coloringbook

The Story of the Coloring Book

When I was 18 years old, my oldest brother gave this coloring book to me. He was on vacation and found it for sale and bought it as a gag gift.

I never knew anything like this was ever made. I remember looking through it. But I put it away for safekeeping.

Flash forward to the 1990s. My other brother and his family were living in Brooklyn at the time. One of their neighbors was Lauren Marie Taylor (Stacy on Loving). My sister-in-law said, "isn't Randy on that show?" (I guess my family never forgave me for holding the television hostage on Saturday nights). I said yes. My sister-in-law volunteered to get his autograph for me. My brother suggested I give her my coloring book to get it autographed.

The next time I saw my family, I reluctantly gave the coloring book to my sister-in-law, worried that I would never see it again. Six weeks later it was returned to me colored in as you see above. Lauren told my sister-in-law that Randy didn't want to give it back as he lost all of his memorabilia in a fire. Although Randy signed the inside cover, he didn't sign the page he colored in. That came later.

Silly me never asked to meet Randy on the set, considering it was filmed in Manhattan and I was living downtown at the time.

At some point, Randy left the series.

There was a benefit to raise money for some cause and I saw that Lauren Marie Taylor was going to be there. Mind you, I never met her. So I decided it was for a good cause and decided to go.

After all the speeches, the audience was allowed to mingle. I went over to Lauren and this is the conversation as I remember it.

"I'd like to thank you for something you did for me." I said.

"What did I do, sleep with your husband?" Lauren laughed.

I shook my head and smiled. "You had a coloring book signed…" I didn't finish.

"YOU'RE STEVE'S SISTER?" Lauren became animated. "We had so much fun coloring that book in. We gave Randy such a hard time about it." Lauren grabbed my hand and introduced me to other members of Loving and other ABC soaps as the girl who owns that coloring book. I don't remember what else was said but it was fun speaking with these actors.

My brother's family moved from Brooklyn and lost contact with Lauren. Randy returned to Loving. Let's say my timing has always been off.

I never understood why he signed it 'Artwork by Johnny himself', but didn't sign his name.

It's March 2002. After missing out on opportunities to meet Randy (still kicking myself for when Project 51 came to Long Island and I didn't go), I decided I had to go. My dear friend Pattie was going with her husband Alan. They picked me up and we went for the weekend.

I finally arrived at the time to meet Randy in person. I had several gifts for him, including a teal green pen and a squad 51 keychain. Pictures of that are on the MAW link.

When I pulled the coloring book out of my bag and Randy saw it, he sighed. But when I opened it, his eyes lit up. I opened it to the page he colored in 8+ years ago. "I remember doing this." Randy said to me. He rubbed his brow with his right hand as he looked at the book probably with memories coming back to him.

"Well why didn't you sign your name?" I scolded him.

Above his picture, his artwork, he finally signed the page to my attention.

I would have talked longer, but the security guard made me move along.

And that's the story of this coloring book. I have no idea how much it's worth but I have no intentions of ever selling it.

Janet

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