I Remember - the Pointer Sisters Sing the Number Song on Sesame Street

Man, I loved this Sesame Street song and its crazy pinball animation. "One two three four/five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven  twelve!"

Memories

So many good memories. Gimbal’s basement with my grandma, Arthur treachers with my dad, chi-chi’s with Boston store co-workers. Blockbuster with Dan as young parents. Ah, good times! - Lisa

I Remember

I picked up this cup  -- part of a Campbell's soup set - for my sister Katie's birthday. It is an iconic memory of my childhood. 

40 years ago today - The Miracle on Ice

40 years ago today, on the small black and white TV my Grandparent's kept on their kitchen counter, I witnessed one of the greatest moments in sports history.

That stunning hockey game was tape delayed for the network broadcast that night,  and so, oddly, already history by the time Americans cheered on their underdogs. A move like that would never work now, not with the speed of information being what is is, but in 1980 how were you going to know the result before it aired? Heck, more than ten years later I remember having to call the sports desk at the local paper to get a late boxing result. 

A month shy of six years old, I was nowhere near aware of the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, the Iran hostage crisis, the post-Vietnam fugue, Carter's stagflation, or any of the other geo-political events that made that match so much more than just an athletic contest.

But I knew I loved my country and I knew this was important. I could feel the electricity in the crowd right through the TV, a buzz shared by the announcers and my family.

It was a great day to be an American, whether you were six or sixty. 

A Miracle on Ice indeed.

I Remember- The Bathtub Shark

Until I did a web search for this post, I would have sworn that my memory involved a skit from the Canadian show SCTV. It used to air late at night here in Milwaukee when I was young ,and I really didn't care for it - although now I wonder how much of that antagonism was due to misidentifying the source of this sketch.

JOWLS was a Caroll Burnett Show parody of the movie Jaws that took place in a bathroom, with the cast fishing for the Great White in the bathtub. 

The bathtub. Like the one in my house.

SCARED. THE. HECK. OUT. OF. ME

I was a liitle kid, remember, probably under 5. Alas, my bathtub had a small chip in the porcelain and, while even then I knew better, the lizard part of my brain was certain a shark had caused the damage. 

This irrational fear didn't prevent me from taking baths, it just made mine super quick,  and it no doubt hastened my promotion to showers.

To this day, on the rare occasion I take a hot bath, a part of me flickers back to that sketch and makes me wonder, just for a moment, if that shark is hungry.

Class of 1988

Class of '88, thirty years on

My Thoughts

I realize that I sound like a conspiracy nut when I rant about the media being "the enemy." It isn't that I think there's a monolithic entity guiding the media along a master plan to do X or promote Y. I think this Facebook comment I wrote does a good job of explaining the seed of my doubt

I came close to minoring in journalism, and spent three semesters in the program.  All the professors were very liberal,  but with the exception of one they were very honest and fair.  They took great care,  way back in '92, to point out what they saw as a decline in journalism standards and a slant to the left. 

In one exercise,  a comparison of news broadcasts from the same day,  that of a big event.  Each ran with different stories about the same event,  each obviously based on what exclusives they could muster.  One even ignored the event,  burying it in the broadcast, despite its importance to the community. 

Another exercise had us watch TV detective shows. Time and again, the bad guy was a businessman.  (this is the era before Law and Order made "ordinary" crime entertainment). The prof called on a producer/writer to explain why. The answer?  There wasn't enough conflict if the villain was a common thug,  and isn't corporate America evil anyway? Why not show that? 

Almost all in profs blamed  Watergate. They said it lead to an influx of liberals into the profession,  based on the glory of Woodward and Bernstein,  and that as a whole they were more agenda driven and far more liberal than what they'd seen before. 

Liberal as they were,  the professors warned that this lead to a decline in objectivity and an isolation of opposing pov's. 

The Ghost Sign is becoming . . . a ghost

This ghost sign on 19th and Lincoln was a favorite of mine in childhood. I photographed it twelve years ago during a visit to my parent's house. Now, there is little to be seen of it (even if you ignore the overgrown trees)

A League of Their Own turns 25

I went to see it with  my sister Katie at Skyway (that's the one that used to be across from the airport, right?)  We took the bus and on the way home stopped at a baseball card shop. 

Still relatively new to baseball, I asked about Jimmy Dugan - Tom Hanks character - and he didn't ring a bell with the shopkeeper. I wasn't surprised, as I guessed it had been a fictionalized character. Had it been a year or two later, I would have figured out that Dugan was loosely based on slugger Jimmie Foxx. 

Just my Luck

Oh no! I bought a Jesus statue on EBay and they sent the John The Baptist version instead! Seriously tho, I am very distraught. Lisa I'll need your talent to mend this.

Brewers - Diamondbacks with my Pop pt 2

As games go, it was a dud yesterday, a lackluster 4-0 loss. For my Dad, who tries to see a game a month, it's an unbroken string of losses dating back years. Still, it was a good time. 

As we were leaving he had a lot of trouble getting to his feet. "When did you get so old Dad?" I asked, not unkindly. "I asked myself the same question last week," he said. 

Later, getting mushy and unmanly, I thanked him for all he's done for me over the years. 

"I could have done better, " he said. 

 "You did fine Pop," I replied.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus Statute

Whoohoo! After an intense Ebay auction I'm now the proud owner of this chalkware! Sure, it's a waste of money better spent elsewhere. But my Grandma owned one just like this and kept it in her bedroom, and doggone it, I wanted it.

Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend

I saw this for my 11th birthday party. Anyone still remember?

I Remember

I loved this as a kid. I'm not sure I ever got anything out of it from 1977 on, but it was nice dreaming.

Highlander

On one hand it's a bad movie. But it's also a great one. I taped this back in the '80's and literally watched it dozens and dozens of times. "There can be only one!"

Apparently, *not* a teachable moment

This morning's class did not go well. When two people stumbled answering questions, the Professor got angry and walked out of the room. I've never seen that before. Well, literally once before, in 1st Grade when Sr Virginia flipped a desk and was dragged from the room by Sr Kathleen.

Web of Spiderman #1

I owned this - still do I think, but sans cover now and beat to hell - and I remember it was a pretty good story, with the church bells and all.

BP

I haven't watched batting practice in probably thirty years. My Dad used to take us to the ballpark early to watch it, but I've never done it on my own. Huh. Haven't thought about that in decades.

The Gay Spot

A 1952 postcard of The Gay Spot, a restaurant on 14th and Arthur where both my Grandparent's worked. It's also, IIRC, the scene of the only fistfight my Little Grandpa had during their marriage. Someone insulted his father, and Grandpa threw a punch in his defense.

The Bickersons

A great LOL radio sitcom from 4/23/1948. (the couple takes a trip to Yellowstone).I used to love a cassette tape I had of the show as a kid - John's Snoring Dilemma was the name of the episode, if I remember right. 

The humor still holds up, 67 years later!