Me, Myself, and I (the three stooges):

Why me? Allow me to tell you a little about myself: I was raised on a 160 acre farm in southwest Ohio, but had no desire to farm as an adult. I had (or so I thought) a show-business bug in me, and I thought I would someday star in a popular sit-com or tour the country doing stand-up comedy, or perhaps even be on the silver screen. One look at my performance in Arsenic and Old Lace (our senior play in high school) quelled these aspirations and so I went on to college. I never shook the show-biz thing completely, however, and so when my dad moved to Winter Haven, FL I knew I had to give Disney a shot. I had interviewed one summer while still in high school at the trailers on Reams Road (that was before the Argyle sock building) and was told I should come back when I was older. I did, and was hired into MK West attractions in June of 1990. I started at The Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes (the wild west, coon-skin-cap version of Jungle) and loved it - when the Canoe season ended I decided to leave college and move to Orlando permanently. Then I was trained at Jungle - I know this is hard for many of you to believe, but I really wanted to be trained at Jungle - I had a vision of these great comedic explorers and I would give anything to be a part of that clan (hey, I was a kid). Some veteran Skippers tried to talk me into Mansion or Thunder, but I wanted to Shoot the Hippos!!

I spent the next three years working Jungle, getting discouraged and moving back to Ohio, getting Jungle sick and moving back to Orlando - some of you know the drill. During that time I re-created a Jungle Cruise Newsletter called The Jungle Skipper Gnus, a sort of forerunner to what we have here now (see History). I finally conceded that I could not live on pixie dust (see September's editorial) and left Orlando for good (for now) for Atlanta - the home of my new girlfriend (profuse apologies yet again, KW, if you're out there) and got into Radio as a DJ (my only other marketable skill, since Atlanta had no Hippos in need of shooting). Side Note: A lot of people don't know this, but I actually did a short stint at Universal Studios on Jaws: The Ride. No Hippos, but man did they give us a HUGE gun!!! And what a Shark!!

I never forgot my Jungle Days, however, and before long my pining for blue-green-brown waters and brightly colored canopies led me to revive my newsletter, this time as an Alumni publication. I did the first issue in print, but it proved to be more trouble than it was worth - in postage alone. Meanwhile, my girlfriend became my wife, my brother-in-law got me into computers, I left the radio station to be a full time compu-geek, and decided to put The Jungle Gnus Report online. That's when it hit pay-dirt. Since that first online issue, nearly eight thousand hits, tons of e-mail, even several ICQ messages poured in to let me know that I wasn't the only one who was proud to be a Jungle Skipper. And I can't tell you how grateful I am for that - for your comments, your suggestions, your submissions, and your excitement. So allow me to Thank You all for that, and let me assure you that I will continue to work hard to keep this thing going. More features are on the way (next month we add the art gallery), and as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming!!!