Monday, September 15, 2008

A Great Childhood Love

Ahhh the things I loved as a child. There was Winnie the Pooh. There was The Muppet Show. A little later on there was Scott Baio, lol. There was a friend of my aunt's named Jimmy Lowe, who I named a wide assortment of stuffed animals after, yet I can't remember his face. Yes those animals had to go by both the first AND last names...including that purple pig.

Let's see. Hmmmm.... What else did I love as a child? Well...there were fudgesicles, peanut butter fudge, macaroni and cheese, Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing, and Nacho Cheese Doritos (which are VERY hard to sneak when you're four years old and not a master of crinkly chip bags). There were the chimneys on all of my mom's gingerbread houses. Hmmm, now I wonder where they went? There were my sister's high heel shoes. What were they called? Candies? There was Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and DEFINITELY the Woody Woodpecker Show. There was standing over an air vent in a dress and watching the skirt puff out like a parachute...and it being considered "cute." There was our dog, Tippie....and my doll, Chubby. Oh! Oh! Oh! And don't forget my RUB-A-DUB DOLLY!! AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!And there was peeling the wallpaper off the wall when Mom stood me in the corner. The list could go on and on. But last night, I remembered something I LOVED as a very small child. And it will show me to be the odd dork you all know me to be. So of course I HAVE to share it.

When I was really little...well...about this big...

(This was the moment I unveiled my Rub-a-Dub Dolly, lol.)

...just a "tot" as Alli would say, my mom took us to this horrible babysitter named "Lorraine." When Mom learned how awful she was to us, she got us out as quickly as she could, but it took a while for her true colors to show. I hated going there. I didn't like being confined to the laundry room...even if my brother was right there with me. I didn't like that my sister was in the front of the house with the bigger kids. There were lots of things I didn't find to my liking, but that was life for a while.

BUT there was one pleasant thing about going to Lorraine's. For a while, the radio station we listened to (which HAD to have been WDAF/61 Country because my uncle worked there and Mom listened to it)...for a while the station would play the same song every morning. I remember the anticipation waiting for it to come on each morning. And when it did, I remember hoping that we'd have enough time to hear the whole thing before we had to get out of the car. I LOVED this song. I still "feel" the happy feelings I had when I'd hear it play. I thought it was the most hilarious thing ever.

And last night...I found it on YouTube. It might be better to listen to with your eyes closed and not looking at the cartoon. I couldn't figure out how to put a YouTube video in here, so here's the link..so as to give credit where credit is due (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqdy8x9jMGk). You MUST listen to it. It will enrich your life.



I LOVE SNEAKY SNAKE!! And that silly snake can have ALL my root beer because root bear stinks to high heaven and tastes even worse. And I LOVE that sneaky snake is ticklish. Ahhhh Sneaky Snake ......

Those were the days....

(I suddenly feel the impulse to burst out with Colin Firth in "Our Last Summer" which has nothing to do with Sneaky Snake...but then...well...you know..."those were the days"/"our last summer"...it's not without ANY logic.)