Walking amid the throngs a few weeks back at Summerfest, I bumped into a Milwaukee radio legend. That encounter made me smile, brought back a flood of memories, and is the cause for the following avalanche of name-dropping you are about to endure.

The legend is Bob Reitman. And while our paths have crossed many times over the years, in my slight Leinenkugel-lubricated good mood, while we were catching up, I couldn't help but remember how helpful Bob was to me in my early days. I didn't want to get too nostalgic and although Reitman is a guy that doesn't shy away from speaking of things generally relegated to "I'm a guy and I can easily bury that," I also didn't want to get too sappy. But he gave me the best example of pay it forward I ever got in the radio industry.

I was attending UW-Whitewater and working at the college radio station. A few of us radio geeks came to Milwaukee for a concert one evening. We mis-timed the drive and found ourselves looking to kill an hour in a restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue. By coincidence, it was the same place Reitman was eating before his evening shift at the old WQFM.

At the time I considered him a celebrity and myself a part of the unwashed masses. Since our group did include one fairly attractive female, a conversation ensued with Bob (she was the only one capable of starting it) and he couldn't have been nicer. In fact, more than nice. He offered to share with me some cassette bootlegs of Springsteen ("Oh yeah I've kinda heard of him") and Dylan ("Oh yeah, big surprise"). The tapes showed up in the mail at my dorm a week or two later and I had the chance to strike up an acquaintance that would last for decades of a true role model.

As I talked to Bob at Summerfest, I kept thinking of how he didn't have to be so nice all those years ago ... and the fact that he did is the reason over the last 25 years I have always at least tried to return that favor to listeners, students and radio rookies that h…

While I admittedly came late to the Twitter party, I am really starting to enjoy some aspects of it.

I do enjoy getting some brilliant nonsense off my chest and the challenge of doing so in 140 characters.

The downside is, just like the radio, I can say something regrettable and even if deleted, it is still out there.

Of course my own proclamations aside, I have found myself quickly well informed by some of those I follow.

And, for example as a Brewer fan, seeing real time and inside information from the likes of beat writer Tom Haudricourt, gives me a good perspective.

As a music lover, I find that while there are a few, most musicians don't open up the way some athletes do.

And no one on Earth opens up the way Nyjer Morgan does. If you think his post-game TV interviews are epic, try his tweets @TheRealTPlush.

Consider the day game of July 6 giving Morgan's alter-ego Tony Plush the evening open and the opportunity to ask where to have dinner that night.

I checked the responses.

The quickest texter/typer was the guy who got in first with La Fuente.

That was immediately followed by dozens of suggestions ranging from Benelux and Mo's to Five Guys and Outback.

The suggestions were flying furiously ... and it really caught my interest. I started to keeping score ... just in case Morgan was democratic enough to literally follow the running totals.

That would have sent him to either Summerfest, (or presumably social media adept ...) AJ Bombers, Sobelman's or Carnevor, although the Carnevor totals were skewed by one woman who kept checking with her boyfriend and echoing his recommendations.

There were also multiple suggestions for Graffito, probably under the assumptions that Morgan would either benefit teammate Ryan Braun or obtain a discount.

I also found myself reading the tweets and thinking that this is better than checking OnMilwaukee.com for dining ideas.

Names of restaurants I always mean to go back to but forget were flying around quicker …

I realize I haven't written a blog in some time. Cue my music, please ...

"It's been a while" –Staind

What inspired me is that I was thinking that us long-time Brewers fans are being treated to some excellent production values. In other words, Fox Sports Wisconsin does a phenomenal job televising games. From announcers, to crowd shots, to replays, to graphics, to interviews ... it is top notch.

And the in-game experience at Miller Park is as good as it gets. Despite the historic memories, the only activity I remember now from County Stadium was dodging falling concrete. I love the new scoreboard, the vendors, the promotions and the reduced number of Cubs fans.

Oh yeah, I also love walk-on music. I don't seem to remember ballplayers having songs played at County Stadium. Maybe they did and the one speaker distorted them?

What a cool phenomena. Players having their own songs.

Rickie Weeks (whose name sounds like a website) has a song that sounds like it should for a leadoff hitter. I wanted to download Ace Hood's "Hustle Hard," but I didn't want to take a chance of playing the explicit version on the air and the clean version had to skip so many words, I didn't feel it was worth the money.

Ryan Braun uses Kanye West's "H.A.M." and Prince Fielder has T.I.'s "Swagger Like Us." No big surprises. The biggest surprise is Corey Hart, who in the past, with that International Harvester song or some Alan Jackson tune, has you ready to stereotype him. Now he pulls out 12 Stones, a New Orleans Rock Band, and "Anthem For The Underdog."

I don't mean to stereotype here, myself, but I really like the musical taste of the Latin players the past few years, like Carlos Gomez, Alcides Escobar and Yuniesky Betancourt and some of the songs they use. Sorry, I don't know the artists ... but every once in a while I will put on the Caliente channel on satellite radio and listen to muy more than 20 seconds of the tunes.

Then I look around and figure I better switch back to KLH bef…

I believe the keys to aging gracefully are to work out regularly, to try not to worry and to act like you are still in junior high school.

I also try to avoid yelling at kids crossing my lawn, to avoid making strange noises with my mouth closed even when not eating, and to attempt to not constantly be waxing nostalgically.

BUT ... I can't avoid the irony and delight in "waxing" about record stores ... and the coolness of vinyl.

The first album I ever got was "Three Adventures" of Davy Crockett. I loved listening to that over and over. A few years ago I found it on eBay and bought a replacement copy for way too much money. That was the first LP I got ... not bought!

Somehow, there were Beatles albums around and for the life of me I don't know how. I certainly didn't have the $1.98 necessary to buy an entire LP. My money went for penny candy, baseball cards and an occasional 45, which I would get at Woolworth's, Treasure Island or Kresge. By the way, the K in SS Kresge became K-Mart. Woolworth became the Larry King of stores, just hanging around as long as possible.

I must have been gifted the first few Beatles albums. I do confess to actually stealing (from a relative, not a store) the Herb Alpert album with the woman wearing whipped cream on the cover. I eventually interviewed her and was surprised to learn the ampleness of her attributes may have had something to do with her pregnancy at the time.

When I did physically leave junior high, I started going to real record stores. That is when I started buying more albums than Big Boy hamburgers. And, at the risk of nostalgic whining ... man, I miss shopping for music!

There was nothing like going into a record store and discovering stuff you really wanted. Which isn't that amazing when you consider that today's classic rock artists were releasing those class rock albums as new material! But it wasn't just walking in to buy what you wanted; it was finding things you didn't know existed. Hearing something on the r…