TIME PASSAGES

I never purchased a copy. I saw the cover of this month's Playboy, and sure enough, the cover girl is a former student of mine. Or as our son said, "She's been in our basement."

Crista was a Speechie in high school. A member of the Speech and Acting Team. Come to think of it, and this is the first time I have ever thought of it, I guess I was, too. Only then we didn't call it that. We didn't call it anything back then.

How I got into it was in a Speech class I took as an elective so I didn't have to take any more math or science. I wound up on the stage crew and built my own window for the school's production of Anne Frank. I helped out moving backstage stuff and sat concert-goer-like for a Variety Show musical number about "Bondowah: Living in the Bondowah Jail."

I was in two other productions: The Mouse That Roared, our school contest play and It's Coming, a vehicle (they like to say that in the theatre) co-produced by a couple of students, one who later made a career out of acting.

But you wanted to hear about Crista. As a Speechie, she was funny, kind of a Jenny McCarthy without the looks back then. She was smart, pleasant, but I felt as if she was reaching to find who she was. As an actress in Madmen and other (I'm temped to use vehicles again) stuff, I guess she has.

Since we don't get any of the movie channels, I haven't seen her in Madmen. I guess I've gone from Speechie to Jock Watch because we get almost all the sports channels. And I haven't seen the 8-page pictorial of Crista. So those of you with prurient interests, you will have to purchase the mag to find out. She looked pretty on the cover though.

Congrats, Crista. Remember all the success you have, came from your humble beginnings in my classroom and in our basement on Olive Street.