The Terrible Catsafterme

Imagine the smugness. My Mom received a phone call one Saturday afternoon and from her excitement and a few verbal cues, I immediately picked up on the nature of the call. Perhaps a month prior, I had entered a contest at the Burger King in Beavercreek where we were charged with creating a drawing featuring the Burger King king which promoted the proliferation of dental hygeine. In other words, how to not make your teeth rot despite eating lots of junk at places like Burger King. Read the rest of this entry »

If you believe those folks who said that the new millenium didn’t begin until January 1, 2001 – then we didn’t officially enter the 1980’s decade until January 1, 1981, at which time we celebrated the holiday with a traditional jaunt to Bill and Dottie’s house in New Lebanon. As usual, we killed two birds with one cake by also celebrating Grandma Range’s 68th birthday. Since it fell on December 29, she never wanted to disrupt the Christmas holiday with any kind of celebration until we had crossed over into the next year. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

So what was I doing as I turned nine? Well blowing out a lone “number 9” candle on a chocolate iced cake for one thing. We had a small gathering of family over at our place and one gift I received was a new red winter coat. That’s pretty much all I know about the birthday. I also know what I went out as on Halloween – well, sorta. I was the highly polictically incorrect arab oil magnate. Denise was a sickenly adorable angel. I fondly recall our days of scouring the neighborhood to achieve the heaviest pillowcase of candy treats. I don’t remember if it was this year or not that we got an apple from the Hinds, prompting Kenny Carroll to say as we exited the driveway, “so where do we ditch the apple?” Read the rest of this entry »

Dorothy Granger was one celebrity who I wish I had paid more mind to over the years. Although she didn’t pass away until 1995, the only opportunity that I ever had to meet her was during the 1980 Sons of the Desert convention in Hollywood. Dorothy only had a few small roles in the Laurel and Hardy shorts, most notably in Hog Wild where she actually plays two roles within the 20-minute film so I wasn’t too thrilled when I got the chance to meet her and have her sign my little blue autograph book on August 2.

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