Thursday, September 30, 2021

The Player

By Robbie: My dad and I were spending a usual day roaming through the antique malls in the Gaston county area. As I was looking around,  I saw the usual stuff. Typically, what you might find in these certain establishments are the belongings of either a deceased individual or someone trying to sell a hand crafted product. I always see the typical Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe posters and vinyl records; jewelry of a woman who roamed the earth in the days of yore and even old works of art that have gone unappreciated. Perhaps, maybe the art they created didn't make sense to anyone else, but it did to the artist who created it. Sometimes these places really are sad, but nostalgic.

 


However, on this day I stumbled upon something interesting. It caught my eye as I gazed around the crowded stalls. It was a small trophy.  It was a Best Supporting Actor award given out by the Little Theater of Gastonia to a one, Mr. Chuc Presley-Clubb. Immediately I began to wonder, who was this man? Obviously he gave a marvelous and noteworthy performance; at least according to the trophy which was dated in the 1996-1997 season. However, I wondered why his award was being sold in an antique mall? And why for $21.95? This didn’t make sense, so I did some investigating. A quick google search  found that Mr. Presley-Clubb died on the 2nd of November 2018. Although I did not know this man I felt a little sadness in my heart. I did a little more investigating online and I stumbled across a video recording of a scene of the play that he had won the award for in the late 1990s. I watched it with unusual interest. The guy was funny! This, however, was the only record of any performance that he ever gave. At least that is all that I could find. When I looked at the views it had a respectable 5.8 thousand! I assume that after he died  at  the relatively young age of fifty two, his family and friends reminisced and watched the video. Now, here I sit today, reflecting. I am probably the only person who isn’t in his family that has any interest in watching it. 


As it has been three years since his passing; Knowing very little of him and being only able to see clips of his performance I wondered what he wanted in life. Perhaps this was the start of an acting career that he had dreamed of pursuing or maybe he was just intrigued like so many others and said why not try out? What have I got to lose! Nevertheless, although Chuc Presley-Clubb did not make it to the status of Elvis Presley, he still did something. He accomplished something. He made people laugh! In life we look too much at the big things that we forget about the little things that make our existences tolerable. Mr. Presley-Clubb might not be entertaining people today, but I know this; based on the laughter and merriment in the audience that day back in 1997 season, Chuc did what he was good at. He fulfilled his purpose in life by making other peoples evenings a little bit better. Isn’t that the reason why we act? A real actor should be doing it for the craft and should not expect an enormous amount of praise for the work. Even though I don’t know how Chuc really was as a human being, I will say this. He did what he had to do in the time in which he was living. Some people affect the world in big ways and others in little ways. It doesn’t really matter which way you do it, because in the end we all face the same fate. Chuc, at least for one night of the fifty two years he spent on planet earth, accomplished something that he enjoyed doing and others enjoyed watching. He left the world a little better for it.


Sunday, September 5, 2021

Welcome Robbie Hipkins to Craig & Jay's History of Anything!

 I welcome my son, Robbie Hipkins to Craig & Jay's History of Anything. Robbie is a senior in High School and is an aspiring actor and writer. His first post is Bubba and His Path. I hope you enjoy it!



A Lost Moment In Time: Bubba & his Path

 By Robbie: I can recall many fond memories from my formative years of a dog named Bubba. Bubba was not like most dogs of the modern day. Throughout the dog's entire life he lived and strolled with leisure around a certain quartet of houses where my father lives in North Carolina. I can distinctly remember the first time the dog came barging through the garage door like I was the intruder and this was his house! Indeed, it really was his abode. My dad didn't know it, but he came with the house! The dog lived a life of repetitiveness. His day would consist of going back and forth between four different houses. While visiting these houses he would get his daily dose of food from each of the suckers that lived there. Afterwards, he would most likely go hunt a squirrel or two, or collapse on the floor of whatever house he chose where he would let out a big fart; that would cause people to sometimes, on rare occasions, feel dizzy and faint!! 

 I choose to call this little snippet, Bubba's Path. Bubba, as long as I have been a resident at Hillside Drive, had always been there. It was as if he were a permanent resident that belonged to this street, and if removed would cause chaos and unbalance. I used to think: what is going to happen when the great Bubba finally dies? Could it be that Bubba is beyond death? That's impossible, I used to think, he has to die. He is an old dog! Probably as old as me and I am only a teenager! Finally, one day my question was answered. After almost a week of not seeing Bubba, my family and I began to get worried about what happened to the dog. We were told by our next door neighbors that Bubba had to be put down, because of the amount of pain he was in. At first, this made me cry, and it still does a little to this very day. The great Bubba of Hillside will no longer take his path around the quartet of houses on Hillside Drive. He has taken his final journey. Time has stopped ticking in his world. However, the memory is not gone. For as long as there are those alive that remember Bubba, he will not easily enter into the realm of oblivion. Nevertheless, one day, after living memory passes there will be no one to remember him; a big, friendly black dog with a full belly who left his mark. On that day, the only memory of Bubba would be if one happened to catch a glimpse of a ghostly canine strolling down the street, forever on his path.