Many of the previous songs in the last week and a half were songs that I specifically wanted to include because they were songs that were important to me. Much like those songs, these are very important to Larry so I will let him take over on this write up..
On this late summer journey where we are focused on the music that really ties into memories of our sons, no songs hit me in the feels regarding Connor more than these songs today. I actually have Metal Gear Saga as my ringtone for him - so that in and of itself says a lot. Of all the songs in this world I know and can relate to him, this is what it is.
If you're not familiar with video games, the Metal Gear series of games started in 1987 and has been around since. I would discover these games through Connor in the late 90's, not long after he was born and then proceeded to start kicking my ass (that actually started with the first Tomb Raider game).
These games were created by Hideo Kojima and they are literally works of art - as much as Studio Ghibli movies by Hayao Miyazaki are (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, The Wind Rises, etc).
The latter games were scored by Harry Gregson-Williams and are perfect compliments to the games themselves. He has also scored multiple movies (Antz, Enemy of the State, The Tigger Movie, Chicken Run, Spy Kids, Shrek, The Martian) to name a few you might recognize.
Anyway - Connor grew up playing them, with me right by his side. Or him sitting in my lap. It's a somewhat FPS game, but leans more into stealth attributes. It's always been a go to favorite of mine and I have some really great memories playing with him.
And here's where a couple of personal stories come to light.
Because the gameplay relies a lot on your ability to maintain stealth, he took this very seriously in real life. Shannon used to bring the boys to work every so often, especially when I was on second shift, to have lunch with me. Since Bath & Body Works had the corporate offices in the front and the Distribution Center in the back, even in the late 90's / early 2000's, they had strict access control and security cameras all over the inside / outside. I'm not quite sure how Connor discovered this, but once he did, anytime he came into the building, he would hug the wall and do his best to avoid the cameras - always trying to get into their blind spots. Proud nerd-dad moment. Then and now.
The other story revolves around this .mp3 bit I downloaded during the height of Napster shenanigan's, and in order to understand the story, you really need to listen to the .mp3. It's marked Safe For Work and is kind of funny...
One of the very first roles I took as an "Individual Contributor" - meaning I left the DC and had ZERO DIRECT REPORTS was in a Manager role over DA's (Delivery Agents) throughout the U.S. (there were actually three of us that covered the whole United States).
Basically any Lbrands products (Bath & Body Works, Express, Lane Bryant, Limited, Limited Too, Structure, Victoria's Secret) that ended up in mall stores all shipped from Columbus, Ohio, went to a 3rd Party DA wherever in the U.S. who then broke down the freight and delivered it to the malls in their area.
As mentioned before, I traveled quite a bit for this role and this is when the boys were young. So a tough time for me, the boys and especially Shannon. The cool thing about this role was I went from a regular boring pager to a Motorola Skytel Talkabout pager! Now I could "text" people back instead of having to call them! Just typing that out makes me feel old - no cell phone prominence yet in the world.
As I started the role, my boss (Gary) took me on my very first trip to visit Triangle who serviced the New York City stores. As we're driving to get to Triangle, we have to cross over the East River.
So while I should be thinking about my job, I'm thinking about video games and Connor. So I whip out my Motorola Skytel Talkabout pager and text Shannon to please let Connor know that I'm in the hold of a tanker on the East river by 59th Street, um 58th Street, uh 57th Street.
She did and let me know he understood and laughed about it.
That conversation lived on my pager until the very end, years later, when I had to turn it in because we were being upgraded to cell phones. Honestly, that was a sad day for me. This is such a bittersweet memory as is everything about the songs today...
P.S. Even for not so small town Larry, experiencing the sights, sounds and attitude of NYC logistics was quite the experience...
Ghost of a Chance 