These were my responses: blonde | archery | Pancho Helty | become an engineer.
To get the boring stuff out of the way, I'm still shooting the same bow I acquired back in junior high and I do hold an engineering degree from the university of Alabama - Auburn.
Now for the interesting stuff. Blonde?
This was likely teenage me trying to be funny, because most folks who know me could tell you Navy blue is my favorite color. If it wouldn't get vetoed by Andrea, every room in this house would be some slight variant of deep, dark Navy blue.
Besides, blondes weren't my type. As I sit here typing this, I'm thinking back on all my crushes. She was a brunette...and she was brunette...and, well, her hair was chestnut brown, but close enough. Yep, they were all brunettes.
For example, nearly every guy at that time had that poster of Farrah Fawcett displayed prominently on their bedroom wall. It was a pervasive as Klimt's "The Kiss" would be on sorority girls' dorm rooms a few years later. Meanwhile, I instead found Jaclyn Smith utterly captivating.
I may have given a passing glance to Cheryl Ladd when she joined the show, but I think that was more about the white Mustang Cobra II that she drove.
For full disclosure, there was a time in my life when I did have a pinup poster of Suzanne Somers. But the poster wasn't something I sought out; I'd won it as a prize for selling candy bars in a school fundraiser. When I hung it in my room, Mom harumphed and Dad chuckled.
A few years later, I was catching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in a movie theater with my lifelong friend and de facto older brother, Noel. We were being typical kids and low key cutting up early on, but suddenly, Kirstie Alley splashed onto the big screen. Whatever smack talk I was dishing to Noel at the time stopped mid-sentence, and all I could muster was a whispered, "Whoa!"
At the time I didn't even know her name, but the flowing hair, full Trek regalia uniform, and even the ears were working for me. Noticing my sudden stupor, Noel nudged me hard, "Hey, Doofus, close your mouth before you wind up swallowing a fly!"
Astute readers will, right about now, be asking an obvious question. "Wayne, for a guy who's obviously hard-wired for brunettes, how did Andrea catch your eye?"
Voodoo - the potent, red-headed variant against which there is no defense. And I'm actually good with that.
"No, Wayne, we actually meant the other obvious question. What the hell is Pancho Helty?!"
Ah, yes. That.
When your last name is Capuyan, you're accustomed to an infinite array of alternative spellings of your own last name being foisted upon you. Surprisingly, the newspaper staff correctly spelled my last name, but during the editing process, my favorite song was whacked beyond recognition.
The song in question was a duet by country legends Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard released my freshman year. It went all the way and claimed the number one spot on the country charts, finished the year at number 6, and was eventually added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. The correct name was "Pancho and Lefty", and even today it's a recurring track on many of my playlists.
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