Let’s catch you up on where we came from and what we have been doing since we last left the airwaves. Here is a video collage of the highlights of the SmorgShow gang going back to the very beginning up to the time we launched the show in podcast form.

Read on below for the details that explain much of what you just saw.

IN THE BEGINNING

Peet came up with the show’s name “Smorgasbord” to represent a show with endless possibilities, where anything goes.  Even though Peet was not allowed to be an “official” show member since he was from a different school, he would be a driving, creative force behind some of the best bits performed by Chris and Dave.  The show would premiere on September 11, 1982, 8pm.  Chris and Dave secured the prime-time Saturday night, 8-10pm slot for their crazy antics in Season 1.

We would still manage to sneak Peet on the air.  One way was to record the shows from my home studio, and broadcast them later.  Another way was to take the show off-site, as we did in the Spring of 1983, our first attempt at a remote radio show. We got total access to Castaldo Park in Woodridge, IL for our radio/TV show.   Dave was not present for this broadcast since he could not get the day off from work (Rose Records).

CASTALDO PARK

In our first attempt at doing a remote broadcast, the extent of our audience that day was about four 6-year olds who showed up and gave us the finger. We couldn’t use that footage for the TV show. It was a pathetic turnout. Even my girlfriend at the time was embarrassed for us and left. I wonder what those kids are up to now. They’ve got to be in their 30’s by now. They are the Generation X slack-offs that I interview now! There is a picture in this slideshow of Peet wearing bright red pants. I remember he wanted to wear something that would look good on television. What was he thinking?

After the 1982-1983 season ended, Chris and Dave split up to do their own solo shows.    Dave’s Sunday night show was called “Open Mind”, another “anything goes”-type show.  Chris continued with the Smorg brand name.  He teamed up with Geoff Beran, a rather quiet individual.  The show worked, however, and built up a rather loyal following.  “Smorgasbord Saturday Night” moved to the 10-midnight time slot, and had 26 shows.  In February 1984, Chris would take the show to television in a 2-night simulcast between WDGC-FM and CATV.  Sadly, no record of these TV shows appear to exist.   In the 1983-1984 broadcast season, the Smorg crew did two more remote broadcasts, the Tivoli Bowling Alley and The Barn in Naperville.

TIVOLI BOWLING ALLEY

Our 2nd Remote Broadcast was a huge success.  At first it was a bit intimidating walking into the bowling alley/pool hall, where the town burnouts called their home.  We set up our equipment, and they all sat down waiting for us to entertain them.  We decided to make them part of the show, so if we failed to please, they had everything to do with it.  It ended up being a blast, especially when one charming young lad recited his holiday poem, Twas the Night of the Party.

THE BARN IN NAPERVILLE

Our 3rd Remote Broadcast – This show had the formula for both success and disaster all rolled up together. Although I’m not sure what success ended up coming of it. At least Peet and I cleaned ourselves up for this one. I think by this time, we had both already been laid. That certainly changes a guy.

We had given away 200 seats on the air for this live broadcast. Both Lisle and Downers Grove cable stations were there to tape the show for a later broadcast. We had 2 local bands open for us. We spent $200 to rent the place and Peet plopped down an additional $200 for pizzas. This was to be the show to push us in the upper stratosphere of high school radio fame! What could possibly go wrong???

On March 17, 1984 and Peet’s 20th Birthday, the largest snowstorm of that season hit. Naperville got 12 inches of snow dumped within a 10-hour period. Since most of our audience relied on their parents for transportation, a total of 7 people showed up. There was some good news – No one gave us the finger that night. Needless to say, for the next three months, Peet and I had pizza as an ingredient in everything we ate. (Sandwiches, salads, cereal, etc.). Chris and Dave tried to make the best out of the night.  That was the first time Dave ever wore a tie!

After about 45 minutes we realized no one was going to show up. We left the stage and went home. A punk rock band took over. These guys were jerks. They were pissed off at the world. What were they pissed off for? They were getting free stage time. Plus they didn’t have $200 worth of pizzas to deal with.

