CHRISTMAS 10 – 1980
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
For Christmas 1979, Dad bought the family a black and white video camera. On that Christmas, we opened it up on Christmas morning, so we were only able to actually record the aftermath of the holiday morning. 1980 was the first time where we were able to create a nearly complete record of the events of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. This time period represents the very heart of the incredibly fond memories I have of Christmas with my family – a run of about eight years where I was a fully, cognizant child…and Denise still believed in Santa Claus. Read the rest of this entry »
It seems like I spent much of the early parts of March preparing for some of my upcoming trips this year. For starters, I finally applied for my passport with that hideous photo from January. I also wrote to Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang co-star Buz Buckley in hopes that Bob and I might be able to meet up with him when we visit Texas. He politely responded on March 17 that he had no interest in the motion pictures and that his Mother had basically forced him into acting. And finally, I was trying to drop a few pounds in anticipation of many hearty Georgia and Texas meals, but Jackie made it difficult with her own verson of the Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup and homemade whipped cream to top her unbelievable brownies. 
I remember that as we entered into the Summer of 2001, my first with Carolyn, she remarked as we assembled our ‘fun drawer’ in the kitchen that it was “going to be a great summer!” Our fun drawer included gift certificates and coupons for places and events that we could enjoy over the coming months. We also had our Florida vacation ahead of us – and indeed we did have lots of fun. Unfortunately, things began to sour a little bit by the time we headed out for our vacation to Myrtle Beach on July 28, 2001. 
My first birthday was October 2, 1972. I guess there was quite a fuss made. In fact, the folks had two different birthday parties for me at our house on John Glenn – the first with my Mom’s family and the second with my Dad’s family. Since my birthday fell on a Monday, I have to assume that the celebrations were held over the prior weekend – and our clothes indicate they were on different days. Dad took a couple of minutes of Super 8mm footage of each of the gatherings. 
Monty O’Grady certainly isn’t the most recognized among the names of the Our Gang child actors, but her certainly held one of the most unique roles in the history of the series. He was in five of the very earliest of the comedies, beginning in 1922 with the first entry in the series, simply entitled Our Gang. It was pure dumb luck – or possibly fate – that I was able to acquire a good address for Mr. O’Grady just a few years before he passed away.