The Terrible Catsafterme

As a huge Honeymooners fan, I’ve always recognized that although Jackie Gleason and Art Carney always portrayed Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton respecitively, there were four actresses each who played their wives Trixie and Alice. I had always been puzzled as to why I had never seen one single photo of Sue Ann Langdon in her portrayal of Alice (nor Patricia Wilson as Trixie) from the time when Gleason performed Honeymooners sketches on The American Scene Magazine. Pictured at right is a rare shot of Frank Fontaine, June Taylor, Jackie Gleason, and Sue Ann Langdon – but obviously not in character. I later learned one reason that shots of her on the Honeymooners set were uncommon (or possibly non-existant): there were only two episodes of this Honeymooners incarnation. I had always assumed that there was an entire season’s worth of episodes. Read the rest of this entry »

The black 1949 Hudson (seen at left at a car show from 1977) that Dad owned was probably the sharpest and most unique of all of the old cars that he collected while I was growing up. At the time of its purchase during the Summer of 1976, we already owned one Hudson, a blue Super-Six that he was preparing to restore. However when he happened upon this one in a Dayton newspaper ad for around $1000, he decided to up the ante and go for this Hudson, which was in markedly better shape. He had actually already re-chromed the bumpers on the blue Hudson, but instead placed them on this one. Read the rest of this entry »

A week or two before heading out to Eco Adventures camp from June 14-20, 1985, I received a postcard in the mail from the counselor of our group. The postcard was a photo of a young guy with a ‘Rick Springfield’ look, hiding behind a large plant. It was odd, I grant you, but I knew that I was in for a fun week when I saw that my counselor just might be half as nutty as I was. It turned out that Scott Sliver was an extremely charismatic guy with a great outlook, a wild sense of humor, the ability to effectively communicicate the Gospel, and a rare personality that would allow him to connect with virtually everyone. There he is in the photo above right next to junior counselor Rhonda, flanked by me (with the head of Brian Broyles seemingly growing out of my chest). Read the rest of this entry »

Wendy Johnston was among a group of gals that included Kim Littlejohn, Dorinda Dohner, and Amy and Mandy Angle, with whom I attended two weeks of Eco-Adventures camp at Woodland Altars in 1985 and 1986. Although we were friendly during our first year of camp, she and I along with others formed a cohesive bond and became an inseparable clique during the second year. She, Mandy, and Darin Anderson were all in my group counselled by Brian Bohlander and Gloria Landis, so we had ample time to spend together that week.

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