The Terrible Catsafterme

There’s an interesting story of how I first met Chris Demeter. We had just moved to our house on Winterset in April 1978 and I was finishing up my first year of school as a kindergartener. This was the first time I had ever ridden the bus; before I had been close enough to walk to school. Chris rode my bus and it didn’t take long before we began talking. He was older than me, being in first grade. After chatting it up one day, he invited me over to his house and I accepted. He was dropped off before me, so I knew right where his house was. It was just up the street on Birchall, a short bike ride from home. Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous posting, I shared with you some great photos from the day that Denise, Susan, and Chris were on “The Uncle Al Show” in 1980. This posting is intended to share not only some images from the show itself, but explain why looking at “The Uncle Al Show” opens a floodgate of memories for me. Since we were nearly the first family in the galaxy to own a VCR (we got it in 1979), I have a unique opportunity that most do not: to actually watch this episode of “Uncle Al.” Read the rest of this entry »

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The writing bug bit me early, so to speak. As you may have read in my 1980 diary entries, in February we joined the Sons of the Desert tent in Springfield, the Towed in a Hole Tent. It didn’t take long before I tried to make a name for myself as a Laurel and Hardy super-fan. My writing skills weren’t as polished as they are nowadays, so my idea was to create one of the greatest puzzles in the history of man and contribute it to our tent’s newsletter. With any luck at all, it would be published, and my name would become a household word to all who received the newsletter. Read the rest of this entry »

Just two days after Easter 1980, Denise celebrated her fourth birthday on April 8. While I don’t pretend to remember the specifics of this event, I found two photos of her with her cake. The celebration here was taking place in our dining room. Visible in the photo below is something even more interesting than the cake: the world’s tackiest napkin holder sitting on top of the de-humidifier in our dining room.

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