SUMMER 1984

Chris and Dave’s Last Season:  Following Chris’s 6-week suspension from the airwaves for parking his car on the grass outside the radio station, Chris and Dave reunite for 9 final shows.  Shows include Live at the Carlisle (A fake live broadcast at a fancy banquet hall), Live on the Moon, Mystical Melinda’s Psychic Readings, and of course “The Final Chapter”, Chris and Dave’s last broadcast was heard August 17, 1984.  For this last show, we broadcast for 6 hours.  At midnight, all went silent at WDGC 88.3 FM. You can hear the best of these bits in the “Classic Chris and Dave” section of the site.

FALL 1984 – OFF TO COLLEGE I GO

There are a couple of shots here of my dorm room at NIU. This is where I would sleep for the next 2 years. Kind of scary looking back at this. It’s even scarier to think someone else is calling this home right now. That was in Douglas Hall at Northern Illinois University. We were known as the ‘Animal Floor’- $2000 in floor damage in the first semester. They had water slides on the floor which caused major flooding (duh!) as well as all the tiles to pop up. Some guy took a dump in the hall, and we had a psycho janitor who went brezerk when his mop handle was broken in half. The stories go on from there, but you get the picture. My first roommate was Ron Bruno – a heavy smoker and a Rugby player.

1985 – THE SUMMER OF HELL

1985 was labeled the year from hell by both Peet and me. I cannot possibly capture the horror of it all in writing. This was also the only year in all the ones documented on this site that was not documented in audio or video. I will attempt to outline some of the highlights here. Some of the lowest of the lowest are as follows:

– My parents’ divorce is final
– My childhood home is put up for sale – and sold
– My girlfriend breaks up with me, and my first date after that is with an alcoholic
– I move in with Peet for the summer in his studio apartment
– I work full time at Toys R Us for $120 a week
– Peet’s date tries to kill herself while we are out on a double date

One of the most difficult years of my life was 1985. To start the year off, the home I spent my teenage years in was put up for sale. To say I had great memories there is an understatement. My father designed that house and I grew up there between ages 12 and 19. A lot happens to a kid in that period and all of it was experienced within this house. A week before we moved out, we had a major bash. We had about 150 people there, most of whom wandered in off the street. Some trucker announced the party on his CB radio, so you can imagine what types of people showed up. This was the bash the Barn show was supposed to be. In May, the house was sold and that was that. My home was now officially in my college town of DeKalb, IL.

There a a photo somewhere in the slideshow of where I lived during the Summer of 1985. The picture doesn’t tell you much but it was hell on earth. This is also the place where my girlfriend broke up with me.

ALCOHOLIC GIRLFRIEND

Girlfriend is a very strong word here, but I went out with a girl over the summer of 1985 who I met at the Riverwalk in Naperville, IL. She and I went back to Peet’s apartment to drink a little. Peet and a couple of others were there as well, so it was quite innocent. The next morning, I woke up on the couch that I slept on for the duration of the summer. I felt something lumpy in the sofa. I pulled it out and it was a baby bottle. Peet had no idea where it came from. Later on that day, the girl I met came over to pick it up. No questions asked! A few weeks later while we were out on a date, she pulled out the baby bottle in the car and started sucking on the nipple. It turns out it was filled with wine. We were on our way to a UB40 concert at Poplar Creek Music Theater. When we were sitting in our seats she pulled out a plastic ziplock baggie filled with wine and drank that. During the show she stood up on her seat and fell backwards into the seats behind us. She was totally passed out. I had to drag her out of the concert, back to the car, and back home. I never saw or spoke to her again.

THE SUICIDE DATE

Toward the end of that summer, Peet and I went on a double date. We went down to Joliet where one of the girls lived. In the middle of a normal conversation, Peet’s date excused herself to go to the bathroom. After a few minutes we wondered what was taking her so long. It turns out she locked herself in the bathroom and slit her wrist. We spent the next several hours helping her get a grip. She didn’t do a “very good job” since she didn’t cut parallel to the vein, but it shook us up a bit. I ended up taking off with my date while leaving Peet in Joliet to keep an eye on his date. She eventually threw Peet out of her house and he ended up sleeping at the neighbor’s house. The neighbor just happened to have a son who was being released from jail THAT NIGHT and he was on his way home. So where are they now?? Rumor has it that Peet’s date ended up marrying her psychiatrist and the son who was released from jail was hit by a truck and was killed a year or two later.

