EricDSnider.com reviews movies and writes humor articles
Title
www.ericdsnider.com - The Official Website of Eric D. Snider
Description
THE YEARS OF SCARRING
Eric D. Snider was born on August 26, 1974, a day which will live in infamy, in the small town of Hemet, California, which is to this day mostly inhabited by old people. There is a bank and/or a Sizzler on every corner. Fortunately, Eric never had to live there after his birth; his parents, Rocky and Laurie Snider, lived in nearby Lake Elsinore, and that is where they, for want of a better word, "raised" Eric and the five children who ensued. They were and are active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons," as the news media call them.
Eric had a relatively normal and happy childhood, until the time he was oh, about 2 days old. From then on, things got weird. When he entered school at age 5, it became apparent that he was one of those "smart kids," the kind all the other kids hate. For a while it was fine, because when kids are that young they don't care too much about differences among themselves. Minority children, handicapped children, smart children, all types of children are loved and accepted by their fellow youngsters up until about the age of 8 or 9. That's when kids have learned to hate, having been taught, as they should be, in the home by their parents and television. By the time fifth grade rolled around, Eric had no friends, having grown into quite a young nerd. He did not wear glasses at that time (thank goodness), but in dress, demeanor, and words, he was grade-A, 100%, USDA Choice Nerd. He had started using his middle initial, D., in fourth grade for no apparent reason, but it probably made him seem pompous to the others. It also did not help that his teachers, following the time-honored teachers' tradition of promoting the social destruction of young people, treated him exceedingly Different, making him their "Teacher's Pet." This infuriated the other students and caused even more ill feelings between the two warring factions.
Things continued in this manner until seventh grade. At some point during this year, Eric began to realize that he was occasionally able to make people laugh. Sure, they'd been laughing at him for years, and he had vowed revenge. But now he was learning to be funny intentionally. He found a few friends who had similar senses of humor, and they fostered one another's delinquency. Eric had been writing "funny" poems, songs, and stories for a couple years, but they had only amused his teachers. Now, he began to show them to others, with no noticeable side effects. In the midst of the Iran-Contra scandal of 1987, Eric wrote and recorded a mock interview with Ronald Reagan and sent it to the Dr. Demento Show, a nationally syndicated radio program that features such things. (This is the show whence sprang "Weird Al" Yankovic.) To his delight, Dr. Demento played the thing in May of that year, and another of Eric's little ditties a few weeks later. No one ever asked to hear them again, but it was a good start. (To the right, Eric pesters Dr. Demento while he is live on the air in 1991.) Eric began to compile enough odd recordings to make a complete "album," which he enterprisingly sold amongst his peers and the people at church. Two more "albums" (actually cheap copies made on cassette) were to follow, with Eric adopting the name "Eccentric Eric" D. on all of them. For the first time, Eric began to have hopes of being elected Best Sense of Humor, instead of the perennial Most Likely to Succeed. This wish was never fulfilled. (In fact, when he began to slack off in high school, he even stopped being named Most Likely to Succeed.)
Contact
- Jeff Snider
-
- Eagle Mountain Utah
- United States 84005
-
- 801-434-7197
