Hazel Klippel
Monday, May 28th, 2007
I’m not even sure I realized exactly who Joe and Hazel Klippel were when we used to go visit them throughout the 1970’s, but I always enjoyed making a trek with my parents to their house. Joe was actually the brother-in-law of my Grandma Range…so my Dad’s uncle by marriage. He was married to my Grandma’s sister Bessie. Joe and Bessie were the parents of Arline and Harold. Bessie passed away in 1963 and Joe later re-married a widow in 1970 who was named Hazel Mankel at the time. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m never really sure if people are as impressed as I think they should be when I tell them that I once met the original “Buckwheat.” The date was Thursday, July 31, 1980 and the event was the Our Gang Mixer in the Sierra Room of the Los Angeles Hilton at the Hollywood ’80 Sons of the Desert convention. All I had with me at the time was my little blue autograph album so this is what I had him sign. You might say that as far as I’m concerned, meeting Buckwheat is one of my personal claims to fame. So bear with me as I relay the details just one more time… 
Hollywood ’80 is distinctly emblazoned on my mind as a completely iconoclastic experience – one that stands on its own, with no ‘before’ and no ‘after’. Unlike any other typical vacation, the time I spent on this trip is seldom thought of in the context of anything else that was going on during this time. It simply is remembered as ‘Hollywood ’80,’ the single most exciting experience up to that time, and likely one of the most important trips of my life. It was my first time in California, the first time to a Sons of the Desert convention, my first time on a plane, my first time meeting any L&H and Our Gang celebrities, my first ‘non-family’ vacation (I considered it to be much more of an ‘adventure’), and, as my attention to details are demonstrated by my remembrance of this, my first ham and swiss on rye sandwich. 
By no stretch of the imagination was I ever what one might consider athletic during my school days. In fact even before my days of chubbiness when I looked like a normal kid, I was rather clumsy and awkward. None of this, however, stopped me from participating in sports throughout my entire grade school experience. I endured season after season of t-ball, baseball, basketball, soccer, and wrestling. Oddly, the only sport that I really enjoy both watching and playing today is football – and that was one I never even attempted. 
I guess if you had asked me yesterday if I had ever rode atop an elephant, I probably would have told you no – but here is the incontrovertible evidence that I did once sit astride one of our large, gray pachyderm friends. And this was just one of the fun distractions to be found in this magical land called “Busch Gardens” located in sunny Tampa, Florida. We apparently visited it during our Siesta Key stay in June of 1980.