Good morning!
Rise and shine!
It’s Monday, September the 13th!
Not that that means all that much.
In the way of Friday the 13th, it means pretty much nothing.
And there is no movie franchise for Monday the 13th, like there is for Friday the 13th.
I know that there was a “Monday” movie, and a “13th” movie, but as far as I know, the twain has not met for a “Monday the 13th” film.
If I am incorrect, please let me know.
I don’t know right now what the day has in store for me, but I can tell you what my son and I did on Saturday, September 11th, a day that has become one of the most solemn days on the calendar based on the terrorist attacks that happened 20 years ago on that day.
We did what many people did … we watched many of the public mournings on television, shed a tear as we heard the names of the dead being read, and then we did something else on that day.
The terrorists, in their own cowardly way, made their stand about our way of life, but it has backfired, and just made our country stronger, as it unified us in anger and outrage, making our way of life even stronger.
And in America, you are supposed to do what you want to do when you want to do it, so my son and I, in our own little way, did just that on Saturday.
We went to an autograph signing for a former Olympic hero who actually became one of the most popular and talented professional wrestlers ever.
His name is Kurt Angle, and like Bruno Sammartino, he is one of the few wrestlers that people who are not even pro wrestling fans know.
Heck, my mother knew who he was!
Just to look over his career, after a college wrestling career filled with accolades, Angle won a gold medal for freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and did so with a broken neck.
He then went onto a very long career as a professional wrestler, with both the WWE and Impact Wrestling organizations.
He again was a champion in both of these pro wrestling groups, winning numerous titles in each, and he is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.
Now 53 years old, Angle makes the rounds of the wrestling circuit, and his popularity as a pro wrestler, mixed with his status as an Olympic gold medalist, has endeared him to fans for generations.
In a sport mixed with wannabes and those that seem to be in it for a buck, Angle, like Sammartino was, is the real deal, the real wrestler, the guy that really was the face of wrestling during his active career.
And who better to meet on the 20th anniversary of that horrible day in our history but a real, honest to goodness Olympic gold medal winner?
Shouts of “USA. USA!” come to mind.
A local pro wrestling shop has a slate of wrestlers who do signings during the year, and my son and I signed up for this event a few weeks ago.
We were there early, checked in early, and we were the second on line for the event.
Angle arrived at the store pretty much at the appointed time, and he didn’t come in a limo, he came in a regular sedan, a car that you and I might drive.
I think that that was perfect, because Angle always endeared himself to fans as “one of us,” not on some other worldly level.
He emerged from the car, and while he is not tall—if I am 5 feet, 9 inches, he might be 5 feet, 10 inches tall or so—he is as chiseled as a granite statue.
He began by shaking the hands of everyone waiting on line, then he went inside the store, store management set him up at a table, and when things were ready, the guy ahead of us was let into the store.
After about two minutes, my son and I went in, and again we shook his hand, got his autograph on an action figure of him from years ago—when he had hair—and within about two minutes, we were done after shaking his hand once again.
And then we took the long drive home.
This is America. You can call pro wrestling “a piece of Americana,” if you like, but doing it on September 11th of this year did have a special meaning for my son and myself.
Thinking back 20 years ago, when our country’s feelings were shattered on that horrid morning, who would have thought that 20 years after the fact, my son and myself would meet an Olympic hero on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack?
I think in our own small way, we proved those terrorists wrong.
The American way of life might have been shattered on that day, but tit was not destroyed.
Kurt Angle.
The Olympic gold medal.
“USA, USA!”
You can’t beat that.
And no one, or entity, will ever take that American spirit away from us.
No how, no way.
Rise and shine!
It’s Monday, September the 13th!
Not that that means all that much.
In the way of Friday the 13th, it means pretty much nothing.
And there is no movie franchise for Monday the 13th, like there is for Friday the 13th.
I know that there was a “Monday” movie, and a “13th” movie, but as far as I know, the twain has not met for a “Monday the 13th” film.
If I am incorrect, please let me know.
I don’t know right now what the day has in store for me, but I can tell you what my son and I did on Saturday, September 11th, a day that has become one of the most solemn days on the calendar based on the terrorist attacks that happened 20 years ago on that day.
We did what many people did … we watched many of the public mournings on television, shed a tear as we heard the names of the dead being read, and then we did something else on that day.
The terrorists, in their own cowardly way, made their stand about our way of life, but it has backfired, and just made our country stronger, as it unified us in anger and outrage, making our way of life even stronger.
And in America, you are supposed to do what you want to do when you want to do it, so my son and I, in our own little way, did just that on Saturday.
We went to an autograph signing for a former Olympic hero who actually became one of the most popular and talented professional wrestlers ever.
His name is Kurt Angle, and like Bruno Sammartino, he is one of the few wrestlers that people who are not even pro wrestling fans know.
Heck, my mother knew who he was!
Just to look over his career, after a college wrestling career filled with accolades, Angle won a gold medal for freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and did so with a broken neck.
He then went onto a very long career as a professional wrestler, with both the WWE and Impact Wrestling organizations.
He again was a champion in both of these pro wrestling groups, winning numerous titles in each, and he is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.
Now 53 years old, Angle makes the rounds of the wrestling circuit, and his popularity as a pro wrestler, mixed with his status as an Olympic gold medalist, has endeared him to fans for generations.
In a sport mixed with wannabes and those that seem to be in it for a buck, Angle, like Sammartino was, is the real deal, the real wrestler, the guy that really was the face of wrestling during his active career.
And who better to meet on the 20th anniversary of that horrible day in our history but a real, honest to goodness Olympic gold medal winner?
Shouts of “USA. USA!” come to mind.
A local pro wrestling shop has a slate of wrestlers who do signings during the year, and my son and I signed up for this event a few weeks ago.
We were there early, checked in early, and we were the second on line for the event.
Angle arrived at the store pretty much at the appointed time, and he didn’t come in a limo, he came in a regular sedan, a car that you and I might drive.
I think that that was perfect, because Angle always endeared himself to fans as “one of us,” not on some other worldly level.
He emerged from the car, and while he is not tall—if I am 5 feet, 9 inches, he might be 5 feet, 10 inches tall or so—he is as chiseled as a granite statue.
He began by shaking the hands of everyone waiting on line, then he went inside the store, store management set him up at a table, and when things were ready, the guy ahead of us was let into the store.
After about two minutes, my son and I went in, and again we shook his hand, got his autograph on an action figure of him from years ago—when he had hair—and within about two minutes, we were done after shaking his hand once again.
And then we took the long drive home.
This is America. You can call pro wrestling “a piece of Americana,” if you like, but doing it on September 11th of this year did have a special meaning for my son and myself.
Thinking back 20 years ago, when our country’s feelings were shattered on that horrid morning, who would have thought that 20 years after the fact, my son and myself would meet an Olympic hero on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack?
I think in our own small way, we proved those terrorists wrong.
The American way of life might have been shattered on that day, but tit was not destroyed.
Kurt Angle.
The Olympic gold medal.
“USA, USA!”
You can’t beat that.
And no one, or entity, will ever take that American spirit away from us.
No how, no way.
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