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Believe it not, I was once young, and while young I served in the
U.S. Coast Guard
. This picture, taken when John F. Kennedy was president, shows my boot camp company ("Kilo 36," for trivia buffs). I'm considering awarding a special prize to the first person who finds me--or my buddy David Balmforth--in this picture.
The rest of the pictures on this page are a miscellany of family and friends. I'll change the selection from time to time, so come back again; you may find a surprise or two.
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They say that you should be careful what you ask for, because you might get it. Well, my lifelong buddy
David Balmforth
(of Coast Guard fame, above) made that mistake. After admiring my animation work on these pages, he asked me to animate a picture of him and to post it here. Well, David, you asked for it ... so here it is. I won't give the full particulars of this ancient picture (or the names of the ladies involved). I'll merely say that that I snapped this picture of you at Knotts Berry Farm back
before
we joined the Coast Guard. I'll leave it to you to explain to Kay (and anyone else who asks) what the heck is going on here. (By the way ... it's been a long time since I've visited Knotts Berry Farm. Is it true that they've installed a lot of rides there?)
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A serious environmentalist, David detests graffiti. He's particularly proud of the contributions that he has made to keeping it out of Utah's beautiful national parks. Not long along, he sent me this picture showing some of his work. Before he started, the entire stone wall was covered with strange, primitive markings. I don't know exactly which national park this picture was taken in. If I knew, I'd send a copy to the park's officials so they could give David the recognition he deserves.
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Me (left); my older son, Christopher; my brother, Mervyn; and my younger son, Erik, at one of my favorite places in the world--Lower Twin Lake, in El Dorado County, California, in 1998. I spent many a quiet and peaceful day at that lake when I was a boy. (A friend who saw this picture said that the Rasmussen men look like a gang of cutthroats. Maybe he was right; I did cut the throats of several trout the day this picture was taken.)
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Donald
, the boys' stepdad, missed the Twin Lakes outing, but I don't remember why. In fact, the last time I recall seeing him was when I snapped this picture of him emerging from his tent. I was about to discuss the Twin Lakes outing with him but suddenly remembered I had an appointment elsewhere.
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Believe me when I say that football ain't the only reason men go
to the University of Miami. Here’s a much better reason:
Fiona
Kelleghan
. She is, believe it or not, a librarian there.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking ... as if! Right? Well, it’s
true. Moreover, she’s not only a terrific librarian, she’s a
damned fine writer, with a list of publications almost as long as the Hurricanes' list of NCAA violations. If you don’t believe
me, check out Fiona's website through the link at the bottom of this page.
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A little known fact about the film
Easy Rider
is that Dennis Hopper originally cast me in the part that he ended up playing himself. Unfortunately, only moments after
this scene was shot, my bike flipped over and I was so badly injured that I had to drop out of the
film. (I later heard that Jack Nicholson shoved a stick into my front wheel spokes. It was no secret that he wanted Hopper in the film instead of me. The whole experience really soured me on acting. I went back to school, figuring that Nicholson would eventually get his just desserts. Anyone know what became of him?)
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Ask me if my sons like this picture. The answer is, no, they do not. I love it. In fact, I like it so much I had two
poster-sized prints made of it for the boys–neither of whom would hang it up. I was walking through lower
Manhattan with my family in September, 1994, when we spotted the “Burritoville” restaurant
across the street. At the suggestion of Noelle, we crossed the street so I could take a picture of
the boys in front of the window. In their view, you understand, there are only two food groups:
burritos and everything else. Nevertheless, they’ve both survived. In fact, just this year (2000)
Christopher (the older boy on the left) completed his Ph.D. in computer science at Yale, and Erik
(at right) graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles. He expects to start law school in the
fall and is now checking out the Mexican restaurants in several law school towns.
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My wife,
Kathy
, and me on the lawn of the Quarry Farm home of Mark Twain's sister-in-law, just outside Elmira, New York. It's not a terrribly sharp image, but I'm not really a sharp-looking guy. In case, no one can blame me, since it should be clear that it wasn't me (or Kathy) who took the picture.
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My youngest stepdaughter,
Heather
(2nd from right), with several friends, whose names I didn't catch. I must be careful about what I say here, as Heather is very sensitive about my criticizing her friends. By the way, if you ever pass through the Southwest terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, ask for Heather to check you in. (She's the one who likes whispering over the P.A. system,
Bueller ... Ferris Bueller?
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Only after the full history of the Beatles is written will be it be generally known that the band's first drummer wasn't Pete Best or Stuart Sutcliffe but
Kevin Bochynski
--who is now best known as the Angel of Mark Twain Studies. Proof of that assertion can be found in this rare photo showing Kevin (third from the left) rehearsing with Paul, George, and John. If you study the picture carefully, you can see that Kevin's timing was impeccable. Unfortunately, he got kicked out of the band for suggesting that the others should change their instruments.
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More pictures of Kathy
&
me
&
others at Elmira in 1997
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Fiona Kelleghan's website
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