A Brief History of theMangoTimes

Although you’re reading this in “blog” format, that’s not how theMangoTimes began its life.

In 1995, after graduating from dental school, I packed up the family minivan and headed to the northwest corner of California for my first job as a "real" dentist. I spent one month working in a dental clinic on a small Native American reservation on the Trinity River (the home of Bigfoot…Sasquatch…the Yeti).

Instead of just dropping me off, I somehow convinced Kendra to stay with me (It was an adventure and back then she was a pushover for my antics). For one month we lived in a one bedroom Best Western motel room with our two sons (age 2 and 6months at the time). While I practiced dentistry and we explored the area, I began to send out a weekly email to a small group of family and friends, detailing our adventures. Although you are reading this in “blog” format, this is not how theMangoTimes began it’s life. I called it “The MangoTimes” because I sent it from my first email account MangoAndy@aol.com (back when AOL distributed their free software on floppy disks). It was an email-log of our experiences (not technically a weblog, but it had the heart of what I do here today…so I like to think of it as the original weblog).

At the time, Jimmy Buffett had a newsletter called "The Coconut Telegraph," named after one of his songs. In the song, Jimmy sings about a fictional gossip column that reports all the weekend happenings in a small island community. The gist? You didn’t want your name showing up in The Coconut Telegraph. You can listen to a clip of the song here!

I loved the idea of a newsletter or gossip column, so when we returned home, I kept chronicling our family adventures. I stuck with the tropical theme and paid homage to another Buffett song, “The Last Mango In Paris” and theMangoTimes was born.

Initially theMT was a monthly email and then I learned how to load it on the web. I began discussing everything from bad candy to 1970′s cartoons to really bad parental myths (knuckle popping, etc…). It was easy to write once each month. Eventually life got really busy (we started having kids by the bucket loads) and I worked hard at building my business. It just took too much time to write, upload, and design a webpage. In 2008, I discovered blogging. I enjoyed the new twist and the new forum. No longer a slave to monthly writings and deadlines, I now blog, update and write as things pop across my "make-believe" editor's desk.

theMangoTimes continues to be a place for me to poke fun where I deem appropriate. I offer comments on a few of my favorite topics including: my parents, my childhood, television, candy, old friends, ridiculous church behavior, faith-less phariseeism, dopey homeschoolers, and anyone that let's a cat sleep in their bed.

Let's Connect

I will tell you the funny stuff that the kids and grandkids say and we’ll try to encourage you to read, watch a movie, or try something I liked. One last fact…I don’t like mangos. I like coconuts, pineapples, papayas, passionfruit, kiwi, and any other tropical fruit that goes into a drink…but I’ve never been fond of the mango – they are too bitter or something. It works for my blog, but don’t buy me one thinking I’ll be excited. I won't. Feel free to send in your thoughts or comments on the Let's Connect button above. I love hearing from my readers.