As I read in the newspaper today, I was shocked but not totally surprised that one of my childhood mainstays is being retired.  The View-Master is a small plastic toy in which was place a white white wheel full of 3-d pictures.  The wheels initially contained scenes of actual places (The Grand Canyon, Disney Parks, I had a set from Cedar Point that probably would be worth something if only I had been a child who thought about such things).  There was a camera made during the 50s with which you could create your own View-Master reels.  Later,  reels of movies, television shows, and other forms of popular culture were introduced.  I had reels full of Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, superheroes (I had a series of  Caped Crusader reels taken from the 60s television series featuring Catwoman), the Flintstones, and others.

In an effort to appeal to  increasingly uninterested kids, new versions of the toy were introduced.  I had the projector that enabled the images to be shown on a wall, or set up in a dark room on a “screen” consisting of a white sheet placed over a few boxes stacked on top of each other.  Friends would come into my theatre and watch as the scenes unfolded to improvised narration.  I believe there was a “talking” version as well.

Over the years, sales of the View-Master have decressed expontentially.  The majority of children are much more interested in video games, DVDs and the like.  But for at least one 8-10 year old growing up in the late 70s-early 80s, it provided hours of imagination and fun.

Sunday afternoon is the annual All County Band and Chorus concert.While in high school, I always looked forward to this event. Not only did it mean two days out of school to practice, (I went for both groups all four years), but it also meant being surrounded by fellow students who shared a passion for music. However, one of the schools in the county, until recently, never chose to participate. During my junior year, we had the privilege of having R.D. Mathey as the guest clinician for the choir. It featured, among other pieces, a medley of Andrew Lloyd Webber pieces. I was among the brave souls who tried out for a duet of “Unexpected Song” from Song and Dance. Unfortunately, I was not chosen to sing the duet. I do remember the performance of Jester Harrison’s “Amen” which was a staple of the BGSU Men’s Chorus under Mathey’s direction. I tried to find a youtube video but they must not perform it anymore.

Another common occurrence was the typical winter storm that would either cancel the concert or postpone it for a week. One year, it was delayed twice before it was finally shelved for the year. Why it has always been in the middle of winter, I do not know. Justj, is your youngest involved this year?

While listening to the news this morning, I happened upon the bit about the gentleman on the ski lift who got more than he bargained for on his journey.  While the outcome was good, it could have been catastrophic.  The man was not identified and I can say with certainty that I would not want to be identified, either.  I am sure that if onlookers had the means, photos would have been snapped and videos must have been captured for youtube fodder.   Laugh if you must (hard not to) the situation must have been perilous… dangling from a ski lift while exposed for seven minutes.  Must haven been a chilling experience.

Man left dangling upside down, pantsless after Vail lift mishap

JANUARY 6–In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado’s ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday morning. The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail’s Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift’s fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding. As seen in the photos on the following pages (which were snapped by fellow skiers), the Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the pair’s botched boarding resulted in the man dangling from the lift. The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair. The images on page four and five were taken by a local photographer who happened upon the rescue scene. In a statement released this afternoon, Vail Resorts, which operates the ski area, reported that the skier was not injured after being “suspended for approximately seven minutes.” The press release did not explain how the mishap occurred, only that “the man was caught on the chair.”

Any other proud moment anyone would care to divulge?  I was the victim of a depantsing in junior high.  A group of us were on our way to the science teacher’s desk and for some reason a fellow classmate had grabbed onto my back pocket and as I was walking, I suddenly felt a draft.  It was a good thing I had phys ed that day so I had a change of pants.  I did not stand around long enogh to see if the architect of the depantsing got the typical punishment of writing spelling words 15 times.

Over the past few weeks, I have been blessed to become re-acquainted with someone who used to teach at the local elementary school.  She has since moved to North Carolina.  She started commenting on my blog during the worst couple of weeks I have had in my 35 years when Emily became seriously ill and lost her battle with leukemia.  I helped Terri and Emily direct the high school’s production of Bye, Bye Birdie a few years ago.  I am extremely sad to say that the theatrical tradition that was once so strong at my alma mater has disappeared.  Growing up I remember watching great musicals performed on the gymnasium stage.  The first being The Wizard of Oz in 1977.  I was introduced to my favorite musical, Carousel, in the early 80s, as well as Finian’s Rainbow, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (which justj‘s daughter will be part of in her high school’s production next Spring).  I also watched both of my brothers on stage.  THEN, I guess I made my mark in Fiddler on the Roof, I Remember Mama, and (finally) as Rooster in Annie.  I also helped stage The Sound of Music, South Pacific, and the aforementioned Birdie.  Do any of my faithful readers have any memories of school musical productions they would like to share?

