The Terrible Catsafterme

By 1973 most of the excitement was over. I had learned to roll over, crawl, walk, say words, grow teeth, and eat solid food; I had passed my first birthday, spent two Christmases with my family (although I had only begun to get the gist of the whole thing by the latter one); I had fallen down the stairs, gone on my first outing, camped out, and gone on my first vacation. Yes, the excitement of my baby years was pretty much a thing of the past. So as we rolled into 1973, there wasn’t a lot to photograph – hence the minimal number of photos from the early part of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

By Thursday, April 3, 2008, Bob and I had completely butchered our Texas itinerary – but in a good way. Somehow our wrong turn earlier in the week had forced us to redefine our plan of action and we were way ahead of schedule. Thursday had been slated for a day in Austin, which we had completed the day before. So we grabbed a quick (and small) bite from the motel’s continental breakfast and headed the short distance back into Waco, to pick up some of the places that had also been tentativly scheduled to possibly hit after Austin. Read the rest of this entry »

For a kid who considered himself the world’s biggest Laurel and Hardy fan – although you could probably count the number of those in the world on one finger – the 1986 Fifth International Sons of the Desert convention held in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania from Friday, July 25 – Wednesday, July 30, was a virtual Garden of Eden. It had been four years since I had been to a Sons convention since our family opted to skip the one in 1984 held in Ulverston and London, England. Too expensive for my parents’ taste. Four years when you are growing from a ten-year old to a fourteen-year old seems like forever. And during that time, my interest in L&H had blossomed and flourished to a near-obsession. Read the rest of this entry »