The Terrible Catsafterme

To the best of my recollection, I first met Chris Runck at the RYC (Regional Youth Conference) at Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana during the Spring of 1988. Along with Lee McAdams, he would join me as we stole away for a cigarette amidst the Brethren Church proceedings (under some bridge as I recall?). We bacame fast friends and would go on to hang out quite a bit over the next three years’ worth of Youth Camps during the Summers. And like Lee, the last that I saw him was when I drove away from my last week of Youth Camp at Woodland Altars during the Summer of 1990.

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I first met Alicia Keeton when we began attending Ankeney Junior High during our seventh grade year in 1984. I can’t remember the time or the place, or which classes we might have had together – if any. But what I do recall vividly was that Alicia was not only very pretty (as seen at right with the high hair of 1989), but very nice to everyone with whom she came in contact. That was rather uncharacteristic for most pretty girls that age – who seemed to be anything but nice to geeks like me.

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I must confess that as I look at some of the photos from the 1986 Valley Forge Sons of the Desert convention, I get a little bit annoyed at myself for not spending more time with my family. As I was fourteen years old, it might be tempting for me to say that I thought I was a little too cool to hang out with them – but the fact is that they simply weren’t geeky enough for me. Whereas Mom, Dad, and Denise were hanging out together and snapping photos of Denise mingling with the celebrities (and the great family shot at left, which I missed out on), I was off alone hob-knobbing with the stars and club ‘bigwigs.’ So while my goal at that time didn’t involve getting pictures with any of them, Denise ended up with a whole slew of great shots. Dumb kid. Read the rest of this entry »

I guess you could blame a tomato for my introduction to Bob Satterfield the man, not to be confused with Bob Satterfield the fish (as introduced here). And not just any tomato. I’m talking a 1928 tomato. Because it was Thomas Benton Roberts, who had been hit in the face with a tomato in the 1928 Laurel and Hardy silent comedy Two Tars who referred me to Bob (again, the man) to purchase a scene photo of himself covered in said tomato, which I could get autographed. How appropriate that Bob and I both hate tomatoes. Read the rest of this entry »

I was up and rarin’ to go on the morning of Saturday, July 26, 1986. The Valley Forge Sons of the Convention was officially underway and we had a day ahead of us packed with fun events. The first item on the agenda was the Pee-Wee Contest at 9am. At this juncture in Sons history, the Pee-Wee Contest was only two years old, having originated at the ’84 convention in Ulverston, England – which my family did not attend. This was my first crack at the contest, and my showing was poor – setting the precedent for nearly all future Pee-Wee Contests (with the sole exception being the one that I won in 2006). I also started snapping photos right away – for the first time with my new Pentax, the first 35mm camera I ever owned. Read the rest of this entry »