11/18/09 - Added Operation Orbit to the Toys page.
11/13/09 - Added Me in 1966.
8/10/09 - Added Porter microscope to my Toys page. I was at a yard sale over the weekend and stumbled across one. "Hey! I had one of these when I was a kid!"
8/5/09 - Added Our Econolite lamp and Another style to the Memories page.
6/24/09 - Added Standard Brands: Paint Central in Burbank.
4/30/09 - Provided a link to the Movieland Wax Museum postcards on my Links page.
1/4/09 - Provided a correction on Zippy the Chimp (I thought it was simply "Zip") and added an informational link on my Toys page. Thanks, Don!
1/3/09 - Happy New Year!Updated the front page copyright date to 2009 and resorted the letters pages.
12/15/08 - Added the 1969 Monogram Moon Landing Site model to the Toys page.
12/1/08 - Nothing added, I just noticed that today Avocado Memories has been on the World Wide Web for twelve years. Wow, how time flies. Good thing I jotted it all down while I could still remember it! Not sure I could construct it anew today...
10/7/08 - I checked out a library book of magazine advertisements from the 1970's recently and found this, the Eleganza catalog. I recall seeing these passed around when I was in the Marines. Even back then, I knew it represented the ugliest clothing ever designed for men.
7/11/08 - Thanks to reader Rob Brown I now have a recording of the fondly-remembered Richard Rogers theme march to The Great Adventure. (What's that? Click here!)
5/1/08 - Posted Those Juvenile Delinquents!
3/17/08 - Posted Mom's arm as a seat belt.
2/11/08 - Thanks to Darryl Eisle, who sent me a souvenir Sargent's menu, I have posted links on my Sargents page.
1/1/08 - Happy New Year! Created a new letters page for 2008 and moved the 2007 letters here.
12/19/07 - My desire to document my childhood toys in excruciating detail continues with these additions to the toys page: Jon Gnagy art set, plastic rattle blocks, the Spirograph and a Bingo set.
12/11/07 - Hard to believe that this website has been up for eleven years now... wow. Anyway, this being the Christmas season, our thoughts turn naturally to the toys of our youth. Sherry Krol, a constant reader of this website, helpfully pointed out where one may look at WishbookJason's online 1966 J.C. Penney Christmas Catalog. What memories! I have accordingly added to some of the illustrations on my Sixties Toys page: Lego, The Gilbert Home Laboratory, The Thing bank, Jack and the Beanstalk game, Agent Zero M, U.N.C.L.E. gear, The James Bond Attache Case, The Lost in Space Roto Jet Gun, Captain Action, Fireball XL-5 and the Batman Utility Belt. My Christmas toys nowadays are more expensive, but not more fun!
11/13/07 - Posted a link for two more gripping accounts of the Battle of La Providencia here. (Or you can go here directly.) Also, posted the Clark Family Slave Refuge Story here.
6/22/07 - Posted an appropriate poem at the top of the first home tour page, written by none other than Abraham Lincoln. It sort of sets the scene for what follows. I think he'd get a kick out of that. Also, I see I forgot to mention the Clark Secret Door in my tour of the Den. Click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
3/23/07 - No more Santa Claus Lane Parades - scroll to bottom of Hollywood Boulevard was our Backyard!
3/5/07 - Thanks to Jeff Shirey, I have now a reawakened memory of the Fritos and Nabisco dinosaur premiums which I have added to my Toys page.
3/2/07 - Posted Fritos at Disneyland to the Memories page.
1/21/07 - I let an anniversary slip by... I see by looking at the very first e-mail dated 12/30/96 (click here, scroll all the way down) that Avocado Memories has been on the Internet for ten years, now. Wow. My thoughts about this are contained in an article I wrote for my first web site, JonahWorld!: "Ten Years in the Virtual Camp." Nothing more to add, really, except that I'm amazed at, 1.) My unceasing narcissistic ability to write about myself, and 2.) The fact that complete strangers would find this readable.
