kuglen.com

After flying all night and arriving at Boston’s Logan Airport at 6 am, I rented a car and drove to Tara Kuglen’s place in North Boston.  Tara was kind enough to allow me to shower there before unleashing me on the City of Boston.  She introduced me to The Freedom Trail, which s literally a red line that is laid down where major moments leading up to the first shot fired in the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence occurred.  SHe lives withon easy walking distance of the North Church, where Paul Revere rode down the strret.  A statue of Paul Revere is in the courtyard with a view of the North Church behind him.  Pretty cool. (But the weather was HOT!)

Then we met Gordon MacDonald for lunch.  We had a great time and they both took turns giving me advice for what to do and what to see for the rest of the afternoon and tomorrow.  Gordon treated us to lunch, but it was the first highlight of my trip that the three of us were able to have lunch together. 

Gordon, Sam and Tara

I heard from Rory – sounds like he is doing well and getting settled in.

Here’s what he writes:

Being at Berkeley has been extraordinary. I would say that so far I’ve
spent about 95% of my time here partying, exploring the Bay Area, hanging
out with new friends, and eating amazing food; the other 5% of the time
I’ve been studying and attending lecture. Of course, the academics here are
particularly intensive and competitive, but nothing I’m not able to
complete successfully. The professor is extremely intelligent and
well-spoken, and I’ve been very impressed with my classmates in the way of
intelligence and character. Interestingly, most people in my dorm building
are international students from France and South Korea. (Naturally, I’ve
been enjoying practicing my French.) Some of the other people on my floor
are visiting students from Columbia, Cornell, and Harvard who all tell me
they’d love to come to Berkeley as full-time students.

Anyway, I’m attaching a photo of me and some of my new friends at the top
of Sather Tower.

Rory and friends at Cal

Also:

I am leaving a red eye tomorrow night and arrive in Boston EARLY Tuesday morning.  I am excited and looking forward to connecting with everyone back in New England.  I am bringing the laptop and the camera, so I will be taking LOTS of pictures and I am going to try and make a few blog entries while I am back there (you know, those late nights, when it is 11 pm in New England and I am still at 8 pm California time!)  Does Booth Bay have the internet yet?

I get to see cousins from both the Kuglen and Greene sides of the family, so just to let you know. . . I will be taking pictures of you and disseminating them, so start working on your smiles!  I have to figure out how to work the timer on the camera so I can jump into some of the shots.

I am hoping to visit the Emily Dickinson house in Amherst and possibly see Walden Pond,  but I don’t know if it is drivable in a day or two.  Of course, I am also hoping to LIVE FREE OR DIE! in New Hampshire.

If I get stopped by the NH Highway Patrol, and they ask me why I am speeding, can I say “I am living free?”

Next Monday night I am taking a red eye to Boston to begin my week in New England, the highlight attending Erich Hamm’s wedding and hanging out with the Carenbauers for the Fourth of July.

Great great Grandpa William Henry Greene and Grandma look suspicious.

Grandma Greene sent her love back in 1943, and looks like she might approve, but with reservations.  I am sure she wishes she could be there.

I missed hanging out with Christine and George when they were kids.

Mom visited the Carenbauers often, but I was never around. . .

Here’s a picture of a time, back in 1955, when I had my first chance to really party down with the Greenes and Carenbauers in Wheeling.  It looks like everyone was there – all the Carenbauers, Uncle Michael and Aunt Biz with young Mike Greene, Mom and KK (Uncle Michael is holding KK).  I was there, but according to mom the photographic record is missing because I was sleeping!  (Dad took the picture)

So, next week will be the first ime in a looooooong time that I get to really ROCK with the Carenbauers.

I am starting to get excited…………..

I am wishing one of my best friends, Mike Cole, happy birthday.  His family had a party for him tonight to celebrate his birthday, Father’s Day and the beginning of summer, which seem to all happen at once in the Cole household.  I’ve known Mike and Laurie for about 30 years – Mike and I met in Gary Austin’s Improv class at the Cellar Theatre in Los Angeles.  Eventually we started our own comedy group, The Procrastinators, with our friends Dave McNary and Margarita Martinez.  For a couple of years we played in clubs around Southern California, the highlight being opening for Garry Shandling at the World Famous Ice House in Pasadena.  Mike and I continued working together with other friends, trying to break into television, including Jennifer Vally, another good and close friend.  Between Mike, Jennifer and me, we performed in about 50 episodes of The Gong Show (hey, I am vested in AFTRA for a pension as a result), and other TV shows and I have worked with both of them as writing and performing partners for years. Mike and Jennifer are two of the funniest people I know, and they have the credits to back it up.  They are much funnier than I am or could ever hope to be – I’m lucky to have worked with them and gotten paid for it.  My dream would be for us, in some kind of combination, to work together on a comedy show which lets us cut loose and have fun.

