Friday, May 30, 2008

June 1987 Lakers, Celtics and Danny's graduation

Tonight the Boston Celtics defeated the Detroit Pistons to earn a trip to the NBA finals. The Celtics opponent in the championship series will be the L.A. Lakers .

It's been 21 years since these two historic teams have met in a NBA finals. The day the Lakers vanquished the Celtics and won the 1987 championship I was in L.A. (Westwood to be exact) attending my brother Danny's graduation. I also vividly remember the legendary Ella Fitzgerald singing at the ceremony(the commencement ceremony not the basketball game).

Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Farmers Market

Today I walked down to the farmers market along with Dawn Marie, Buddy, and Zorro. It is was a very pleasant 3 mile round trip.

The Walla Walla farmers market as grown considerably over the years and now takes up most of the parking lot behind city hall.

When You visit Walla Walla I recommend you make time to visit the market. It runs May through October on Saturday and Sunday.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Larry "Abdullah The Butcher" Shreeve

Last month I was in Maple Valley shooting hoops with my big brother Michael. He mentioned to me that my grandfather Barer(who passed away four years before I was born) enjoyed watching wrestling and his favorite wrestler was Abdullah The Butcher.

I mentioned to Mike that Abby was still wrestling. Mike didn't think it was possible.

Well I did a little research. Larry Shreeve aka Abdullah The Butcher broke into the wrestling business as a teenager in the late 50's. By the mid 60's he was a big star especially in Vancouver B.C. territory. And yes it is the same Abdullah that still wrestles in Japan and on the indy scene in U.S.

The Butcher also owns a restaurant in Atlanta called Abdullah's House Of Ribs and Chinese Food

The Abdullah character has been one of the most successful and enduring gimmicks in the history of wrestling. With his greatest success coming in Japan.

I found this clip on you tube. It interesting to observe the difference between the mad man from the Sudan character and the soft spoken man who plays the part.
Also as someone who has an appreciation of wrestling history it's remarkable to here him talk about wrestling Lou Thez in Vancouver in the early to mid 60's while they show footage of Abby wrestling Hulk Hogan In Japan circa 1982.

Hey, thats Abdullah The Butcher!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Iron Man

We watched Iron Man on Sunday. I liked the movie ALMOST as much as I liked the trailer.

Hot!!!!!!!!!

As I was driving home from work tonight the thermometer was reading 90 degrees

Saturday, May 17, 2008

D.J.

Our Sonic memories continue as we pay tribute to the late great Dennis Johnson.
D.J. was the MVP of the 1979 NBA finals.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Tastes Great Less Filling

Since Michael put up a classic beer comercial I figured I would put up these two. I wonder how much these guys were paid to appear in these comercials?

I am posting this holiday season commercial Just because I am actually able to identify everyone who appears in it.
Dick Butkus, Booge Powel, Bubba Smith, Jim Honocheck, Grits Gresham, Steve Mizerak,
Carlos Palimino, Billy Martin, John Madden, Tommy Heinsohn and Marv Throneberry

Thursday, May 08, 2008

The 34th Annual Walla Walla Balloon Stampede Is This Weekend

Since we haven't had much Walla Walla related content lately. I figured I would post this clip.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Tom Chambers

In 1987 Sonic Tom Chambers one the MVP award at the All Star Game held in Seattle.
What made the moment even more specials for the athletes involved is the fact that..Steven and Michael Barer were in attendance(thanks to my sister Teri purchasing the tickets for us).

Chambers and the sonics got hot in the playoffs and made it all the way to the western conference finals before being swept by a juggernaut Laker team. I remember watching the deciding game at My aunt Dorthy's house. We were visiting because cousin Stanley was in town

No entry on Tom Chambers would be complete without the dunk.