Old post revisited; this was almost 10 years ago. Where does the time go? I felt old when I wrote this and being nearly 10 years older I feel ancient! Holy cow.
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My grandfather’s sister was married to a man named Leroy Brown. He was a firefighter in his day; a true hero. I’m not sure what the truth is but we were told that due to the excessive smoke inhalation of being a firefighter, he had severe damage to his throat and had a tracheostomy as a result. I’m sure the equipment firefighters used back then were next to useless by today’s standards. This must have been in the 70’s because I was around 10 or 11 years old. I recall a very disturbing view of Leroy Brown smoking a cigarette once through the opening in his throat. *Shivers* I’m pretty sure smoking had something to do with his medical need for the trach in the first place! He probably had throat cancer, but my sisters and I were sheltered from that type of information.
Leroy Brown was a formidable man of large stature. He was in his 60’s at that time, and he carried himself with confidence and arrogance. Due to the trach, his voice was rough and scratchy. He was a direct and to the point type of man. No one messed with Leroy Brown! One time, back when my Grandfather owned a bar, my Grandfather got into an altercation with some drunken idiot over a woman. Well, Leroy Brown, who was the official “unofficial bouncer” pulled a gun on him. That guy ran out of there and never came back. The woman involved, got in Leroy Brown’s face and what do you think he did? He punched her right in the face. Done. No one messed with Leroy Brown or they suffered the consequences. No doubt about that!
Well, my sisters were scared of Leroy Brown. They were about the ages of 5 and 3 at the time. They were just little kids and the sound of Leroy’s voice through that gaping hole in his throat was scary as hell to them! Not to mention, they thought he was THE Leroy Brown from the song by Jim Croce! The song tells what seems to be a good description of our Leroy Brown except I don’t recall that he ever got his ass whooped like in the song.
I heard that song the other day on the radio and it reminded me of our Leroy Brown. I’m not sure when he died, but I hope he had a good life. I would like to have known him as an adult. I think he would have been a very interesting man with some great stories to tell!
Here’s a vdieo of the song! I hope you enjoy!
Bad Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce
Well the South side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named Leroy Brown
Now Leroy more than trouble
You see he stand ’bout six foot four
All the downtown ladies call him “Treetop Lover”
All the men just call him “Sir”
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog
Now Leroy he a gambler
And he like his fancy clothes
And he like to wave his diamond rings
In front of everybody’s nose
He got a custom Continental
He got an Eldorado too
He got a thirty two gun in his pocket for fun
He got a razor in his shoe
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog
Now Friday ’bout a week ago
Leroy shootin’ dice
And at the edge of the bar
Sat a girl named Doris
And oo that girl looked nice
Well he cast his eyes upon her
And the trouble soon began
And Leroy Brown learned a lesson
‘Bout messin’ with the wife of a jealous man
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog
Well the two men took to fighting
And when they pulled them off the floor
Leroy looked like a jigsaw puzzle
With a couple of pieces gone
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog
And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog
Songwriter: James Croce
Bad Bad Leroy Brown lyrics © BMG Rights Management US, LLC
Last night, I was drinking a cup of this tea I found at the health food store, and I was lounging in the recliner. Jack jumped up on my lap and made his way to my chest, where he purred and rubbed his face on my face. I didn’t think much of it because Jack is lovable like that sometimes. But then Alice jumped up and was standing on my chest with her front feet, sniffing my breath and making a weird chirping sound. Then, Smokie (the blind one) jumps up and starts doing the same. I was thinking, “what the heck has gotten into you guys?”
Well, here are the ingredients of the tea: passion flower, chamomile, linden flower, CATNIP, hop strobile, spearmint, lemon verbena, lemon peel, and West Indian lemongrass.
That explains it. Big lol’s!
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, then you know I have pain and mobility issues. You also know that I am in dire need of knee replacement surgery. First, a not-real-quick recap:
My journey started around 11 years ago, with a doctor that didn’t do anything from the very beginning. Now, let me just say that I knew I needed to lose weight and I KNEW I had to do this myself, but from the get-go my doctor did absolutely nothing to help me with anything. I had trouble since my first child was born, trying to lose weight. She said, “You just need to count calories” and offered absolutely NO assistance or guidance. She gave me a script for pain meds and that was the end of that.
When I FINALLY got my doctor to refer me to a specialist in 2016, I was thrilled. I thought I was finally getting somewhere. Well, the specialist was an asshole with a God complex and shamed and belittled me for 40 minutes. (It’s not like I weighed 600 pounds…not even half of that at my heaviest!) It was something I will never forget. Anyway, shortly after that happened I signed up for Nutrisystem.
Nutrisystem was what I had needed years ago but never had the money to spend on it. It works but it’s quite costly. I did the program faithfully and religiously for almost a year until I was so sick of the food I had to take a break. I had lost 60 pounds, and with high hopes went to see my new doctor, who set me up with a new specialist.
The new specialist was impressed that I had lost 60 pounds in less than a year. However, this was not enough of a loss to consider surgery yet, plus I needed to strengthen my leg muscles.
Fast forward, to last summer. I was so sick of Nutrisystem foods that I stayed off the plan for a bit. We had company off and on and we went out to eat a LOT. Then, Thanksgiving rolled around….and Christmas….and well, I GAINED 25 pounds back!
Uh oh. I need to do something, right? So, in January I purchased an exercise machine called an Air Walker. It’s an elliptical, but not a traditional elliptical. It’s more like a glider instead of a stepper. I purchased this scary contraption because the video showed the woman was NOT having to bend her knees. Perfect for me! I started with 5 minutes a day and worked up to 5 minutes, 3 times a day. Not a lot, I know, but it was more than I was doing before! I worked up to 10 minutes twice a day and now, I’m doing 15 minutes twice a day! Yay! That’s 30 minutes a day and just a little over 1700 ‘steps’ per day. I feel my legs getting stronger. I’m not using the wheelchair as much, but still using my cane.
Also in January, I restarted Nutrisystem. Then I f***ed up. So, I started again…. I restarted the program 4 times since then! The food was just too much for me to hack anymore. Not that it’s bad; most of it is decent and some quite good. It was just the same ol’ same ol’ over and over again. Blah.
That’s when my daughter, SR, texted me and told me that she was doing Weight Watchers. She told me a little about it and the cost wasn’t too bad; less than $20 month for online only. So, I signed up! (Apparently, WW has changed quite a bit since the last time I looked into it.)
I started last Sunday and caught on very quickly. It’s not hard to do at all. No meetings or humiliating weigh-ins. You track the food you eat and stay within your point budget, determined by WW. One week later, I have lost 8.4 pounds.
(I know some was probably water weight but I’ll take it!)
I’m back on track, finally. I will keep on until I have my weight down (and my BMI) to what the specialist wants and I’ll get my legs stronger so recovery will go smoother. I can’t wait to go back to the specialist and say, “Hey, enough waiting. Let’s get the show on the road! I have an exciting life left to live!”
Being Aunt Debbie 