I enjoy making lists.
Let me rephrase that a little. I enjoy making fun lists.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve made lists of my favorite things. Not to imitate Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music,” I don’t sing about a few of my favorite things, but I do compile them in various categories – just for the fun of it.
Sure, I also make lists of things around the house I need to do, but those aren’t necessarily fun. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy doing some of those things, but the “honey-do” lists often get long, complicated … and expensive.
Nancy and I also make annual Christmas lists as a guide to what to get each other. That’s a fun list, too.
When I was a teenager, I listened to a lot of music and played and paid attention to a lot of sports. Growing up in Northwest Indiana about an hour outside of Chicago, there were two top 40 radio stations of choice. Every week, I looked forward to their new list of the top 40 singles. And, of course, whenever I could, I listened to Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” in which he would count down the top 40 songs of the week.
So, I compiled my own list of musical favorites … a weekly top 25. Mine didn’t exclusively include the hits of the day but would combine my favorites of those with my other favorites from my favorite groups.
I did this for years and even would compile a top 100 list of my favorite songs of that year.
It was pretty elaborate.
I also did the same with my favorite baseball and football players, although that list wasn’t updated every week. My criteria at the time was the athlete still had to be active.
It was a lot of fun.
Today, I have a list of lists of my favorites in a slew of categories, including a bucket list. On that list, compiled over time like the rest of them, I’ve accomplished a few things, like hiking part of the Appalachian Trail in the East and part of the Continental Divide Trail in the West. I’ve also seen the Northern Lights and am a grandfather.
But, I’ve yet to hit a hole-in-one on the golf course, and I still have Alaska to visit before I’ve been all 50 states. I’d also like to publish a novel one of these days – I do have one started – as well as become a great-grandfather down the road.
Some of my other lists include popular things like my favorite foods, movies, books, TV shows, actors, athletes, Bible verses, songs and music performers. These are “of all time” lists.
But I also have some more obscure lists, like my favorite actor performances in a movie, favorite cartoon characters, favorite TV characters (not the actors, but the characters they play), Hollywood animals, favorite movie soundtracks, favorite sports movies, favorite places I’ve visited and even favorite newspaper jobs I’ve had during my career. Almost all of my lists have at least 10 entries.
And, no, I do not have extra time on my hands to think about, compile and add to these lists. They’re just things I’ve compiled over the years, even decades. And, they do change a little once in a while for obvious reasons.
I wonder what some of your favorite things are?
So, to whet your appetite, here’s a sampling of some of my favorites. Some probably make sense, others undoubtedly don’t. But this kind of stuff makes us who we are and why we’re unique.
Favorite foods: Rainbow trout and enchiladas. Favorite movies: It’s a Wonderful Life, Jaws (yes, Jaws!) and Jeremiah Johnson. Favorite TV shows: The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Andy Griffith Show from waaaay back and Blue Bloods from today. Favorite actors: John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Nicole Kidman. Favorite athletes: Ernie Banks, Pele, Jack Nicklaus, Gayle Sayers and Meadowlark Lemon. My favorite musical groups or
My favorite musical groups or musicians? Mannheim Steamroller, Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Elton John, Heart and Katherine Jenkins.
Bible verses? Psalm 46:1, John 3:16, Isaiah 40:31, Isaiah 9:6, Philippians 4:4.
And what about some of the obscure?
You all know Snoopy is my favorite cartoon character, but there’s also Foghorn Leghorn. And have any of you ever heard of Daggett from the Angry Beavers and Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races?
Hollywood animals: Misted Ed and Rin-Tin-Tin. Favorite TV characters: Barney Fife, Willy Gilligan and Johnny Fever. Sports movies: The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Natural, Hoosiers, Rudy and Seabiscuit. Favorite places: Yellowstone National Park and Door County, Wisconsin. And then there are favorite perfor
And then there are favorite performances in a movie: Robert Shaw in Jaws, Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, John Wayne in True Grit, Tom Hanks in Big and Tom Ewell in The Seven Year Itch. Soundtracks: The Legend of Bagger Vance, Glory, Hoosiers, Jaws and Victory.
And the lists go on and on.
Again, I wonder what some of your favorites are in these or any other categories?
If you’d like to share, please do so. I’m always interested. Just shoot me an email at [email protected].
Lists. Don’t forget about Santa’s and that he has two of them!
And, of course, in talking lists, we all know what our favorite newspaper is.
The Boerne Star.
As always, thanks for reading.
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