1986

I completed my second year of college at NIU. It was also in this year that I realized I did not want to go into radio as a career, so I changed my major to Marketing. However, prior to this decision I was given a radio show at the NIU station. The timeslot was 6-9am on Sunday mornings (Who in college is up listening to the radio at that time??). I lasted two weeks at that before quitting altogether. I was not allowed to do a talk show as I had done in high school. It turns out Fred Moore was much more tolerant. I was forced to follow a progressive rock format and to play bands that I had never heard of. Dave continued to do shows on the station for the duration of his college career. Every now and then, I would sneak in the studio to do a 2-minute bit with him just for snicks.

This was the summer of telemarketing jobs. After one hour of rejections, I attempted to quit my job at World Book Encyclopedia. Instead they convinced me to stay on in their ‘verification’ department. This is where I would lose someone ELSE’s sales because I would have to call the customers yet another time to make sure they really bought from us. The customers would get so pissed at us that they would just pull their order.

That summer, I got a hold of a video camera and wanted to do a documentary of what I did after high school. Realizing only 2 years had passed and I accomplished very little, I went back to my old stomping grounds and did some shots there. I went back to the radio station and saw Fred Moore, General Manager for the station. He proudly showed me a wall display that listed his “Seven Commandments”, rules that were created as a result of the Smorg show we did. (No talking 2-on-mic, no belching on the air, etc.). After we left, Fred used samples of our show in his future radio classes. (Maybe to teach what not to do on the air??)  This was perhaps our biggest compliment from Mr. Moore.

We were still sporting the Miami Vice image of the mid-80’s. There is a shot of us in this slideshow where we made the first of many homemade videos to come. “The Boys of Summer” was shot in my father’s downtown Chicago apartment, where I stayed during the summer of 1986. In another shot you will see me with Jerry in the Studio,. We went to one of those studios in the mall where you pick a song out of something like 2000 choices. It was an early version of karaoke, but you got to walk away with a tape of yourself singing over your choice of song. The one we did was ‘Born in the U.S.A.’

THE “FALL” OF 1986

Besides rooming with Dave Jackson during my junior year at NIU, I also roomed with Larry Flachmeyer, an old roommate of Peet’s.  After a bad breakup with his Baptist girlfriend, presumably because her church did not approve of him, he became a bit disconnected. One fall evening, he attempted to climb our 6-story apartment building. He made it up to the 4th floor when he slipped and fell to the ground, shattering his pelvis in multiple sections. I always thought he had a name of a super hero (Flash Meyer!!) I can joke about this now because he lived. After initially being brought to a local hospital he was eventually flown by helicopter to a Rockford, IL hospital where is was laid up for 6-weeks.

NOTE TO EDITOR: There are several things wrong with this newspaper article.  First, Larry did not fall from the 3rd floor – he fell from the 4th floor.  This is major oversight as it undermines Larry’s effort that evening.  Second of all, I don’t know what “sources” they are talking about, but he did not get locked out of his room.  We were all at home that night – he just suddenly left the apartment and began his climbing expedition. We were in the living room when we heard a knock at my bedroom window. That is when we looked down and saw him on the concrete with glass all around him. What do you expect from shoddy reporting from a college newspaper?

1987

A lot happens over the course of this 2-year period. Dave and I go our separate ways after living together for a year and nearly killing each other over stupid things like eating cereal out of a gravy boat. Larry gets weirder after his hospital release and we have a falling out.

Rhythm of the Heat Video:

One Saturday night in the summer of 1987, we decided to make some music videos. This one was done by converting our living room into an African tribal scene to create a video off a Peter Gabriel song. We had a head start by having all wicker furniture to begin with. Note Dave “smoking a wicker bong” in the background.  The bright light is our sad attempt at making a fake campfire.  Larry was trying to sleep in the other room when this was going on, and he came out and threatened to call the cops on us if we didn’t stop.

