Sometimes I let you Grasshoppers into my head to watch the gerbil running on the wheel. Some subjects are not worth contemplating but I can’t help myself.
Well lately I’ve contemplated the people in my life that I’ve known that have had the name Rex. It is not a long list because “Rex” has not been all that popular over the years.
My first encounter with Rex was in my childhood. During the early 1950’s, cowboy flicks on Friday night were the rage at the local theater. You know! Gene Autry, Roy Rogers (the King of the Cowboys) and Hopalong Cassidy. During this orgy of westerns, Rex Allen appeared on the scene. He was a singing cowboy. He was macho. He had a great horse (I don’t remember the name) and a fantastic voice. I liked Rex Allen but like all the cowboy movie heros, Rex “faded to black”.
The next Rex that I remember was when I started school at UW-Oshkosh. We had six guys in our rooming house on Elmwood Avenue. One guy named Rex Joslyn was two years ahead of me in school and was majoring in psychology. He was muscular (today women would say he was chiseled) and was on the diving team. He had a annoying habit of shouting “diggy diggy dig” when he was exuberant. It was stupid. A real man would should yell “yo” or “hot damn”. But no, Rex had to say that femmy “diggy diggy dig”. I can still hear him leaving the house on a hot date and yelling his “cry” as he went down the steps. All in all, Rex was a good guy. That was 45 years ago.
Then in the late 1970’s I met another Rex. Rex Coryell. He was the coordinator for our group of business executives (TEC). He was a good listener. He was a really classy person. His job did not pay a hugh salary. It turns out he was a Harvard graduate with a Master degree from also from Harvard. He was also a retired Naval officer and had a life pension. He was doing what he wanted to do. He was working with top people in business and he was having fun. Yeah! My kind of guy. I haven’t seen Rex in 15 years.
So you see my composite of “Rex” is a cowboy with a Harvard degree riding off into the sunset screaming “diggy diggy dig”.
I can’t help but wonder what the next person named Rex will be like as he enters my life. If history is an predictor, he will be accomplished and he will make a lasting positive impression. Rex? Are you out there?
Love,
Dad