Graduate, now and then..

Before Rick attended writing classes, he studied aquariums at length. I would watch him stare for hours at the tank and groan. "What's wrong Rick?", I'd ask and he just gazed off into space. He snapped out of it 30 years later and went on to a successful career as a award winning screenwriter and renowned funny man. His first published work, "Fish, what are they good for?" skyrocketed to the top of the New York best sellers list overnight.

A public service announcement from the glory days of moonpie

Dom Deluise, good bye

It's hard for me to think of another actor who had more fun doing what he did than Dom. When he and Burt made movies, the two of them could hardly get through their lines without cracking up and they would leave those scenes in the movie. Good stuff. I miss the funny fat guys like Dom and Jackie Gleason. Oh well, another one is gone.

Growing up...

Thankfully, neither Rick or I were never 'clinically' proven to be possessed. Usually the clergy and school teachers just said, "the boys just need to apply themselves." We have KNOWN possessed people but we tend to steer clear of their kind, the have terrible breath.

"Not a sermon, just a thought."

Friends of Moonpie

Dick Van Patten always liked hijinks and came on board with Moonpie since the early days. Dick also liked the "Don and Mike" show on WJFK in Washington, DC and would join them for a game of donkey basketball. Always the jokester, Dick went on to become a dog food tycoon.

Pre-Moonpie, Memphis

This was like 6th grade in Memphis, Tennessee when this was taken for the class photo. It was 1968 or '69 and we had just moved from Lincoln, Nebraska. It was weird being the new kid again, but my brothers and I jumped in feet first. Memphis is where I honed my "little hoodlum" skills. Bicycles gave way to mini-bikes and mini-bikes gave way to motorcycles. The police were summoned to Parkwood drive where we lived because we were doing burnouts and wheelies up and down the street. Dad came from out back by the pool and spoke with the officer. Dad was the first guy that the policeman had ever seen in a wheelchair and they talked for about half an hour. We parked the motorcycles and Raleigh was safe for another night.

Pre-Moonpie

A shot of my sister, Jennifer, and I just after we moved to NM in 1973. In the top right of the photo you can see my dad's old 1970 Mustang Sportsback. Which was sold shortly thereafter. We are sitting in a stream that ran through some people's property up in the Manzanos, I'm thinking around Apple Valley.

I think that was pretty close to the longest I ever had my hair.

Thats how we roll...

While viewing Moonpie this morning, I almost fell out of my chair. Freaks from 1976 who have become 'respected' members of society today, still dress like....well, like the "Dude". O.K., I admit, I did throw the do-rag on to fit the 'Rick' package in the previous post. However, this is how you will see me strolling through the grocery store or making a trip the Home Depot on the weekends. My 'Specolli' van type sneekers, plaid cargo pants, t-shirt and some type of over shirt, sweater or jacket. The shades go were I go, no matter what. I have no insightfull commentary about fashion or who started what, all I know is, when I go into a Target or Wal-Mart today, all the cloths are 'made' to look like 70's cloths. If we could just get the 70's attitude back and have everyone just cool-it for a minute, we'd be alright.

*writers note: "everyone just cool-it for a minute." This comment does not endorse the use of drugs.

If I Could BeThat Me Then Now: # 5

You know, stylistically, not much has changed between 1976 in the past 32 years. There are only slight evolutions in the dress.

Back then we dressed in a style that, 5 years later, would be called Grunge. We invented it. Not Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, or Nirvana. Though I guess, in retrospect, they were just our younger brothers,continuing a path that went back to the Freaks, the Hippies, the Beats, and the Bohemians before them.

Now we have whatever this latest incarnation of them is called, and rather than Niel Young or Curt Cobain, we have Jeffrey Lebowski. We're even too slack to play music.