1/5/07 - Posted Two Unsettling Stories - inspired by a recent viewing of a Twilight Zone episode!
1/2/07 - Created a new letters page for 2007 and moved 2006 letters here.
12/7/06 - It being December and all, I posted some new stuff to my popular Toys page; see just under "Other." I get more e-mail about this particular page than any other. By the way, I do not own these toys, nor do I know how to buy them (save perhaps on e-Bay).
11/21/06 - I felt it necessary to provide a foreward to my account of my service in the United States Marine Corps.
10/6/06 - Posted a fourth account of the Battle of La Providencia to the Warlords of Burbank article.
8/29/06 - Posted a funny photo of myself to the Patio Culture and the Promise of Joining the Adults' Club article.
7/18/06 - I was thumbing though an old high school yearbook and found this, about Tim Burton's swim team career at Burbank High School.
7/12/06 - Posted The Burbank Golden Mall (from my Burbankia page) to the Memories page.
7/10/06 - Posted The Dip to the Memories page.
6/21/06 - Posted the new Clark Heraldic Crest to my Rolaids article. My daughter Julie made it for me for Father's Day...
3/17/06 - Posted Sargents. Also, Zetz 2006! (Click here and go to the bottom of the page.)
3/9/06 - Added the Covered wagon lamp to the memories page.
2/22/06 - After years of searching, I have found an image of a 1960's era Rolaids bottle, which I have accordingly made the logo of my In Praise of Rolaids! article.
1/24/06 - I attended a business meeting this morning where some proposals for the interior decor of classrooms was being discussed. The architects pulled out some paint samples: harvest gold, rust, avocado. The Seventies are back! What amuses me is that nobody is calling it avocado anymore. Today's color was "G.I. Green." (It's usually "Olive," or "Sage.")
1/17/06 - How could I have overlooked seeing Sophia Loren in a wet peasant blouse and she, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra shoving a giant cannon across Spain? I address that here.
1/11/06 - Added a link to Mark Stevens' TVlamps.net website to my links page. Again. (End of year configuration management problem.)
1/9/05 - Posted a great web site link to the Links page; it's for Los Angeles Time Machines, a site that lists old bars and restaurants in the L.A. area.
1/3/05 - Created a new letters page for 2006 and moved 2005 letters here.
12/2/05 - Added Holding Up My Pants - a little examination of the Seventies belt buckle fad.
10/21/05 - Thanks to reader Bruce Bartlett, I have added a image of the Honor House Six Foot Rocket X-1 to my To The Final Frontier - In a Cardboard Box article.
9/7/05 - At the request of reader Amy Rose, I have added Captain Russian #41: "Captain Russian Meets the Mafia" (September 1968) to my Captain Russian vs. Miss Johnson page. Not one of my better hand-drawn comic books; my daughter pronounced it "lame."
8/24/05 - Added the Broom Tail Horse to the Toys page. My memory of this was reawakened a few days ago when I saw a wooden one in a store.
6/14/05 - I knew one of you would be able to help me! Mark Donnell sent me an e-mail and identified the TV show I remembered from my youth. Details here.
6/6/05 - I'm stuck. I therefore turn to you, Gentle Readers. Help me identify this TV show!
2/11/05 - Nerd that I was and am, I posted an image of my 1970's audio equipment. Looking back on it, it's funny how much my sense of self-worth was wrapped up in that stuff...
2/10/05 - Wrote a little postscript about watching old movies with Dad here.
2/8/05 - At the suggestion of a reader, Jacob Vulpine, I have written an article of CB radio use: Citizen's Banditry.
2/1/05 - Avocado Memories has been on the WWW for eight years, now! Someday I'll tire of writing about myself...
1/25/05 - After about 43 years I have made contact with an old family friend, Del Casher. He's in my Home Movies article. I used to know him as Del Catcher. Anyway, I was surprised to learn that he invented the wah pedal and worked with a host of greats, including Elvis, Frank Zappa, Leo Fender, Lawrence Welk and others. I always knew he was a good L.A. session guitarist, but as it turns out, he's one of the great electric guitar sound innovators as well. How cool is that?
