Get To Know Me!



Me, 1981. No gray hair- yet!

Happy Saturday!  I thought that since I have so many new readers via Twitter who may not know me very well that perhaps it was time for some info on the world's most trivial subject- ME!  Some of you will know some of this and some of you will know none of this, but hopefully none of you will know all of this!  Confused?  Good!  And just for fun we'll make it like an old youth group game, 4 Truths and a Lie.  Except there are way more than 4 truths.  If you think you know which of these very unremarkable facts is not true, leave a comment with your guess.  Or you can just choose to make fun of all of them.  The winner, as always, gets a can of SPAM!  Here we go...

• I was born in Asheboro, NC while Eisenhower was president.  Technically speaking I am in my 7th decade.  Ouch...
• When I was 4 years old I went on The Old Rebel Show, a local children's show in Greensboro, NC, and won a wild west quick draw contest.  The show was never seen because it was due to air November 22, 1963, and was preempted by coverage of the JFK assassination.

• I once wore all pink- including pink tights- for my role as Prince Dauntless in the Western Guilford High School (Greensboro) production of Once Upon A Mattress.
•  The hardest I have ever been hit in my life was by my dear friend Sabrina "Sis" Perry after she found out I had talked my best friend Steve Semmler into asking someone else out, right after she told me didn't care if he did.   Ahhh, high school! 
• My freshman year in college I helped start a fake fraternity called Omega Zeta- or OZ.  We  joked that we didn't have a president, we had a wizard. 
• In high school there was a group 0f 7 girls who referred to me as Snow White.  I can't make this stuff up...
• The first concert I attended was a Jimmy Buffett show with Steve and our dates in an ice skating rink around 1974.  The guy sitting behind us threw up on our dates, so we missed half the show.  Hooray beer!
• In 1979 I drove across the country with my friends Alan Brown & Carl Semmler.  We were gone a month, made it to Cali, went to Disneyland and never saw the Pacific Ocean. 
• I saw Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Dominique Wilkins play basketball in person- all while they were still in high school!
• As a matter of fact I DID have a collection of John Denver albums on 8-track tape...
• I won tickets from a radio station to see Monty Python's Holy Grail in a sneak preview, two weeks before it actually hit theaters.  I took a date.  We didn't get it.  I now pretty much have it memorized.  Best.  Movie.  Ever.
• At my first meeting as a paid youth leader, at Centre Friends Meeting, I was still 18.  There was at least one student there who was older than me.

• During my 6 summers (1978-83) of working on the summer staff at Quaker Lake Camp (and for a few years afterwards) I had a group of female campers who called me Pops.  Pictured are Sharron Tutterow, Mollie Edwards, me, Debbie Tully, Kristin Hayworth,  Laura Wheeler, Jane Tesh & Jane Terrell.  Even at age 20 I was already a father figure- or at least old!  :)
• At one point I owned over 20 Beach Boys albums.  Those were the big CDs with the hole in the middle...
• I have a Tigger tattoo on my left shoulder. I got it at Disney on a dare from my long-time Summer Intern, Jerry Hanbery. He got a Goofy...
• I was in Atlanta at the Braves game the night Hank Aaron hit his 700th home run.
• Marilyn and I were married on August 30, 1986 in Elkin, NC.  William Joshua was born July 16, 1995.  Conner the Dog was born March 15, 2003.  That's my family!
• I once attended a Washington Senators baseball game. Yes, SENATORS!
• Alan Brown and I wrote the song There's A Blue Pick-Up Truck Where My Heart Used To Be after he drove behind a really slow truck while trying to get to my house in the early '80s.  I later performed it at a National Youth Workers Convention and Tony Campolo stood up in his chair and waved a candle (click here for story).
• My youth ministry career included working with the Quakers, the United Methodists, the United Church of Christ and Young Life. 
• I have lost nearly 75 pounds in the last 6 years.
• While at FUMC-Kissimmee in 1997 I put together a big concert featuring Geoff Moore & the Distance that lost nearly $8000. Unfortunately, this is NOT the lie.  See that story here.
• I attended a performance of The Lion King on Broadway and sat next to Batman.
• I have seen Les Miserables 11 times on Broadway- twice from the front row!
• Places I have lived: Greensboro, High Point, Asheboro (all NC);  Worcester, MA;  Clarendon Hills (Chicago area) IL;  Kissimmee, FL; Tampa, FL; & Waycross, GA.
• And finally...I led a seminar at the 2004 NYWC in Atlanta called Pagan Eye For the Christian Guy.  CDs are available.  Well, CD.  I think I still have one...

So there you have it.  Lots of random facts, a few embarrassing pictures, and one lie.  It's more than you wanted to know I'm sure, but now you have at least some idea of why I am the way I am!  Hope you enjoyed it and will take a guess at my one untruth.  See you tomorrow with the correct answer!

Because of Jesus,