HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY, SHANE!

Photos personally selected by Shane Cashin

Gather 'round children, I'm going to tell you a story...

Six years ago today Mike Rosman crashed over at our house after a nearby gig. We stayed up late watching clown videos and talking shop.

Terry was quite pregnant and in her fourth week of doctor ordered bed-rest. We woke up on December 5th, 2002 to the first big snowstorm of the season and the worst in several years. By 7 AM there was already about 8 inches of snow on the ground with no end in sight.

Michael and I got up to shovel the driveway and walk so that Terry could make a doctor's appointment she refused to cancel. The doctor's office is only a few miles away but I was concerned about the roads. She was adamant. Her Mom arrived to pick her up and they drove off in some of the worst conditions imaginable. 

Not long after she arrived there she called to say that she had arrived safely but the doctor had determined that she was sending Terry to the hospital and that she was going to induce her right away.

Michael wished me well before heading off on what I'm sure was five or six hour of an awful trip home to Reisterstown. I grabbed Terry's suitcase and started off to the hospital to join my wife and mother-in-law driving into what was now a full-fledged blizzard.  At about 6:00 PM my friend John was able to make it over to the hospital from the Red Bank train station after work with some coffee and donuts. By then there was about 2 feet of snow on the ground. 

At 9:11 PM (during the commercial break of an episode of Will and Grace) we all met Shane for the first time.

He didn't just "enter" this world. He exploded into it, Evel Knievel-style. He rocketed out and the doctor caught him from what seemed like three feet away like she was catching a football.

Two days later he was released from the hospital and Terry took him across town to meet Knucklehead and I at our Santa gig at the Galleria in Red Bank. Our first family photo...

Since then he's been known around here by many names... Schmoove Baby Shay Shay, Poo-Poo Magoo, Pee-Pee Magee, Pootie McDiapermuffin, il Bastardo, the Red Menace, Prince Charmless, Nerdlinger, Doof Magoof, Shanye West but most often he's known around here as "Buddy Boy".

So in honor of the Buddy Boy's sixth birthday I've invited him to choose the clowns that he'd like to see featured on today's clownalley.net.

In the order that they occurred to Shane, here they are:

Lou Jacobs (photo supplied by Jeff Darnell) 

Barry Lubin (cartoon by Rocco Paris) 

Drew Richardson

Mr. Noodle (Bill Irwin) 

Andrew Scharff

and Daddy Clown!

Happy Birthday, Buddy Boy!