Sly Makes My Dream Come True and Kickstarts a New Hobby
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
Long before he was Rambo, Tango, Cobra, Judge Dredd, or Sheriff Freddy Heflin (that’s from the Robert De Niro vehicle Copland – for those who don’t know), I had only seen Sylvester Stallone perform in one role, that of Rocky Balboa. I had enjoyed the Academy Award winning film Rocky repeatedly on our VHS player, and one night even boxed along with Rocky and Apollo Creed with my pal Kenny Carroll, while my parents looked on and considered having me euthanized. So it was of little wonder that when the time came for me to send out my first through-the-mail autograph request, I chose to send a letter to Sylvester Stallone. Read the rest of this entry »
My third grade year from 1980-81 had seen a lot of memorable events, so I was sad to see it end that June. I had had two teachers in Mrs. Corn and Mrs. Rhea and had gotten a taste of ‘switching’ classes going to Mrs. McCoy for math. Mrs. McCoy was the quintessential teacher-type – tall, gray hair, and glasses (reminding me a bit of my Grandma Range). She had a great setup of kids’ books in her room, lining the perimeter of two walls. I was so inspired by this that I attempted to create a ‘reading center’ in my own room to not much avail. 
Denise turned five on Wednesday, April 8, 1981. As usual, I had a hard time dealing with her getting all of the attention even on this momentous occasion – especially when she was allowed to have a birthday party with her friends and cousins. It’s humorous in a way to see me infusing my brand of idiotic humor into the photos of her party, making faces and mugging for the camera whenever possible – but in another way it is indicative of the little cretin that I had become…for no apparent reason. 
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. 
As I recount the days of my life, I have come to the conclusion that the time period around 1984 contained what I recall as being the best days of my life, although it’s hard to say exactly why I’m so drawn to this era. Thinking about it carefully, it was an angst-ridden time where I was chubby, awkward, and confused. I liked girls but they didn’t care for me – and that about says it all. So why is this time now so well-received by my current-day self? One possible answer is because Eric Welch was my best friend during this time period.