Terri recently sent this holiday greeting which features my favorite version of my favorite carol set to a beautiful scene which signifies the true meaning of the season.

This will be our final song to you before Christmas, which truly symbolizes our belief of the true meaning of Christmas.

https://youtube.com/embed/Z_ypUnnqr8Y

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

I’m not entirely sure if I have posted on this event that happened about 25 years ago, but it stands out as one of those unforgettable experiences that will stay with my family forever.  It will definitely be passed on to at least the next generation.  It just happened to come up at work today as we were unloading a truck, but it made the manager shake her head in disgust and hide.  Ironically, right after relaying the tale, I pulled a case of cat litter off the track.

Anyway, for those not in the know, when I was younger I had a snow white cat named Snowball.  It was my cat and I was in charge of feeding, cleaning the litter box, etc.  I came across the kitten while outside playing and she came upon me and I had to go pet it.  Then, she followed me home much to my mother’s chagrin… she wanted NO MORE CATS in the house.  We had already had two that used all of their nine lives.  One used to enjoy leaping into the washer and going for a spin; however, this one later tried to cross the street at the wrong time.

Snowball’s demise was far more gruesome.  One summer evening, my siblings and I were home while the parents were away.  My oldest brother was doing a load of laundry.  Unbeknownst (says he) to him, the cat hopped into the dryer.  The clothes must have smothered the pleas for help or else she was ko’d shortly after start up.

My parents arrived home early the next morning and immediately called the 4 of us downstairs.  They had discovered the most awful smell anyone should ever have to experience of which we were about to be introduced.  My mother, armed with a trash bag, rubber gloves, clothes pin over her nose, handkerchief over her mouth, and shovel, opened the dryer door and started scooping it out.  This was after the idea of calling the fire department was abandoned.  The entire bag of clothes, and remains was buried in the back yard.  The next day, we went shopping for a new dryer.  Years later, we still like to bring that skeleton out of the closet 😉

I just remembered what prompted the story.  The truck driver used a power pallet jack to move the pallets around.  Everytime he used it, it sounded like a dying cat and I mentioned that I know a thing or two about dying cats.  My helper said that she knew the tale; however, the boss (who is the owner of two cats) did not.  So surprised by that, I told her the macabre tragedy.

On the cover of our extremely late newspaper this evening (inserts for Black Friday sales, but really the store did not get their supply until after 6.30) there was an article detailing various peoples mishaps in the kitchen.  Invariably, this causes my mind to wander to two incidents that I have heard tell about time and again.  They both involve the culinary artistry of my father (who is back to his old self again and we can all be thankful for that).  Apparently, long ago either when I was a wee lad or not even born, he ATTEMPTED to cook goulash.  I say attempted because he began by putting the uncooked macaroni along with the meat and other ingredients into a pot of not boiling water.  I guess he was going for the goulash soup.

On another occasion while serving as Assistant Scoutmaster of my brother’s Boy Scout troop, he attempted to cook spaghetti on a camping excursion.  What the boys eventually were about to consume was a pasty substance that only the Scoutmaster himself would sample.

I think from then on, my mother was the gourmet and dad was left to the everyday hamburger, grilled cheese and the like.

So from all of us to all of you, may you have a blessed Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, blessings, and a day void of cooking disasters.  BTW, taylhis, what time did your paper arrive at your doorstep?

This past weekend saw a feat never before accomplished by an Ohio State University football team.  The Buckeyes successfully defeated the dreaded “Team from the North” for the fifth year in a row (42-7).  How many rivalries can actually attest to the fact that a coach’s career seemingly hinges upon one game year after year.  Coaches are booed or cheered, lauded or fired on the outcome of the traditional regular season finale for OSU and UofM.  I had the thrill of sitting in the south stands of Ohio Stadium in the Block O section in November 1992.  What I remember most came at the closing moments of halftime.  A man decided to have his brief moment of fame by running across the field wearing absolutely nothing.  Although what is name actually is is anyone’s guess (so much for his fifteen minutes).  The streaker was subsequently given an overcoat and apprehended by officers following his run for the goal posts.  Incidentally, the game ended in a 13-13 tie much to the dismay of the OSU seniors who had never defeated their archrivals.

