Reading: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

In the midst of: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Not yet given up on: John Milton, Paradise Lost;

On deck: Don Quijote

Moving: gardening

House:

Garden:

8 May 2002: Hair

It's all about the hair.

When I was in ninth grade, in 1983, there was a new boy whom I developed a minor crush on. He was in my science class, I remember for certain; I don't remember if he was in anything else with me too. Probably.

Also in 1983, a short-lived television drama ran on ABC, starring Kirk Cameron, C. Thomas Howell, and a girl who had played Annie and costarred with George Burns in "Oh God! Book II." Not, of course, that I knew any of that at the time. The memory surfaced today and I did some web sleuthing and found the title of the show. I thought it had had a cheesy, Chicken Soup for the Soul title similar to "Life Goes On" or "One Day at a Time" or maybe something hinting at its subject matter. I found a site with oodles of television shows' titles, and I read deliberately through the list, hoping for a spark of memory. Some brought a nostalgic smile to my face--I will always love "Grizzly Adams," although I would never rewatch an episode because I'm sure they're all unbearably stupid. And there were scenes I thought I remembered from "Planet of the Apes" movies that turned out to be from a television show I didn't remember. No title struck me.

I knew two things about the show: a year it ran and a character's name. Finally I went to imdb.com, which I should have checked first. I searched for a character's name, and then I searched the resulting page for 1983.

"Two Marriages." Oh of course. A hokey, bland name. With that, I resumed my web search, but--no surprise--the one-season show didn't develop a following who would, years later, recap the episodes. I did at least find a photograph. I wouldn't've recognized this actress's more current pictures from Adam's off hind ox, but I sure recognized this That Was Then one.

Her name was Shelby, and that's what he proceeded to call me. What really got me about my crush's likening the two of us was how right he was.

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If the scanner cooperated with System X, I would scan one of my favorite pictures, me in tenth grade, sitting on a table in the library, in a red sweater vest with a tic-tac-toe pattern that I thought was so hip, smiling only slightly to hide the braces, with my hand on my glasses on the surface behind me. Instead for contrast, there's this, which I took today, the 13th, with a buddy tracheotomy (I just got picked him up from a weekend boarding and his usual clinginess is nothing compared to this.)

I would like to note that PSA recently said I look like Emmylou Harris. This I will take, since the last time he likened me to anyone was 1985 and he suggested Mary Lou Retton.