Halloween 1980

I wasn’t even aware of the existence of this video until one of my sons found it about five or six years ago (around 2021-22). Maybe it didn’t exist until someone else found it in some archive and posted it to YouTube.

But it’s a tremendous time capsule for me. I, along with some friends, was strolling down Illinois Avenue (aka “The Strip”) in Carbondale on Halloween 1980. This was my third fall at SIU-Carbondale. I was about two or three years older than most of my peers because I didn’t enter university until the fall of 1978, when I was already 20, about to turn 21. Here I am 23.

All of a sudden, I noticed what was clearly a professional camera crew and interviewer and I walked right up to them and introduced myself. So typical of me at that point in my life: more than a bit full of myself. This episode of John Candy’s Roadshow series must have aired sometime that fall, though as I say I never saw it.

Here is the full video. The clips that specifically feature me are excerpted below.

From the bags under my eyes, it looks like I was partying very hard in the days prior. Just sayin’.

Interviewer: “Are you worried about (entering the real world)?” Me: “Oh, you bet I am.” OMG, haha. Just spill your guts there, Chris.

“What do you want to do?”