PSST! The video is just to add background music and/or nostalgic images. It's not mine at all--so skip if you don't want to hear/see it:
Hi there. I recently stumbled on a stash of photos of myself from the '80's. Yes, I've reached the point in my life where I have started looking back and wishing I could go back to my youthful self. I'm sure there are more somewhere. But for now, take a gander, if you care to, and I'll curate as we go along...
High school... Date night. Back in the fall of 1982 or spring of 1983, I asked Jeryl Burks out on a date. She accepted. The asking out was all part of a homemade "game show" I set up for her. She got to open "door #1". There was some fabulous prize behind that door (I forget what it was. Uh...). She could keep that prize or go for what was behind Door #2... Picking Door #2 (at my urging), she was allowed to keep Prize #1 and also "won" the new ADAM ANT album ("Friend or Foe"). She could keep those fabulous prizes or risk them all and go for Door #3. She opted for the final door, #3...which, in addition to allowing her to keep the other prizes, she "won" a dream date with me to the ADAM ANT concert at Warners Theatre! Whoo hoo! The opening band was one no one had ever really heard of --yet--INXS. We decided to have fun and go as "New Wave Tourists". It's hard to see, but she has her hair in a pony tail poking through an old 45 record. I have on an old overcoat covered with buttons with a bunch of tacky/rude/bizarre sayings on them ("You're Ugly And Your Mother Dresses You Funny" comes to mind). Off we went in my broken down '66 Mustang...
In the summer of 1983, right after graduation from high school, I went to Europe--alone. Earlier in the year, my family hosted two British girls (Anjoom, above, and Gillian) who were visiting the US. I stayed with each of them for a while on the trip. One day, Anjoom took me into London and we ran into this street vendor guy with a pair of monkeys taking snapshots for cash. We played with the monkeys for a moment and then he shot this Polaroid. (I'm the monkey in the green stripes.) Jeepers! I was incredibly young and thin back then.
This is a fun picture, very '80's. Here I am in an unconstructed sport coat with the sleeves rolled up (very "Miami Vice"--or the Clovis version anyway) and a pair of generic cardboard 3D glasses (from a 3D movie of the era). In the foreground you can see my uber-fabulous foot statue thing (a white foot with bright red nail polish. This was a thrift store find, I believe. It was just so weird. I had to have it, right? Ha! Where is it now...) . Perched on my shoulder sits Seymour, my pet plastic lawn flamingo. In probably my only act of juvenile delinquency, I STOLE (I prefer the term "rescued") Seymour late one night from the (Gasp!) Clovis Cemetery. (Yes, right off of someone's grave!) I figured the lawn maintenance people would have just thrown it away anyway the next time they mowed. I loved Seymour and he accompanied many places. I simply took out one of his support rods and stuck the other one down the back of my jacket so he "sat' on my shoulder. There are other pictures of Seymour and I somewhere... I still have him, I think, too. I just don't know which box he's in. Ha!.
Here I am again with Nedra. I am wearing my Me & Ed's cap (Me & Ed's, a local pizza parlor, was my first job). You can see some of my movie posters on the ceiling.
Yes, I have my foot in my mouth yet AGAIN. Well, maybe just my toes. Ha! Why, I don't know. But I could never do that today. Grotty to the max!
Nedra and I daring to enter --EEEK!--my brother's room. My pet plastic lawn flamingo Seymour is with us, but he is so scared, he is just barely peeking over my shoulder.
I took Nedra to her prom in 1985. This was her senior prom, but I had already graduated by this time and was 20 years old. This was my third prom.
Here is the official prom photo of that night. We both thought the cheesy, wrinkled New York City background was hokey (Hello? We live in Fresno.), but it proved prophetic in a sense for Nedra as she would live in NYC for nearly 30 years.
Here I am with my dear friend, Dina...who I have NOT seen in decades (but still occasionally talk to via email). I met Dina while taking some summer school class at Fresno City College (We were both going to Fresno State at the time, but didn't know each other. We were both just taking the class --a math class?--to get a pre-req out of the way cheaply). She had a cool band, TOO MANY JOES that she took with her (or maybe saying she reincarnated it is a better way of putting it?) when she moved back to Southern California. Today she is a very popular, very in demand photographer who is sent out on gigs all over the world.
Here I am with my best friend in my early 20's, Chris Lavagnino (left). Chris and I had this incredible fast and furious friendship that lasted about 2 years before we had this big rift between us that lasted for nearly a quarter of a century. But we had all kinds of crazy and insane adventures together during that intense yet brief span o' time. Here, our friend Mark is in between us. We are at Disneyland near the Materhorn. The three of us were working at Orchard Supply Hardware at the time. Yes, Chris and I have on matching T-Shirts. We were being purposely dorky. The sun glasses remained on my head (instead of on my face) all day as I remember having a particularly bad hair day. I needed a haircut soooo badly, but didn't have time to get one before the trip.
Still at Disneyland with Lupe (Mark's girlfriend--also from Orchard's) and Captain Hook.
Amazing! Here I am sawn in half (or something like that). Also at Disneyland.
"Hey, Shawn. Go over there and lay down in the middle of the park with all of those people around." "Okay."
Chris and I..."Wonder boob powers -- ACTIVATE!"
The last of the Orchard Supply Hardware invades Disneyland photos.
Chris and I purposely trying to look cheesy.
Here are Chris and I on my 24th birthday. Look carefully at the poses. Now scroll down and you will see our attempt at recreating them about 20-some years later. (And ANOTHER attempt a few years after that.)
Here I am in Laura Turner's pants...literally! Ha! Laura was also from Orchard's. Here we are at Avila Beach.
Here are Chris, Laura and I after the Avila Beach adventure.
Ahoy! Chris and I went on a cruise together. It was a cheap-o-rama cruise (with glamorous stops in San Diego, Catalina and Ensenada. Oooo...). I have some GREAT tales from that trip and maybe some day I'll share them here. (Oh my stars! I really should write those down.)
Here is the last photo (for now) that I came across. This is also from the cruise with our table mates. Oh my God...I really need to write these experiences down. There were so many funny things on the cruise---it became almost like an "I Love Lucy" episode or something. There was the time when I was... Or when I had to get off the boat in... Or when Chris asked the TV star... And then there was our room steward, whose name was... ARGH! I HOPE I find the rest of the cruise pictures and REMEMBER to write down our adventures.
Anyway, this cruise was in 1989 I think (or possibly 1990), just as the '80s were coming to a close...
That's all for now.
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