Maranatha 4
Sunday, October 7th, 2007
I spent my fourth Sunday morning in the presence of Jimmy Carter, as he taught the congregation at the Plains Maranatha Baptist church a weekly lesson from the Bible, on September 23, 2007. Since I knew that the town was crowded from the Peanut Festival and P.O.W. gathering in the area, I pushed Mom and Bob to rise and shine early and speed into Plains in order for us to get in line and get good seats in the church. After we loaded the car and ate a somewhat leisurely breakfast (although Mom might tell you differently), we were on our way at about 7:10am. Read the rest of this entry »
I know for a fact that I had no idea who Leonard Landy was when I captured his autograph in my little blue book on July 31, 1980 at the Our Gang reunion meet-and-greet during the Sons of the Desert Hollywood ’80 convention. Looking at his signature in my book for a year or so after the fact caused me to scratch my head and wonder who exactly this was. In fact, Maltin and Bann’s Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals was unable to identify his character in the cast listing of the films – so his name meant little to me. It was only in the appendix to the book did he receive a byline indicating that a man has identified the character of ‘Leonard’ as his cousin Leonard Landy. 
In December of 1997, several cast members of Star Wars made an appearance at the Bookery, a comic and card shop in Fairborn. I recall that I only got to meet John Hollis (Lobot) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2). Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) had been and gone by the time my friend Eric Flinn and I made it there, but he left behind some autographed photos to sell. There were also some signed photos available for purchase from cast members Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) and Kenny Baker(R2-D2). I purchased all of them.