Remember this picture of the MacDonalds?

Gordon, Maureen, and Michael with Aunt Marcelline and Gordon

Confirmation and Communion

Amanda Aaron and the Bishop

 Amanda Aaron, Terry’s daughter, was confirmed this last spering at St. Therese parish in San Diego.

Sam, Owen Cole, Laurie Cole, Mike Cole

I was also involved in a confirmation ceremony for my godson, Owen Cole, the child of my great friends Mike and Laurie Cole. (I had been asked a few years ago to be my other godson, David Tarlau’s, Confirmation sponsor, but I incorrectly thought a person other than me, the godfather, was supposed to be his sponsor, so I demurred.  But Laurie insisted I sponsor Owen, so I agreed).  Owen’s confirmation was at St. Francis de Sales in Sherman Oaks, with Cardinal Mahony presiding.  We were instructed that no one could record or photograph the ceremony, so I don’t have any good pictures of me with Cardinal Mahony (although if one surfaces, I will be sure to post it).  The confirmation was at the end of April - Amanda’s was a week later - and participating in the ceremony made me think of the other Catholic milestones in which I participated.

I don’t remember my baptism.  But after September 1955, I was a Catholic.

Yep, that's me in the arms of the parish priest September 1955

I remember standing on the stairs outside of St. Timothy’s in May 1963 for the picture with my class, and heeding the warning to not eat any food three hours before receiving the sacrament.  I also remember struggling to think of sins that were good enough to mention when I made my first Confession.  I am lucky enough to still be in contact with one of my friends from St. Timothy’s, Shawn Perez. When we left St. Tim’s after my fourth grade year and moved to San Diego, I forgot most of the kids in the picture, but Shawn attended St. Tim’s until the 8th grade and he remembered a number of the kids. 

Shawn is the first boy in the second row and I am over at the other end - the blondest kid in the row, squinting into the morning sun.  Other boys in the row are James Kirkham, George Alfs, Keith Flaherty, Chip Mallek, Charles Orofino, Michael George, Michael Handorf, and Peter Butiglierre (I remember Cub Scouts at the Butiglierre house.)  Mary Sue Weldon and Heidi Schulte are inthe first rorw of girls - Mary Sue is second from the left and Heidi to her right. The Weldons and the Perez’s were friends of Mom and Dad and I remember having parties and outings with them.  Monica Morris is in the third row, and in the top row Walter Stanford, Peter Cathcart, Rick Flaherty, Ronald Green and Tim Donovan.  The pastor was Fr. O’Shea, who we all thought was the coolest priest because he spoke with a bit of a brogue.  Even Shawn couldn’t remember all the names, but he was able to fill in some holes in my memory for me. 

It’s odd for me to see these kids because I lost track of most of them once our family moved to San Diego.  The Perezes and Weldons visited us in San Diego and really, who could ever forget a name like Mary Sue Weldon or Shawn Perez?  

I don’t have any pictures of my confirmation, but I do have one indelible memory.  I was assembled with my class in the front pews of St. Patrick’s.  We had been drilled in the Baltimore Catechism and had been warned that Bishop Ward might ask any single one of us a question about our faith before administering the sacrament.  Needless to say, I was ready just in case he asked, and I knew the answers forwards and backwards.  Sure enough, before he began the process of lining us up and confirming us, he stepped down from the altar and spoke to us about how important this step was in us becoming full members of the Cathloic faith; he stepped over to the side of the church where I was sitting and, just as we had been warned, started asking kids questions at random.  My heart was in my throat as he took a step closer to my side of the church and he looked over in my general direction. 

No,  he didn’t call on me.  But he did call on Anthony Intrieri, my best friend, who was also the smartest kid in the class, and probably also the best Catholic, even to this day.  He looked at Anthony, asked him a question and Anthony answered correctly. 

Then the bishop said no.  Everyone gasped.  We were so well drilled, and so confident in Anthony’s response, that we knew the bishop was wrong.  As soon as I fell out of line after our dismissal, I ran up to Mom and spat out my horror, not only that Anthony had been incorrectly corrected, but that the Bishop had been wrong! Jesus’s representative here on Earth had been fallible. 

Who said receiving a sacrament isn’t fun?

Gray and Haila!!!

