Embarassing Photos

I can't remember if this was 1994 or '95. But when I worked for AlliedSignal in Postville, Iowa, we always had these great Christmas parties. You had your choice of a HUGE pork chop or prime rib, with all the fixin's, and of course, an open bar. The whole open bar idea at corporate events has become almost taboo, but not at AlliedSignal in the 90's, at least not in small town Iowa. I gotta give credit to that TV show, "Wings", when they said, "Yeah, there's nothing to do in this town. The two most popular winter sports are drinking and suicide." That quote was too good not to use on NE Iowa. My buddy, Kelly Tschantz, was my date this particular Christmas party. I wasn't seeing anybody, and Kelly was between jobs, so she drove up from Davenport, helped me pick out a coat, pants, shirt and tie combo, and went to the party with me. I had fun.

Not sure after looking at this photo if Kelly did or not. I'm not even sure who took this photo. I think the guy hanging on us was named Dave. God bless him, he appears to be more hammered than I was. I understood where his head was at, though. As Slobberbone once eloquently put it, "It's about the easy sheen of alcohol..,"

The beauty of this photo is that we're both attempting to give a thumbs up to the camera. Kelly more concerned with Dave than the photo op. The flash and years of hanging out in my photo album have faded my face as well.

We went to the local tavern in town after this and met up with my main homie, Jon Duder, who had also been at a Christmas party. All I remember is that we smoked so many cigarettes that night that our lungs were suffering as much as our heads the next day.

Kelly now lives in Oakland, and is married to one of my best friends, Andy Levy. They play in a two-piece band called the Touch-Me-Nots. Buy all their records, they're great!