Under The Influence
February 1, 2025
Under The Influence
I've decided it's time for me to become an influencer. I'm not sure what an influencer is but since they seem to be everywhere it shouldn't be too hard to find out. I think it might have something to do with fame, so I decided to give it some thought to see if I'd ever been touched by fame. Maybe that will help me become an influencer.
I had my first brush with famous people when I was just a kid and learned that a Joseph Glidden had invented barbed wire right here in DeKalb. It was a mighty invention still celebrated, if a bit of a double-edged sword: it changed cattle ranching in the west along with America's beef consumption, but also made concentration camps possible. I'm not sure how that might have influenced me since I've never invented anything, certainly not anything that would win the west or even the east for that matter.
Around those same years I remember a lot of people in town talking about the alleged (often debated) DeKalb native Barbara Hale who, along with Raymond Burr, starred in the long-running TV series Perry Mason. Occasionally she would appear in homecoming parades or other local celebrations. I did appear in homecoming parades with my high school band but I don't think it was because of her influence.
She, however, had nowhere near the impact that true native Cindy Crawford had. One of the local myths, possibly true, was that Cindy was valedictorian in her high school class. I never met her but I was friends with her dad. Dan Crawford and I were in the same class in high school. Cindy, of course, grew up to become a famous model. I've never modeled anything except, occasionally, good behavior.
Perhaps more impactful was the time in 1957 when I was at the national Boy Scout Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. We were told to line up along a pathway to greet some big shot who was slowly moving up the path accompanied by several other men. At one point he stopped in front of me, shook my hand, and said, "Good job." His name was Richard Nixon. While I might have been impressed by a big-time politician, I was also at an age where I was much more influenced by girls – that's why I wore white bucks shoes and rolled my jeans up at the cuffs.
Seriously, as I think about it, my real influencers were not at all famous: Sosensky, Schrag, Morgenroth, Gelven, Vereen, Gotesky, and no small number whose names I've forgotten. They were my teachers, and not a one of them ever got up on the desk or danced around the room or threw video images up on the wall. They were simply smart and articulate and believed in what they were doing and made me want to be that way, too.
Which leads me to wonder: I taught for around ten years. Maybe I was already an influencer and didn't know it.
G.K. Wuori ©2025
Photoillustration by the author