1/11/05 - Steve Smith jogs my memory and causes me to write about Operation Mad Ball and the Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (shown too frequently in L.A. late night local TV) in a 1/11/05 letter on the letters page.
1/1/05 - Created a new letters page for 2005 and moved 2004 letters and guestbook entries here. I have removed the guestbook. Sorry, but it got to be a pain when people started posting automated entries to sell things. I'm not out to sell you anything. Write me instead!
12/6/04 - Added wooden gliders to the Toys page.
12/3/04 - Added The Carroll County Accident on the Tallahatchie Bridge the Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
11/15/04 - Added Fang Bang and the Magic Brain Calculator to the Toys page.
10/18/04 - Look what's back. From the Fall, 2004 Williams-Sonoma catalog, which my wife triumphantly showed me. The only difference between this and the harvest gold, avocado, orange and rust of the Sixties and the Seventies is marketing: Now the colors are called dijon, olive, terra-cotta and cinnamon. If this continues and these colors come back big time, perhaps some kid will grow up during its heyday and, as an adult, create a website entitled, "Olive Memories" (or "Sage Memories," depending upon the term used to avoid the word "avocado.")
Also, one can now buy a brand new coppertone Schwinn Sting-Ray, just like the ones sold in the early Sixties.
There truly is nothing new under the sun.
10/5/04 - Posted the disreputable Clark Family story "Angel of Mercy Incarcerates Santa" to the Dad's Gag Photos page.
10/1/04 - Thanks to Chris Chafin of Old Hickory, Tennessee, I can now post stills from 8mm Family Home Movies. Thanks, Chris!
9/16/04 - Ever since the National World War II Monument was dedicated in Washington a few months back, I've been planning to work on a little monument of my own on the Internet. I have now finished it: Wes Clark in Germany During World War II.
9/15/04 - Added a couple of 1945 photographs to the Dad's Gag Photos page.
9/13/04 - Added some recently remembered space toys to the Sixties Toys page.
8/27/04 - Added 1970's Corduroys.
8/10/04 - A mystery solved! Where were those "Sky blue waters" in the Hamms signs? Jack Hartung explains in the Adult's Club article.
8/9/04 - Added a couple of photos to the Dad's Gag Photos! page.
6/1/04 - Added some pithy Todd Rundgren song lyrics to the appropriate part of the Links page. The Future is Now. So... how come it isn't as promised?
4/26/04 - Added the Astro-Float and the Fizz-Nik to the Toys page. (Thanks to Jeff Shirey for reawakening memory of this.)
4/20/04 - In spring a middle-aged man's fancy turns to cars, and so I have greatly expanded the existing Family cars page.
4/19/04 - Thanks to the diligence of my pal and Burbank researcher Mike McDaniel, I am pleased to add another castle to my photo collection. It's on the Warlords of Burbank article, at the very bottom where I post updates. The winds of war may blow cold, but this resident sleeps well knowing he's prepared.
04/04/04 - Added a new section: Dad's Gag Photos!.
4/3/04 - Added a digital replication of a painting that aroused some controversy.
3/26/04 - Finished cleaning up the photos. Generally, I adjusted the colors to remove the effects of yellowing, clone-tooled away spots and brightened things up a bit by adjusting the levels. Most of the photos are also somewhat larger now.
3/23/04 - I have started slowly going through each of those old Instamatic prints and fixing levels and colors using Photoshop. This'll take awhile.
2/13/04 - With the help of a long-lost friend, I have corrected a few inaccuracies in the Shasta Summers article.
2/12/04 - Added a postscript from Jimmy to the Hollywood Boulevard was Our Backyard! article.
2/9/04 - I've gone Hollywood! Posted Hollywood Boulevard was Our Backyard!
2/6/04 - Posted images of myself with Zip the Chimp, toy trucks and as a Mouseketeer to the Toys article. Also posted an image of myself with Dad's hi-fi to the Kraft Cheese and Great Art page. (We didn't call them "stereos" in those days because they only had one speaker.)
