Thursday, April 23, 2009

MAGNUM and me


(Gary Rith with Petey and Jack, 1996, Magnum PI in 1980)
Times were different back then. In 1993 I was 27 and about to teach high schoolers. I looked 15 and KNEW I'd be cool with a stache. Just like my boyhood hero MAGNUM PI. You loved that show, funny, a little action, a lot of slacking, a lot of chicks on the beach, every boys dream. So I grew the stache.
The wife, who is very polite and reticent, never told me anything until the day ten years later, in 2003, when she came home from work, it was gone, and she admitted shw would NOT miss the stache. By then, of course, twas quite a bushy thing. I thought it meant MACHO but times had changed and to a lot of men of a certain type it meant Village People and leather boys, and sorry, I don't play for that team. To a lot of women it meant "tee hee, p*rn star!!!" and to my high school students? It meant Ned Flanders, which always kept the little monsters laughing "HAHA Mister Rith you look like NED FLANDERS!!!". OK, whatever. We had ten good years together. Then you get to the age where suddenly you are NOT trying to look older!

8 comments:

Lynda said...

Okay... Tom Selleck is just plain hot in that photo. You're looking pretty Magnum yourself, Gary!

Linda Starr said...

Great nostalgic photos of you Gary, so cool that you have them to post. Love that big grey vase in the post below too. Cool and creative idea on the mandible mugs, bet you'll sell a lot.

Lis Garrett said...

"tee hee . . . p*rn star"

I nearly wet my pants, Gary, that got me laughing so hard! (b/c that's EXACTLY what goes through my head when I see a guy with a "stache" . . . but not about you, of course!)

For the most part, I like a clean face. (some guys can pull off a bit of facial hair) My husband knows that if he wants me to kiss him, he had better shave. Stubble hurts.

Farmer*swife a/k/a Glass_Half_Full said...

I'm with Lis, stubble is irritating to the sensitive skin of the ladies.

And, I so *hearted* Magnum. But, now when Hubby watches the reruns I'm thinking Magnum needs to diss the tightie wightee shorts.

Seriously! But, he's just as HAWT today in real life as he was back then.

We have some friends. The brother to the hubby looks just like Magnum only a 2009 version so the hair is a little shorter. He looks younger than his age too. They are such a beauty couple.

Happy mustacheless-ness! :-D

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

Ned Flanders... *snicker*
Gary as a Village People groupie...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I'm sorry, what were you saying? I only see Tom Selleck. :)

Prohomemaker.Com said...

Hi-diddly-hoh, neighbor! You made me laugh.

LOL on porn star -- yeah, I guess it's got that Harry Reems thing going.

Cue the porn music ... bow-cha-cha-bow.

:-)

Barbara Martin said...

Perfect nostalgia trip, Gary. As we grow older we want to remain young, if only in spirit.

Anonymous said...

so there was a method to the madness