Rusty Jones

Remember him? I used to see Rusty Jones commercials and "his" image seemingly everywhere; now I haven't seen or heard of him for years. 

Epic '90's Style

If your house or apartment didn't include this pattern in the 1990's . . . actually, there is no punchline because if you existed in the 1990s you did own this pattern.

Lisa and I had sheets, pillowcases, and a comforter with this pattern. If I recall correctly, and I may not, we bought it on a trip to Gurnee Mills.

Like most things from the 90's, I miss it.

Tales of Time and Space

In middle school my Dad briefly held a part-time job at a motel, a Holiday Inn I think. It might have been just to earn Christmas money, because I wouldn't remember it at all if it wasn't for an employee Breakfast with Santa.

Here's what I recall about that event: I was disappointed as heck in the food, which was cereal and milk - I was used to Federation's grand pancake version.  

Secondly, I loved my gift.   In retrospect, I have to think my Dad put in a suggestion for me, because what middle schooler goes gaga over a paperback of Tales of Time and Space, compiled by editor Ross Olney?

I loved that story collection. That book became a sentimental favorite for me, and one story, Of Missing Persons by Jack Finney shook my world. 

If I still have my copy, it's boxed somewhere and MIA, but it will always linger in my memory. 

The Iron Claw

Late Tuesday YaYa and Alex invited me to see The Iron Claw at the theater. 

The Iron Claw is the story of the Von Erich family of professional wrestlers, almost all of whom met a grim fate. I'll review it as a film first: it was dark and tragic, with little interest in humor or happiness. Start to finish, the movie envelops the viewer in a feeling of dread as, instinctually, you grasp that the so-called curse is very real, if not literal. It's very well done, and Zac Efron was great. I'd grade it a B+

Now, my personal review of the movie: 

I wanted to see this because the Von Erich's were my favorite wrestlers as a kid, and I have great memories of watching  them on World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) on either channel 18 or 24 every Saturday night.  Of the family, Kerry was my favorite, and I was proud that he later wrestled for the WWF, although by then I'd abandoned professional wrestling. 

I remember the Von Erich's feud with the Fabulous Freebirds, and later Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez. The "blinding" of Adams has always stuck with me. I remember reading about David's death and mourning for the family; I remember reading about Chris's death and being shocked; I remember Kerry's death hitting me in the gut. 

So for me, it both odd and exhilarating to see those moments recreated on screen. I caught myself - no lie - almost cheering out loud at one excellent move during a match before restraining myself with a reminder that I wasn't nine years old and this (too) was scripted. 

So for me, personally, as a testament to part of my childhood: I grade it an A+

The Wrong Way Door

84th 7

I'm sitting here at the movie theater waiting for YaYa and Alex to arrive.  One of the doors in the picture is randomly locked and people inevitably try it, look confused, and try another. 

Where am I going with this?

Many moons ago my grade school had two glass doors on the west side of the school, closest to the church.  Of the two, one opened wonky - it either swung in when it would have gone out, or vice versa. 

So one evening as I was going to a Cub Scout Pack meeting, I entered through the door, instinctively using it the correct way, and had this thought: what if there was a story where the villain, a mole, was outed by trying the door the wrong way when he should know better?

Anyway, end of post.

Deb

Couldn't do prom or homecoming without Deb in the '90's!

- Lisa

30 Years Ago

30 years ago today, on New Year's Day 1994, I watched my Wisconsin Badgers defeat the UCLA Bruins 21-16 in the Rose Bowl. 

I watched the game from the living room in my friend Tre's family home. By my recollection we followed it up with a two VHS Metallica concert that was part of a box set Tre bought. 

That Rose Bowl was the culmination of Madison's resurgence under Barry Alvarez. All my life the Badgers had been a joke, relegated to having their pre-taped games broadcast on public TV later on Saturday nights. As of that day though, they were a team to reckon with in the Big Ten. 

Their rise coincided roughly with the Packers returning to contention too, and both franchises suspended 30 years in the spotlight, with only a rebuilding year every now and then. Quite the change from my youth. 

Zane Grey

I saw this set of Zane Grey novels at a used bookstore and it brought back memories of Books N Things, a small bookstore that once graced the northwest corner of the now defunct Southgate Mall. I loved that store, and they had this exact set for sale. At the time - I was probably south of ten, or 12 at the most, and I had no money for it. Nor, if I'm being honest, did I have any interest in Westerns outside of trying to bond with my Dad. 

Later of course, I came to love the work of Louis L'Amour, but at the time, I didn't care for the genre at all 

My Old House

I spent my early years - maybe from birth to 4 or 5 - in this house on Windlake Ave. Even after all these years it retains the same blue and white siding that I remember. 

I don't have many memories of the house, and they are all scattershot: 

Sitting at the kitchen table as my Dad used my Matchbox cars to show my Grandpa how a car accident happened.

Throwing up butter cookies in the upstairs hallway LOL

Laying in my bed and dreaming of scuba diving!

Saying my nighttime prayers terrified of dying because I had mistakenly taken a sip of diet, not regular, soda LOL

A counter/table in the kitchen that folded up flat against the wall

A stone path in the backyard

Watching the older neighbor kids play badminton in their backyard

A bookcase near the front door that my sister knocked over during a seizure

Laying in a bedroom downstairs and smelling ground beef cook on the day my Mom came home from the hospital with my youngest sister.

And I remember - and brother, I could be dead wrong about this - that the living room was along the street, the kitchen to the rear, the downstairs bedroom to the south of the kitchen, and my bedroom upstairs along the street above the living room. 