The Lonely Guy in the Woods Bit:

After being simultaneously dumped by our respective girlfriends, Larry, Dave, and I did little else but hang around each other way too often instead of trying to date again. We started becoming pathetic lonely guys. We did things like dress up in P-coats and dark sunglasses and ride the dorm elevators on Saturday nights and just stare at girls coming on the elevator. We would also walk through the Wendy’s drive-up during a January blizzard and order Frostys. We were extremely pathetic.

The picture of Steve Martin and Charles Grodin in 1983’s “The Lonely Guy” is included here to show our inspiration for the Lonely Guy bit. Our story went something like this – After being kicked out of his apartment by his girlfriend, Lonely Guy #1 (Chris) brings all of his things to the park where he meets Lonely Guy #2 (Dave) and they decide to room together.

Dave, Larry and I rented the original movie a total of 26 times over the course of the semester. One day Larry was almost suicidal when he went to rent it and it was already checked out. He cheered up when he got back to the apartment and saw that I had already gotten it for the weekend.

Another “lonely guy” thing we used to do was call the pay phone across the street from our apartment. We already had the phone number for the pay phone. We would wait for any girl to go up to to the store and we would start ringing the phone. When she would answer we would say something like, “nice red coat you have on”. This really freaked them out and gave us something to do on Friday nights.

It was during this period that Jerry and I started to become real friends. This friendship was a nice transition from what was going on with me, Dave, and Larry. Larry began distancing himself from everyone. Dave and I started to drift. Blame it on living together. This can sometimes be a formula for disaster. We were better off working together creatively in the studio than sharing dishware and laundry soap. It started to heat up after Larry washed Dave’s underwear with a pink tie-dyed shirt. Dave went through the rest of the semester with pink undies.

1988

By the beginning of 1988, I had reached my breaking point. With only 4 more classes to complete before graduating, I realized I needed a new start away from Larry (and quite frankly, DeKalb). Dave and I had already stopped talking by this point. So Larry and I found a third new roommate to take Dave’s place. The new roommate was a bit psychotic in that he slept with a knife at night after going to sleep watching “A Clockwork Orange”. He would wake up screaming in the middle of the night on a fairly regular basis.

In January 1988 I got my appendix out.  By May, I had my ticket out of that town after securing my diploma. Jerry and I started hanging out more and more by this point. We ended up signing a lease together. By the fall of 1988, I was living in Woodridge, IL., a mile away from my old house. I also got my first real job in Chicago at a marketing research company, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI).  I was employed there for the next 15 years.

The Days of Adolescence

Jerry and I moved in together in an apartment in Woodridge, IL. Neither one of us had enough money to live alone, so we paired up for a year until I earned enough to get my own place.

One week before the start of the 90’s, I wrote a song to reflect on the fun as well as the pain over the past decade. It was off “The End of the Innocence” by Don Henley. It talked about growing up as as a teen in the 80’s, my days in radio, going off to college, surviving the summer of 1985, and it highlighted my personal values such as the true friendships in my life. It is still my best written song to date (if I do say so myself).

I went to Berlin Germany in July of 1990 to see Roger Waters perform the Wall at Potsdamer Platz, the site of where Hitler committed suicide. And I can honestly say that I was able to assist in tearing down the Berlin Wall!

There are some shots here of me getting a makeover. There was no apparent reason for this other than a lack of video material. I end up looking like Tim Curry from Rocky Horror Picture Show. After nearly 3 years of separating, Dave stops in for a visit right in the middle of the makeover bit. A lot can happen in 3 years as I’m sure he was thinking at the time. “What the hell happened to you?”

Peet McCain’s School for “Higher Earnings Through Deceptive Practices”

A survival skill dating back to the summer of 1985, Peet brings his ideas for making it to the next paycheck to life in this video. Here, Peet illustrates how to build a $25,000 credit rating just by floating a check between 3 banks.  It was good to have Peet back for this.  This was our first time together in 5 years doing something creative again.

