Firsts in your life

Not a slam in the least, but this surprises me not at all. I can imagine you figuring that the chances of something going wrong while drinking would outweigh the possible enjoyment.

 

First song on MTV: I'm old enough, but don't remember.
First booze to get me puking: Miller Lite ... after eating spaghetti!
First car: 1986 Mercury Lynx (POS caught on fire driving down the freeway - unfortunately that did not kill it off).
First cool car!: Red 1991 Honda Prelude
First job: Six Flags
First concert: Ashamed to say probably Debbie Gibson and/or Tiffany at Six Flags.
First time backstage at a concert: Back-to-back nights in Charlotte and ATL to see Boston in 1997. Brad Delp was one of the nicest rock stars ever. RIP Brad.
First trip out of country: Italy (10-day trip in high school)
First time on airplane: Washington, D.C. family vacation in 1985.
First death: Paternal grandfather when I was 6.
First death I really remember: My father when I was 17 :'(
First time meeting pro athletes: My dad took me and my siblings to a local department store to meet three relatively unknown players from the 1980 Atlanta Falcons - R.C. Thielemann, Fulton Kuykendall and Jeff Yeates. I still have the team picture they signed and treasure it.
First time meeting a movie star: Woody Harrelson a few years ago while he was in town filming Zombieland. Got him to sign a copy of McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men." Nice guy, probably stoned, his wife thought it was cool I was having him sign a book!
First pro baseball game: Not sure of exact dates, but lots of Braves games at Fulton-County Stadium in the early '80s.
First pro football game: I think Falcons-Redskins at Fulton-County stadium in the late 80s.
First time I saw the woman who would become my wife: I was covering the 1991 Braves parade for the college paper, she was there taking pictures and I walked her back to campus because she was new in town and didn't know her way around ATL.

 

Dude, if I'm bringing the Chevy Kingswood wagon to this here table, you can sack up and admit to driving the car that rhymes with Kremlin.

--First MLB game: Braves-Pirates in 1974. Hank Aaron Night. Ivan Murrell homered for the Braves. Willie Stargell hit one for the Pirates, and IIRC, it went into the upper deck down the right field line at Fulton County Stadium.
--First real kiss: Age 14. Angie (last name redacted). She was smokin' hot then and I saw her again when I was in college and she was surface of the sun hot then. But I'm not braggin'.
--First video on MTV: Revisiting this one, I'm almost positive it was Thriller. When MTV first came out in 1981, we didn't have cable. Think I was at a friend's house when Thriller came on.
--First publication credit: Also age 14. I was at a basketball game and asked a photog from the local rag if he'd let me try shooting some pics. They printed one of mine and gave me a photo credit. The rest is kizmet.
--First fight: 8th grade, hallway at school. He hit me once, I hit him four times. I'm counting that one as a win. We both got paddlings in the principal's office, but nobody messed with me after that. I'm 2-0 all time. At the skating rink later that year, my next-door neighbor tried to hit me and I caught his fist. It pretty much ended right there. So yeah, I'm a badass.

I know this sounds like I'm a legend in my own mind, but I swear all of this is true. Wouldn't recommend the paddlings.

 

For Ygster.

--First song on Night Tracks: Law of averages says it was something by .38 Special
--First song on Night Flight: Law of averages says it was something by Men at Work or Doug and the Slugs.
--First song on New Wave Theater: Do It for Mummy, Wendy Fury.

 

First byline at a major paper: 1991.
Last byline at a major paper: 2008.
First real kiss: I was 9. Her name was Tiffany. She got me while playing spin the bottle (which doesn't count) but then got me a few dozen times later at the same party.
First time on airplane: I was born on an Air Force base (Vandenberg) and was on more than a dozen flights before I turned one.
First job: Not counting mowing lawns, I made coffee and sandwiches at a place called Creative Croissants. It was actually a pretty sweet gig when you're 16.

 

-First song I saw on MTV: Don't remember, probably a British band because those got a lot of airplay in the early days.

--First booze to get me puking: Old Milwaukee, when I was 13 and one of my older cousins gave me one at the golf course.

--First car: 1985 Nissan 300zx, which had less than 1,200 miles on it when I totaled it.

