I'm a nostalgic, sentimental type of guy and while I was writing this latest RP with Falcon in New York it caused me to start remembering something. Its not that I forgot, its just that it all started playing back in my head.

What you do know about me is that I'm legit from Pittsburgh. What you don't know is I have a lot of family that lives in New York City and on Long Island. Or, as my cousin Vanessa likes to say, "Lawn Guyland." My mother was born in Bayshore, New York. As a kid, she'd fill my head with her stories of being in the City and whatnot and I'd always wanted to visit. To step foot on the same ground my ancestors stepped on. That's definitely the sentimental side of me.

Even though I hadn't been there, I always considered it "my city." In 1998 my dad started working for a lighting company out of Pittsburgh. He, along with the equipment, would be loaned out to movies, commercials and sporting events. Nothing major on the movie side. In August of 2000, my dad was headed back to New York City to start on a film and he'd be gone for six weeks. When things like this occured, my stepmother would always take the trip across Pennsylvania and stay with my dad at the hotel for a few nights every couple of weeks.

She was ready to take a trip over to see him along with my little brother and sister and I begged to go. Like I said, it had been a dream of mine to go to New York fuckin City. Down the road we go.

I remember I could barely contain my excitement. We made it to the New Jersey line at about 5 pm and within about an hour, I could see something a little to the left, off in the distance. A few minutes later I realized what it was I'd been looking at.

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

"Yes! We're almost there!" I said. "Still got about a half hour" my stepmother replied.

How could I see something so far away? I knew they were big, but until you saw them in person, you couldn't appreciate their immense size. Sure, there are larger structures, but for a small town guy, this were fuckin huge.

Fast forward a little.

Dad drives me around the city, giving me the grand tour. I was awestruck. We were stopped at a redlight directly next to the WTC and I remember hanging my head out the window to look up the length of the buildings. I couldn't see the top. I was completely amazed.

I'd finally made it to New York City. Finally stepped foot where half of me came from.

A little over a year later.... we all know what happened. I'm glad I got to see them while they still stood. It's something I'll never forget.

As we approach yet another anniversary of that day, remember to love your families. In the end, you just never know, and they're all you have. 3,000 families were forever changed in a matter of a couple of hours.

You just never know.

I made it to NYC. Not a big deal, right? It is to me.



Share anything you like.

I'd really like to think I was fortunate as a child and up to the present day. I'm going on 22 years of age this upcoming November and for the most part my extended family is all in great health and though some are aging it's great to be around them every chance I can get, especially on my father's side both his mother and father are approaching 80 years old and both still drive and are in excellent health.

I want to share two memories I've had, both are pretty personal to me and they aren't the happiest however they've helped me grow up to the person I am today.

The first one being my first visit into a funeral, if I can remember I was 13 years old and I was in Newfoundland visiting my family during the summer, a tradition we had every year. My great grandfather who was I believe going on 97 years of age ironically passed away during this time, I remember visiting him a day or two before he passed and he was simply unresponsive to anything. I remember the morning I got woken up by my mother who was extremely close to him and she told me the news, it was all new to me because I never had a family member pass away that I remembered, his wife died when I was only a young kid so I don't really have any recollection of her but I do remember visiting him often and he was always a very spirited man.

Something took over during the funeral, I didn't know him too well but I was on the breaking point of tears, it wasn't more so his death however everyone around me mourning. It truly was one of the saddest sights I've witnessed, seeing my grandmother and her sister, my mom, aunt all in tears over his death and that got me really choked up. I've only been to one other funeral since that time, so I'm still never used to it and the fact that I've always been a very emotional person it won't be the greatest when I have to visit a funeral of a close relative.

Another memory which in terms has really screwed up my family, would be alcohol. My mom's sister had married a man who for years was a very nice, genuine person. For anyone that lives in Canada and knows of Pizza delight, he owned several restaurants throughout Atlantic Canada. They had lived in Newfoundland their entire lives but eventually moved onto the mainland (that's what we call it) in the same province as us, approximately an hour and a half away.

I never knew, but my uncle always had a problem with alcohol and finding out that alcoholism had been in his family for a long time. When they moved it brought out the worst in them, his drinking went to a whole other level and this would lead to more than once my mom having to drive more then 90 minutes from our home to come pick up her sister and my cousin because my uncle had been drinking too much and it simply took over him, turning him to basically an evil man. He brought my aunt to her mental breaking point, hearing eerie stories on how she burnt all her wedding pictures and even my cousin who's a single child having a door slammed onto his leg. It's really made me ridicule alcohol and I don't wanna sound like one of those guys but I'd much prefer to smoke weed rather than drink.

That's not saying that I haven't drunk though, however I think there's been around a handful times throughout my life that I've actually gotten drunk before, it just doesn't interest me that much and a lot of the people who I chill with would rather smoke anyways which is fine by me.

