10 and Lawrence Street, N.E. Washington D.C. 20017
From: Chris Wycliff <cwycliff@compuserve.com>
Subject: Stuff
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 00:01:31 -0400
John, what have I been doing since 1968? I'm almost afraid to say.
Emotionally, 1968 is like last week to me, but when I think of all the
water under the bridge, I begin to understand just how long ago it is. So,
the whirlwind tour ...
My family moved from DC to Texas two weeks after graduation which accounts
for why I was rarely seen around St. A's thereafter. That fall I went to
Notre Dame. I got out on the accelerated plan (in one semester!) with a
perfect average: 0.00. The administration was strangely unimpressed by my
curriculum (playing cards all night and sleeping all day) so they asked me
to leave. The nerve!
Got drafted in '70. Was fortunate to go to Germany instead of Vietnam.
After the army I worked for the phone company in Dallas for a while then
returned to school at St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM. Had a great time
freshman year; dropped out sophomore year. There's just no denying I had
lost the hang of the school thing.
Came back to Texas, worked a variety of jobs, and finally stumbled into
theater on a whim, mainly because I remembered the St. A's musicals with
great fondness. Worked with a touring theater company for a couple of
years and later got into film and tv. Yes, I was on Dallas. I was the
doctor in a jungle hospital in South America who gave the bogus Jock Ewing
a new face and - for the same low price - restored his memory. ("He had
amnesia. It's a way the mind has of protecting itself.") I never did find
out whether I was a plastic surgeon or a shrink! That was the high point
of my acting career, though I did get killed in a kung fu flick.
Along the way I had a daughter, Christina. Her mother and I had a very
rocky relationship (to put it mildly), and we broke up when Christina was
still a baby. Out of the many things I've managed to screw up, that was
the worst. Fortunately, Christina, at 20, is now doing well at Howard.
Also fortunately, I learned from experience. I've been married to Patricia
for 17 years now, and we have 3 children: Emily (11), Edward (9), and Julia
(8) who make me laugh all the time (when they're not making me cuss).
When Emily was a baby, I quit acting and got a real job so Pat could stay
home. I worked for a litigation support firm, Rust Consulting Group
(headquartered in Reston), until April of this year when the Houston office
was closed. I'm much too lazy to look for a job at this age so I started
my own firm, Wycliff Consulting, also specializing in lit support. So
far, business is good. We'll see what the future holds.
That's my tale in a nutshell. Thirty years down the road, the thing that
blows me away is the randomness of it all. In the younger days I somehow
expected to plan things, but it all just happens, usually before I even
know what's going on. If somebody had told me in 1968 that it would be
like that, I would have thought it a tragedy, but now ... it's just life,
and life is good.
One more thing. It's so great to hear your voices (figuratively, anyway)
calling up shared memories. The community - the St. A's family that Therese
spoke of - is remarkable and rare. Keep it alive!
Chris Wycliff