Intimacy ain't easy...

First, a laugh...

Notice the last panel! Gadzooks!

Now, a flash of brilliance...

My grandpa, Karl Wendelin, Born December 30, 1913. Put into the context of history, born about 3 years before the Russian Revolution, Edgar Degas was still alive as was Claude Debussy on the musical side of Impressionism, Picasso was experimenting with Cubism, only a few months younger than the likes of Rosa Parks (born Feb. 4), Jim Backus ("The Millionaire" on Gilligan's Island, and the voice of Mr. Magoo, born Feb. 25), Albert Camus (born on Nov. 7), James Joyce was readying to publish Dubliners, Harry Houdini first performed one of his greatest tricks, the Chinese Water Torture Cell escape, Camel cigarettes were first marketed, Henry Ford introduced modern industrial efficiency by creating the assembly line, and Pancho Villa rode to infamy, acclaim, and ultimately ruin in Mexico. He has lived through all the major wars of the past century, but has never fought in one himself. (His cousin, Rudolph Wendelin, was the creator of Smokey the Bear as an artist for the U.S. Forest Service.) A widower since 1986 from his wife of 44 years, he still keeps Edna's purse with all its contents, still intact, as she left them when she died that August of diabetes. Included in the purse; a single gold filling, a $5 bill, an electric bill, grocery list, and a wallet containing 3 pictures, two of my cousins, and one of my sister and I when we were much younger. He has only shown this to me once.

For the past few weeks, I have thoughtfully been considering making a documentary about my grandpa, tentatively entitled "[All] About My Grandpa. (I'm opting to delete the "all", and just go with "About My Grandpa," although I'm somewhat borrowing from the title of Pedro Almadovar's film "All About My Mother"). I figure by next year, I may have enough money to buy a camcorder, and laptop w/ editing equipment. He will be 93 next month, and he shows no signs of stopping. The remarkable thing about my grandpa is that he is very hard of hearing, so you must yell to speak to him, however, he has a incredible memory. He can regail you with stories and memories spanning the majority of the 20th century. Notably, he can recall when the first steam engine trains pulled into northwest Kansas, and what was on them. One of my favorite stories is the one where him and a bunch of his friends go on a caboose to Chicago, in the midst of Prohibition, Capone's Chicago, where they catch a burlesque show and see the famous comedy duo Olsen & Johnson, stars of the hilarious movie "Crazy House." My main motive is to capture his essence and these stories on film before they are completely lost, and go undocumented. Plus, this would be my first film, and I think that's something I've been imagining doing for a long time. I didn't know if I needed to go to film school for that, and I've never been sure how to acquire the equipment. But now, I think it will be easier to just purchase a camcorder and everything from my local Wal-Mart. I'd be an amateur at best, but I think It's be a great experience, and I'm all for it.