1/16/04 - Due to a fuss about usage, I have removed the mp3 I had of the Sav-On jingle from the Sav-On article.
1/5/04 - Interested in the status of my esophagus? Of course you are. Who wouldn't be? I have therefore updated the postscript to my Rolaids article. Also, I now have an audio clip of the stirring and testosterone-laden Sav-On drugstore jingle, which I have placed at the Sav-On article.
1/4/04 - Created a new letters page for 2004 and moved 2003 letters and guestbook entries here.
12/19/03 - Added a little postscript about video toys to the bottom of my Toys article.
12/15/03 - I want to call your attention to Greeley's Rancho Arcana, which I have added to my links page. The article on the 1972 Aluminum Christmas tree is surely definitive!
11/25/03 - Wrote some text for the Batmen page to better describe my mother's efforts at making me look like a ten year old version of the Dark Knight.
10/30/03 - Added the Bobbin' Head Astronaut to the Toys page.
10/17/03 - Reformatted "To the Final Frontier - In a Cardboard Box" a little and added a relevant letter from Bruce Bartlett.
10/6/03 - Added 1966: The Chat, Part Two. Also added images of Bugles, Daisys and Bows boxes to the 1998 Letters file, where I mention them. (Thanks to the Tick Tock Toys page of theimaginaryworld.com, who helped me solve the mystery of the third snack food - "Bows.") Also, I changed my web hosting company to Simplenet, who are much more reliable than my former company, hostnet1.com You won't see as many outages.
9/27/03 - Added the airplane puzzle keychain to the Toys page.
5/31/03 - Added a third photo to the Den 1977 page and a link to our 1975 Eldorado to the cars page. Also improved this image, "A boy and his Ruger" and added Kitchen 1977.
5/22/03 - Added mention of Jumbo, the Bubble-Blowing Elephant to the Toys page. Also added some text and a photo of the promised Bell Telephone "Picturephone" to the memories page and the links page.
5/9/03 - Added the Monkey Division Booby Trap Land Mine and the Jupiter Signal Gun to the Toys page.
4/25/03 - Added mention of the Gothic chess set and the Game of Life to the Toys page.
4/22/03 - Added mention of some Beatles magazines to the Toys page.
4/20/03 - Added a couple of cheap keychains to the Toys page - at the bottom.
4/4/03 - Added the Space Orb Kaleidoscope, Monster Pencil Sharpener, Sooper Snooper, Countdown, Marble Maze, Green Ghost, The Last Straw, Booby-Trap, Hand's Down and Coup d'Etat to the Toys page.
4/3/03 - Posted Quadraphenia.
4/1/03 - Added some text about "The Future We Were Promised" to the Links page.
3/31/03 - Added the Susy X711 and the 007 snorkel-blaster and pistol grip to the Toys page.
3/18/03 - Added Supercar (how could I have forgotten about it?) to my Toys page.
2/17/03 - Posted a correction to my cameras page (it was a Polaroid Colorpack II I had, not a Swinger) and added my Petri FT EE.
2/16/03 - I'm sitting at my home in Northern Virginia during a major snowstorm, doing some California Dreaming. I added a couple of photographs to the bottom of the El Miradero page, some photos and text to the pool hall page, and a new page, the Den, 1977. Also added my 1959 red bike to the Locomotion for Kids, Sixties Style page.
2/13/03 - Added With Dad at Del Mar.
2/11/03 - Added N-Man #1 to the bottom of the Captain Russian vs. Miss Johnson article. I'll think I'll stop inflicting my comic books upon you now.
2/10/03 - Added Captain Russian #2 to the bottom of the Captain Russian vs. Miss Johnson article.
2/6/03 - Added Captain Russian vs. Miss Johnson.
2/3/03 - Added the "Proto-Goth" section to the Sav-On: Focal Point for the Occult in Burbank article.
