In the dead of winter with temperatures in the single digits and low teens I completed basic training at Fort Dix. Within days they had me popping salt pills like they were candy desperately trying to adjust to 95 degrees and 95% humidity when my flight landed in San Antonio, Texas for advanced training.
“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Your present will play out according to how you see your past. It’s never too late to change that story.” Aries
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 112 in the first season of ” My 1-Year Natural Experiment” on this 1st day of November in the fall of 2019, also known as Day Six of Scorpio Time.
Evidence
It was clear that McQueen’s and Nash’s point was to spend some time today wrangling the past. So, it was back to working on Marc Maron’s fake interview of me. (S1 E110, and S1 E109)
Marc: What about Washington University? How does that fit in. Before or after your induction?
Steve: So, we discovered certain kinds of graduate training programs qualified you for a deferment.I applied to and got accepted at its Law School. So, this was before. After I “graduated” from the Army I received my masters degree in psychology at David Letterman’s alma mater — Ball State University.
Marc: Where’s that? In Indianapolis? I used to know this from doing panel on his show.
Steve: No in beautiful downtown Muncie, Indiana.But, Letterman was the weatherman at an Indianapolis television station before making his way to the Comedy Club out here. He did everything, but tell us what the weather was going to be the next day.
Marc: Haha. So, you go directly to Vietnam?
Steve: As in “Do Not Pass Go”? No. I went. But not until I completed basic training at Fort Dix in the dead of winter with temperatures in the single digits and low teens and then went on to San Antonio, Texas with 95% humidity and 95 degrees.I was popping salt pills like they were candy.
Marc: Were you in for three years?
Steve: No, that’s if you enlisted.I was drafted for what was supposed to be two years, but I got out a few months earlier to attend Ball State.
Marc: So, let’s go back a little.You grew up in New Jersey and Ohio.Your parents moved to Detroit and you went to Vietnam.
Steve: My parents moved to Bloomfield Hills, a suburb north of downtown Detroit, and I left my apartment in St. Louis to report for my induction the morning after my honeymoon.
Marc: So you got married before you shipped out?
Steve:Yeah.
Marc: Did you have to?
Steve: Yeah. I mean we were engaged and all for about a year while she was finishing up at college and I tried to stretch a deferment out of law school for more than the 90-day extension.
Marc: But she didn’t see you for the whole time you were in the Army?
Steve: No she joined me in San Antonio while I was stationed at Fort Sam Houston and my son was born at Brooks Memorial Hospital. I had been stationed there up until the last seven months of my commitment when the Vietnam lottery happened.
Marc: Vietnam lottery happened?
Steve: And a Catch – 22.
Marc: Like the book and movie?
Steve: Sorta. See I had applied and had been accepted to the Masters Psychology program in the Graduate School at Ball State starting in the fall, which technically meant I only had 5 months left in the service.
Marc: And the Catch 22, then was?
But enough about Marc and Steves excellent adventures for now.
What can we learn from our Holiday Tau — we meaning Zahn, Winkler, Emma the Baroness and me?
“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “You have to unlearn in order to learn today, to clear before you can build, to drop your beef with someone before you can love.” Scorpio
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
Processing, mining — whatever you want to call it is a blessing and a curse for me. And if you knew me well, you’d think nothing could be further from the truth.
I’m the same guy who advised “Chief Reinvention Officers” and cultivated Paradoxy-Moron clients helping them capitalize on the future before its time.
“5” Steve Nash, 45: “Even a half-hour spent processing the past will make a world of difference. Think of it as a spiritual stretch to keep you limber.” Aquarius
Haha, tell me about it Steve.
“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Your present will play out according to how you see your past. It’s never too late to change that story.” Aries
Sure, Howey’s Holiday Tau makes sense, but I’m on a different wavelength today.
“3” Steve Howey, 42: “Part of being proud of what you do is showing it in its best light. Put effort into the presentation because this helps others understand both the work and you.” Cancer
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate