Born in Circus City, Sarasota, Florida in the back woods of Nokomis near a town called Fruitville in 1973, my grandfather was a huge Wrestling fan since waaaayyyy back in the 40's and 50's.  He would take me every 2 weeks (for about 3 years) to Robarts Sports Arena in Sarasota, FLA. to watch Florida Championship Wrestling.  This was now about 1979 - 1980 - I would of been about 7 or so.  This was way before the Barriers,  pyrotechnics, Wrestlmania 1, and 70,000 sold out arenas for Wrestlemania 24.  I was able to walk Dusty, Hector, Barry, Kendal, Blackjack, Wahoo, Mike Graham, Lex, to the ring, while talking to them and patting them on the shoulder, up to the front gate of the ring.  Grandad would just chill up in the stands and let me do my thing all in the stadium.  Plus, there was other kids that I went to school with that would come out.  This was in the days when we started battlin on microphones, and carboard, but that's a different story.

 

I left Florida for about 2 years and moved to Omaha to try to get a better education, or better school and enviornment. I was really messing up around where I lived.  I would have easily been locked up, hurt, in trouble, alcoholic, drug addicted, etc. if I stayed there the rest of my life. - My Pops in Nebraska was a longtime stagehand in Omaha for every damn event  going on in Omaha, It never stopped.  We worked on shows from The Civic Auditorium, The Orpheum Theatre, Rosenblatt Stadium, Building stages and lighting for HIgh Schools, Helping Make Set designs in Warehouses for big shows, Private, outdoor events that he would throw himself, ETC.  - One show that particularly stands out was the WWF that I got a chance to work on in the Omaha Civic.  Most shows I would work didn't excite me as much as Wrestling.  But when Wrestling came through, I was ready and had all access baby! all locker rooms, backstage, the busses rollin in, the catering room where all the food is served, etc. - that day, I brought a couple shirts and just had every wrestler that I could sign it.  I actually did one of them for a handicpped cousin of mine that could not make it to the show.  This was in the era of - The Ultimate Warrior, Hogan, The Undertaker was just comin out with Percy Pringle, Hillbilly Jim, the Bushwackers, Bret Hart, Jimmy Hart, Hacksaw, Honkey Tonk man, etc. - I remember Jack Tulley signing the shirts too. He was just out in the stadium sitting by himself chillin.  I really didn't know who he was but he had on a crazy fresh suit and some gold.  I knew he wasn't with the Local Crew 54 working on settin things up, plus he looked familiar, so he just took the shirts I had and signed them, then I recognized the name.  There was about 16, 18 wheelers for that show to unload and set up.  Lots of stuff.  Some shows have only 3 or 4 rigs to unload.  1st, everything comes off the trucks and the WWF crew will tell you where everytihhng goes - Stage left, Stage right, House middle, wall, etc. - it's some rough, crappy work, trust me! and not everybody on a road crew, coming from the city before you, tired, stressed and pissed off wants to talk about the morning newspaper.  Most of them look like they haven't slept in days and look like they don't have time to even be talked to.  Just do exactly what those dudes are telling you to do becuase they can be real assholes and plus things need to be done efficiently and fast.