The Lonely Guy’s Subliminal Dating Service:

After a miserable try with a video dating service, I came up with a fictitious service of my own. The premise was to take your image and broadcast it over the TV airwaves to reach the girl you wish to date. (Kind of like Coca Cola ads subliminally planted in a movie theater’s previews.)  In this video, Jerry goes through the various positions as he would on a regular date:

– “An image of you bringing flowers to your date”.
“An image of you toasting your date with a glass of cognac…”
“An image of you cuddling up with her on that love seat…”
“…you and her engaged in sparkling conversation…
“…and don’t forget that goodnight kiss”.

Surprisingly, no one wanted to finance this idea. If anyone is interested, I will offer 50% of any profits made from the service. There are a lot of gullible lonely guys out there. Take it from me, as a former member of that club.

PSYCHO GIRLFRIENDS

After almost 6 years apart because of college, Peet and I were back together as close friends. We both moved to downtown Chicago only about 2 miles from each other that year.

By this point in our lives, we just about had had it with psychotic women. These are women who string you along because they don’t know what they want. Even though they have never been treated better by a guy before in their lives, they just can’t commit to a guy who would do anything for them. I had just come off of a series of bad relationships, including a pretty rough one which I wrote a journal about and read completely on Episode 109 of the SmorgShow Podcast.

Peet and I decide to put our trust in our pet Gargoyle. These trusty friends keep these psychotic women miles away from our apartment – it really worked!!  I never dated a psychotic girl after this!!

RESTAURANTS

Two blocks from where I lived there were two restaurants next to each other. One was Chris’ Cafe and the other was Jerry’s Deli-Pub. We took this opportunity to make this bit to promote “our” restaurants. “Chris: A Cafe” – the name is both pompous and snooty and so was the menu. This was a healthier alternative to Jerry’s greasy spoon. Another example of impromptu creativity based on our immediate external environment. Couldn’t have planned this any better! Check it out below.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS IN SLIDESHOW:

There are a few shots of Peet’s apartment include one of his nose sculpture and the infamous “Wall of Shame”.

Jerry sings his tale of woe: “Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do, when your bitch be dissin’ you”. “You know they want commitment, they want us to care, but when we open up they go runnin’ scared.”

Jerry flips us the bird: One of the first things you learn in the city is not to give money to every homeless person who asks otherwise you will become one yourself. There is a shot in this slideshow of a very pissed off Jerry after a bum hit him up for 5 dollars. Jerry was not in the mood to be videotaped.

Rap Song ’91

1993

In and out of yet another relationship (not with a psychotic girl this time), it was time to reflect. This meant the same old thing: borrow a video camera, call Jerry and Peet and make some more videos. 1993 was also the year I would meet the girl I would eventually marry.  After two years of living in the Streeterville area of Chicago, I ended up moving to a new place. The reason for this is as follows: In 1991, I signed a 2-year lease at a brand new building. They offered a great deal for new tenants. At the end of the lease, my rent was to go up to something like $800 for a studio. I lived in a prime area–right across from North Pier, so they were able to get away with those prices. In the summer of 1993, I moved into an apartment on the the 43rd floor of Presidential Towers, in the West Loop area of Chicago which allowed me to continue paying the same rent as I had the previous two years.

In the City Boyz highlights reel, there is a shot of Peet and me at Navy Pier. This is the last shot of us before both of us got involved in serious relationships. A month after this was taken, On July 1, I met the girl who was to become my wife just two years later. It was on the elevator at my residence. I was on my way to work that morning and this beautiful girl introduced herself to me. It turned out she worked for the same company and she recognized me. We joke now that if I had hit my snooze button just one more time that morning, we may never have hooked up.

Peet started dating a performance artist at this time. Because we were both tied down after this point, we didn’t do another full-length video until 1997.

1994

There is no video footage available for 1994. The main event in my life during this year was getting engaged over Memorial Day weekend at Disney’s Epcot center. The guys and I didn’t really hang out as much during this year.  From this point on, my life changes entirely.  My wedding date is now set for July 1, 1995. 