Gray and Haila

Here are pictures of Gary and Haila, who are engaged! 

We LOVE Gray and we are ecstatic that Haila is about to become a KUGLEN.

As much fun as Gray is to be around, I am sure the experience is quadrupled now that Haila is part of the fun. 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

Francesca’s Hairzing - read the article and spread the word!

Dear Wonderful Family- 

Kuglen/Toplak (Greene) get together in San Diego

A couple of weeks ago (May 23)  the Toplaks- Paul, Teresa, Eva and Tessa - visited San Diego.  (Aaron and Christina were supposed to come along, but didn’t come at the last moment.  We all wanted to see you!) We all met at Terry and Chris’s on Saturday afternoon and everyone was there - Joan and Dick, KK and Bill, John and Lory, Terry and Chris, Joanie and Nathan, Maribeth, plus lots of the nieces (none of the nephews), including Nathalie, who I have not seen for a while.  I drove down from Los Angeles early in the morning, so we all had a nice “Start of Summer” party.   As much as we like seeing all our cousins from the Kuglen side of the family, we also like seeing our cousins from the Greene side of the family, and since we don’t have the opportunity to see them as frequently, I think we all clear our schedules to make the time to see the Greenes.  

We all especially liked seeing Paul and Teresa’s daughters, Eva and Tessa.  They are both gorgeous little girls and Paul and Teresa are great parents.  If you look closely at Eva, the elder of the two girls, you can really see Uncle Jack in her face; she really looks like a Greene.  Tessa is only 7 months, so I wasn’t able to see Uncle Jack as clearly yet, but I am sure her Greene side will emerge as she gets older.  Of course, I am also sure that Paul sees his parents in the faces of his girls, but it was a Greene Day.      :-) 

Mom and Dick left on a road trip through the states of California, Oregon and Washington 2 days after the party.  I have been getting emails from Dick about the trip, along with pictures in a format I can’t copy and load.  They are travelling a lot and have hundreds of pictures of all the places they have been, but so far they have been stingy with them - maybe once they get back from Washington they will send me few of the best and I can post them for everyone to see.  

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the party.  Enjoy!

Terry, Amanda and Teresa

Paul, Bill, Nathan, and Chris

Teresa and Eva

Nathalie and Joan

Tessa

KK and Teresa

Paul, Joanie and Nathan

Nathalie and Eva

Joy

Tessa with the blue eyes

Terry and Amanda

Yesterday, June 4, 2009, was the graduation ceremony at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, where I teach 11th and 12th grade English (By the way, if you watched the show “Glee” after “American Idol” JBHS was used as the school in the show.  All the backgrounds are where I work!).  I have attended the graduation ceremony every year for the past 6 years because between the kids I see in the 11th and the kids I see in the 12th grade, I end up teaching somewhere between a third and a half of the graduating class and the ceremony is as much closure for me as it is the beginning of a new part of their lives.  I am lucky that I teach at a good school with mostly great kids.  Sometimes one of them thinks enough of the work I do to thank me and every once in a while one of them even puts their thoughts into words. Here’s a note that one of my favorite students from the last couple of years gave me last night before he received his diploma. He asked me to read it today, so I did - and here it is: 

Dear Mr. Kuglen, 

     Sorry this had to come written on a piece of paper instead of spoken aloud.  I wouldn’t want to say this on graduation; too corny, too predictable. Not me at all!

     I wanted to take a moment to thank you for how you have changed my life.  Without a doubt, you are the single most difficult person I have ever met.  You used to tell me I was wrong simply to say I was wrong!  And yet, how badly I need that.  I needed that constant tension and strife to learn, and I truly feel 11th grade was the year I matured the most. 

     I have to wonder if this is why one becomes a teacher.  It may sound a little pompous, but it must be an incredible feeling to have improved a person’s life in the way you have mine.  I’m a stronger, smarter, and more confident person because of your teachings.  I know this is sappy, and sentimental, but it’s also my last chance to say this…. I’ll always remember you.  Because, really, who knew Faulkner was so damn funny? 

Best Wishes,

I’ll spare him the revelation of his name (unless he lets me know I can reveal it).  