Despite these events, they've molded me into the person I am today and I believe everything happens for a reason. The situation with my uncle hasn't gotten any better and it's gotten worse believe it or not, but I don't like talking about it and it's just gotten out of control.

Just some stuff I wanted to share, for everyone to get to know me more.

Reading your memories, Cam, I can remember going to my grand-dad's funeral. Growing up, I'd always been a wrestling fan, under influence of my brother and half-brothers. However, my grand-dad was also a wrestling fan (funnily enough, considering my half-brothers are older than me and my brother, and yet they are not from his side of the family). I remember going around to his house with my brother, and everytime we would borrow a wrestling video to watch, from as early as you can think of.

I remember at his funeral, they mentioned his love for wrestling, which I found simply amazing, that even in his final testament, he wanted those who remembered him to know that he loved the sport, including those who came after him. I was touched to say the least, and I guess I honour him today by still being part of the wrestling world: keeping up to date, doing this, and collecting the belts.

I share a similar story except with my grampa and my ex step dad. I remember watching it with my grandfather. He despised Jerry Lawler and loved Bret Hart. He also thought Shawn Michaels was a little "queer" lol his words not mine. The man was awesome this was when I was really young. Fast forward a few years when Stone Cold was the top guy. He loved it. And I remember watching it with him every night until my Mom got remarried. Then I went about my business and had seemingly forgotten about wrestling. One night I walked into the living room and this was in 2001 or so..I'm horrible at time as some of you know. But it was the episode of Raw after No Way Out where Stone Cold's wife became The Rock's manager. I got hooked again all the way from the invasion until now. The man no longer watches wrestling(at least not WWE). He said Vince McMahon was a sell out and anti-American, but its whatever.

Also a side note during this time frame my cousin and I made championships out of cardboard and had his mattresses in the his guest room and we would wrestle for the titles and jump off of his dressers on to eachother...not safe but the love remains. He still loves it, but I don't get to drink a cold one and watch it with him because he's in prison now.. so eh whatever.

When it comes to my mom, she was I would say the casual wrestling fan, she would watch Raw, and at the time Nitro and the original ECW when it would come on. Anytime she had the money, we would go to shows around the area. But as far as saying she was this uber-fan like I was growing up, nah. I personally think she watched it cause my older brother did when he was growing up and then I did.

Over-time she started having her favs like Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Undertaker and Kevin Nash (which is where my love for Nash comes from)

A couple fond memories that stand out the most was

A: As a kid, my aunt, herself and I going to the local mall's bookstore so she could pick up a copy of Playgirl that had Shawn Michaels in it. One of those off occasions where I didn't care about going, she drags me along just to buy that damn mag >.<

B: The last event that her and I went to before she passed was back in 2008 and it was a TNA house show. Nothing solid really that stood out match wise. Kurt Angle showed up but didn't wrestle. Samoa Joe and Abyss battled it out in the main event. Awesome Kong and Taylor Wilde put on one hell of a match. But the memory that night that stands out the most is LAX vs. Beer Money.

We had seats behind the barricade, Beer Money comes out first and Storm gets on the mic. He starts getting the heat, he's going and going and then he insults the Carolina Panthers. He goes on for a couple mins how horrible they are, yadda yadda. My mom (who was a HUGE Carolina Panthers fan) stands up and does the ol "up yours" gesture towards Storm. Storm in turns does it back directly towards her. .....Just a awesome moment to see my mom and fucking James Storm have a back and forth thing like that xD

C: As my mom was in the hospital, I spent the night with her one night. We ended up watch a episode of TNA Impact. I remember vaguely my mom saying how she thought ODB was awesome.



My mom sadly passed away from breast cancer a week later but after a bad bought with depression, drug and alcohol abuse and not to mention being homeless, a state away. I was able to fight it out and now only remember the good times shared with her and her love for wrestling.

I remember when I was 3 and got a toilet seat stuck on my head...

Both John Austin and Mr. Radio reminded me of two things.

1) I went to see Smackdown in 2002 with my step-dad and I friggen loved it. It was Hogan's fake retirement. Vince McMahon was forcing it..Undertaker came down, etc. three things I remember well. 1) Triple H faced Lance Storm. 2)Rico and Rikishi faced Billy and Chuck. 3) Kurt Angle has that ridiculous wig on because it was post Judgement Day. Christian tried to instigate a "you're bald" chant in a backstage segment. And later that night Chistian and Angle faced Edge and Maven....Couldn't tell you who won the matches though

2) I actually zipped up a ninja turtles lunch box on my head pretending like it was a helmet when I was five and it got stuck and pinched the skin...still have the thing but the zipper is broken. Yeah I wasn't the brightest kid. lol