Gheorghe: The Yearbook

Unlike some of your more mainstream, corporate blogs, we at Gheorghe: The Blog – in the vein of our namesake and inspiration – don’t keep you the reader at arm’s length. We speak plainly and conversationally, right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand. Patronizingly so.

We also share of our personal lives in ways many of our counterparts in the ‘sphere do not. You know our bad habits, our flaws, and our shortcomings. Mostly Rob’s, but to some extent, all of ours.

The last link in the chain, the last hook-eye fastener in the corset, if you will, is meeting us. G:TB Summits have been discussed, planned, aborted, and laughed about. We’ll see if it ever happens. With our roster expanding like MLB in the latter half of the 20th century, it could prove logistically difficult.

In lieu of a meet, greet, and get three sheets, we’ve tried in the past to provide you some evidence of what we look like. Today we’re taking that one step further. We’re giving you a glimpse of what we looked like in our embarrassing middle school, high school, and college eras. It takes a brave man to let down his guard and display “the awkward years.” We are those brave men.

With a great deal of help from the clever people at Yearbook Yourself, we’ve uncovered some of our old yearbook pictures. Without further ado,

Gheorghe: The Blog presents:

Gheorghe: The Yearbook

[Click on any of these pictures for a closer look.]


Dave is a good place to start this segment; a couple of us have known him for 20+ years, he’s got a brevity-bound blog of his own where he remains mostly faceless, and let’s face it – Jersey people look funny.

<-- The Gawky Years – who knew to look at the lanky sumbitch back then that he’d top out at 5’8”?

Hair! Dave remains one of the hairiest contributors we've ever seen, but not so much on the head. -->

<-- In the journey of life, Dave’s been to and fro in the road between dweeby and cool. Here he was fro.

The Colonel! Dave’s time in the South brought about many changes in his appearances. To say the least. -->






Mark’s visage has been spotted a few times on Gheorghe’s pages, but never quite like this. There's a reason he goes follicle-less these days, I guess.


<--High and Tight – Later, he’d be less of one but more of the other.

“Lettin’ it all hang out.” Eat your heart out, Danny Bonaduce. -->




<--BMOC – cleaned up and ready for action. Of some kind or other.

Silky smooth! And that was just the shirt. -->





TR has mostly sported the straight-and-narrow look in his life . . . while living something other than that. You can't fool us, dude.


<-- Kent Dorfman’s got nothing on you, TR.

Horn-rimmed glasses? Check. Checked blazer? Check. Virginity? Check. -->





<-- A lot of people feel like when they were in high school, their parents never knew them. TR’s couldn’t pick him out of a lineup.

Ah, the so-don’t-care 90’s. TR fell into the super-cool look that he maintains to this day. --->



Ever wonder what Zoltan, our newest contributor, looks like? No?


<-- The Reverend and Mrs. Zoltan always wanted young Z to look his most dapper!

…but there was rebellion in their midst, and the Z-man looked to be headed astray. -->




<-- Fortunately for everyone, the “Z-cock” rebounded with a new outlook and a new passion for hip-hop, hair spray and good times.







It took a lot of guts for Teejay to okay our research into his yearbooks. A lot of guts. Give the man credit.


<-- Those Latham winters can get mighty cold, but not with a sick turtleneck and a Simba mane!

TJ always did see the world through rose-colored glasses. Some guys are just bright-siders! -->





<-- “What song is it you wanna hear?” “Free Bird!”

So smooth, on the R&B tip! -->






<-- A natural wave, and natural charm!







Which of Rob's high school chums would have suspected he'd be cool enough to found one of the Internet's most savvy blogs? Well, none, in part because they didn't know about the Internet or blogs, but you get the point.


<-- Many don’t know this, but Rob’s first calling was “pudgy milkman.” Didn’t work out.

The Hitler Youth thing didn’t pan out so well, either. -->





<-- There are “awkward years,” and then there is this era.

Rob finally settled into his true comfort zone when he saw his favorite movie, Weird Science! -->





This would all be pretty mean-spirited if I didn't also open the shudders and let you in to my own little world of bad haircuts and getting shot down by the fairer sex. Enjoy.


<--Those were happy times back then.

So misunderstood… by parents, classmates, barbers… -->






<-- Business in the front, party in the back!

And college was a trying time. At least I sort of felt cool one night a year, at the 70’s party. -->






Oh, and we can’t forget about FOGTB Jerry, who also authorized our delving into his past…


<-- Over a decade without a girlfriend? Say it ain't so!

Every kid in central Jersey had this phase at some point. -->






<-- Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you… Oates!!!








And there you have it. Gheorghe: The Early Days of Cool. Oh, but before we go, there are a few other things the archivists dug up. Looks like back in the day some of us were trying to emulate one very bad-assed fellow we all know...