My friend and colleague, Tom (he of the Light Breezes blog) was a young whippersnapper fresh out of college in those days.
Tom is at the upper left here, I'm at the lower right.
It's a newspaper picture taken when we each won awards for our coverage of schools.
The general manager of the radio station in those days was a fellow named Jim Hilliard.
Snappy dresser, eh?
Anyway there was a mini-reunion of a handful of those guys over at Tom's house in Cambria, California recently.
Jim is in the center of this group with Tom next to him in the dark shirt and glasses.
On the far left is Mike Griffin, who was a disc jockey at the FM station, and Bob Christy, who got into management.
On the far right is George Johns, who was a sales guy who I never met.
He came after I had moved on to Arizona.
The years have been better to some of the group than others.
But speaking of that, when I was in Indy, I met a college pal of Tom's with a weird sense of humor.
He was a weatherman at a local t.v. station in those days but he was looking for something different.
He wrote and recorded several pieces of his humor for our radio station.
He later parlayed that comedic talent into a pretty good career.
You probably recognize him as late night talk show host David Letterman.
Well, old Dave retired awhile back but a photographer caught up with him as he was out jogging recently on St. Bart's Island in the Caribbean.
As my wife said "I'd walk right by him on the street and never recognize him."
Time.
Aging.
Hair loss.
Weight gain.
As has often been said "Old age isn't for sissies!"
Nice memory Taylor, but Geo was never in sales. He hates sales people with the heat of a thousand suns. You should have been there, it was a hell of a time.
ReplyDeletePlease apologize to him for me. What end of the racket WAS he in?
DeleteThe mustache tends to hide those signature front teeth.
ReplyDeleteI never would have recognized Letterman in that second picture.
ReplyDeleteBruce-
ReplyDeleteAt the dinner table the night of our reunion Lana noted how many great story tellers there were. That's a life of radio and tv for you I guess. It was so good to Jim after 38 years. He's been marvelously successful and still has that inspirational personality. Bob has collected a lifetime of great stories including many years in Boston.
He's beginning to write now and as you know he's a helluva good writer. George is working on a book and he too has collected amazing stories. He had an editor look at his first draft and the comment was "what's this book about?" Griff is my buddy and neighbor here in Cambria. He was a player in the Indy racing league for years and still has one of the greatest Voice Over voices in the world. Aside from that he's one of the nicest people in the world! Your ears should have been burning. You too were remembered fondly.
And I should add. After his years on the air and his success, Dave can do anything he wants and that goes for his style as well. The day before he left for California, all those years ago, we had a picnic on our southern Indiana property. Dave had that beard back then, but it was dark. Time and gravity does tricks.
DeleteWhat a collection of mugs.
ReplyDeleteI suspect not being recognized is quite intentional for a certain one above.