1. Did somebody ever tell you you would amount to nothing in life? And what did you make of yourself now as an adult?
Reading my old school report cards, due to my dyslexia, my teachers were stunned that I wasn’t just sitting the corner of the classroom as a drooling idiot. My school guidance cousnselors steered me away from any professional carrer goals and encouraged me to get a job in a garage assisting with oil changes (true conversation) i went on to serve in the army, graduated college with and English degree, edited the school newspaper and worked as a small town journalist. Maybe most of those teachers amounted to nothing in their lives.
2. What is your favorite childhood smell?
Mom’s freshly baked homemade bread. She usually made two loafs a week for sandwiches and breakfast.
3. Do you ever listen to a song and remember exactly what life was like when you first heard it?
“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen was the first song I ever heard on a Walkman with headphones and every time it comes on I remember that time.
4. What was your first job?
When I was 14-years old me and a neighbor girl started a window washing company and had contracts with an auto dealership and grocery store to wash their windows and also were able to get other jobs to wash windows all over town during the summer.
5. What was your first “expensive” thing you bought with your own money?
I bought a Pentax camera kit with accessories and lenses from the Speigel catalog when I was probably 17-years old.
1. Not really. I think people have always viewed me as “different.” I had a speech impediment as a child, and in first grade it was recommended that I go to Special Education. If it were today, where educators are better trained and can quickly address developmental gaps, it would have been fine. Back then Special Ed was where they warehoused kids with anything from Downs Syndrome to fetal alcohol syndrome. My dad made quick work of it by threatening to kill Mister Covalt. I overcame things on my own.
2. Coffee brewing and bacon frying. Reminds me of waking up in my grandparents’ house. My Grandpa was a navy vet and he always got up early and made breakfast in his wife beater tank top.
3. When I heard “Wake Me up before You Gogo,” I couldn’t sleep that night. I’d never heard such a perfect earworm before.
4. My first gig job was watering the lawns of the KFC in my hometown. Boy was I diligent. Those things were basically swamps by the time I was done.
5. I’ve always splurged on clothing, but the first time I bought something knowing it was too expensive and I wasn’t getting a good deal was when I spent $75 on a wastebin for my bedroom. I still have it, but I realized at the time that it was an extravagance.
1) Not directly but I had a wildly antiemetic football coach that alluded to this and he was found dead in his bathroom with his dick out and a belt around his neck dangling from a hook so I guess the jokes on him.
2) Was and still is, movie theater popcorn.
3) I was a freshman in college and a girl was going on & on about how much she liked Oingo-Boingo. Well I had a great hook up from my dad for concert tickets and was able to get tickets to their show at the CU field house. I first heard their music riding in the car to that show. I can’t remember the girl but I still remember Danny Elfman.
4) First job was babysitter. First job with an actual W-2 I was the open skating rink attendant.
5) A vehicle, probably my truck.