THE BEGINNING OF THE LAKESIDE ASSOCIATION

One afternoon in the summer of 1987, Linda was having the carpet cleaned in her condominium. About 12:30pm, she went into the second bedroom while the cleaners worked in the living room, leaving the television on from the noon news program she always watched. Being an ALL MY CHILDREN viewer at the time, she went back into the living room to change the channel to her program. There were the two young carpet cleaners, leaning on their machines watching DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and extolling the talents of this “Patch” character and his girl
friend, “Kayla.” Being amazed that two young guys were doing so, Linda started watching too. And, like so many others, there was no turning back.

The following fall, Linda went to the school where she was teaching, telling others about the Patch and Kayla incident. Two co-workers joined her in spend-ing their early morning coffee talking of the characters’ love story. They wondered if there were any others out there like them, and so was born the idea of the support group for Mary Beth Evans and Stephen Nichols.

Linda decided to advertise in the large, metropolitan newspaper, the DETROIT FREE PRESS, to find out if others would like to join in the group. So, she called Mike Duffy, the paper’s television reporter. He suggested that Linda should contact the people who did the “Bottom Line” feature in the paper. That resulted in the following notice in the April 21, 1988, issue of the newspaper.

Linda then put a few ads in college newspapers since DAYS OF OUR LIVES was especially popular among college students. She also became aware of the various soap opera publications and put notices in them as well.

The group remained relatively small with interest mostly in the Great Lakes area until the spring of 1988. Taking copies of the first newsletter, Linda went to Parsippany, New Jersey to see Mary Beth and Stephen as they appeared in behalf of the Lauren Raffino Fund.

That event became the introduction to some terrific supporters who have also become friends, to the soap world, and set the stage for the years of the Lakeside Association during which we have become a national and international organization.