“Eddie Haskell—RIP”

(Originally Posted May 27, 2020)

Maybe because I’m not 39 anymore or maybe because we’re social distancing, but I’m thinking a lot about time. 

The other day I noticed that Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell of Leave It To Beaver fame) died at 76. Eddie was my favorite character …things always perked up when Eddie, the wise guy, arrived on the scene. Eddie had a modest acting career after “The Beaver”, but he raised a family and was a LAPD police officer for 18 years. His son said “He was an incredibly kind and wonderful father; he was loved and will be very missed.” Wow, it seems like he was a legitimate good guy. I’m happy to hear that. 

Time is funny. Not too long ago, “most everyone I knew, knew what I knew” (does that make sense?) …. now it seems like they don’t. Several months ago I gave a talk at a Christian Men’s Breakfast. In the talk I mentioned a phrase from the  movie “Cool Hand Luke”….the sadistic warden said to Luke (the hero) at a critical moment in the plot, “Luke , what we have here is a failure to communicate”. It’s a classic line which I delivered in the perfect southern dialect….”Luuke, what we have here is a faaailllluure to comunkate” . But after quickly noticing a lot of blank faces, I asked “do you remember the movie “Cool Hand Luke” and only a few hands went up. I was stunned ! You don’t remember Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman and Arthur Kennedy,,,, a classic. As the Bob Dylan song said “the times, they are achangin”….. but who the heck is Bob Dylan??? 

Wow, this BLOG is getting a little too somber…, it’s time to “take it up a notch”. Let’s see…hmmm….I could tell the “Monkey Joke”….no everyone’s heard that one. How about “Hey Steve”, Judy’s favorite….no, I always have to explain that one. 

Well, let me quote my good friend and literary colleague C.S. Lewis. In his book  “The Problem of Pain” (1940) he says “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

Wow…. so all of you who tell stories that no one understands and mentions people that no one has heard of, you’re not alone…we can be friends. I just hope you remember who I am.