Mom & Hollywood

When you're a young child it is great to have a young good looking mom. When you become a teenager it becomes a bit more, involved. The picture to the left was taken at Universal Studios in Universal City CA in July 1969. Back in those days it was common for stars to hang around at various times for publicity shots with the visitors. I'm sure you will recognize Bob Hastings from the popular T.V. show McHale's Navy in this photo.

A few months after this picture was taken I started my first year at Birmingham High School. During that first semester I had a health education class. At one point parents were invited to the class to learn about the sex education aspects of the class. If the class wasn't wasn't shock enough to a 14 year old in 1969 it got even worse when your mom was invited to come to school to hear about sex. I had already read all the articles and interviews in my dad's Playboy magazines so I knew all about sex...right. But my newly liberated mind could not wrap itself around the concept of school, sex and mom. Well the day came and mom showed up in a nice blouse and what I considered to be way too tight slacks. It went downhill from there. I now look back and smile with a sense of pride at my classmates spending an inordinate amount of time talking to my mom. I made it through the experience and the rest of the week with the constant remarks about mom's marital status without prematurely ending the career of a letch in training.

Over the years mom had other brief encounters with Hollywood. During another visit to Universal Studios she had her picture take with the actor Clu Gulagar. In Las Vegas Bob Cummings made a pass at her during an elevator ride while my dad stood next to her smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat. However her closest encounter with Hollywood was at our doctors office when Chad Everett the actor asked her out on a date. By this time mom was in her 60's and my dad had passed away years earlier. Mom still being the faithful loving wife turned him down. When I asked why she said no she told me, "because I didn't want to". Still a mid-western girl at heart in love with a guy from Springfield Illinois.