Normally the types of things on the show were not here sort of thing. But recently there has been a series of episodes related to his relationship with Shannon Tweed (his formerly live-in girl friend).
The series starts when Simmons daughter sends a picture to Shannon of Gene out-on-the-town with a couple of very young girls. Later Gene comes home and is confronted by Shannon over the pictures and his lack of fidelity for the last twenty-some years.
At first Gene tries to smooth it over but eventually the issue of "trust" becomes so strong that Shannon moves out to a hotel for a period of time. As a result Gene begins counseling and over a period of time comes to realize that he in fact loves Shannon more than anything else. Finally he asks her to marry him (after living with her "happily unmarried for twenty eight years). The final episodes of this series aired last night and Gene marries Shannon.
This whole series (from the cheating episode through the wedding) have caused much discussion in the Wolf household at many levels.
For one, much of the back story is very familiar to us.
Gene (birth name Chiam Weitz) was born in Haifa, Israel and moved to the New York City in the 1950's. In the 1970's we had good friends Sam and Alice. Sam was also born in Israel during the same time frame and migrated to NYC in the 1970's. Sam looked a lot like Gene, possessed a number of the same mannerism and attitudes, and all-around was basically a pretty decent clone of Simmons (based on Simmons pictures from the early 1980's). His wife however, a Brooklyn girl, was not like Shannon in anyway.
Sam had fought in the '67 war as a 16 year old soldier. This gave him a similar sort of bravado as Simmons. We might be riding on the parkway in Queens with Sam and his wife and, while he was talking, we drove past our exit. Sam had no problem stopping in the middle of the road, backing up a few hundred yards, and making the proper exit.
We all decided that Sam must have learned to drive in the '67 war.
At his core Sam was like Gene in terms of achieving. I think this had something to do with being raised in Israel during its first few decades as a country. There was sort of a cowboy-type, wild west atmosphere that fed a young boy or man's bravado. Everyone started out poor after the war, everyone wanted to come to the US, everyone wanted to show they could succeed here.
Like Simmons Sam was a big supporter of America and the US military (particularly as the US and military supported Israel). At the time the only destination for Jews leaving Soviet-block countries. As immigrants I guess he felt a strong pull - his parents (like Simmons mother) had also immigrated.
Sam was also like Gene in working things to his advantage whether at work or play. We used to do a lot of camping with Sam and Alice in "the South." Often several families would gather in Virginia or North Carolina for a long weekend.
Sam would always bring some sort of fireworks. Of course all the campgrounds where strictly no-fireworks sorts of places. But that didn't stop Sam. I recall one time he launched some sort of spinning rocket which landed on a nearby camper's awning. It burned a hole though it. Sam, ever the salesman and schmoozer, ran over to retrieve the rocket and "smooth things overs." We could hear his harsh Israeli/New York accent rasping against the slow southern drawl of the nearby campers. Somehow he escaped without harm and with the rocket.
The Simmons/Tweed children are roughly the same ages as our (collective) friends - a bit young but only by a few years.
So from our perspective whenever we see Simmons on TV with think of Sam. Sam has been lost to time; now divorced from Alice. Mrs. Wolf still talks with Alice, how now lives in Florida.
At the same time Shannon, a mid-western girl from Saskatoon Canada, is surprisingly very much like us in many ways. Both Mrs. Wolf and I are from the mid-west. We moved to New York City in 1977. It was like moving to another country or world, even. At the time we had two children, Sam and Alice had one. We met at Mr. Casual's apartment one Thanksgiving in about 1978 or '79. We were neighbors of Mr. Casual and his wife (they also had a daughter) and they introduced us to Sam and Alice.
Our mid-western values and ways were foreign to NYC. Though our friends, including the Casual's and Sam and Alice, were all from outside of NYC for the most part we all saw things similarly, and we all disliked NYC. By 1981 we all left. By then Sam and Alice had another child as did Mrs. Wolf - in fact they were pregnant together during early '81. I remember them waddling around the streets of Brooklyn and Levittown together.
The Casual's moved away to Long Island and then Florida. Sam and Alice to California and then Virginia. Mrs. Wolf and I ended up in Pennsylvania.
What always strikes me from the Gene Simmons show is the dichotomy of the mid-western Shannon and the Israeli Gene. Mrs. Wolf and Sam always interacted in the same way.
A few years back we visited Alice in Florida. She had home movies (Super 8) from our time together some thirty years before. The footage, the sounds, the activities, all speak of the same age as the early Shannon/Simmons footage you see on the show. Obviously we were not at the Playboy mansion, but none the less there is still that same vintage feeling.
Over the years we have kept in touch with our good friends. Facebook today makes this easy and we crossed paths here and there. But thirty years is a long time. Alice now lives alone.
Unlike Shannon/Simmons we have been married for longer than their twenty eight years together and so our perspective is different. Mrs. Wolf would have none of this "living together" business either so, like Simmons, I had to grow up and be a man just like Gene - in 1977.
We laugh when watching the show commenting how Sam and Gene were probably neighbors or cousins in Haifa. It brings back a lot of these old memories.
(to be continued)
Link to the Anthropological Mom series.
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