Peggy Rowe - About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known: Ruminations and Revelations from a Desperate Mother to Her Dirty Son

About Your Father

And Other Celebrities I Have Known

Ruminations and Revelations from a Desperate Mom to Her Dirty Son

2020 Peggy Rowe

All rights reserved.

No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, and photographic, including photocopying, recording or by an information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Published by Forefront Books.

Cover Design by Bruce Gore, Gore Studio Inc.

Interior Design by Bill Kersey, KerseyGraphics

Jacket front photography by Michael Segal

ISBN: 978-1-948-67744-8

ISBN: 978-1-948-67745-5 (eBook)

DEDICATION

To our three sons: Mike, Scott, and Phil, who continue to be my inspiration. You will undoubtedly recognize and appreciate this man I have portrayed with love and humor. Thanks for being such an integral part of our lives and for making the occasional cameo appearance in this book.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T HANKS TO FRIEND, EDITOR, AND writer Michele Wojo Wojciechowski who was the first to read these stories. When you laughed out loud, I knew they were good enough to share. I appreciate your great suggestions.

Thanks to Lisa Stilwell who edited my manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and with kindness. You made it look like a real book, Lisa. You really are great at what you do!

Where would I be without the loyal staff at MRW Productions who are there for me every day of the week? I so appreciate your help, Mary, Jade, Chuck, Shari, Lara, Libby, and Melanie. You are like family!

Thank you, Forefront Books and Jonathan Merkhpublisher, friend, taskmaster, and hand holder-in-chief. Lets do this again someday.

To son Mike Rowe who clearly doesnt understand the concept of old age and retirement. Thanks for always being there, Mike. You make work seem like fun.

FOREWORD

S EVERAL YEARS AGO, MY PARENTS began receiving checks in the mail for seemingly random amounts of money. The checks arrived every week and prompted dozens of concerned phone calls from my father.

Hello?

Michael. It happened again.

Hi Dad. What happened again?

The checks. We got two more today. One for me. One for your mother.

Hey, thats great! I said. Money for nothing, chicks for free!

What?

Never mind, I said. Its a line from a song.

Whats going on here, Michael? Why do these people keep sending us money?

Because you earned it, Dad. Welcome to the world of advertising.

But we already did the work. Weve already been paid. I didnt agree to any of this extra money.

Its not extra money. Its a residual check. Enjoy it!

My father sighed. He and my mother had filmed some commercials with me for Viva paper towels several months before. Neither had expected to be paid. They looked at the whole experience as a field tripa chance to hang out in Hollywood with their oldest son and maybe run into some celebrities. Now these unexpected paychecks were generating questions.

Why are they always for different amounts? This is the third week in a row, and the amounts are never the same. Somethings wrong here.

Nothings wrong, Dad. Some weeks the commercials air more than others. The more they air, the more you make.

Well how long do these Viva people plan on airing these commercials?

I dont know. Maybe a year? Maybe more?

Maybe? What do you mean, maybe? How am I supposed to plan for the future if these Viva people keep sending me money whenever they feel like it? And what about all these withholdings? What does R-SAG CONTR mean? Or CASDI? Do you have any idea how much tax California takes? Good grief, Michael, what have you gotten me into?

Reread that last paragraph, and youll begin to understand the essence of John Rowe. Only a man like my father can refuse to cash a paycheck he doesnt believe hes earned, while agonizing over deductions he doesnt believe he owes. This is the man my mother has lived with for sixty years. A man she still calls her Prince Charming (with varying degrees of irony). A meticulous man who provided for a family of five on a schoolteachers salary. A passionate man who worked in community theater for fifty years, purely for the joy of it. A frugal man who, to this day, will spend an hour online taking a McDonalds survey in order to get a code that gets him a free Quarter Pounder when he buys one at the regular price. This is the man youre about to meet. This is my father.

I remember the day we filmed that Viva commercial in Los Angeles. The goal was to demonstrate that Viva paper towelsin spite of their festive namewere tougher than the competition. Tough, even when wet! That was the message the agency wanted to impart, so I proposed a very personal approach, with a campaign called Pigpen Comes Home. In the spot, I would arrive at my parents housefresh from a Dirty Jobs shootcovered in grime. From their living room, Mom and Dad would see me walking up their driveway and arm themselves with rolls of Viva paper towels. Then theyd follow me around their house, wiping off everything I touched while engaging in witty banter. Clever, right?

My mother writes about this day in great detail, because the Viva commercial shoot was the beginning of her great Hollywood adventure. But Mom left out a few details. She neglected, for instance, to mention that the photo on the cover of this book was taken that very same day. In between takes, I had asked the photographer to get a shot of my parents posing as the stoic farmers in Grant Woods iconic painting, American Gothic.

Why? said my father. What does American Gothic have to do with selling paper towels?

Nothing, Dad. But we have a professional photographer on hand and a pitchfork. Besides, you never know when a photograph like this might come in handy. My father frowned, the way he always does he finds my explanations lacking.

Whats my motivation? he asked.

Your what?

You know, my motivation. Whats driving my character? What sort of expression should I have on my face?

The look on your face right now is perfect, I said.

My father sighed some more and shook his head, as my mother assumed an equally dour expression. Who knows, John, maybe this will be the cover of a book one day?

My father snorted. A book? Whos going to buy a book with us on the cover?

It was a reasonable question. Back in 2012, my eighty-year-old father had no way of knowing his seventy-five-year-old wife was destined to become a bestselling author. In those days, she was just another aspiring writer, sending her oldest son an ever-growing collection of stories, letters, emails, and texts. During the Viva shoot, I recall her scribbling feverishly on yellow legal pads. She scribbled in her trailer, she scribbled during lunch, she scribbled on the set. Little did I know, her scribblings would turn into two books. And little did my father know, hed wind up on the cover of this one, holding a pitchfork and staring solemnly into the camera, looking very much like the man he is. A man with questions.