MY LIFE IN PHOTOS - DEKALB & ARI
Much of our time in DeKalb, Illinois centered around Ari who was born just one month before we arrived there. We moved because Blanche, who had gotten her doctorate at Indiana University in Art Education, became a professor at Northern Illinois University. I had no work and became a house husband, although I also wrote a movie called JACOB’S LADDER and made some small films, one for the local library and other industrial movies in Chicago.
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Blanche was a very happy mother, although teaching and nursing became a major effort. There was a lot of pumping milk and trips between our new home and the classroom.
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We bought our first home in DeKalb thanks to the sale of BRAINSTORM. The joy of having a second son was overwhelming.
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Josh was a curious and loving big brother. It was odd for him having been an only child for eight years, to welcome in a sibling so late in his life, but he handled it well.
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Josh and Ari watching TV together.
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Brothers.
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Ari as an inquisitive child.
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A telling photo. Josh has always been the more playful of my kids and Ari the more serious. It is no coincidence that Josh is a video game writer and Ari is an attorney.
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I loved the early years of my kid’s lives. I was much better at pushing swings and playing in sandboxes than playing baseball.
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Ari was a joyful child. I felt lucky being with him at home and not having to go out to work at a job.
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I loved playing with Ari on the floor of our house. It was at a time when I could still stand up on my own without any help. Ah, youth.
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Josh in front of the TV, a centerpiece of DeKalb life.
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Having two kids was in some ways more than I could have hoped for. The DeKalb years were a real time of family bonding. Soon moving to LA and full-time work in the the movie business would change all that, although, luckily, being a writer, I mostly worked from home.
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Ari getting his first haircut in our living room.
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Ari preparing to address the court.
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Ari with his sweatshirt fresh from MGM where I had just gone to watch the filming of my film, BRAINSTORM. Tragically, the star of the film, Natalie Wood, died just days after I returned home. It was a strange period of sadness and hope.
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Blanche and me outside of my parent’s West Bloomfield home. My film BRAINSTORM had recently opened and it was about to change our lives. Brian De Palma told us that if I wanted a career in Hollywood I would have to move there. Blanche took that seriously and heroically quit her job at the university. We sold our house months later and, with nothing but hope and a lot of faith, moved to LA.
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A family photo in the sitting room off of our upstairs bedroom. It was the beginning of 40+ years of Holiday cards and family photos that continue to this day.
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Our family kitchen in DeKalb. After 6 years growing up in an ashram in Bloomington, Indiana, it was strange for Josh to be in a nuclear family but it was wonderfully bonding for us all.
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This is us somewhere in Illinois. A truly happy family.
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This is us in my parent’s West Bloomfield home. I can tell by the chord organ behind me. We visited them often and the whole Detroit family would come to greet us. We were always welcomed.
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This is me in front of the National Theater in Westwood, California. It was proof to me that I was actually a screenwriter. Months later we were living in Northridge, in the San Fernando Valley just 18 miles from where I am standing.
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