Up until I was probably 19, my Dad was a smoker. Then one day he quit cold turkey and never smoked again for the next two-and-half decades. When I was just a kid though, he smoked two packs a day...
I remember playing in the basement of my Grandma and Grandpa Carter’s house in Royal Oak, Michigan when we were kids. One of the things they had in the basement was a play box, filled with odds and ends for...
Okay, what kid didn’t have a GI Joe back in the day? I only had one, but apparently, there was a miss communication between my Mom and my Grandma one Christmas because I ended up with two GI Joe Space...
One of my first real drawing tools was a cheap, stamped steel compass that was made in Taiwan and sold at W.T. Grants. Grants was the only store in Algonac where you could buy everything from your first baseball glove...
Growing up in Algonac, Michigan, you either got skates or hockey stuff for Christmas. Unless you were part of a big family, then you got a group present. I'm not really sure how we ended up with the sled, but...
It's happened a few times now that I've run out of my large rolls of drawing paper while I have the urge to draw. This was one of those times. I went through my flat files and found some Canson...
Every 4th of July, families from Anchor Bay up to Marine City would head to downtown Algonac for the Pickerel Tournament and a chance to fill up on cotton candy, ferris wheel rides, carney games, and watch our small town...
The weekend before my show came down at the Fig Tree Gallery, I was at our neighbor's house for a little party. I was talking with a few people about how amazing it was to have a one-man show and...
Onesies. Twosies. Threesies. Yep, if you know the count, you know I’m talking about Jacks. Boys had green plastic soldiers. Girls had Jacks. Either was considered lethal if left on the floor at night and Mom or Dad stepped on...
My parents belonged to a social group called Club Apache. It was basically the guys my Dad grew up with, their wives and all of the kids everyone was popping out. Back then, everyone was fairly strapped for money, so...