Brian & Sylvia

Brian is a motorhead. When he was young he had a 55 Plymouth. It had a fancy, custom paintjob and had the signature smoking woodpecker decals on the side.The "smoker" was on the fender behind the front wheelwell. There were flames on the hood...or bonnet, depending upon which side of the pond you originate. This infatuation with MOPARs would continue into adulthood.


Sylvia wore poodle skirts and roller skates. She used empty orange juice cans as hair rollers. She had stylish red glasses long before Sally Jesse Raphael thought about them. She had saddle shoes and a kerchief and she was way cool. To say she was the the school hottie would be an understatement.

They were sweethearts at Pasadena High School. Brian would pick up Sylvia in his 'peckermobile' and they would be off to the local A & W drive in for a soda and maybe smoke a fag or two. Brian was the football star and was head Bulldog. They were meant for each other.

Brian & Sylvia had a love child.
They were both still in high school
when the 'blessed event' was conceived. Getting married was really not in the cards. It was to be decreed that the child would be given up for adoption.

What does this have to do with Billy? That child was a fine looking young boy which was 'named' baby boy Benjamin....but he would very quickly be adopted by Ferdinand and Henrietta von Crippe and they would rename him "Otto".

So now you know the rest of the story.








Many years later, Billy would be on a "Make A Wish" trip to DisneyWorld and
Otto and Priscilla would run into into Brian & Sylvia at Space Mountain. It truly is a small world after all! You just can't make this stuff up.

Billy's Cousin from Germany sent a video

Otto Von Crippe has a brother, Heinrich who still lives in Germany. His son Gunther and his friend Rainer are practical jokers. They have a Japanese video camera (don't we all) and they like to set up jokes and make a tape. Gunther is the one with the banana.


Billy thought this one was hilarious. But you decide for yourself.

Daylight Savings Time

Tonight we have to move our clocks around again.. Whats up with that......? Can anyone explain to Billy, why DST is a good thing?

Sports Flash

Iowa Buckeyes 28
Southeastern 17

Billy's Residence

Billy lives in the building that used to be the high school that I attended. It has long since been converted to a four plex. Will it be long before it goes condo?

Its great that the Crippe family could find a place with reasonable rent when they moved here from Milwaukee but it really sucks that they are on the 2nd floor. My friend Wally is their landlord. They really couldn't ask for a better landlord. They have been living at the old school house building for the past 10 years and I don't believe he has ever raised the rent. He also comes out at all hours to do emergency repairs and has even done some jury-rigging on the lung.

Wally can do about anything mechanical. He even spent the better half of a Saturday recently cutting a hole in the header above the closet in Billy's room so a TV set could be installed for Billy to watch without the mirrors.

Wally belongs to the 'Tool of the Month' club at Mernard's. Every month he gets a new piece of equipment delivered to his door. His shop is so full of equipment and tools, he can barely turn around in it. But, when you need something, Wally has it. Wally is also VIP - Platinum Life member at Mernard's. This gives him valet parking at the store among other perks like special sales and free doors for life.

Wally's youngest son is Gormo and he is following in his dads footsteps. He can completely disassemble a Dodge Intrepid and put it back together again in one day and not have any parts left over. I can only hope that some of those Chrysler spare parts that he finds at various salvage yards can help out if necessary with the lung.

When the building was a schoolhouse, there was the local grocery store across the street and all the boys would gather behind the store building and burn fags during the lunch hour. Some of the more addicted ones even stopped behind the store before the school day started. At that time there was no warning on the side of the pack and no huge taxes. I guess we thought it was all right.

One time one of the upperclass guys took a Pall Mall unfiltered fag and stuck a cherry bomb on the end of it and carefully placed it on the study hall window ledge, having it timed so it would explode during the principals after lunch announcements. It worked beautifully...but our smoking/store privileges were suspended because of that. He would later flush a cherry bomb down the school toilet causing severe damage to the plumbing... God rest his soul!