About Me — Mike Butler

Truth revealed in Q&A format behind the wedding-crashing teacher

I’m Batman! I’m a joker. I’m a smoker. I’m a midnight toker.

Okay, I’ll come clean. I’m a sixth-grade English teacher and middle-school basketball coach, who used to be a sports writer at the Antelope Valley Press.

I enjoy writing about my wacky nostalgic childhood memories from the 70s and 80s. Hopefully, you’ve read a few.

Here are 10 fun facts about me:

1. That’s not my birth name: My brother is Scot Butwell, a fellow Medium writer. My name was Butwell, too. Butler isn’t a pen name. I was teased relentlessly as a child, and we didn’t want our kids to be teased, so my wife and I changed our last names. I actually wrote about it here.
2. Was your family military? That’s the second question I get from people after they asked me where I’m from and I tell them we’ve lived in Lexington, Kentucky; Washington, D.C.; Brockport, New York; Fredonia, New York; Murray, Kentucky; Vermillion, South Dakota; and finally Torrance, California. Whew! I’m tired of typing all those places.
3. My dad was a university president: Before passing away in 1987, he was president at CSU Dominquez Hills, which was a life-altering experience and the first memoir I wrote on Medium. You can read it here.
4. My family members: My wife Chris is also a school teacher. My oldest son is a youth pastor in Chicago from a previous marriage. We have two boys who are 23 and 20, and an 18-year-old daughter who is a senior in high school. Oh, and don’t forget our fat cat Ferris (aka Kitty) or our terrier B.B. Never a dull moment with those two.
5. My first car was a puke-green Gremlin: And I still drove this self-proclaimed chick magnet to school every day my senior year. Well, every day that is until it died a tragic death on the same night we hijacked the Bob’s Big Boy ballot box. It’s all chronicled here.
6. I acted with my dad in To Kill a Mockingbird: I broke my arm in sixth grade, shattering my dreams of great last year of Little League. My dad suggested we try out together for the famous Harper Lee novel turn play. We got the parts. He was Atticus Finch, and I was his son, Jem Finch. An experience I’ll never forget. Definitely made me memorize my lines faster.
7. I’m a huge Buffalo Bills fan: Yes, I became a fan of the four-straight Super Bowl losing Bills while living in Fredonia, New York where the Bills trained, and O.J. Simpson used to tout the rock before he became famous for something else. We’d attend games in Rich Stadium in the freezing snow and pouring rain. Next year will be their year (And yes I say that every year, but next year really will).
8. Foo Fighters is the best concert I’ve ever gone to: It’s close. U2’s “Day in the Green” was pretty badass. And, boy does Chris Martin and Coldplay know how to put on a show. Joan Jett & the Blackheart is a sentimental pick as my first concert, but give the gold medal to Dave Grohl and the gang. These dudes are just plain, f*cking rock! Ten! Count ’em ten encore tunes. Can’t wait to see them again. Soon.
9. I boxed the greatest boxer of all time: Fact. He visited our university for a lecture on the Murray State campus, then we were invited to the after-party at a friend’s party. Exciting? Yes. Scary? Most definitely. I think I wet my pants when he shadowboxed me and his fast and ferocious punches were millimeters from my face. I also wrote about that here.
10. I’m a closet Lionel Richie fan: Shhhh. I truly (pardon the pun) loves his smooth, soothing voice. I remember buying his first solo album where he’s wearing the blueish-green sweater and the white pants. So many great tunes: “Hello,” “Dancing on the Ceiling,” and my personal fave, “You Are.”

Bonus coverage/11 quick questions:

1. Favorite candy? Ready go… Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
2. Favorite dinner food? Filet Mignon
3. Favorite beer? Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. Of course, I love some pumpkin ale in October
4. Favorite movie? Can’t name one. Hoosiers (sports/drama), Tombstone (western), Dumb & Dumber (comedy), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (80s teen flick), Moneyball and Bohemian Rhapsody, too
5. If you could go anywhere in the world? Italy
6. Favorite book? 11/22/63 by Stephen King
7. Favorite quote? “You play to win the game” by Herman Edwards.
8. Mountains or the beach? Beach, easily
9. My least favorite band? REM or the Carpenters.
10. Favorite Saturday Night Live skit of all time? Three-way tie: Schwetty Balls, Chris Farley, and Patrick Swayze as Chippendale dancers, and Will Farrell and Christopher Walkin’s “We need more cowbell.”
11. Album you wore out as a teenager? Van Halen’s 1984, and Def Leppard’s Pyromania.

That’s all folks!

Thanks for reading my casual autobiography.