No. 645 – Great Spirit

Performer: Robert Plant

Songwriters: Phil Johnstone, Kevin Scott MacMichael, Robert Plant

Original Release: Fate of Nations

Year: 1993

Definitive Version: None

After the pageantry at the first annual 500 barbecue had been properly executed—and don’t you love the chutzpah of someone who calls something the “first annual” as if it were automatic that it would happen again—there was only one thing left on the agenda: Have fun.

With a Bud in one hand, and tongs in another, Scott and I ran the grills, cooking an assortment of processed meats for the crowd. Finally it was our turn to enjoy the fruits of our labor. And it was time to better get to know the new galpal.

Scott had told me about Shani back in the winter, and he was pretty head over heels. As was always the case, as far as I was concerned, if Scott liked someone, then she was in good with me. But after the Alien Woman (so named because she had late-80s poofy bangs that emphasized a toothy smile that made her look like, well, the Alien queen), Shani was a huge breath of fresh air. Jin and I liked her right away.

I had one more task before the barbecue was over. It was the piece de resistance as far as race prep. I grilled a flank steak that I had marinated overnight, using my stepmom’s sure-fire teriyaki sauce recipe. After it was done, I cut it up to assemble the next morning in sandwiches that we could take into the track. The sandwiches went over like Jim Nabors singing Back Home Again and were afterward considered a permanent addition to the racetrack festivities.

At the barbecue’s conclusion, and we had all collapsed onto the sofa, it was apparent that the revelry and pageantry seemingly had been too much for the ladies in attendance. They went inside, desperately seeking the nap couches.

So that meant there was only one thing for Scott and I to do—head to the Muncie mall and the video arcade had the awesome Terminator 2 shoot-em-up video game, in which you could go as far as your quarters held out. Scott and I destroyed Skynet, went back into the past, made it all the way to the final platform where you try to knock the T-1000 into the molten lead … and failed. John Connor was killed, and mankind was thus lost. D’OH!

By the time we got back, an hour or so later, Jin and Shani had recovered from their bout of tiredness, and the various guests had cleaned up everything, which was nice of them. I don’t remember what we did the rest of the evening, but after the earlier events, it was all postscript anyway.

Scott and I agreed that the first annual 500 Barbecue WAS good enough to repeat the next year. What others had thought was irrelevant. WE had a blast. Now, what can we do to top this year’s pagentry?