Category Archives: Personal History

Gobler Mercantile Company

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Gobler Mercantile CompanyMy make-over of “KBOA: The Early Years” is far from complete. But I had to share a snippet from one of the pages. A Tribute to a Country Store was written (and self-published) by Virginia B. Branch. It’s probably the only history of this small country store that got big. Not Wal-Mart big but something of a phenomenon where I grew up. Here’s the paragraph that caught my eye:

“About 1952 television had come to Gobler and each night, out back on the porch of the furniture department, one of these new inventions was displayed for benefit of the general public. It was here that most of Gobler’s citizens saw their first TV. A good-sized crowd was on hand every night. There was only one channel at the time so no disagreements could arise as to program choices.”

And now it’s Tivo, iPods, AppleTV and all the rest. From one channel… to thousands.

Gnomedex 2007

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This year’s Gnomedex is billed as "The Blogosphere’s Conference." Speakers include: Guy Kawasaki, Cali Lewis, one of the JibJab guys, Justin Kan (Justin.tv), Jason Calcanis, and others. If you don’t recognize these names, it’s unlikely you’d enjoy the conference. But I look forward to it all year. This is my Indy 500/Super Bowl/World Series, minus the crowds (It’s a small conference, limited to about 300 attendees.)

For the first four or five years of the conference, I took vacation and paid my own expenses. But the Enlightened Management of Learfield now sees the value of this conference, so it’s work related and reimbursed.

Oooh, look! Goosebumps!

iPhone Confessions: George Kopp (Week One)

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George is a serious Techno Boy. He has a geek job with the state for his day job (all Windows) and moonlights on Macs (and some PC’s) for love (and a little money).

George knew he’d eventually own an iPhone but thought he could wait awhile. He made the mistake of stopping by the AT&T store (Day Two) for a look-see and wound up springing for the 8 gig model.

George’s love-of-all-things-Mac is tempered by his no-bullshit-geek-o-rocity. By that I mean, he expects much from his techno-toys. But once he got the iPhone in his sweaty little hands, it was prom night. I got caught up in that as we talked and had to edit our chat more than I intended. Sorry, George.

Listen/Download: 5:30 MP3

iPhone goes on sale: Curly Howard alive and well!

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Curly Lives!The local media were on hand for the Big iPhone Event yesterday. I was stunned to learn that one of my childhood idols, Curly Howard, is not only alive… but working as a videographer for one of our local TV stations. AgWired’s Chuck Zimmerman did a touch-and-go and took this photo (which I consider very flattering).

I’m embarrassed that I didn’t introduce myself, but I did watch the voice-over package that aired on the 10 o’clock news. About 40 seconds.

There was a photographer from the local newspaper on hand. A rather stern looking woman who didn’t seem to be having any fun. Her paper ran the iPhone story on page one (above the fold) this morning. With a couple of her photos.

All of which reminds me of the wonderful freedom of blogging. I can post what I want (video, stills), when I want, with no pesky editors looking over my shoulder. I wouldn’t suggest for a second that my amateur efforts are on par with these pros. I would argue that I had more fun than they did and maybe some of that comes through in my posts.

And one more thing. The video that aired on the local TV station and the front page newspaper story –unless posted to their websites– is gone forever. With any luck, in a month or two, a Google search for “iPhone+jefferson city” will get you to smays.com.

“Do you know who I am?”

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The woman smiled, waiting patiently. My mind is frantically processing data, running through thousands of images and names. I bullshit for time…

"Hey, I almost didn’t recognize you! Man, how long has it been?"

But people can always tell.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?"

(Click!)

"Debbie! Debbie Elting!"

Debbie and I attended Southeast Missouri State University in the late 60’s. Worked on college plays together, partied together. Haven’t seen each other in 30 years. Turns out we’ve been going to the same dentist all these years. She drives down to Cape from St. Louis, I drive down from Jefferson City. The staff thought it would be nice to arrange a surprise reunion and scheduled our check-up’s on the same day.

The next time a woman I don’t recognize asks, "Do you know who I am?, I’m going to say –without hesitation– "You’re Jennifer Anniston. What are you doing here?"