1/31/03 - Posted Sav-On: Focal Point for the Occult in Burbank.
1/26/03 - Posted 1966: The Chat.
12/23/02 - Upgraded the images on the Burbank-Hannibal Connection page.
12/4/02 - Created a new page, The Back House. Added photos to: Bedroom 1971, Patio 1966, Bedroom 1970 and Locomotion, Sixties Style.
12/3/02 - Created some new pages: Pool Hall 1971, Bedroom 1972, Den 1976, Living Room 1972, and Drug Abuse and Hotsy Alley. Added a rooster weathervane image to 1631 N. Lincoln St. and added various other images to existing pages.
11/30/02 - Cleaned up the links page a bit, and added a link to Bruce Petty's "Burbank Junction Tower and Branch" page for railroad fans.
11/26/02 - Added Aurora Monster Models to the Toys page.
11/21/02 - I added more photos to the Marine Corps page.
11/20/02 - Now that I have all this new storage space on wesclark.com, I have done something I have always wanted to do: improve the quality of the images. I have gone through the website and enlarged the images, retaining the Kodak Instamatic square photo/white border format. The pages will take somewhat longer to load, but the images look more clear, with truer colors. Also, posted a little introductory article: A Note About Cameras. Plus, I added a photo of me, Dad and Frankenstein to the Local Programming page and created a new page: Back yard, June 1970.
11/14/02 - Posted some information about Tim Burton and some other Burbank talent to the bottom of the Batmen 1966 and 1989 page.
11/6/02 - Thanks to Mike Jennings, who reminded me about the Mattel Agent Zero-M Sonic Blaster, which I have duly added to my toys page.
10/28/02 - Added a new guestbook to the main page.
10/23/02 - A major change! After six years as a free Geocities web site, I have created wesclark.com and made Avocado Memories a part. This means no more bandwidth restrictions or ads.
10/4/02 - Posted a nice little endorsement of this page from the San Francisco Examiner: "Seeing Green."
9/20/02 - A new article: Kraft Cheese and Great Art
9/18/02 - As a result of a visit to Disney World, I have written a short addendum to my The Real and the Fake article.
7/19/02 - Added Shasta Summers.
7/12/02 - Thanks to Doug of http://www.toyadz.com I have added the Kenner Car-Plane to my Toys page. (It's on the bottom of the page.) I was puzzling about this one for nearly 40 years!
5/30/02 - With the arrival of Nexium and Prilosec into my life I have added a postscript to my Rolaids article. Also, added a cheap James Bond gun to the Spy Game page.
5/17/02 - Added Fornasetti sun coasters to the memories page.
5/1/02 - Added mention of that fine Burbank drinking establishment "The Saber Room" to the bottom of the The Lincoln Cafe page.
3/5/02 - Added The Westclox "Clock of Tomorrow".
3/1/02 - My pal Mike McDaniel read the Clorox article, and asked, "Where did your Dad get the word 'zetz' from? My father also used it." My explanation is here. A great term, even when used by the goyim.
1/2/02 - Moved the letters and guestbook entries for 2001 here.
11/26/01 - Added Zip the Chimp, Secret Helmet Seven and the Secret Sam attache case to my toys page.
11/6/01 - Added a link to the Tick Tock Toys Archive to the links page. Pretty amazing collection of 60's/70's food packaging. Added the Corny 7 Rocket to my toys page.
11/5/01 - Added a photo of the Pillsbury Funny Face drinks.
10/23/01 - Added some more photos to the the Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass and the Warlords of Burbank page.
10/4/01 - Added the Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass and the Warlords of Burbank. Viva Micheltorena! Viva Pico!
6/22/01 - Added some "Mom Noir" text and photos to my Web Noir page. I was trying to think of what a connection could be between my love of film noir and this web site (recollections of the 60's and 70's), when some old photographs of my Mom occurred to me. So, with this, I branch out a little thematically into the 40's and 50's. Is that okay?