Sam and Jennifer

Some other friends were there tonight: Lou Richards, Joel Bailey and Gina Gallego, Mike Horton and Debbie Zipp and Laura and David Long, among others.  These are longtime relationships, folks.  Lou and I wrote the preface to an acting book just riffing off of each other while eating our dinner.  I had a great time. 

I spend a lot of time and do many things with Mike and his family.  I rented a room in his first house and lived with them when their daughter, McKenna, was born.  She is about to be a senior at Cal Berkeley, majoring in Landscape Architecture.  She has been incredible to watch grow into a young woman, and she is beautiful in addition to being a great student. 

McKenna Cole

Owen is my godson.  He is going to be a senior in high school this coming year.  He wants to study filmmaking at one of the UC’s.  My goal this summer is to get him surfing with Mike Uberti, either in Irvine or San Diego.  I LOVE him! 

Aidan is going to begin middle school in the fall.  He and I had the chance to work together in my friend Jay Kamen’s short film last fall.  Another fantastic kid!

The Coles are ……words fail me.  They have just become special people in my life.  I have shared a good deal of my life with all of them, they have helped me out repeatedly, and taken me in as a part of their family.  they are special, special people. 

Last night, Wednesday, I took Rory and Maureen MacDonald out to dinner to celebrate Rory finishing up at Pierce College and moving on to the University of California at Berkeley.

Rory went out to Tina’s condo in Canyon Country over the weekend to attend Mahiah’s promotion from sixth grade to middle school.  According to Tina, “Rory just spent the past few days with us.  He attended my daughter Mahiah’s graduation.  She graduated from elementary school – the 6th grade – and received a Presidential Award for Academic achievement – plus was asked by her teacher to read the speech she wrote – at the promotion ceremony.  She also just received her class award for “Most Creative”…

Mahiah is only 12 but alread stands taller than I.  She will be attending La Mesa Middle School out here in Canyon Country, CA. in the Fall.  Her Auntie Charlotte (Carneiro) sent her an event box full of party decorations for the grad. pool and pizza party we gave for Mahiah and her 10 girlfriends here at our condo.”

Good Job, Mahiah!

Rory, Maureen and I went to Mazzarino’s, a nice neighborhood Italian joint, where we feasted on calamari, pizza, chicken picatta and amazing canoli and tiramisu for dessert.  We talked about politics, education (Maureen and I are both teachers), the drive up to the Bay area and Rory’s take on being on his own for the first time.  He is taking a Statistics class over the summer, so the school is allowing him to move into the dorms (Unit two) so he can right to work, then taking a full load of classes when the fall semester begins in September, with the goal of completing his B.A. in the next two years.  He is thrilled to have received the Regent’s scholarship, which pays all his expenses, and he has already heard from Francesca, who has offered to take him shopping for essentials.    He already knows he can take BART anywhere with his student ID, (there is a BART station on campus) so he is also ready to explore the Bay Area.

I loved college and know how exciting moving away and exploring the world on your own.

Have a great time, Rory!

Rick Rigali sent me copies of a number of pictures of Bom Bom’s and her side of the family, the Riggs’ and Fergusons.   There were several pictures, so I am going to dole them out to give everyone a chance to savor them.

This is a picture of Bom Bom, on the left, along with her sister Emily Elizabeth and her brother Laurence.

Laurence was a victim of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and died overseas.  Whenever I heard Bom Bom speak of him , she cried.  I don’t think I ever saw a picture of him before, so when I saw this I was truly amazed.

This picture shows Frances as she was about to do some barnstorming.  The back of the photo said “Airplane rides a dollar a minute.”

This last photo is Frances second row far right age 13, Miss Bertha teacher (I think right is left the way the photo was scanned).

A brief insight into Bom Bom, The Riggs and the Fergusons.  there is not much to write – the pictures speak for themselves.  There are more where these came from.

Tina Rigali wrote and said that “I almost choked when I saw the photo of our Great Aunt Anita – I used to have a childhood pic of me that looked exactly like that image of her. ”  The faces are so familiar – it is easy to see several of my cousins, my brother and sisters reflected in these distant pictures.

