Sunday Stealing — Interview with Gale

Why Interview with Gale for Sunday Stealing? “Back in 2007, a blogger named Harmonica Man posted five questions for Gale at This Was Me. Well, now we’re turning the tables and interviewing you.”

1. What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done? Did it take physical or emotional courage?

I wrote about it here, starting with A Story. But briefly, “I started climbing up [a mountain] just to get a better view” in Alta, UT, in the fall of 1994. I got to the top. 

“Now the descent. I tried to brake myself from going too fast. I got maybe a third of the way down, and I began sliding. But I wasn’t too worried until my left leg got caught in a hole, while the rest of my body weight was going downhill.

“My left knee started hurting, a LOT. Somehow, I crawled the rest of my way down, then the few dozen meters to where we were staying.”

This was not courageous. It was stupid, borne of the pain of a deteriorating relationship. Then I had REAL physical pain, which I experience to this day.

2. Where did you meet the love of your life?

At church. I was probably chair of the Council of Ministries, and she was the Membership Chair. 

3. What brand/flavor of coffee are you drinking these days?

I don’t drink coffee. As I’ve noted in the past, I don’t make coffee either. When I was assigned to the rotation at work to make coffee, the product was so awful that I was excused thereafter.  

Caribbean

4. What’s the coolest place you’ve ever visited, and how did you get there (car, plane, motorcycle, etc.)?

I wrote about this here. It was Barbados in May 1999 on our honeymoon:

“It was just grand to go to any all-inclusive resort for six nights, especially as a prize for coming in second on JEOPARDY on my second episode… 

“The ocean was gorgeous…  There were three different places to eat dinner, and the food was fabulous. We bought a rum cake to take home; it was extraordinarily delicious. We enjoyed having tea at 4 p.m.

“Everything was interesting to us, from the way the news was far more international to the wall-to-wall coverage of cricket.

“When we returned to the States… Somehow, we were bumped to first class on the five-hour flight home.” 

The eighties

5. What’s the best concert you ever attended?

It’s long been two: The Temptations Reunion tour, where Eddie and David joined Dennis, Otis, Glenn, Richard, and Melvin. “I saw this performance at the Colonie Coliseum in Albany County in 1982. First, they sang together, then in groups of five. They started with the first classic lineup, with Richard replacing the late Paul. Then Dennis went in for David, then Glenn supplanted Eddie. They closed by singing together.” And it was a close-up view with no bad seats in the house.

The other was the  August 1983 performance of Talking Heads at the Saratoga Performance Arts Center on  the Stop Making Sense tour. I finally saw the Jonathan Demme Stop Making Sense movie in 2023. “The first half of the movie transported me back four decades, with the attendant awe, from Byrne’s solo Psycho Killer to the pieces with the full band, including Alex Weir, Bernie Worrell, and Steve Scales. Honestly, I was joyfully exhausted by the band and backup singers Edna Holt and Lynn Mabry’s energy.”