Actor - Randall Gary Craig

This is my friend, Randy Craig. We've known each other since the 1st grade. We both grew up on the Northside of Chicago and remained best friends until my family moved to the suburbs just before I attended the 8th grade. Then we lost touch for about 33 years.

I remember when I was in 2nd grade getting upset with my parents and announcing I was running away from home. Where did I go? I went to Randy's house! I stayed there until it was time for dinner. Then I went home. Why? Because it was dinner time, that's why! :)

We had both "double promoted" and skipped the 3rd grade. I guess the school thought we were too smart for the 3rd grade... Later, Randy went on and skipped the 7th grade too (I had to take 7th grade.) Talk about a smart kid!

After our family moved away from Chicago, I kept wondering if I'd ever see Randy again. I really missed the guy because we were so close growing up. So for 33 years, all I could do was wonder what ever happened to him. Well, just last year, a mutual friend happened to mention Randy's name and I nearly flipped! "I didn't know you knew Randy Craig!" It turned out my other friend grew up in the same neighborhood as we did (I didn't know that either) and I had gone to elementary school with his sister, who of course knew Randy too. I told him I had always wondered what happened to Randy and he said, "Well why don't you look him up on the internet?" Hmmm.... never thought of that! We did a quick search and found a bunch of Randy Craigs on the internet but one really stuck out... the address was the same street address as where Randy had been when growing up! Could it be that this was the same guy I knew?

Hesitantly, I called the number listed and left a message on the answering machine stating who I was and asking that if he was the right Randy Craig to give me a call. Well, guess what! Randy had never moved from the same house he grew up in because he inherited the house from his parents! So for all these years, I could have simply found him again by going back to my old neighborhood!

It turns out that for years, Randy had also been wondering, "What ever happened to Russell Lowe?" Great minds think alike, I guess... :)

Well Randy is now an actor and has been seen on TV commercials, local plays and even a small budget movie called Carnivore which can be rented at some video stores. I'd probably seen him in various TV commercials over all these years and just never knew it was him!

It was interesting getting back in touch with someone I hadn't seen for 33 years and finding out he had been looking for me too. Amazingly, we could have both found each other by just doing a Google search. Hmmm... sometimes smart guys aren't really that smart I guess... I wonder if we had taken third grade that they would have taught us how to do research at that grade level?

Photo info: I shot this image of Randy when we first got back together. Shot against a plain wall, I decided to enhance the shot by Vignetting the image in Photoshop. It makes a basic shot look like a "studio portrait" doesn't it?