6/1/01 - Added the Sears Allstate Super Service Station to the toys page. Also added a link to Bijou Memories, my friend Ron's look at past Burbank and Glendale theaters. Finally, help me to identify this toy!
5/25/01 - Added a major new section, Web Noir. I'm not entirely sure it belongs with the rest of Avocado Memories, but there it is.
1/2/01 - Moved the letters and guestbook entries for 2000 here.
12/22/00 - Added sex.
10/2/00 - Added the Roller Derby #10 skate board to my toys page.
8/11/00 - Added an image of a Helms Bakery cardboard truck.
8/8/00 - Added Beautiful Musak.
7/26/00 - Added mention of the The Official Buck Rogers Sonic Ray Gun to the toys page.
7/21/00 - Added mention of the Wham-O Monster Magnet and the Wham-O Superball to the toys page.
6/19/00 - Added this site to the Burbank, CA webring.
5/3/00 - Added a link to a site explaining Clifton's Cafeteria to my Farm House page.
3/30/00 - Added a Blatz beer sign image to the Adult's Club article. That's it, I'm done. I now have images of all the beer signs we had in the pool hall. (A dubious achievement which proves that virtually anything is available on e-Bay!)
3/13/00 - Added a Falstaff beer sign image to the Adult's Club article. (I'm on a roll.)
3/10/00 - Added two Budweiser beer signs to the Adult's Club article.
3/9/00 - Added another Clifton's postcard to the Farm House piece.
3/8/00 - Added another great Hamm's beer sign (we had this one) to the Adult's Club article.
2/7/00 - Added a search feature to the front page of this site, which should help you find what you're looking for.
2/4/00 - Added The Man from U.N.C.L.E. THRUSH gun to the toys page.
2/2/00 - Added the details of Debbie Reynolds being a former Miss Burbank - click here.
2/1/00 - Added mention of the memorable Ronnie "Psycho" Rains of the L.A. Thunderbirds (roller derby) to the links page.
1/31/00 - Added a photograph of Mike in his blue velvet suit to the Cast of Characters page, and the Lost in Space Roto-Jet gun to the toys page.
1/30/00 - Added the Coors waterfall beer sign to my list at the bottom of the Adult's Club article.
1/21/00 - Added the Ideal Motorific cars to my toys page.
1/14/00 - Added some Clifton's postcards to the end of my Farm House article. How elaborate!
12/29/99 - Added a photo of my hard-cleaning mother to the Clorox page. Also moved the 1999 letters and guestbook entries over to the archives. Year 2000 begins soon!
12/22/99 - Added an image of the camera used to take the Avocado Memories photographs, the trusty Kodak Instamatic 300.
12/15/99 - Added the Spy Game.
12/14/99 - Added the Man from U.N.C.L.E. gun to the toys article. (Geez, I was gun-happy as a kid...)
12/13/99 - Added Major Matt Mason and Astro Launch to the toys article.
12/10/99 - How could I forget the Sixfinger gun/finger?
12/9/99 - Added Monster Old Maid to my Sixties Toys article, as well as the Johnny Eagle Magumba toy pistol and a couple of Agent Zero M pistols (in addition to some James Bond items). It's gun day at Avocado Memories! I also added an image of an aluminum Christmas tree.
12/8/99 - Wes Clark Sr. drinks Ruppert Beer. I added this to the bottom of the Adult's Club article.
12/3/99 Added a couple of postcards from Clifton's, at the bottom of this page.
12/2/99 Added an image of the 1966 Batman Utility Belt I once had.
11/29/99 Beer signs were icons from my past, so I've added a little section about them at the bottom of the Adult's Club article. I shall add to this as I find appropriate images from that treasure trove of Sixties and Seventies items, E-Bay. Also, I added an image of the Predicta model car, mentioned in the Ferro Lad article.
11/16/99 Who could forget clackers?
11/8/99 Added the recipes for the L.A. School District "Nutrition" treats - thanks, Wanda!
11/3/99 Added photographs of my Panasonic tricorder and monster wallet. (E-Bay is a wonderful resource!)
