BOBBY VINTON

When I called up this Dale Chuhuli picture we took a few years ago at the Desert Botanical Garden in Scottsdale, I wondered what I was going to write about. A big Chuhuli fan, I'm expounded about him before. A desert-dweller, I've also written about living in the Sonoran and reminding people that there is a lot of green in the desert. At least where we reside.

So with those options out, I waited, and it came to me. I'd write about Bobby Vinton. We saw him once in Las Vegas at a convention where he sang a song right next to our table. Blue Velvet, I think it was. He looked ok even with the stage make-up he wore. I remember thinking something like "I never would have believed I would have been this close to Bobby Vinton and heard him sing in person." But I'm like that. I remember when we were in Finland, I thought back to Carl Baker's 6th grade classroom where I drew a map of Sweden, Finland, and Norway and colored it with those colored pencils. I think Finland was red. Maybe blue, too.

Or as a hostess on a recent cruise shared with me, "I never thought I would ever see some of the places I have been to." I concurred.

When I reflect on Bobby, I remember Brenda Wagner taking me home and turning by the junior high in their little gray chevy singing along with I'm Mr. Lonely. She, of course, could hit the high notes and laughed at my not being able to. War was on my mind then as a senior in high school that Fall. I already knew people in Viet Nam. I could imagine the reality of the song.

Some other buddies of mine were already in college, one at the Naval Academy. I'd written him a time or two and I thought of Mike that night.

I'm not sure if that song, that night or the long drive to Murray State with my parents and aunt made me decide to stay in MTV and attend MTV Community College or not. But it was part of the process.

I'm glad I stayed or I might have been characterized by another Vinton song, I'm Mr. Blue.