September 4, 2003
Dear Everyone:
By 1966, I was in the Ninth grade, “Richard” was in the Eighth, and “Marshall” rounded it out in the Seventh. We were all at Waluga Junior High. With all three of us in one school, it’s a wonder they weren’t quaking in their shoes in the faculty lounge. 1966 was also the year that Waluga produced The Ransom of Red Chief, a play based on the O. Henry story about a couple of hoodlums who kidnapped a rich man’s grandson with the intention of ransoming him back for loads of easy money. Little did they know that the little boy would turn out to be such a hellion, for one thing refusing to answer to any name but “Red Chief”, that they would wind up paying the grandfather to take him back.
(Pardon me while I put the keyboard back up on its shelf. We just had another pesky little earthquake. Where was I? Oh, yes.)
If you ever saw the movie Ruthless People, with Danny DeVito and Bette Midler, it was a variation on The Ransom of Red Chief. In the Waluga production, “Marshall” was cast in the title role. There were, of course, many jokes made about “type casting”.
Last March, when “Jeannie” was helping “Alice” and her two girls visit Mother, “Jeannie” stumbled upon the Waluga Warriors Yearbook, 1966. And there, on page 50, was a picture of “Marshall” in his moment of glory. So of course, we had it scanned and saved as a picture file. We also had it printed and framed.
Last Wednesday, August 27th, “Marshall” celebrated his 50th birthday. Since he was coming out to the Bay Area for the Labor Day Weekend, “Jeannie” and I decided to wait and help him celebrate when he got here. You can just imagine how thrilled he was to get that tribute to the day when he was 12 and cute and the star of the show. We also gave him a set of DVD’s: Dr. Who, the Tom Baker years.
If you don’t know who Dr. Who was, shame on you.
It was a very popular TV show from
The show was produced by the BBC, who found the whole thing embarrassing. On the one hand, the show was so cheap to produce (the sets were pure papier-mâché and aluminum foil) that they were laughable. On the other hand, American PBS was always willing to pay good money to obtain another set of episodes, so the BBC couldn’t justify shutting the show down.
We all enjoyed The Doctor’s adventures and “Marshall” was particularly fond of Tom Baker’s interpretation. So we hope he enjoys the DVD’s. Happy Birthday, “Marshall” and here’s looking forward to the next fifty years.
Love, as always,
Pete
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