Yearbooks

I  always remember this time of year when I was in High School anxiously awaiting the release of the school yearbook to reminisce about the year and relive some of the activities and events that transpired from August to May... my own yearbooks have been lost to time but I remember  the last two vividly  (I was even on the Yearbook Staff my Junior year as I was flirting with the idea of a career in journalism at the time)...

I've been thinking about the people, places and events partially because I made a decision late last year not to attend a High School reunion not because of my experiences with school or my former classmates... but because of what transpired in the many years that followed. I went to the 20th reunion and more or less considered at the time it would likely be the last time I made an appearance at these events but I did not fully commit to my absence until fairly recently... but I'll go more into this later.

In my reminiscing about those years and the many that followed it seems like one thing blurs into the next kind of like if you have ever been on the lot of a movie studio when a small midwest town turns into a big city street around the corner and suddenly you find yourself in the old west and you turn and are at a mansion in the south before coming to an asian style bridge and standing in a dark alley in old Hong Kong....and winding up on a suburban street where everyone from the Munster family, Dr. Marcus Welby, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and all the Desperate Housewife families lived.

Colonial Street most people will recognize as Wisteria Lane

People were often let down when they saw behind the facade while others appreciated the behind the scenes knowledge

The always changing Universal Studio Backlot

I know so much because I used to be a tour guide  here

I'm bringing all of this up because after I graduated  I went around the world the first of many times and met a whole new cast of characters and moved on...

I spent the better part of many of those years at CBS studios in Los Angeles...

I was thinking about some of the people I've met either socially and/or professionally (I'm not best friends with any of these people)... but I came across some of their High School yearbook photos and started reminiscing about them and the circumstances we came together and drifted apart.

Cheryl Tiegs High School yearbook photo

Cheryl about the time I met her

Recently

Farrah Fawcett High School yearbook photo

About the time we met...sadly there are no recent photos

Tom Selleck High School yearbook photo

Tom Selleck now...

The following clip is around the time that I met TS... notice Patty Deutsch, Teri Garr and Penny Marshall...

Tom Selleck's first commercial

Jan Michael Vincent High School yearbook photo

JMV about the time we met

JMV a couple of years before his death

What all of these people and I have in common other than the events that brought us together briefly is that the way we looked at one point played an important part of how we made a living... I used to think that everyone whether you are in the entertainment industry felt some concern about the way they looked and the image that they conveyed to the world (I learned that I was mistaken) but for those of us who do when we are putting on our game face and looking at the image silently saying "Mirror, mirror on the wall... am I still one of the fairest of them all?"... I'm counting myself as one of the lucky people who did not sabotage my face and integrity  by butchering it with surgery... or shutting myself away a la Garbo  and only seeing certain people in dimly lit surroundings... I made these decisions and to try to make the best possible choices by growing older as gracefully as possible by reinventing myself not to try to appear as I did decades ago but putting forth the best possible face I have now with the benefit of experience, wisdom and if nothing else appearing more interesting and worldly than I did in my High School yearbook photo....

I'm going to include a couple of people I've never met because I would have loved to have met Freddy Mercury and I would still love to meet Steve Buscemi... they both refused to have their teeth fixed for one reason or another in a business that told them they should.

Steve Buscemi High School yearbook photo

He was afraid to fix his teeth for fear of loosing work

I could not find a High School photo

He was afraid fixing his teeth could change the quality of his voice

And speaking of teeth... I'm on the final stretch of fixing my own because of issues of  some that were broken and/or failing. As far as the reunion goes thinking back I have fared better than many who have had issues with alcohol and/or drugs and unfortunately a few with serious health problems... but more than anything I was thinking back to the yearbook signing party all those years ago and I remember feeling and thinking to myself... I don't have a great deal in common with most of these people other than we have spent the better part of 12 years together,,,and now there is no new common ground in the many years we have not been a part of all the important events of each others lives.... so it's not that I dislike you and don't want to see you again (although in a couple of cases I  do dislike you and don't ever want to see you again)... it's just one of those life is too short issues to spend time and/or money pretending we have something to talk about after all these years.

Also...I have met Channing Tatum and Catherine Deneuve and Brad Pitt during my wandering years and there were some people who never left their comfort zone that really don't want to hear about it for some reason and then there were others who never had to leave where they were to find their place in the world and loved hearing all about it... but mostly I'm happy to have moved on and would now prefer to continue to spend quality time with the people who are actually  a part of my life... or want to meet me at least half way to the past and still move toward the future.

Oh and one more thing... Like some of the examples I've shown in these photos like them I have also been very lucky genetically and taken care of myself... and perhaps most importantly we are healthy, happy and don't make ourselves feel better at the expense of other peoples feelings...See you in a couple of weeks!