Life's Learning Curve

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Paul revisits the beginning of Summer with a look back at the people and events that made Summer go great! Phil, Sue, his mom & dad and RUDY! The swim instructor with a permanent tan! In the end, Paul learns a couple thing: He learns how to swim AND He learns that nothing TOO GREAT in life lasts forever. 

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Paul's guest is a  stand up comic,  a graphic artist, a puppeteer, a photographer, a voice artist, and a TV producer/performer, Paul welcomes TV’s John DiDonna. Life stories range from humorist innovator Ernie Kovacs to Chico Marx to a manic bus driver. John’s life is a shared comedic tone poem, His show called TWITS ran in the late 1980s and included some of these elements: Crazy Kenny, Mr. Friendly, Manny Moe and Jack, impersonations of Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood and MORE! This show is a celebration of a man who dedicates his life to making others laugh.

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Guest Dave Wormington has a super-talent. Since birth, Dave has inspired others to excel and do their best. Taking a step further, Dave provided an unexpected volume of encouragement, or as Paul calls it, tubthumping. Stories of bands, writing music, nuns, 70s hair for guys and the bass guitar fill this episode. Many people inspire and encourage, but Paul believes Dave’s uncanny ability to extend his passion for helping others that makers the difference in this unique man. Guest David Wormington brings stories, humor, irony and depth to this episode.

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This episode takes Paul back to camp within two different time frames. Enthusiastic and engaged Rusty and Hilda June directed the field campus and helped create the magic of outdoor education when Paul’s class spent a week there as  a twelve year old. At age 20 Paul returned as a part of his teacher training. But the second time, things were quite less magical and of- putting. Something had happened to Rusty and Hilda June that upset the balance of the camp. A blizzard, an offensive set of singer-songwriter originals, Tommy’s intestinal fortitude and a game of Duck Duck Goose gone bad, These variables ALL contribute to this episode about life’s changes and adjustments.

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From the moment 16 year old Paul entered high school that spring day, usually an invisible student, he had some celebrity, but did not know why. Someone named Joey Malone was looking for Paul. Joey had spread the word that he wanted payback, and that Paul had done something really bad to him. Joey meant to get even with Paul, and he wanted to fight! Until the punch hits its target, Paul’s mouth, Paul STILL had no idea why Joey or anyone else was angry with him. Miscommunication, ego and plain ol’ lies would begat suspensions in school and a record with the police.  This episode contains stitches (twice) as well as an unexpected car break in.  Just when you think you have got everything understood in your life, something leaps out of the shadows and punches you in the mouth.    Episode 60      Season 4

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At age 18, it was the first summer Paul took a summer job that was different from the others. This job quickly became awkward, demoralizing, nightmarish and yet, somehow funny to him. It was as if Paul was participating in a Hitchcock film with a guy named Anthony. Paul’s sense of humor and lack of life’s experiences collide as he is trapped in a fight or flight situation.  Getting a summer job was necessary for Paul. But what was NOT necessary …Working with a man with an intent to harm. This nonfiction episode is a nod to the suspense filled episodes of classic radio of the 1940s and 1950s. 

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WHAT A RIDE?!?!? How did you choose your career? Did you choose it? Did it choose you, or was it fate?  As we enter Season Four of Life’s Learning Curve Paul finally shares one of the MOST embarrassing stories of his life: Just HOW he chose his career field.  Paul also explains where that career took him and how adding new technology to education probably saved him. In this episode mentors, losers, winners, motivators, Inspirers, great students and a national award or two are episode content.  

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Ed not only delivered children from school to their homes daily on good ol’ bus 39, he also delivered kindness, patience and friendship.  People just like Ed came into Paul’s live on occasion. For a brief time, Ed was a living legend to Paul, but do legends truly live on forever? Do you know anyone exceptional like Ed? Everyone deserves some deserved appreciation; a smile & a kind word back to them. It may make their day. Proactive small steps of regard can turn someone’s life around. Let them know you appreciate them. After all, tomorrow is not promised.

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It wasn’t the soft breeze and tropical sunny warmth that hooked Paul on St. Martin, it was the adventure. That is, until that adventure went off the rails. Break ins, theft, corruption, and organized crime, and bunco schemes all existed in the dank underbelly of the tropical island. Hangers on from the last hurricane rebuild had stayed on the island and now hid out and pretended to be locals. NOT GOOD. ADVICE: When you go on holiday to the Caribbean, exist on the surface of the beautiful island, and DO NOT stray too far from your resort where crime and huge BUNCO schemes abound. Sometimes vacation adventures can lead you astray.

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Life threw Bob a curve ball, misleading him at a young age. You can’t control the curve balls life throws at you. so you have to learn how to change or adapt, sometimes quickly so that life’s curve balls don’t take you too far down the wrong path. Bob always knew the man he would like to be, so throughout his life he found role models and mentors for himself, but NONE OF THEM had immediate impact of a colossal world event. A man never gets so old that he forgets what it was like being a young boy. This episode finds Bob maneuvering baseball’s literal curve ball, AND the curve balls life hurls at us.

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