"Your Mama Told Me She'd Say To You, 'This Isn't Exactly What We Had Planned' "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Girls, I am telling you, my mother said that a lot.  Let's examine those times.

                                      The morning, when I was 4 or 5, after having seen "The Wizard Of Oz" for the first time, and I took a toy broom, jumped off the top of one of our love seats, and flew for a few seconds, yelling, "To the Emerald City, as fast as lightning."

                                        The afternoon when I climbed up on our fireplace mantel, to go through the looking glass, like Alice, only to find I could not, and fell back from the mantel.  Miraculously, I was not injured.

                                           When I was photographed at High Point, in New Jersey, doing Dorothy Provine's end dance pose, from "The Roaring Twenties" TV show.

                                              When we went to San Simeon, and I said, "I want it."

                                               When I told them my goal in life was to win the Academy Award.  And look how that turned out.

                                                 When I graduated college--42 years ago, just two days ago--and had a hard time finding my niche.  But, when I did, I took off.

                                                    No, what was planned for me was college, with a degree in business administration, and then a three piece suit, a briefcase, and a downtown office job in corporation America, because, what else was there?

                                                      Not to forget my earlier ambition of being a scientist and recreating Frankenstein's experiment.  But eighth grade science took care of that.

                                                         I found my niche, but it wasn't quite what my parents had planned.

                                                          Is it ever for parents?  I wonder about kids who follow their parents' program to the max.  The parents are happy, but are they?

                                                            Had I followed their plan, I would have failed miserably, and maybe hit some sort of rock bottom, in trying.

                                                              Today, I am not a lonely boy who goes home alone.

                                                             So, kids, don't let these plans derail your own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!