Flipside Column Topics 2007 - 2012

Essex Catholic High School Newspaper Staff - 1973

Date	Flipside Column Topic
March 30, 2007	Old Timers Reunion Video
April 5, 2007	Mike Williams - Downtown Allen
April 12, 2007	Prom (Photos)
April 19, 2007	Restless Weekend Syndrome
April 26, 2007	You Say Mozart - Symphony
May 3, 2007	Piece of Heaven - Bolin Family
May 10, 2007	Escape' Coffee Shop
May 17, 2007	Open
May 24, 2007	Graduation
May 31, 2007	Mom & Dad War Stories
June 7, 2007	Worley Stein  ANB President
June 14, 2007	Father's Day Gift Ideas
June 21, 2007	Pizza Tour
June 28, 2007	Kittyhawk Airport
July 5, 2007	Quebec Visit
July 12, 2007	Nothing
July 19, 2007	Open
July 26, 2007	The Belmont House
August 2, 2007	Broadway Musicals
August 9, 2007	Leadership Allen
August 16, 2007	Allen Questions Answered
August 23, 2007	Back to School
August 30, 2007	Summer Jobs
September 6, 2007	Belz Mall
September 13, 2007	Lion King -Michael Jenkins
September 20, 2007	College Night - 50 Year Old Freshman
September 27, 2007	Big Game Hunting - Buying a Jaguar-Not
October 4, 2007	Beatles Records - Across the Universe
October 11, 2007	Allen Bowl - Neatherey's Interview
October 18, 2007	Toys - Buying Back My Childhood
October 25, 2007	Halloween Memories
November 1, 2007	Drive Your Dream - Ferrari-Lamborghini
November 8, 2007	Weird Military Stories
November 15, 2007	InSync Wildlife Refuge
November 22, 2007	Thanksgiving - Bivianos
November 29, 2007	6th Grade Big Questions - Garrabrandt
December 6, 2007	Allen Holiday Parade
December 13, 2007	Worst Christmas Gift
December 20, 2007	Yes There Is A Santa Claus
December 27, 2007
January 3, 2008	RW Godwin
January 10, 2008	Get Organized
January 17, 2008	Market Street Grocery Store
January 24, 2008	Dog Wash
January 31, 2008	Pinewood Derby - Cub Scouts
February 7, 2008	Columbia House Records
February 14, 2008	Gladys Watson
February 21, 2008	TV Theme Songs
February 28, 2008	Central Expressway History
March 7, 2008	Patriot Guard Motorcycle Clubs
March 13, 2008	Office Move - Giveaway
March 21, 2008	A Billion Peeps
March 28, 2008	Foreign Films
April 3, 2008	Prom Blind Date
April 10, 2008	Don't Cross The Street In The Middle
April 17, 2008	Cows Come Home To Collin County
April 24, 2008	Got Hit By A Car
May 1, 2008	Tallenettes Showcase
May 8, 2008	Summer Musical Series
May 15, 2008	Classic Car - 57 Chevy
May 22, 2008	WWII Correspondance
May 29, 2008	Yearbook Photos  ECHS
June 5, 2008	Advice from Seniors To Class of 2021
June 12, 2008	Argentina Soccer Game
June 19, 2008	TV Dinners History
June 26, 2008	Spotlight Theater - Allen
July 3, 2008	Summer in the City - Jersey City
July 10, 2008	Are You a Geek - Barry
July 17, 2008	Warped Tour
July 24, 2008	Jim Kerr - Here To The Moon
July 31, 2008	Jersey Boys Review
August 7, 2008	Lubbock In Rearview Mirror Part 1
August 14, 2008	Lubbock In Rearview Mirror Part 2
August 21, 2008	School Supplies
August 28, 2008	First Day of Teaching - Greased Pig
September 4, 2008	Swimming - Afraid of the Water
September 11, 2008	Music Obsession - Stereo Equipment
September 18, 2008	Sublime Chocolate Shop
September 25, 2008	Alfred E Neumann v. Goofus & Gallant - Magazines
October 2, 2008	Game Room Closet / Board Games
October 9, 2008	Mums The Word for Homecoming
October 16, 2008	Fluffernutter Crushes Sandwiches - Taste Test
October 23, 2008	Golf & Guy Myths Exploded
October 30, 2008	Halloween & Election Day Combined
November 6, 2008	Comic Book Advertisements
November 13, 2008	Veterans Day - 1st Day In Service
November 20, 2008	Pete Ford History
November 27, 2008	Thanksgiving at Bivianos - Repeat
December 4, 2008	Landon Winery
December 11, 2008	Writing Christmas Cards & Letters
December 18, 2008	Girl Christmas Gifts of the Past
December 25, 2008	State Championship Drive - Event
January 1, 2008	DeMello's Holiday Visit
January 8, 2008	Weird New Jersey Guys
January 15, 2008	52 Card Pickup- Card Games
Januay 22, 2009	Top Golf Driving Range