He’s right - I did always say “no” to him.  But I really loved having him in my class - the whole group was awesome and he was right at the top of the awesomeness.  I looked forward to period 6 every day with those kids (it might have had something to do with also having a fifth period conference).  I am fortunate that I love teaching American Literature and that I have students who challenge me every year to top what I accomplished the previous year.  He was pretty smart when he started my class, so I am flattered to think I helped to make him smarter (hey, he got the humor in As I Lay Dying).  I cleaned out my classroom today, put everything away, and one my favorite students from this year, Talitha McGirt, came in to help me clean.  So, I get a few weeks off, maybe see some Shakespeare and do a wee bit ‘o’ travelling, then back in August to start a new year.  

I am going to blog frequently this summer, so come back often!

Happy Mother’s Day 2009

Aunt Caroline and Aunt Mary Anita

Sally and her kids

Terry and Amanda

KK and Michael

Aunt Caroline and the Salle Girls

Christine and kids

Joan and kids

Joanie and Zach

Lory and kids

Maureen and Rory

Maribeth and Joy

Grandma, Mom and the Uberti boys

Tina and Mahiah

Monica and Biz Greene

Hannah, Jennifer and Lauren Vally

Here is my Youtube link - if you haven’t looked at the videos, take a look!  

http://www.youtube.com/SKisTheRealBoy

Easter Pictures from Las Vegas! The Toplaks celebrate the season!

Here are some Easter pictures from Las Vegas and Theresa Toplak.  

Theresa, I can see your Dad so clearly in your face.  And you all look so happy! 

I Hope you all had a great holiday and are having a good spring.  Please feel free to send along your own pictures.  I’d like to get pictures of everyone up on the blog.  

Paul and the 2 girls

Theresa & Paul with Eva (r) and Tessa (l)

Theresa, Paul and Tessa

Paul and Tessa

Here are some pictures of John’s daughters in their backyard also enjoying the sun in San Diego.  

Oly, Samantha and Jackie

And here is the link to my videos on Youtube.  

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos        please check them out! 

Finally, here isn Easter picture of Mom, John and me on the front porch at Granada Avenue.  I’d guess it was our first Easter in San Diego, 1966.

Sam, Joan and John in 1966

Check out some Sam Kuglen videos on YouTube and help us go viral!

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos

Send the link to your friends! Add some comments!

My sometime writing partner and friend, Mike Cole, and I recently went through our archives and digitalized some of our old TV performances.  They are now posted on Youtube.

Please stop by and take a look! They are actually funny! 

My favorite is “The WSWF.”  Mike’s performance is fantastic and I think it holds up quite well. 

We are as famous as we were ever going to be for “The Real Boy” which is in 2 different versions on the link.

Here’s another one of me rapping in class - Kuglen is a regular “G.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v59JfNXmyGo 

Add Comments!

Thanks to David Long for digitalizing, Pat Carman at JBHS for formatting and Russ Barnes for uploading on to YouTube.

Easter Parade courtesy of Rick Rigali

Rick and Sam a few years ago, still dressed up and still side by side

This is a good one!  Look at all these great pictures Rick Rigali sent me - just in time for Easter!  He answered the call!  Just about everyone is represented - except there are none of the Salle kids, because they were’t born yet - yes, the rest of us are that much older than you.  Notice how we, the kids, got posed with Bom Bom and Grandpap?  There are Tina and KK, then Sam and Rick, then John and Pat (Rick and I are about the same size, but I didn’t realize that John was that much bigger than Pat), then Terry and Stephen Salle holding Bob Salle’s hand.  Charlotte says this is the only picture she knows of our cousin Stephen, who passed away from leukemia when he was two, which makes the photo even more remarkable and awesome. It would be fun to get in the same pose again.  Some of the pictures might look a little pixilated- but they are old photos that were scanned.  Let me know how they look on your computer screen.

Bob Salle, Grandpap, Bom Bom and kids on Kerwood Ave.

 

Charlotte took several of the color photos with the first camera she ever had, so all the pctures of the Rigalis are taken by Charlotte, except the ones in which she appears.  It’s good to see the faces of the MacDonalds - Gordon, Maureen and Michael.  They were such adorable little kids.  We were fortunate to see Gordon at  Bob and Caroline’s 50th wedding anniversary at the beach, and Maureen, with Rory, live in the San Fernando Valley, not far from where the Rigalis used to live.  Now if we could only see Cousin Michael!  Charlotte took these pictures at Cape Cod in 1965, when the Kuglens visited the MacDonalds.   Here Gordon and Maureen are playing with Fran, Christine and Tom.  

