Who's She? She's Me!

Tonight one of us sisters got to meet Molly Ringwald.  Molly Ringwald!  Molly Ringwald who brought to life Samantha Baker.  Samantha Baker!  Samantha Baker who got to kiss Jake Ryan.  Samantha Baker who got the guy.  For girls everywhere (and especially us redheaded ones) Samantha Baker helped us to feel understood.  Sixteen Candles will forever be burned in our hearts as our favorite movie and we realize that the movie would be nothing without Molly Ringwald's portrayal of Samantha Baker.  That character is all the angst and frustration and longing that being a teenage girl can be and Molly nailed it.  If you haven't heard, Molly has moved on and conquered many things including motherhood, writing (a couple of great books) and is now touring with her jazz band and is an amazing singer.  Which is where my sister met her tonight after hearing her band play at the Texas State Fair.  One degree closer to Michael Schoeffling.

Oh yeah, remember Michael Schoeffling?  Well we haven't forgotten about him either.  Yes it certainly has been awhile since we have written for this blog but in the meantime we have tracked him down.  Keep your panties on everyone.  We have not met him and we do not own any of his furniture....yet.  But we can now put to rest the myth that he is living quietly with his family in a small town in Pennsylvania.  He is.

We realize he is just a guy (who happened to embody a major female fantasy aka Jake Ryan) who deserves his privacy.  But what about the furniture???  Truly that is what our quest is about.  We still can't find evidence of his furniture making business or skills for that matter.  We really would love to own a piece of something that his hands have crafted and carved.

Tonight when my sister met Molly Ringwald she asked her if she owns any of Michael Schoeffling's furniture.
Molly gave her a quizzical look and then proclaimed "No! Do You??!!"

Do you smell fish?

Let's think about this for a minute. Cute boy lands some modeling jobs then eventually gets some acting jobs. Ends up in a movie that at the time didn't seem too significant. The movie is about teenagers and crushes and bawdy behavior. But the movie is funny and the characters are endearing. Time passes. For whatever reason boy leaves the acting career behind and slips away quietly to never be heard from again in any public media. No interviews, no paparazzi photos, no scandals, no stints in rehab, no untimely death, no trace. Time passes. The movie has become the darling of a generation. Fan pages are formed on social networking sites, t-shirts are made, the movie is aired in syndication almost every weekend. People all over the whole world still fondly quote the movie on a daily basis and reminisce over the brown eyed boy who captured their hearts all those years ago. They start to wonder where he went? What is he doing with his life all these years later? They google him. What turns up is found in every nook and cranny on the web with very few variations. Wikipedia states,"The lack of roles and a family to feed were his reasons for retiring from acting. He now lives with his wife, and their two teenage children in Northeastern Pennsylvania, producing handcrafted furniture as the owner of a woodworking shop."

It's that simple. But what we just can't grasp is with so many fans who would love to own a piece of his furniture (including us, let's be honest) how has he been able to avoid the spotlight so completely, so thoroughly. In the age of bodyguards, paparazzi, and stars buying private islands for refuge it seems too "Leave it to Beaver" that Michael Schoeffling could just be whittling wood.