July 1, 1995

The wedding date was set for exactly two years to the day that I met my wife on the elevator going to work. Not much to say here, as the pictures speak for themselves. I think it deserves its own separate scrapbook because it is a turning point in my life.

Both Peet and Jerry served as dual best men. It was great to see Dave again for my special day.

A couple of shots of Peet and Jerry making their best man speeches. Jerry somehow manages to sneak in the word, “schmuck” into his speech.

On To Maui for Our Honeymoon!

At the end of 1995, Peet and his girlfriend moved to New York City. Since I was busy doing the married thing along with buying a new house, I was too engaged in those events to get too melancholy about him leaving. After a while the reality began to sink in. It was tough for a while. Major events of 1996 : Buying a house and moving back to the ‘burbs. Specifically, only 5 miles from where I grew up.

When Dave and I got together for my Labor Day party at my new house, it gave us a chance to reconnect. After 14 years of having started the Smorg show, we realized we still had some kind of chemistry. There are a couple shots of me with Dave here in my backyard of the new place. We managed to sneak in one creative bit – a Red Ass Ale Commercial.

Although we knew we weren’t going to get back together to do amateur radio again, Dave invited me to guest star on his last show for WDCB, the College of DuPage radio station. Yes, it indeed happened. For one night only, Chris and Dave reunited at the mic for a one-bit reunion show on WDCB. This was the last show for Dave at this station, so we thought it would be fun to sign off together. It all seemed very natural for me to sit at the mic again after almost 10 years of being off the air.  Although the bit lasted only under 10 minutes, it was a classic in the making.  We probably alienated Dave’s audience with some stories about the old days, but we didn’t care. This moment was for us.

Jerry had his own 70’s soul show which followed Dave’s blues show. Here’s a video from that segment.

October 18, 1996 : My 30th birthday. We celebrated at the Corner Pocket in Chicago. Kim rounded up about 20 of my friends for the bash. Absent from these party photos is Peet, who had moved to New York City the prior year. There aren’t too many photos from this event, so this slideshow also includes shots from the next year as well.

1997

1997 marked the 20th anniversary of my friendship with Peet. Peet came into town from New York City and this was our chance to do some reflecting. We put together a “Greatest Bits” video with all of our old video clips included. But in between the segments we recorded new clips of us visiting some of our old stomping grounds. This scrapbook documents some of those places.

Now we are really going back in time on this one. There is a photo of me pointing to an area that used to be a creek. In 1977, Evil Knievel was huge and we all tried to act like him on our bicycles. This is where I tried to jump over the creek on my bike. I had absolutely no leverage, so my front tire never cleared the edge. I flew over my handlebars and cut my lip as well as lost a tooth.

There is a shot of the garage of my first home in Illinois. Going back here was really depressing. What a dump this neighborhood became. I lived here from 1974 through 1978. Peet lived right across the street from me. Peet’s brother was about two years younger than I was. Since every kid needed someone to pick on, I used Peet’s brother Greg for this purpose. Greg used to get Peet to help him out and then Peet would go after me. Since Peet was 5 foot tall and 200 pounds at age 11, I was able to outrun him. Eventually Peet found out I had an easy way to get on John Landecker’s WLS program and we became friends out of this.

Peet and I went to a school district that was testing a cutting edge vacation plan. Instead of going to school for 9 months and then getting off for 3 months during the summer, this district had us on a track system. We would go 9 weeks in session and then get off for 3 weeks. Then we would go 9 weeks and then get off for 3, and so forth. They had us divided up in 4 groups so basically the school was in session all year and you were not guaranteed to be off on vacation at the same time as your friends. Whoever came up with this incredibly STUPID idea should be tried for insanity.

We also returned to the old stomping grounds of the Barn and Castaldo Park.

Life was never the same for me after this point.  Just days after these shots were taken, I found out that I was going to be a dad.

In March of 1998, my daughter was born. Life is never the same for me again. That little girl has brought a whole new dimension to my life. This video scrapbook is dedicated to my daughter, Allison.

