Mothers Against Mohawks And Other Blasts From The Past

April 20, 2015

   Drove a couple hundred miles this weekend to sell 50 books. Was it worth it? Hell yes! Got to drive out to lovely Apache Junction on Saturday morning. Landed at Red Feather Trading Post at 10:22 (okay, I was 22 minutes late because I had to stop at Barnes & Noble on 92nd and Shea to borrow 25 "True West Moments" books). Healthy crowd, good people, like this gal:



Betty Swanson, Communications Director of The Superstition Mountain Museum



   Turns out Betty and I have several connections: her late brother, Jim Ersfeld, worked with Professor Paul Andrew Hutton at UNM and was one of Paul's favorite people. I met him and enjoyed him as well. But our connection doesn't end there. In college she dated Wayne Rutschman! Wow! You know, this guy:



 
Wayne Rutschman rocks out at the American Legion Hall, 1964

   Betty wrote the press release of the Red Feather book signing so she gets major points for that as well. From Apache Junction, I drove to the Poisoned Pen where I caught a book discussion with Mary Doria Russell. Her new book "Epitaph," is a work of poetry as it regards the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. She and I had a wonderful discussion about all things Earp and Holliday, but the one comment she made in the group was a stunner. Someone asked her why so many books on the same subject seem to come out at the same time (there are allegedly three titles on Jack the Ripper coming out right now), to which Mary Doria replied, "Because there are 64 million Baby Boomers, and when you think of anything, two days later, half of them will think of the same idea."

   Never been said better.

   Had a book signing at Scottsdale's Museum of the West yesterday. A familiar face came up to me—Lee Jacobson—who used to deliver tamales and leftsa to KSLX when I was on the morning show.

 
Lee Jacobson bearing an ancient photo at Scottsdale's Museum of The West

   Here's a closer look at this ancient photograph:

 
BBB, Jeanne Sedello and Lee Jacobson

   This was taken when were on the air at KSLX (100.7 Classic Rock) in Scottsdale. It appears I am showing off my mohawk hair-do, so this must have been in April or May of 1986 when I was Grand Marshal of the April Fools Day Rodeo Parade in Cave Creek. The beautiful girl is Jeanne Sedello.



Thomas Charles and BBB at Pischke's Paradise

   My son Thomas Charles Bell and I got matching mohawks on the air on April Fools Day, 1986. We had two barbers come on and shave us, live, on the air, one on each side of us. After the show I took Tommy to Pischke's Paradise in Old Town Scottsdale for breakfast and Chris Pischke took this photo of us. It used to hang in his dining room for many years.

Mothers Against Mohawks
   So, one of the Cave Creek mothers, whose son played with Tommy, wasn't real thrilled with Kathy and I allowing T. Charles to get a radical hairdo because, as kids are wont to do, her son, Cameron, wanted to get a mohawk. His mother, Fran, said she was going to start "Mothers Against Mohawks." I never quite understood how serious she was until today, when I called out from my office at our new intern, Cameron Douglas.



 
True West Intern Cameron Douglas


   Cameron says, "Yes, my mother loved fighting for causes." Oh, and I wonder if she would have approved of the skinhead look? Hmmmmm.


   So, just a couple of encounters with major connections all over the place. Is it a small world? Yes, with a couple exceptions.

"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."
—Stephen Wright