Old Friends, Sit on a Park Bench like Book Ends

For every writer, performer, dancer or actor, there comes a time when you must arrive at the inevitable Big Bend in the Road, where you have to decide whether to keep plugging away at the dream you can't really see very well anymore, or just wise up and find a new career. Plot has been there and so has everyone in the business that he knows.

For a long time, when an artist friend would ask Plotnik's opinion, he would offer the example of his and Ducknik's old friends Hughie and Ruth. They lived across the street from the Plotniks in Shmecko Park, Stiletto City. Hughie and Ruth are actors, gifted and funny people, but, like most, they were finding it difficult to survive. At that time they had one daughter, Mollie, who was (is) The Great BZWZ's age.

When they finally had no more options, they decided to sell their home, take the equity, move to a smaller house, and probably get out of the biz for good. So they sold their house and moved away, and the Plotniks lost wonderful friends across the street.

The day AFTER they moved away, the very next day, Hughie got his first national McDonald's commercial. That was followed up by many, many, many more. When we say 'many' we mean MANY. Hughie's face became the comic face, the one that every sponsor wanted to use, convinced that mug would sell product. Hugh parlayed those commercials into an ongoing role on 'Cheers.' In the old episodes, you can see him sitting down the bar on the same side as Norm.

But maybe it wasn't inflow as much as outgo. Before too long, Hughie and Ruth had sold their new house and moved into a smaller one, and then they did it again and again. Meanwhile they had a second daughter, Margie. A few years ago they decided they'd had enough of Shmalifornia, sold their house in South Pas and moved the family to Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Plotniks have missed their old friends. It has never been a relationship of letters and emails.

But yesterday, Hugh and Ruth just showed up at World Headquarters! DANG! What a surprise and pleasure that was. They're doing fine, acting in local theater in Michigan, living less frenetic lives and every bit as funny as ever. Nothing has changed. That's the true beauty of old friends -- a few more pounds, a little more gray, but everything else stays the same. Nice.