Shake Me to Wake Me

It has been a while since we have had any posting activity on UTGP.  Lives change. Time commitments with family and work takes precedents over fun side projects. Legitimate and real excuses and we thank those of you for continuing to visit the site even though it is pretty stale from nonuse.

All the contributors still communicate regularly and often we would speak of needing to post something or mention an idea for a post but they never came to fruition.

Time does change and sometimes an event helps to move things along, wakes you up, stirs you to action.

I was staining my house one Saturday when my phone chirped.
It was from Charles.

My response was truly what I was thinking at that moment.



It was truly out of the blue for me.

I didn't know the man personally and as a matter of fact I have intentionally avoided reading much about Adam West because I liked Batman, his Batman.

I have found that when I have seen actors in interviews I found them to be empty shells, like a record player waiting for the next record to drop so they would have something to say or have a likable personality and I didn't want to be disappointed with him. So I kept him on TV at a distance so I could continue to see him as I did when I was a kid.

Adam West portrayed my Batman. I am glad that he was on TV during my childhood.

This will be shocking to many fans my age but I never bought "The Killing Joke" or "The Dark Knight Returns" because they weren't my Batman.

My Batman wasn't a vigilante. My Batman was “A duly deputized agent of the law.” My Batman wasn't dark. My Batman operated in broad daylight, he paid the parking meter when parking the Batmobile and repeatedly taught Robin to be a good citizen.

So I held out on the "Dark" Batman for a good while. Here is one example.

When Tim Burton's Batman movie had merchandise start to hit the shelves I really wanted a shirt. So as flyer after flyer and ad after ad came out I could not find a Batman shirt. When I say that I mean "my Batman" shirt. There were all kinds of black shirts but the Batsymbol was all wrong. My doggedness finally paid off because I found one that was a gray shirt with the correct Adam West Batsymbol on it. I wore it to the midnight premiere. and just about every other day

I also set my VCR to record all the original episodes that were airing then in anticipation of the new movies release. Not just because they aired to early for me to watch them but because we were expecting our first child and my kids weren't gonna watch a corrupt version of Batman or some lame Power Ranger they were gonna watch Adam West.

And they did and all three of them liked his Batman just as much as I did.

As an adult I could see the campiness and noticed the double entendres but as a kid it showed me that good triumphs over evil. To do right, stay right and fight for right. I learned to always be learning because you never knew when an obscure fact would come in handy. I developed a love for solving puzzles and riddles and sought to instill in myself the art of keeping calm and to think calmly under intensely stressful situations.

Oh and I learned to escape from being tied up. This has not come into play yet in my adult life other than when doing a magic trick but when I was younger my brothers and I tied each other up often.

I could go on and on. I had a wonderful childhood and Adam West's Batman played a big part in it and in making me who I am today. So thank you Mr. West and may you rest in peace.