Dennis Forkel:
CLASS OF 1980
Birdlebough High SchoolClass of 1980
Phoenix, NY
SUNY College at OswegoClass of 1985
Oswego, NY
Dennis's Story
Well, if you check the q & a you'll find I was a geek & a nerdling back in the day, exceptionally uncool & mostly unnoticed by the majority at JCB. Didn't quite fit into ANY category. Lousy grades, so no Honor Roll Society. No coordination, so no athlete-though coach Hendrickson was always great about trying to make me feel worth SOMETHING in that gym class. Didn't play any instruments or sing, so band & choir were out-though I enjoyed listening to A Dozen plus 12 as directed by Janet Bailey. Didn't smoke ciggys or dope, so wasn't a HEAD hanging out in the bathroom or behind the stadium bleachers. BUT-thanks to Mr. Thomas R. Pierce the AV director I learned all about 16mm projectors, recorders, video machines, proper mike & amp usage, etc. I managed to become adept at running sound & lighting equipment for the school shows. This led me into becoming a theater major at SUNY Oswego at 19, after a year of bumming around & getting on my parents' nerves following my getting the boot from Mr. James P. Granozio, ex-Marine & poor man's Al Pacino lookalike, due to lack of attendence at JCB. Geez & Cowabunga, Mrs. Dietz wouldn't like that last RUNALONG SENTENCE!, Ah well, I was always a class clown during her English period & she didn't like me much anyways-I was too much of a smart mouth!
Well, I had a year at Oswego, then panicked when Dad got transferred to Virginia for a job-so i followed the family. Big mistake! I shoulda stayed at Oswego, or at least transferred down to SUNY Albany- a city where I was born & had many relatives. So I lingered in Virginia for a year while working the Pizza Hut gig, then ran not walked out to Cali, baby, to become a star! A-Hem, yes well that didn't quite take off, so I wound up doing just a few plays, extra work, & even auditioned for a Purina Puppy Chow commercial all decked out in hoe-...Expand for more
down garb, You should've seen me in overalls & a straw hat-Sir John Gielgud NOT! I did manage several acting classes & workshops, including one by Kathleen Freeman. Remember "da penguin" in both Blues Brothers movies? "Elwood, watch your language!"-WHACK!!! Yep, that was her, may she rest in peace-gone these seven years past.
All in all, I used up 17 years of my earthly time in California just being a regular working slob, never getting any degrees of any kind. So I'm just an undereduated BUM! In 2000 I moved from Cali to the Indianapolis area where most of my immediate family were now living-father, mother, sister, & her kid my nephew(not my favorite one either-that would be my brother's kid the academic overachiever & musician).
My return to the family fold was predestined, as in 2003 my father starting failing in health & took 3 years to slowly decline & die. Yes, low blood pressure, high cholesterol, prostate cancer & colon surgery tended to knock him off his behind a tad. Course 'twould seem that 50 plus years of heavy smoking & constant drinking were salient preventers of his not receiving more than the biblical allotment of three score and ten in his years. And so he made his transition from earthly life to something more ethereal in Feb.2007. I carried his ashes in a blue gymbag from Indiana to upstate New York; we sprinkled his remains up at the family farm where he grew up. You can see a pic of the farmhouse in which he lived in my photo gallery here.
In the meantime I have taken up the gauntlet of the thespian vocation once again, & have gotten back into the acting track here in Hoosier-land. I might well be a 47 year old "Overnight sensation" yet! Remember the name & face, it may amuse you someday. Now it's time to play some John McCormack or Billy Murray on the 1921 Victrola X, and so, good night.
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