BOFFO B.O....at the garbage dump

(l-r: Copper & Steckler)







Two radio reprobates reunited in Hollywood circa 2005
Both newly fired and anticipating spending more "time with the family".




The saga continues...


Steckler and I auditioned for any and every part in each play produced that year for the University theater department. We were so completely full of ourselves that we had no idea we were bringing little more than an inflated sense of our talent to each tryout, but by God we were having a wonderful time. By this time I had quit the fraternity. Who knew they had rules??! I was fine with being on the drinking team and attending the parties, but PULEEZE...no rules or meetings! The summer after my freshman year Steck and I were accepted as actors at the Black Hills Playhouse, a summer theater that employed both student and professional actors in a beautiful little compound located in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Playhouse was the creation of a marvelous old character named Warren M. "Doc" Lee. Doc had started the Playhouse in the 1940s utilizing an old WPA camp as the initial facility. It was a labor of love that continues to this day, though Doc has long since moved on to that big stage in the sky. Through the work of many others who came to love the place, the Playhouse is still regarded as one of the finest summer theaters in the country.

Instead of starring in shows at the playhouse, Steckler and I spent the summer primarily parking cars for the evening performances and as garbage men during the morning hours. The "Chanel Boys" Doc dubbed us after the famous fragrance. We would rise at 5 in the morning and make the rounds of dumpsters collecting everything from tampons to lots of empties of Doc's beloved Pinch scotch. The hard part was dragging our sorry asses out of bed at that hour, but after we were up it was a pure joy to tool around in the playhouse dump truck grabbing rubber and doing doughnuts to our heart's content. The highlight of our morning garbage run came as we made our way through an honest to God herd of buffalo at the dump and deposited our smelling cargo amongst the other Black Hills effluvia. The dump was sort of a science project gone terribly wrong. One of the many interesting items deposited there that summer was an ENTIRE HORSE...hooves and all. We observed the decomposition with amazement and were actually so enthralled with the wonders of all that decay that we were often late for our traditional breakfast of strawberry shortcake and Carling Black Label beer which we enjoyed at nearby Legion Lake. The waitresses at the Legion Lake lodge marveled at our ability to eat this daring repast while still decked out in our crap covered putrefied coveralls. We also smoked enough Luckies and English Ovals to have done a passable impression of New Jersey. (Where were the talent scouts when you needed them??) As I think back on that summer, it amazes me that both of us are still on the right side of the sod at age 59.



to be continued...