Please scan your old photos and send them along - they will end up on line!  I have had a great time just looking at these old pictures.  I have absolutley no memory of any of the pictures I am in, but it is no less interesting seeing the pictures and marvelling at how young my parents and aunts and uncles look and at how civilized all us kids look.  We cleaned up pretty nicely. 

 

 

 

Young Kuglens and MacDonalds

Another Easter in the SFV

 I got a little artsy with some of the pictures - I went to a great, free website call Picnik.com and there you can fix and sharpen old photos like these, add matting and styles, like I did with all of these, along with printing text directly ovet the pcitures.  It’s a pretty cool website. 

Mary Anita, Bom Bom, Bob, Joan and Caroline

Three things strike me about this picture - Bom Bom ALWAYS posed.  I don’t think I have ever seen her in a picture where she wasn’t posing.  Bob Kuglen and Greg Salle could swap places.  And Aunt Caroline looks like Lynne.  That’s Grandpap’s old car in the background.  I don’t know how long he kept it, but I remember it always smlled like stale cigarette smoke whenever I rode in the car, and the ashtray was always full.  

Easter on Kerwood Ave.

Kuglens and MacDonalds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joan Greene Kuglen says “Hi”

Joan receiving a massage in Thailand

from Joan who is Mother, Grandmother, mother-in-law, Aunt, Great(or grand) Aunt, 

and elder in this glorious clan. I loved Charlotte's comparison to "Cheers - where

everybody knows my name" and add to that "And I know their's". 
What a lot of familiar names on this blog. It is impossible to keep 

in touch with so many people so this seems like a great solution. 

I encourage everyone to jump in even if it just an acknowledgement

of reading the posted comments. 

Easter week brings back memories of long, incense infused church services from my youth, St. Michael’s church in Wheeling, W.VA. where the Greene’s and Kuglens attended all of the holy week services.  On Holy Thursday we had a solemn ceremony at the Carmelite Monestary.  The girls wore their first communion dresses and the boys were altar boys carrying big candles. I think it took place at 6:30 am. How did our parents do that? Easter Sunday was the day everyone wore new clothes to church. Women’s hats were elaborate and colorful and all the girls wore gloves and patent leather shoes.  It was a parade of fashion and the favorite song of course was “The Easter Parade” by Bing Crosby (who later attended the same church we did in Los Angeles.) 

And then much later there are the memories of finding secret hiding places for the children’s Easter baskets and easter egg hunts in the Rigali’s back yard.

Looking for the bunny prints our neighbors the Bianchi’s painstakingly made with powder puffs up and down Granada Avenue on late Saturday night.

Times have changed and so have I, but the memories are sweet . 

Wishing you all a Happy Easter and/or a well deserved spring break. Love to each and all, Joan, Joanie, Grandma and Aunt Joan

Phuket, Thailand, 2005

I have a book of poems that Bom Bom received when she graduated from high school for essay writing.  (being the 12th grade English teacher I am, and knowing how much Bom Bom loved to be dramatic in everything she did, I am sure I would have referred her to the Strunk and White Manual of Style and asked her not to overwrite.)  I have had the book for a while and there is a lot of rain damage and many of the pages are following out.  The book was illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, a well-know illustrator of the 1910’s, 20’s and 30’s.  I was looking through a book of his work and noticed that some of the color plates looked familiar - I went to Bom Bom’s book and found original MP plates from the 1910’s!  Oh, the edges were water damaged (not while with me, but while in the basement of our house on Granada) but the plates themselves are not.  I took them and scanned them into my computer (gotta love the scanner).  They are remarkable on my computer screen - the ink and the colors are thick and lush and the images are clean and clear.  I thought I would put one up, then if I get feedback from anyone who is interested, I will post some of the others.  I have no idea if the quality they show on my screen will transfer on line, but I hope they do so you can see for yourselves how charming and evocative these illustrations are.  I am pretty sure they aren’t worth much - there is too much water damage and they would probably also loose value if I removed them from the book (can you tell I watch “Antiques Roadshow?”)