I have loved actor/great human being Richard Thomas since the 1970s and wrote tv scripts in an effort to meet him. I’d send them to earl hammer and receive them back with a black stamp on the front-Unsolicited material-return to a sender.

So, I wrote to one of the Walton’s scriptwriters and he WROTE me back. He included an actual Walton’s script and a letter telling me I had the ability to make words work for me.

I was celebrated and made my dad cry proud tears. Me too! There was a story about it in the local paper. Now I had something else to send with my college application in 2 years. I was floating. I was so happy-and I knew I was going to UCLA and MAYBE meet him one day.

I was 15 when I said this to my mom.

She told me she believed this was just a hoax, and it didn’t really come from him-maybe a secretary at the production company.

I said. I believed John McGreevy. She told me to write him and ask. I mailed it on a Tuesday and never heard from him again.

So now many decades later I’m at Theater Works watching Mark Twain Tonight with Richard Thomas and telling the story of the script to friends before the show. I catch myself almost bursting into tears as I recall the happiness I had when first opening the script.

The show was raw, edgy and funny just like Twain was in his day. RT was excellent as always. We talked for a few moments he signed my script and I told him I use to write scripts in an effort to meet him. He looked at me, signed the script and said Ha! What does Ha mean?

My friend Rosemary said it means you are a Fan. As I told her the above story-she said Your mom couldn’t let you have anything.

She was scared to Be left alone. My father hadn’t even died yet. That was next year—

Tuesday is Therapy!