A quarter century ago, just before I left the world of graphic design to head out into the world and try other things, I designed and published a series of silk screen prints representing memories of my childhood in the Milwaukee area. The impetus was the unexpected passing of my mom back in 1988. The series was a huge success. I sold a boatload of prints and received enough media attention to garner me about 6 minutes of local fame, but then–as I said–I moved on. Often over the years people have asked me to write a book explaining the images in my print series and, based on the response to the prints, I imagine such a book might be a success as well. However, every time I gave it a try I found I was being too pedantic. I wrote about the train stations, car ferries, and sports venues as would a historian…and a really boring historian at that. But lately I’ve begun stringing together some rough ideas of how I might better go about telling this story and the result has been the creation of this blog. It takes the form of messages to the little boy, the teenager, and young man I used to be. What would I tell these characters about the future they spent so much time dreaming about? Well, with any kind of luck,“Past Perfect” will answer that question.