Texas Thursday: From Waco to the Top of the State
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
By Thursday, April 3, 2008, Bob and I had completely butchered our Texas itinerary – but in a good way. Somehow our wrong turn earlier in the week had forced us to redefine our plan of action and we were way ahead of schedule. Thursday had been slated for a day in Austin, which we had completed the day before. So we grabbed a quick (and small) bite from the motel’s continental breakfast and headed the short distance back into Waco, to pick up some of the places that had also been tentativly scheduled to possibly hit after Austin. Read the rest of this entry »
For a kid who considered himself the world’s biggest Laurel and Hardy fan – although you could probably count the number of those in the world on one finger – the 1986 Fifth International Sons of the Desert convention held in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania from Friday, July 25 – Wednesday, July 30, was a virtual Garden of Eden. It had been four years since I had been to a Sons convention since our family opted to skip the one in 1984 held in Ulverston and London, England. Too expensive for my parents’ taste. Four years when you are growing from a ten-year old to a fourteen-year old seems like forever. And during that time, my interest in L&H had blossomed and flourished to a near-obsession. 
If it is true that Sherwood Schwartz was only responsible for making crap on telelvision, then it was crap that has made a huge group of people very happy for a huge number of years. One of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid was Gilligan’s Island, Schwartz’ first successful creation. I have since outgrown this show and now recognize the crap-factor, but it hasn’t stopped me from owning every single solitary episode on DVD.