WOW… One month from today is one of the most perfect nights of the year… better get started.  I’m sure I can fill my blog with many a holiday tale by then.  This one was prompted by an email that was sent to me which I forward to a bunch of people.  A list of questions that got me even more in the spirit of things.  One of the questions was

• What was the WORST Christmas present you ever received?

My answer was quite cryptic as I replied that it was a “keyboard that I THOUGHT I was getting after someone else snooped and informed me of.”   Santa always delivers our presents early and strategically hides them throughout the house.  How else can he get to all those houses in one night?  Anyway, my second oldest brother who is extremely fond of pulling little pranks (if you know him at all then you can imagine).  One day, he was investigating one of Santa’s favorite hiding places and came upon a small keyboard and immediately thought that he knew to whom it would be going.  He subsequently told that person of his discovery.  So, Christmas morning came and no keyboard.  At our extended family gathering, my cousin opened up said keyboard.  Of course Chad had to have been the one to open his mouth and say “oops. I thought that was for you.”  At the time, I am sure that I was a bit let down but soon after everytime the incident is mentioned, everyone in the know gets a big laugh.  Lesson learned by me: don’t trust everything your older brother tells you, especially THAT one.  I’m not sure if Chad learned any lesson that year, but judging from other years, I don’t think so.  It was a pretty easy prank to pull since Dan and I are both musically inclined.

Since justj and taylhis have gotten me thinking about fast food and their ad campaigns, I began to think about the characters in the Ronald McDonald family.  It seems that one of the characters that I do remember became the focus of a lawsuit in the mid-late 1970s. It seems that Mayor McCheese was discontinued as the result of a battle between McDonald’s and Sid and Marty Krofft, creators of H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost.  By the late 1970s, the entire concept of McDonaldland was all but phased out leaving only a handful of characters.  I also remember Grimace, Hamburglar (“Rumble, Rumble”), the Fry Guys, Birdie The Early Bird (introduced when the chain began to promote breakfast on the menu).  I also remember having my 6th birthday party at the old McDonalds which has since moved to the busy side of town where Wal-Mart, KMart, and everything else seems to be.  What is on the other side of town that once had such life including a drive-in theatre (but that is another story entirely).  Wendy’s, Dairy Queen, anything else?

There are also Captain Crook Who peddled Filet O’ Fish sandwiches, the animated pie tree, and a professor who I do not remember at all.  And don’t forget Officer Big Mac.

Tonight a group of friends and I went to support a theatre family member who is part of her high school swing/show choir (and her beaming papa as well).  I won’t delve too deeply on the performance, but will say that one of the songs deeply touched me.  I know I have mentioned the beautiful piece entitled “Believe” from the magical movie The Polar Express sung so majestically by Josh Groban.  It has become one of those songs that I HAVE to listen to at least 50 times each holiday season.  It speaks of the magic of dreams and how as people grow older they often lose sight of those dreams.  But just look in the eyes of a child and often you can see, remember, and believe what it was like to be that young and have that wonder inside.  Of course, for some of us that wonder can so easily be reignited or may never have left.  I get goosebumps all over just hearing the song everytime.  Just a chill runs through my entire body.  Maybe those words are trying to tell me something?

The evening also took me back huumanah years to my final holiday concert and the festive medley that the choir sang, entitled Cool Yule.  I don’t remember the entire plot but I do remember that Santa (played by your’s truly) and Mrs. Claus had to rap… and I’m not talking about present wrapping  here.  This was the second time that I had put on the red suit and black boots.  In fifth grade, I was the jolly old elf in our elementary Christmas musical Santa and the Snowmobile in which a slick salesman almost convinces Santa to abandon his team of eight tiny reindeer for a gas-propelled vehicle.  I do remember doing some improvising as the sound of the snowmobile was not properly cued.  I think I gave the cardboard cutout a good swift quick and said to heck with it.  This was long before you-know-who or I would have uttered a quick you-know-what.

Children sleeping, snow is softly falling
Dreams are calling like bells in the distance
We were dreamers not so long ago
But one by one we all had to grow up
When it seems the magic’s slipped away
We find it all again on Christmas day

Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that’s playing
There’s no time to waste
There’s so much to celebrate
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe

Trains move quickly to their journey’s end
Destinations are where we begin again
Ships go sailing far across the sea
Trusting starlight to get where they need to be
When it seems that we have lost our way
We find ourselves again on Christmas day

Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that’s playing
There’s no time to waste
There’s so much to celebrate
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe
If you just believe
If you just believe
If you just believe
Just believe
Just believe

Ok… look at those words.  Definitely.  Not just on Christmas Day.