9/29/99 Added a link on my links page to a site describing the late, unlamented Pacific Ocean Park (P.O.P.) in Los Angeles.
9/9/99 Added some weird facts about dead rattlesnakes to go along with a photo in my Marine Corps page. It's at the bottom of the page.
8/30/99 Added some Buena Park research to The Farm House - the Real and the Fake article, as well as a mention of Clifton's Cafeteria.
8/17/99 Added The Farm House - the Real and the Fake
8/9/99 I added a paragraph about the Valley Green Sheet battles.
7/23/99 Warning: Avocado is coming back, people. Here's proof.
7/13/99 Added Sixties Toys.
6/29/99 Added Survival Tactics for Marine Recuits to my Marine Corps page.
6/14/99 I added an autographed photo of USMC air ace Pappy Boyington to my Marine Corps page.
5/27/99 I added a July 1970 view of the patio. Click here to see it.
5/25/99 I added a couple of linked photos and some extra writing to the little L.A. T-Birds Rollermania part of my links page.
5/10/99 I found a great photo of TV kid's show star Paul Winchell and the original Jack-in-the-Box plastic clown; I put it on the Rolaids page. Also, found an image of IHOP's beloved Pancake Man.
4/29/99 What are all those ants doing in the kitchen?!?
2/22/99 Added Local Television. Also added a link to the Old Trappers statues, and put Shirley Hardman (R.I.P.) and the L.A. Thunderbirds on the links page.
2/5/99 Added To the Final Frontier - In a Cardboard Box. I also moved the Dedication off the front page.
1/27/99 Put a new logo on the index page. I also split the Cast of Characters into two parts (Part One and Part Two) so it would load faster; it was a pretty big file. Finally, I added Shokralla Shokralla's terse opinion of (the historical) King Farouk.
1/20/99 Added Madeleinese.
1/4/99 Moved my 1998 letters from you wonderful folks here. 1999 letters go here.
12/16/98 Potential publishers, take notice!: Avocado Memories has been made a GeoCities Landmark Site. According to GeoCities, "Only the most special breed of pages can be called GeoCities Landmark Sites." You love me! You really, really love me!
12/8/98 Got finished last night putting up the Christmas lights. What a difference from the old days, thirty years ago...
11/16/98 Me, a prole? No way! I added a little essay about Class to make my point.
10/2/98 Added a couple of great monster page links to the link page.
9/14/98 I describe a recent visit to the Royal Hawaiian, home of the tiki with the electrical eyes.
9/4/98 The bellows table rediscovered on a recent trip to Burbank!
8/6/98 You don't need to have a Mom who can sew to be a Halloween Batman anymore. Warners sells these.
7/20/98 I found an image of the Silver Age Ferro Lad for my little tribute.
7/1/98 Added Clorox's Best Customer
5/12/98 A bellows table can be seen in Marilyn Lovell's home! (Details here.)
5/8/98 My advice to aspiring Burbank High School web site authors can be found here.
5/4/98 How could I forget to write up the experience of giving the Lincoln Cafe drains a zetz?
4/30/98 I added a section to the bottom of the Burbank High section (KBHS) so you can see what current-day BHS students are doing on the web.
4/22/98 I removed the 1997 letters from the current letters page because the file was getting too big to load in one fell swoop. Current letters are here, and 1997 and before letters are here. As Dean Martin used to say at the end of his TV show, "Keep those cards and letters comin' in, folks!"
4/6/98 I bought a book about the Schwinn String-Ray and now know more about this wonderful bicycle/Sixties icon. I have accordingly corrected my bicycle page, and included a photo of a Ram's Horn Fastback.
3/10/98 Removed a now-defunct link to a really great Maytag ad about avocado-colored major appliances.
2/27/98 Added a photograph to the article below.
2/24/98 Added Patio Culture and the Promise of Joining the Adults' Club
2/12/98 Thanks to a Family Affair Episode Guide on the Internet, I was able to add some information to the title page's "Why this web page?"