--First job: Umpiring church league youth baseball. As a Methodist, I always got stuck calling First Baptist vs. Christ The King (Catholic). Talk about some holy wars.

--First job post-college: bartender

--First concert: Buffett in 1986, taken by the same older cousin who gave me the beer.

--First trip out of country: Juarez, Mexico in 1985

--First time on airplane: One of my uncles took me up in his plane in the early 80s for a joy ride.

--First kiss: A girl whose name I don't remember, at a two-week summer camp, when I was 13.

--First date:

--First death: Paternal grandmother in 1992, I was 24.

--First pro game: Rod Carew and the Angels at the Texas Rangers

--First movie in a theatre: One of the malls had a triplex and on Saturday mornings showed matinees. You got in for 50 cents if you brought an empty Coke bottle. I don't remember the first, but the first I really remember was 'Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze" starring Ron Ely.

-- First LP: Star Wars - it was like a soundtrack but had audio from the film in it too. You could listen to it and basically get the entire plot out of it.

-- First cassette: no clue

--First CD: "Eat a Peach" by the Allman Brothers Band

 

Basically, by the time I was old enough not to care about the values my parents taught me, I was too old to start. I don't have anything against it, I just never started so I never got a taste for it.

 

I applaud you. If you don't count champagne toasts at weddings, I've probably had five drinks in the last five years and none in more than two years. I had two beers during the Saints Super Bowl and nothing since... I never had a problem, but there are people in my family who do and I don't want my kids to think that it's something that everybody does.

 

First album bought: "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water" - Limp Bizkit (Dammit)
First time in a newspaper: Writing about Christmas in 3rd grade
First (Part-time) job: Working in my dad's machine shop
First (Real) job: Swim instructor at an academy in the neighboring town. Lasted 6 months.
First car: 1997 Volvo 960 Sedan. Totaled.
First favorite athlete: Craig Biggio (Still can't be topped)
First artist that made me completely change directions: Otis Redding. Beatles put me in a different direction of rock, but Otis changed the whole damn game for me.
First concert (Not attached to the Houston Rodeo): Coldplay for my 20th birthday in 2008. Toyota Center.
First R movie: Deep Blue Sea.
First time I was proud of something I did: Making All-State choir for the second time my senior year
First on-stage kiss: My senior year musical.
First time I felt like a bad-ass: Sang "Let's Get it On" at karaoke, girl comes up to me after I sing and asks if I have a girlfriend. I say something really stupid ("I'm as single as they come") and she still gives me her number. ...She was pretty hot.
First time I felt like a jackass: Seventh grade. Girls says she'd heard I liked her. I said yes and she replies "Don't waste your breath."
First Must-See TV for me: SportsCenter
First must-see in weekly TV: Arrested Development

 

--First booze to get me puking: Beer, on my 18th birthday. Probably Utica Club.
--First car: 1970s-era Vega Hatchback, Carolina blue, named her "Bess."
--First job: Working the concession counter at the local threatre.
--First concert: The "Ides of March," Myrtle Beach, S.C., spring break 1971.
--First Springsteen concert: The Mosque, Richmond, Va., spring of 1973 or 1974.
--First airplane trip: Oct. 1972, Piedmont/Allegany between Richmond-Buffalo.

I think the first album I ever bought was by the Dave Clark 5. And the first time I saw Brenda, she asked me to hold her glasses.

 

First car: a Corvair, on its last legs, with iffy fuel lines and an engine on life support . . . lasted six months, but got a LOT of miles out of it, and if I wrote my raw cost per mile/month of ownership, you'd laugh at the loooooow number.
First job: magazine writing in my first-choice field.
First post-college job: reporting in my first-choice field.
Watched MTV at the birthing. Haven't glanced at it much, since.
Last time I threw up (booze, or otherwise): college, sophomore year. J&B. Haven't looked at that brand, since.
First major-league rock concert: The Lovin' Spoonful.
ONLY trip out of the country: Mexico, for a matter of hours, long, long ago.
First pro game: Wrigley Field. Moe Drabowsky's major-league debut. One-hitter vs. Pirates. Klu got the hit, early.