A few months ago, I landed on the Bacon Brothers’ facebook page and sent a friend request. They have almost five thousand friends, I reasoned. They can’t know them all.
Why did I want to be friends with the Bacon Brothers? It’s all about the younger brother. In fact, I knew nothing about Michael except that he had a famous sibling, and they formed a band. So I don’t really blame Michael for ignoring my friend request. But I think that Kevin should be my friend. For one thing, he’s a hometown boy. Okay, it’s true, lots of people are from Philadelphia. But there are other reasons.
We have eleven mutual friends, mostly people from Dobbs, the Philly rock and roll bar where I once ran the kitchen. I thought that would be the clincher.
Also, I’m a big fan. Yes, I know, the man has fans. Probably by the zillions. But I’m a dedicated one. When we lived in Japan, my daughter, Bonnie, and I spent hour after hour playing the Six Degrees of Separation game. We were champs, having seen every movie Mr Bacon had ever made. I think that should count for something, don’t you?
There’s more. I taught at the Parkway School in Philadelphia for a short time. In the office, pictures of him adorned the walls, and signs proclaimed, Kevin Bacon went here! I began to feel a connection. Then I got a job at the prestigious Julia Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School, not even knowing that the star had attended. That boy went to a lot of schools.
In a seventh-grade English class, I handed out a book, and asked the class to write their names inside. One boy yelled out, “Kevin Bacon had this book!”
“No way!” I said. Then a brouhaha erupted.
“He had this book.”
“No! He had this one!”
“Look! His signature is right here!”
“Who’s Kevin Bacon?” asked a student.
“You know, the Footloose guy,” came the reply.
“Did he go to school here?”
Kevin must have been a little devil as a seventh grader to have written his name in almost every book, I thought, for a split second. Some class of seventh graders years ago had probably organized this plot. Masterman students are nothing if not creative. We had a good laugh, and I felt closer still. Even the students felt the kinship.
So Kevin, if you happen to stumble upon this post, won’t you friend me? Please?
