A friend from high school recently sent me a photo of a newspaper clipping from the weekly newspaper in Vevay, Indiana. That’s where I went to high school. Actually I lived closer to East Enterprise. I know. You haven’t heard of that town either.
The clipping was a look back at something that happened in the community 50 years ago or to two of the people who lived there. This would be me and my twin brother. We had come in fourth on a television talent show in Cincinnati called “School For Talent.”
I hadn’t thought of that show in a long time and don’t remember much about it. I kind of remember it being taped at night for broadcast on Sunday morning. I kind of remember not wanting to do it. I kind of remember watching the show when it aired. I certainly remember my mother not liking the fact we ended up coming in fourth place. Somehow she blamed me and my brother for it.
Seeing that newspaper clipping brought the blame and pain all back again. Yeah. The weirdness of it all.
I wrote about My Weird Life in CityBeat back in June of 2009. I’ve been a kid Country Music star, an accountant and now a writer—actually something I’ve wanted to do almost all my life. I’m a column writer, a blogger, a short story writer and sometimes I get to write about other writers. I’ve also got a novel coming out fairly soon. Sure, as a writer, I have to take on other “projects” to help pay the bills (I don’t know any rich writers) but my life is finally where I want it to be. At my ripe old age, I feel very lucky to be doing what I’m doing.
Reality is, the writing stuff seemed normal to me all along. All those detours getting to where I am and being able to actually do it was the weird part. I’m glad to have that behind me.
We’ll be back on Sunday with another post. No. It won’t be weird.
(Photo taken by Jerry Ray)
