A Casual Monday Bus Tour Through North Holland
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Although I was now officially at the Amsterdam pre-convention of the Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society, the Sons of the Desert, nothing we had planned for the day had anything to do with Laurel and Hardy, and we had yet to step foot into Amsterdam. Our Avifauna Hotel was actually in Alphen aan den Rijn, located in South Holland in the Netherlands. On Monday, July 7, 2008, we would begin our bus trip at our hotel and venture into Northern Holland for the day. Read the rest of this entry »
You could have knocked me over with a feather-duster on September 23, 1998 when my sister called me to inform me of the latest celebrity passing. The fact that she was only age 55 didn’t even enter my mind but I just couldn’t fathom that fact that Mary Frann, the lady who had played Joanna Louden, wife of Bob Newhart’s character Dick Louden, on one of my all-time favorite sitcoms Newhart was now gone. It had only been less than one year since I had sent her an autograph request on September 28, 1997. 
I can’t quite remember the first time I met Dawn Weller, but my guess would be that it was on the school bus. That’s pretty much where I first met all of my friends in the old plat. She and her family moved onto Pine Bluff during April of 1979, a full year after we moved in, but she didn’t start attending Fairbrook Elemetary until the Fall. For a young ‘un like me, Pine Bluff (the street in front of the Dean house pictured behind Dawn above) was on the other side of the galaxy from Winterset Drive where I resided, so I didn’t begin venturing up there too much until later. Besides, you had to ride your bike up quite a hill to get there. 
Most people would have thought it a little strange – in fact even I thought it a little strange. As I approached Adriana Caselotti at the Hollywood Collectors Show on June 24, 1995 to purchase an autograph, she began singing to me Someday My Prince Will Come. Of course this wasn’t quite as bizarre as it sounds if you know that Adriana Caseloti provided the voice for none-other-than Snow White in Walt Disney’s very first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now as a professed Disneyphile, this is an incredible memory to have, even though it was a bit strange and off-putting at the time. 
It was all Bob’s fault that I spent over $100 at CD Connection in Huber Heights on Friday, July 25, 2008. Had his flight arrived on time, I would never have ended up there while waiting, and I never would have purchased the entire run of Scrubs on DVD. But that’s all water under the bridge now. As it was, his American Airlines flight that was scheduled to arrive at 5:23pm that afternoon, didn’t actually get in until around 7:30. The reason for his arrival: he and I were about to embark on the granddaddy of all “website-driven re-visits of places I’ve already been but have to see again because I was too stupid to take photos of myself by the landmarks when I was there the first time” tours.