The Terrible Catsafterme

Doris Day’s name is legendary as a film and TV star and recording artist. The name has always been synonymous with a wholesomeness from my perspective – one that admittedly hasn’t seen her perform in all that many roles – but above all else appreciates her as a Hitchcock actress. She portrayed Jo McKenna in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 version of The Man Who New Too Much, in which she sang the Academy Award winning song Que Sera Sera. This was what prompted me to write for an autograph request in the Fall months of 1997. Read the rest of this entry »

Freshly suntanned from our trip to Myrtle Beach, I returned back home in early August and set upon my new life. It was new because Christi and I had officially ended things by this point and for the first time in nearly two and a half years, I found myself completely alone. It was difficult to get used to having ‘visiting’ time with Ashleigh, while Christi lived at home with her parents and cousin Jennifer, and began running around with a new group of friends. Nothing had felt more like a punch in the stomach than this transition. Read the rest of this entry »

It was bittersweet to come to the end of the day of Saturday, July 19, 2008. For all intents and purposes, this was our very last day in Europe. It had been a busy one from the start when we visited the Olympiapark in Munich, then on to the horrifying Dacahu concentration camp, the frantic drive to Salzburg, and The Sound of Music tour. In fact it had been a very busy two weeks! We had just enough time (and energy) left to take a brief walk into Salzburg and grab something to eat before officially wrapping up our trip. Read the rest of this entry »

The Billy Jack films were a series of lowbrow Western movies featuring Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack, an American Indian Green Beret Vietnam War vetern, hapkido master, and gunslinger. One can only imagine the action in this series of four films that were made from 1967-1977. In fact I can only imagine, because to date I have not seen any of the films. Laughlin also directed these films under the name T.C. Frank. The films in the series were The Born Losers, Billy Jack, The Trial of Billy Jack, and Billy Jack Goes to Washington.

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To the best of my recollection, I first met Chris Runck at the RYC (Regional Youth Conference) at Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana during the Spring of 1988. Along with Lee McAdams, he would join me as we stole away for a cigarette amidst the Brethren Church proceedings (under some bridge as I recall?). We bacame fast friends and would go on to hang out quite a bit over the next three years’ worth of Youth Camps during the Summers. And like Lee, the last that I saw him was when I drove away from my last week of Youth Camp at Woodland Altars during the Summer of 1990.

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