Many moons ago on the first floor of a house rented by four college friends at 524 Oak Street in Kalamazoo, my buddy Jim and I were watching The Tonight Show. Jonathan Winters, 87, who just passed away, was a guest, seated to the right of Johnny Carson. He did a simple bit about two typically (stereotypically?) laconic farmers having a discussion, which had us laughing out loud, and which we cited for years, trying our best to imitate the drawl the comedian adopted. It went something like this:
"Had a heifer - died."
"Dead?"
"Dead now, Sunday a week."
RIP, sir. Thanks for the laughs during a time when I was so blue about life.
Suddenly nostalgic, which is not often the case, I remember watching a Dick Van Dyke rerun with another of our roommates, Rick, a goombah from Detroit, who was a DJ at both the local radio station, WKZO, and at our university’s, WIDR, where Jim had his own show too. When Rob Petrie complained to his wife that he wasn’t feeling well, and Laura asked what she could do for him, Rick quietly made a lewd suggestion that struck me as so funny that I rolled off my chair and laughed for several minutes. I haven’t seen Rick in decades. If I ever do see him again, I will zing him as I so often did, recalling the loud intro to his show, the shouting of his stage name: Dick Murray! Ah, youth. Both men are a lot more successful than I’ve been, in their careers as well as in family life. Jim and Judy have two beautiful daughters with whom I’ve shared quality time, and who are now busy raising their own beautiful kids, whose pictures are posted on Facebook by their proud grandma. And Rick and Suzi, a local TV news legend, have four kids. I envy and love them for having gotten life right.
Pro golf has another whippersnapper to envy: 14-year-old Tianlang Guan of China, who made the cut at The Masters despite being assessed a one-stroke penalty for slow play at the 17th hole. Damn snot-nosed kids.
My thanks to the folks who purchased books CDs and DVDs today on Bay Parkway.
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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