Just 12 years later, this little girl would become the next co-host of the Smorgasbord Radio Show!

2001

Peet started the year by moving out of New York City, and to Cleveland, Ohio.  This was also Peet’s big year, as he finally settled down and got married.  I drove out to Ohio to meet his soon-to-be wife, Luanne in March.  In April, I served as best man at his wedding.   And then of course, September 11 came and we all were impacted in our own personal way.  We will always remember where we were when it happened.  I spent the evening of 9/11 at a Laurie Anderson concert.   She didn’t cancel the performance, so I thought it would be a good place to be at the time.

2002

Okay, it wasn’t exactly the event of the decade, but the chemistry was all very much in tact after all these years.  The Smorgasbord team reunited at Chris’s house on Saturday June 8 for six hours of bonding, reminiscing, and a little ‘Spinal Tap’ thrown in for comfort.  We tried to create an Osbournes-like feel to the video we shot.  Some of it came out like that, but other parts will likely never see the light of day.  There was, however, enough stuff to pull out and stick on the 20-year Anniversary video that came out in fall, 2002.  You will also find many additional clips from this evening posted in the SmorgTV section of this site.

2004

The year started out on a really sour note.  On January 15, I was laid off from my job of over 15 years.   It turns out the timing of it all was for the best.  The first week of January, my daughter Allison ended up in the hospital.  What started out being just a case of strep throat, ended up leading to a secondary infection in her lymph glands.  Her neck got so swollen to a point where antibiotics were not doing the trick, that she needed to have surgery to have it drained.  It was a long recovery for her after that, and it was a blessing to have had the time off from work to help her recuperate.   I was able to bond with my family for 5 months while drawing on both unemployment and a generous severance package.  I ended up saving more money over this period of time than I had at any other point in my life.  On June 21, I ended my time off by heading back to work for a new company, DoubleClick.   In fact, I am typing this from my hotel room in Broomfield, Colorado.  I just came back from a day of training, and a fantastic dinner at the Walnut Brewery in Boulder. There is a nasty storm brewing outside now, so I am just reflecting on the last several months.

August 26, 2004 – I nearly died from a massive head injury today. I was eating lunch on a park bench outside my office building. The bench was encased within this pointy metal sculpture and I came up straight on the point of it. Whoever designed this thing should be handcuffed and imprisoned. With blood squirting everywhere at the beat of my pulse, I managed to get inside the office building where I nearly fainted outside the first floor cafeteria. I made quite a scene collapsed outside the cafe – people trying to walk over me to get lunch and seeing me sweating profusely with a blood stained shirt. Fortunately I was blessed to have a couple ladies call 911 for me and sat with me to make sure I didn’t pass out. Men are absolutely worthless in these situations. One guy just walked past me – just stared – and managed to say “Dude!!”. An ambulance took me away and I got 10 stitches in my head. Good times.

December 13, 2004 – After six months at my interim job at DoubleClick, I made the move to a smaller direct marketing firm in the town over from me. So ends six months of daily commutes lasting as much as 4 hours round trip.

2005
10-year wedding anniversary, renewed vows at the church that we became members of in 2002.

2006
Featured in much of this slideshow are some photos of me with each of the guests at my 40th birthday celebration on October 7, 2006.  I had a wonderful time creating yet more memories with people that have been a major part of my life.  I think I calculated 21.25 years as the average span of these friendships, the earliest going back to 1975!   If you were there, thanks so much for being part of this special life milestone!!! Represented here are friends from my early childhood, high school, and IRI, my employer for 16 years.

We borrowed a fire pit from a neighbor.  The evening was a typical October night – low 50’s.  We were blessed with a full moon which lit up the autumn evening sky.  The firewood smell lingered for days – in our clothes, in our house, EVERYWHERE!

My good friend Kelly for over 25 years brought birthday cake shots. Click Here for the recipe!

Editor’s Note: I didn’t realize how many of these slideshow shots contain booze in one form or another!

After launching the SmorgShow Podcast in 2010, Dave Jackson resurfaces and becomes part of the ongoing team to bring you new content on the new platform.