Kenner's Death Star Station

I had this toy - now selling for $750 used on ebay LOL - and remember playing with it in my little bedroom on Arthur Ave. 

But I don't recall playing with it for very long. I was really into Star Wars and the Kenner toys, but this one really occupies only that one brief memory. Looking at the toy now, I think the battle cannon is pretty cool, but the rest of it is rather ho-hum. Yay, an elevator! How exciting!

And need I point out the thing isn't round? The Death Star is a bleeping sphere. From a distance - need I say it? - it can be mistaken for a moon. 

Does this look like a sphere to you? Or any portion thereof? 

It just didn't scream "Death Star" to me. 

BUT . . . 

What I did love about it, what I still love *to this day* was the green rubber monster they included with it. You know, the guy that lives in the trash compactor and dragged Luke into the water? 

Now I don't know where they came up with this design, as all you see in the movie is the neck and head. Maybe it was what George Lucas envisioned, maybe it was made up on the spot by some guy at Kenner. 

 Either way, I did NOT use this as a trash compactor monster. *I* found the overall shape rather reminiscent of Star Trek's Enterprise, and so I used it endlessly, not only for that, but as a generic "space ship" toy. 

And last I looked, this little guy (selling for $80 on ebay as of this writing) is still somewhere in my basement, resting until he is called on again . . . 

I Remember - Crown Music

Crown Music, at  2637 S. KK, the current home of Front Room Photography, is where I took guitar lessons in 1987. The owner, my instructor, passed of cancer shortly after I quit.

40 Years Ago Today

40 years ago today, seated on the living room floor, I watched Robin Yount pick up a weak grounder and throw to Cecil Cooper for the final out of the 1982 ALCS. 

I will always remember Coop leaping off the bag with joy.

And I'll always remember my Grandpa clapping his hands together, leaning forward on his chair, and saying "Hot damn!"

I'm sick of celebrating these guys at every turn - give us another Brewers team to lionize already! - but today I say, sincerely: thanks for the memories. 

30 Years Ago Today

Thirty years ago today Robin Yount notched his 3000th hit with a seventh inning single off Jose Mesa. The game, believe it or not, wasn't even televised! Small market baseball, ladies and gentlemen, was a different breed. 

I was at the game with my sister Katie and I remember jumping to my feet, just like everyone else in County Stadium, and applauding until my hands ached. What a moment!

Later, I picked up a Yount t-shirt for my friend Tre.  He'd asked me to grab one for him in class that morning, and I took it as a sign that our newly reconnected friendship was growing. 

A few weeks later my Dad and I attended a game where Robin was honored by the team with a hardcover book about the accomplishment. Scalpers had bought up the tickets and we had to give away our books to them in exchange for admittance. Why the Brewers allowed this nonsense right in front of their staff still boggles the mind. 

One more fact: unbeknownst to me, my future wife was in attendance at the 3000th hit game too.

Crocus

The now defunct Crocus Restaurant, 3577 S 13th street, the site of our rehearsal dinner in October of 1996.

Memories

Lisa and Smiley visited an antiques store today and she found many items from her childhood . . .

I had this!!!! I bought it from the oriental store across from Southgate mall...the newest 1987 technology in fiber optics!!! 

This is midnight Barbie's horse that came w a stamper, years before you could just go to the dollar store and buy one. If they had the stamper and saddle with this one I might have been more tempted to buy it lol

And Grandma Pickett had a set of these!

Lenny Von Dohlen

 You probably know him best for his role on Twin Peaks. Curiously enough, I know him best for playing a version of the same character in "Dual Spires," an episode of Psych that parodied Twin Peaks. 

He has passed away at age 64. 

Von Dohlen also holds a special place in my memory for starring in the '80's dramedy Electric Dreams, in which an architect, Von Dohlen, falls for his beautiful musician neighbor, played by Virginia Madsen. Alas, this couple must compete with the jealous emotions of the architect's newly sentient home computer who is intent on driving them apart. 

I loved that movie, and its soundtrack (new original songs, including one by Culture Club!) so much that I went out of my way to track down and buy a cassette tape of the same. I think I may have actually had to special order it at one of the mall music stores. 

Oh, and this has always stuck in my head: the character's solution to earthquake damage: construct building from bricks based on interlocking jigsaw puzzle pieces. 

I've always wondered if that would really work. 

RIP sir. 

Singles turns 30

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Today marks 30 years – THIRTY YEARS – since the release of the Singles soundtrack. 

Putting aside the impossibility of such a statement, it’s hard to find words to describe the importance of this album to me. 

It is one of the ten records I’d take with me on a deserted island. Other than Nirvana, it features all the major players of the grunge era, and more. It was one of the first group of CD’s I bought with my “introductory offer” at Columbia House Records and Tape. Most importantly, for a young fan eager to prove the band he was passionate about wasn’t a one and done fluke, there were two mighty, glorious new Pearl Jam songs. 

Hearing Breathe and State of Love and Trust was all the proof I needed. 

Happy Birthday Singles soundtrack. May you be played forever.  

Davy Crockett by Stewart H. Holbrook

This was one of my favorite books as a kid. Part of the Landmark series of nonfiction, I checked it out again and again from the school library.

A great quote for weddings

"Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they can't be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them." - (Adam Smith) I used this quote in the best man toast at my sister's wedding.

The "Replay" Game - Packers/Bears November 5th, 1989

I remember watching this game in my family's living room and my Mom being excited because it had forever since the Packers had swept the Bears. What a great season, and what a great end to that game!

[One thing tho: the Pack moved ahead with 32 seconds left, and the game was all but over. Nowadays? 32 seconds is a lifetime in the NFL]