Craig Kuglen, of the Texas Kuglens, emailed this photo of the five Kuglen siblings from around 1900.  (I cropped the photo a bit and changed the size to fit in the blog space. )

Here’s what he says:

Unfortunately in my generation there are only 2 of us Kuglens left (Caroline and I.)  Of my 7 grandchildren,  4 are Kuglens and 3 of those are male.

[here is] a photo, which you may already have, but I think it is interesting – the only one showing all of my parents’ (your grandparents’) generation in a group.

The picture was taken at 23 7th Street in Wheeling, West Virginia.

The five Kuglens are:

Anita

Edward (Grampap)

Marcelline

Charles

Harold

1900 Kuglens

Rick Rigali as a child is a dead ringer for young Edward.  Their images are practically interchangeable.

I’d love to see and early photo of Frances Riggs as a young girl. or Grandma Greene or Grandpa Greene.

Anyone out there have a photo they’d like to share?

Zach (Joanie’s son) sent me some pictures from his recent trip to the Northwest and asked me to create a post for him.  I’ll let Zach and the pictures do the talking.

Zach: Here are some pics from my first day in Seattle.  I have too many to narrow it down.  I trust you to cut it all the pics I send you to a more digestible blog.

These pictures are from the Sasquatch Festival, which is a huge 3 day music festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in George Washington (yes just like the president).  It was a beautiful setting to watch some amazing shows.  That gorgeous blond at the Gorge in George is my girlfriend Nicolette.

These pics are from Jakes which has been around for over 100 years.  I ordered the crayfish which was a new experience, but not all that different from lobster or crab.  We also walked around Washington Park which has a huge rose garden, Japanese Garden, Holocaust Memorial and much more I’m sure we didn’t see.

We were completely amazed by the food carts in Portland.  They had amazing, diverse, restaurant quality food for fast food prices.  This day we also traveled along the Hood River and up around Mt. Hood.  We were not able to get any good pics of Mt. Hood due to clouds.  The last pic is of some of the best sushi I ever had.  So delicious it stands out as a highlight of my trip.  I love food if you can’t tell.

A couple pics from our final day.  The Hawthorne Bridge and our trip to the airport on Portland’s amazing public transit system (which is free in the metro Portland area).  Overall we had an amazing time.  Seattle was beautiful but we found the people to be a little uppity and rude for our San Diego mentalities.  On the other hand, while Portland was smaller and less developed, everyone was very friendly and welcoming.  In a lot of ways it reminded me of San Diego and Nicolette (from Michigan) described it as the best aspects of San Diego and the Mid West.

When I received a residual check for my play, “The Gruesome, Gory, Grotesque Stories of Edgar Allan Poe” I was excited that someone somewhere in the United States had done ONE performance of the play.  30 bucks is definitely worth it.  Not exactly on the heels of that…..

Here is a check for $5.35 (after taxes) for an episode of a show called “Homefront” I did about 20 years ago, in 1991.   I grossed $8.79, but after taxes (taxes?????), you can see I netted the aforementioned $5.35.

I no longer live on Hortense Street.

This is enough for a grande chai tea latte and chocolate chip cookie at Starbucks, with .10 cents to toss into the tip jar.

I’ve got something to look forward to!

Life is good.

Rory MacDonald was accepted to, and will be attending, University of California at Berkeley.  After maintaining a 4.0 GPA for every semester he attended Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley, he was also awarded a full ride scholarship.

Here are Rory’s own words:

I was accepted to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCSD. UCLA and UCSD offered financial aid that would have covered most living and tuition expenses. UC Berkeley, on the other hand, offered me the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship—the most prestigious award granted to undergraduates at Berkeley. This scholarship covers every expense I should incur as a student at Berkeley (as of yet, my 2010-2011 scholarship award is allotted at $52,000), and offers me a wide range of special services, from private educational counseling to invitations to fundraising galas attended by Berkeley’s most influential alumni.

As you might expect, I accepted Berkeley’s offer. I am actually waiting for the go-ahead to attend the summer session at Berkeley, from June 22 to August 8. My mother took me up to Berkeley in mid-May to attend the Chancellor’s Welcome Reception. I loved it up there.

Here’s a copy of the link that explains what a Regents Scholarship is:  http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/types_regents.htm

I know he is hoping to contact and develop relationships with the Kuglens who live in the Bay area, Francesca, Tom, Chuck, and Gray.

This is a FANTASTIC opportunity for Rory.  He has worked diligently and overcome some advsersity to get to this point in his life and academic career.

Cheers for continued success!