2/2/98 Added a little tale to my account of dad's breaking a sofa. Like father, like son. It's at the bottom of the page.
1/20/98 Went through the whole web site and fixed up grammar nits and errors, which my wife found for me. Grammar is important! (Something I never learned at Burbank High School.)
1/15/98 I recently learned that my pal Bob Avery's high school girlfriend is now a lesbian, so I added that information to my Cast of Characters page, at the end under "Becky and Gail."
1/5/98 Put in the new GeoCities banners at the top of the pages. Hopefully they'll settle with these for awhile so I won't have to update all the pages again.
11/3/97 Got an invitation to join the GeoCities Heartland Featured Pages Ring, which I have accepted. The icon for that is at the very bottom of the index page.
10/28/97 After reading letters sent to me and with some reflection, I put in a little cautionary note at the end of my home tour.
10/10/97 Added some new photos to my USMC page (they're at the bottom)
10/7/97 Added El Miradero
9/10/97 Added King Farouk and the "Why this web page?" section on the top page.
9/2/97 Got rid of the award images and mentions. It's nice to be recognized, but I can do without the clutter.
8/19/97 Added The Death of Ferro Lad at the Corner Drug Store
8/13/97 Added a link to the watch I got at my 20th year high school reunion.
8/12/97 Added In Praise of Rolaids
8/11/97 Added some KISS and flying hubcap lore to my cruise page. Also, included a photograph of Laverne and Shirley's house, where we used to eat our school lunches.
7/31/97 Mentioned in the "Click" section of the August '97 issue of Yahoo Internet Life magazine!
7/23/97 My Career in the Boy Scouts of America
7/14/97 Put the new Geocities banner at the bottom of all the pages
6/27/97 Added KBHS - Radio Free Burbank
5/23/97 Added a major new section My Stint in the Marine Corps: 1974-1978
4/29/97 Added Bums, Tumbleweeds and the Empire Avenue Overpass
4/29/97 Trimmed the letters page back a bit. It's getting kind of big.
4/23/97 Added this little story about me and Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.
4/17/97 Added Viki Gardemann and the "ass pad" to the Cast of Characters, Part Two.
4/17/97 Added The Living Room - 1979
4/14/97 Added The Tiki Hut
4/11/97 Added a link to a photo of me, dad and Frankenstein.
4/11/97 Added Richard Springer to my Cast of Characters, Part Two.
4/10/97 Added a Topical guide to the letters section
4/4/97 Added Locomotion for kids, Sixties style
4/1/97 Added a little photo of Tim Burton to my Batman page.
3/31/97 Added Bob Avery to my Cast of Characters. Also added a photo of Mike McDaniel as my best man.
3/28/97 Finished fixing up the text on the backgrounds (now it's both suitably ugly and makes the text more readable, no mean feat) and added Becky and Gail to the Cast of Characters, Part Two.
3/27/97 Changed the backgrounds in an attempt to make these pages easier to read!
3/27/97 Added a Cast of Characters.
3/20/97 Added My Bedroom - April, 1971.
3/20/97 Added The Lincoln Cafe.
3/20/97 Added The Kitchen - 1978.
3/18/97 Added photos of Monterey Avenue Elementary School, the Lockheed Wash and the Blood Oath site.
2/28/97 In an uncontrollable fit of nostalgia, I added The Burbank-Hannibal Connection.
2/28/97 Added a peek into our magnificent Kitchen.
2/27/97 Added a photo of our '72 Ford LTD to the cars page.
2/26/97 Added "The Cruise"
2/25/97 Added the Clark Family Cars.
2/24/97 I couldn't resist. I added my son to the Batman page.
2/21/97 Added The Den - 6/11/75
2/20/97 Added View from the front porch
2/19/97 I've added seven new pages:
The Back Yard - Probably 1969
The Back Yard - July 1969
The Back Yard - August 1983
My Bedroom - December 1970
On the wall in my Bedroom - 1971
My Bedroom - About 1981
The Pool Hall - 1977
