The Odyssey of 1975
Friday, January 5th, 2007
Because I have only sparse memories of this 1975 trip to St. Pete Beach, Florida, these photos mean more to me as a memory jogger of my 1977 Florida trip to the exact same location. That said location was the Odyssey, a tourist destination known for the white sands and surf of the Gulf of Mexico. I fondly remember running about on its grounds during our 1977 trip. What I don’t remember (but it doesn’t surprise me) was that I evidently loved standing on the beach and feeding the sea gulls as indicated in the photo above right and the one below. Read the rest of this entry »
You’ve heard me say it several times in this 1985 autograph trail, but I kept getting the ideas of whom to write and request autographs from Carl Ahlm, our Sons of the Desert Tent’s Grand Sheik. Ray Bolger was no exception. In fact he was the fifth person I wrote to in May of ’85 – but in this first case, I only sent a letter with a small self-addressed-stamped-envelope. Remarkably, I didn’t receive a response until an entire year later on May 16, 1986…and it wasn’t even from him. His wife answered my note saying that Mr. Bolger would be glad to sign an autograph if I sent along a large S.A.S.E. By the time I received her response, I had already done that – four times! 
Continuing with the Sons of the Desert convention in Georgia…After our long, sweaty day in Harlem and our cool, brisk swim, it was time for the next item on the agenda: the Laurel and Hardy trivia contest. Since I have long prided myself on my L&H triva knowledge, I now enter the contest whenever possible. Beginning in 2000, the contest became a team-of-three effort, whereas beforehand it was a solo competition. I assembled my crack team of buffs the first morning of the convention. Amazingly, although I have been in all four of the team trivia challenges, I have never had a single common teammate. 
