons.
 
Peggy Lipton. Michael Cole and Williams epitomized the new generation poured into the traditional TV cops and robbers format, and Williams’ prominent afro rose above the others to make the show a solid ratings draw, with “now” stories punctuated with a new attitude.
 
Lipton somehow became the star of stars on the show, but Williams was really the best actor of the three, and of the four if you add in Tige Andrews, who played their sort of “father figure” as the police lieutenant that recruited this motley bunch of supposed late teens to combat crime in the new world of the hippie era.
 
And when Williams’ character, nicknamed Linc, liked what he saw on the show, he uttered the world “solid,” which became a catch-word of the time.
 
When the show ran its course, all four actors kind of went under the radar, never again achieving superstar status, but Williams did appear in a few prominent roles during the past 40-plus years, including in Prince’s “Purple Rain” and in a major TV bio-pic about the Jacksons.
 
He was also, with the other major characters, in a “Mod Squad” TV reunion film that was to launch a revival of the series which never happened … it was a product of its time, and its time had passed by the time this movie came out.
 
However, when I heard that he was 81 when he left us, I honestly did not realize that he was that old  … so even with his young look at the time, he was well into his 20s when he had the Linc role, a bit older than the character in the role he was playing.
 
But he had that young, now look back then, so he fit the role perfectly.
 
So there you have it, the confluence of two disparate things into one, joined together by the “solid” theme.
 
And they both were/are as solid as a rock.
 
I can still hear Williams utter that phrase.
 
He did it with such unemotional emotion that you just knew that this guy was an excellent actor, and he was just that.
 
And my marriage, well, it is as if the word “solid” was created specifically to define this union.
 
“Solid!”
 
There, I said it. Maybe not as well as Williams, but I said it … and will say it again and again to the end of time.