June Allyson
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
June Allyson was an actress of high caliber, starring in many classic films including Little Women, Royal Wedding, The Glenn Miller Story, My Man Godfrey, and my personal favorite, a little-known short subject that also starred the Crane Twins entitled All Girl Revue. Of lesser acclaim was her role on The Love Boat, but what I fear will always be associated with her name were her upbeat commercials for Depends undergarments. I had purchased the cute portrait below of June and mailed it off to her on September 21, 1997 and it was back in my mailbox on October 23, now signed and accompanying two autographed notecards. Read the rest of this entry »
After our scrumptious dinner at Lawry’s the evening of Friday, April 4, 2008, we needed one last activity in which to partake so that Bob and I could round out this memorable vacation in Texas. That morning while ogling the condom that we found behind the TV at our Motel 6, we also watched a local morning program on which they were interviewing to of the former Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz. They just happened to be in Dallas that day to promote the showing of the film at the Morton H. Myerson Symphony Center. I thought that this would be a cool addition to all we had done, to actually catch a celebrity while in Dallas. 
On Wednesday, May 25, 1977, a significant milestone occurred in my life: I graduated pre-school from Hope Nursery School. Mrs. Painter and Mrs. Groeber signed off on my certificate, certifying that I was now ready to enter the real world…or at least kindergarten. I bid farewell to my teachers and my friends, namely Jason, my best friend who I loved to tattle on. And I prepared myself for my last Summer of freedom before the perils of real school would begin in the Fall. Life was good and I was off to a rip-roaring start. 
During the early 70’s we took several camping trips with Bill and Dottie, often during the early parts of the Summer before it became too unbearably hot. On a few occasions, our trips were over Memorial Day Weekend. In 1973, we spent Memorial Day weekend in Virginia and Washington D.C. (although I was not taken into D.C. – sore spot). So our first camping excursion was in the early Summer. We stayed in a nice private cove area near a lake. Unfortunately, no one can seem to recall where this campsite actually was located. Previously we had stayed at Woodland Altars and Imes Park, but the photos do not seem to indicate that this was at either place.
I had reason to believe that meeting Academy Award winning actor Gene Hackman would be a miserable experience. This has nothing to with good ol’ Gene himself, but more about my personal issues on Monday, June 23, 2008. The day before had been Ashleigh’s graduation party and I had been utterly exhausted by day’s end. I awoke the next morning feeling like I hadn’t gotten enough sleep, but nevertheless headed into northern Kentucky to visit a Kroger store there.