The Terrible Catsafterme

I am very fortunate to have a diary that I kept for the first part of 1980. I was eight years old at the time and was surprisingly faithful at filling it in…all the way up until April 5. What was so special about this date, I have no idea.

In reading through it, I find the information to be nearly invaluable to me, as it immediately opens a floodgate of memories with the simple scrawling of a few sentences. I find the entries to be a perfect representation of how I feel about this time period, while being incredibly hilarious and an amazingly accurate indicator of the interests that would tightly grip me in the future.

I will transcribe the entries here as best as I can read my handwriting. The entries – with all misspellings intact- will be in bold, with my contemporary comments in italics. Read the rest of this entry »

As the VH1 series boldly states “I LOVE THE 80’s.” This time period saw my development from a little boy into a young teen. Memories get even more crystal clear during this time period. When asked what my favorite year is (and we all know how often that happens!), I usually say 1984. This time period was my sixth grade year when things were exciting, music was great, girls were blossoming, and grade school was coming to a close.

But even before ’84, life was good. Thinking back, the early ’80’s put me in mind of Sons of the Desert meetings in Springfield, our VCR and video camera, Read the rest of this entry »

You might sometimes catch me bragging about joining the Sons of the Desert at such a young age. Although, there seems to be a resurgence of young people taking interest in Laurel and Hardy overseas, in America the Sons have aged right along with me. Here, people my age are still considered the “youngsters.” This is unfortunate on many levels, one of which is I think we will watch the Sons simply fade away here in America. There simply is no active effort to recruit and foster the younger fans to take the helm of the club as the old-timers retire from active duty.   

Anyway, I’m totally off the subject already. The fact is that I would bet you a week’s wages that I am the only person walking this earth under the age of forty who has met “Buckwheat,” Lucille Hardy, Spanky McFarland, Jacquie Lyn, Della Lind, Jean Darling, been to Hal Roach‘s house, and stood in the Liberty alley. These are just a few examples of how I was rewarded for getting into the Sons at such a young age. Read the rest of this entry »

SEASON 1 – NBC

Theme song: “Thank You for Being a Friend” written by Andrew Gold and sung by Cynthia Fee

• 001. The Engagement (aka The Pilot) – 9/14/1985
  • Substitute teacher and brassy divorcee Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) and obtuse widow Rose Nylund (Betty White) live as tenants in the Miami, Florida home of man-hungry southern belle widow Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). In their employ is a live-in gay cook named Coco (Charles Levin). Rose, who misses her husband Charlie and now works at a grief counseling center, fears that Blanche is going to accept the proposal of her boyfriend Harry (Frank Aletter) after finally being happy in her arrangement. Meanwhile Dorothy’s mother Sophia, who has had a stroke and no longer has any filter on what she says, finds herself homeless when her nursing home burns down, and comes to stay with the ladies as well. Blanche accepts the proposal, but Rose has a strong suspicion about Harry and minutes before the wedding tries to tell Blanche, but Dorothy stops her. As they wait for Harry to show up for the wedding, and officer (Meshach Taylor) arrives and tells them that Harry has been arrested for bigamy. After a week of mourning, Blanche realizes that her friends have made her happy again. As they head out to celebrate, Sophia heads out for a date at the dog track. F. William Parker is the minister. NOTE: This is the only appearance of Coco. 9/20/16

Read the rest of this entry »