SleepyKramer.com

HOW I GOT THE NAME:  SLEEPYKRAMER

 Since my story may be new to some viewers visiting, I will try to start at the beginning and be as brief as I can. I started playing darts with my family at home in 1981. I have 6 brothers and one of them joined a league and needed to practice at home. Being a competitive family, it was not long before the rest of us were hooked and playing every single night. For some odd reason, which I think must have been my destiny, I excelled more than the rest to the point of becoming one of the top female players in Arizona by the age of 16. Youth events were not in existence back then and I competed with the adults all the time. During this time, Arizona and Southern California were part of the same ADO region, so I spent many times a year traveling to SoCal to play regional events against the likes of Sandy Reitan, Katy Casillas, Diane Gleason, Kim Kelly and the whole cast and crew of Moonspinners and lady darters in the SoCal area. My initiation went straight to the top level of the game. Jump to 1984, and the entrance of JK into my life. What a whirlwind and after I regained my composure, by January 1985, I was an official SoCal resident!! It was an awesome experience to be a part of JK's quest to be the number one ranked player in the USA in 1985, as well as winning a gold and silver medal in the 1985 World Cup and to hear the stories and eventually see the video of the American team doing the extraordinary and beating the British team 9-0 to go on and win the gold medal for the team event.  Can you imagine seeing the likes of Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Cliff Lazarenko, and Dave Lee go down one by one to the infamous US team of Rick Ney, Tony Payne, John Kramer and the late Danny Valletto? The world would never have thunk it, and these US boys lived it.

But I digress!....after I became an official SoCal resident, I was invited to take part in many events. One being an all ladies tournament in Northern California. John dropped me off for the trip, said goodbye and I was on my way. Now it was 23 years ago, and my memory cells are hard pressed to recall all the passengers, but I do remember being packed into a custom van with Gerry McCarthy, Katy Casillas, Jackie Ross, Philomena Fitzgerald, and I know there were a few more ladies, but for the life of me I cannot remember. And our mission was to drive to NorCal and our destination was Martinez, California and the home of none other than the famous darting prose god, Houston Hartwell Reed, the third....aka in those days to many a BullsEye News subscriber as Mr. Wonderful.

Upon arrival to the abode of Mr. Wonderful himself, it seems I was not part of the jet set, party group (well, I was only 19 at the time!), so I was directed to a couch in the guest house along with someone dubiously known as "Flash". At that point, I could have cared less!  I needed sleep and nothing else mattered!  Well, apparently nothing else mattered so much and I was forgotten back there in the guest house. It was only on Saturday morning that a roll call was taken and Howie said something about there being a certain amount of women and when he counted that morning, the number was not the same. The ladies then explained about little old me out in the guest house, apparently still sleeping! Therefore, from that day forward....I was officially known as "The Sleepy One".

Christmas time came and went after that for many years.....actually, even to this day, with cards being sent addressed to JK, the kid and The Sleepy One. Also, to this day, Howie Reed continues to be a great friend....however.....I must publicly state to Howie.....you get no royalties from the name!...LOL

Then we progress to the age of computers and the internet. Email, chat rooms, instant messenger, forums, etc. All of which you need some sort of screen name to sign yourself up with. I decided to morph the nickname and the real name together and this is how the SleepyKramer name was born. As forums talking about darts became more popular and eventually at one time, all the rage....the persona grew and grew. Instead of introducing yourself with your real name, I had to introduce myself as SleepyKramer. It only seemed a natural progression to take the persona one step further and make this website to promote darts as much as I can. So, people can know that the name is not only synonamous with me the person, but also a website that shares your passion for the game.

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