"Do you remember the time..."

What a weird week. In the space of three days, we lost three well-known celebrities.

When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s & the 1980's, all three of these people were larger than life. I remember seeing Ed McMahon on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson"...that is, the few times that I stayed up late enough to watch it. He was the "second banana" to Carson, but a funny man in his own right. Later, we'd go on to watch him with his pal Dick Clark in "TV's Blooper's & Practical Jokes". I always loved to watch that show...to see all the out-takes of the various television shows of the time...and the practical jokes...that was way before Ashton Kutcher had his "Punk'd" show.

In elementary school, Farrah Fawcett was everywhere. All the boys, who had newly discovered that girls ‘weren't so bad’ tacked up copies of her famous swimsuit poster. We girls were ga-ga for her thick blonde hair...and we all got our hair "feathered" like hers.

And Michael Jackson. In 1983, I don't think I knew anyone who didn't have a copy of his "Thriller" album. I remember getting mine for Christmas. My cousin, Tom, got one too. We were thrilled, pardon the pun. We listened to him sing with his brothers in the '70's as "The Jackson Five" and even watched their cartoon with the same name. I wouldn't call myself a huge MJ fan, but I do like some of his music. He got a bit…eccentric…since the 1990’s, and I’m sure that he had a multitude of emotional and/or psychological problems, but you can’t deny the man was an artist.

Despite whether or not I was a big fan of any or all of these celebrities, they've all left their mark indelibly upon pop culture history. They’ll be missed by their friends, family, and friends…but their legacies will live on … on video, in photos, and in music...as well as in the hearts of those they left behind.

“He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery