PINK SLIP - March 14, 2011

When you play Marshall Tucker, The Who and The Allman Brothers on the stereo system for a house full of folks who were teens in the early 1970s, you can hardly be called a DJ.  Still, the guy who has always manned the turntable or CD player at our parties at Charlie and Carol’s all these years was a bit put out at our party there this past weekend.  He became a pink-slipped DJ of sorts.

Charlie and Carol have been living at the party headquarters for a bunch of close and loveable friends for years.  They have a house that they pretty much built by themselves out in the country side and rolling hills of Northern Chatham County, North Carolina just a few short miles from Chapel Hill where we all met each other in the mid-70s.  We all gather at that house frequently throughout the year to watch North Carolina sports and to party among the inhabitants there – friends, cats, dogs, horses, ferrets and an occasional bee or two.

During halftimes of the games we watch and after games when it’s time to just party, the stereo is always manned by Gary.  Gary is a bit old school.  He doesn’t own a computer.  At least I don’t think he does.  Maybe he does and just refuses to use it.  He’s a bit hardheaded and set in his ways.  

So you can imagine his dismay when someone this past weekend, during the annual Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Tournament get-together at Charlie and Carol’s, unplugged the turntable and CD player from the sound system.  In place of the archaic disc style musical outputs was someone’s laptop computer with a “play list” of over 100,000 songs.  Gary’s play list is always in his mind and it's fluid. He just asks himself at any given time, “What feels right?”  And he always judges the crowd and the mood and delivers in spectacular fashion.  He is a human AOR (Album Oriented Rock for you youngsters!) kind of guy.

Gary was replaced.  By a computer.  Now, this is a common occurrence in the American work force these days.  It has been for years and decades.  But at a party?  My God, how badly must Gary feel, right?

Saturday’s game was a real nail biter.  Very intense.  Carolina was down by 14 at halftime, and never led at all during the game until the final second.  We won on a last second lay-up.  It was quite nerve-wracking.

After the game, the computer and “play list” took over.  At one point, some “talking” or other nonsense came on the sound system.  I have no idea what it was, but it surely wasn’t Marshal Tucker, The Who or the Allman Brothers.  So, I just had to ask Gary, “So if you were manning the stereo, would you be playing this?”

His reply was, “I didn’t drink all day and suffer through that game to put up with this shit!”

Spoken like a true American who had been replaced by technology.  

But there is good news.  During and after Sunday’s game at Charlie and Carol’s, the computer was no longer there.  As I was leaving their house yesterday, I said goodbye to Gary.  He barely acknowledged me.  He was busy, sifting through the wall of CD’s, choosing what to play next.  

That’s the way things go at that house. 

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Posted by David Moon at 3/14/2011 8:51 AM
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Life humor advice encouragement courage people family sports inspiration understanding angels passio
 

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