March 31, 2009
On Saturday morning, bandmate Wayne Rutschman and I decided to walk from the King's Inn to the final rehearsal at the Fairgrounds. Crossing Old Route 66 we walked straight into Ricca Drive (the very first subdivision in Kingman) and, of course, as we walked, we began pointing out the houses where many of the coolest girls in Kingman lived when we were in high school. Among the houses we pointed out, were the houses of Michele Gilpin, Gail Nash, Debbie Dunton, Karen Cooper, Linda Whiting, Barbara Finn, Cathy Swift, Judy Gillespie and Doris and Di Wells. Those are just a few if the honeys two old ex-horndogs could remember:

These girls, I mean women, who are pictured here were poached straight out of my high school annuals and even though I didn't try extra hard to portray any one individual, I think more than a few will recognize themselves. And, for the record, not all of them lived on Ricca Drive (like Ms. Torres).

Speaking of high school annuals, I know I am in the minority but I have never been fond of tattoos. When my kids were about ten I did a very devious thing: I showed them all the beehive hairdos in my high school annual and asked them if they thought the dos were hip. "It's ridiculous and hideous!" they both said, at the same time trying to run from the room. I went and got them and said, "We thought this fashion was the coolest and would never change." Then, I added this: "Imagine if all of us were stuck with this same hairdo today? Would that be a curse?" Oh, YES! they said without reservation.

"Well, if you get a tattoo, this is what you're going to look like in about twenty years."

So far, neither kid has a tattoo (that I know of).

"All is fair in love and child rearing."
—Old Parent Rationalization