January 29, 2009	Cold Weather Stories
February 5, 2009	Burton Gilliam - Blazing Saddles
February 12, 2009	Candy Obsession
February 19, 2009	Small Towns - Senior Citizens
February 26, 2009	Rat Pack Summer Musical Show / History
March 5, 2009	Bill of Rights Bulmer / 6th Grade
March 12, 2009	Chemistry Sets
March 19, 2009	Monolithic Dome Institute
March 26, 2009	Heard Any Good Boy Scout Stories
April 2, 2009	Matchbox Cars
April 9, 2009	The Circus Comes to Town
April 16, 2009	Allen's Field of Dreams - Football
April 23, 2009	Animal Hospital -Jerry Wilson
April 30, 2009	Collecting Things
May 7, 2009	1974 Bloomfield Senior Prom
May 14, 2009	Barbie - Girl Toys
May 21, 2009	Chick-Fil-A -  Neil Brown
May 28, 2009	Rear Admiral Bushong
June 4, 2009	A Column About a Column
June 11, 2009	Who Let The Dogs Out - Dog Park
June 18, 2009	I Didn't See You at Woodstock Either
June 25, 2009	Trunk Full of Memories - Mom's Footlocker
July 2, 2009	A Chorus Line Review
July 9, 2009	Vacationing With the Reindeer (Adventure Vacations)
July 16, 2009	Driving Home From Lubbock - Unanswered Questions
July 23, 2009	Clean Your Room Or Else
July 30, 2009	I Remember Allen When……….
August 6, 2009	30th Anniversary Column
August 13, 2009	Curbside Treasures - Recycling Computers
August 20, 2009	First Day of School (Reissued)
August 27, 2009	Plan 9 From Outer Space
September 3, 2009	Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs - Cereals
September 10, 2009	Beatles - Sgt Peppers Purchasing - Reissues
September 17, 2009	Yogurt Stores Open
September 24, 2009	Fast Food Frenzy
October 1, 2009	Front Yard Multipurpose Sports Complex
October 8, 2009	Iva Mae Morrow
October 15, 2009	Two Dashes & A Dot (Video Games)
October 22, 2009	Chili Cookoff - History
October 29, 2009	Allen Americans Hockey Team
November 5, 2009	Darkroom Photography - Old Cameras
November 12, 2009	Captain Cole Veterans Day Letter
November 19, 2009	Christmas Wish List - Sears Catalog
November 26, 2009	Bivianos Thanksgiving Column (Reissued)
December 3, 2009
December 10, 2009	Billy Lees Colorado Trip
December 17, 2009	Christmas Music / Burl Ives
December 24, 2009	Christmas Eve Advice Column
December 31, 2009	Box Full of Memories
January 7, 2010	Football Frenzy - AlamoBowl
January 14, 2010	Plastic Army Men
January 21, 2010	Luxury Dog Hotels
January 28, 2010	Grandparent's Belongings / Photos
February 4, 2010	Popcorn Store
February 11, 2010	Rick Clark - Royal Drive-In
February 18, 2010	Snow Days - School Holiday
February 25, 2010	Tim Drieling - Trucks
March 4, 2010	Tim Logan - Busses
March 11, 2010	Lunch Hour Television
March 18, 2010	Nothing Column - Repeated
March 25, 2010	New Jersey Trip - What Are The Odds
April 1, 2010	New Jersey Trip - Odds Part 2
April 8, 2010	1960 Schwinn Typhoon Bicycle
April 15, 2010	Alton Boyd Biography
April 22, 2010	AHS Prom
April 29, 2010	Growth of Businesses In Allen
May 6, 2010	Safety Patrol
May 13, 2010	Allen Americans Hockey
May 20, 2010	Kathy Ellis - John Graduation
May 27, 2010	Memorial Day Memorial  (Bricks)
June 3, 2010	More Than Corn In Indiana
June 10, 2010	Ridin The Rails - DART Etc
June 17, 2010	St Thomas Reunion
June 24, 2010	Worst Car Ever
July 1, 2010	Dreamgirls Show
July 8, 2010	SkyMall Catalog
July 15, 2010	Summer In City - Jersey City
July 22, 2010	Summercamp Postcard
July 29, 2010	Alvis Story
August 5, 2010	Summer Day - 1969
August 12, 2010	Gold Class Cinema
August 19, 2010	Allen In My Rearview Mirror (to College)
August 26, 2010	College Advice - Seventies
September 2, 2010	RaceTrac Refillable Cups
September 9, 2010	Cool Teachers (Cards)
September 16, 2010	Flossie Floyd-Green
September 23, 2010	Car Model Building
September 30, 2010	Grandparents Lynch and Carroll - Touching history
October 7, 2010	Cattle Ranching When I Grow Up
October 14, 2010	Mourning My Component Stereo System
October 21, 2010	Rev. George Anderson Bio
October 28, 2010	Halloween Candy - Not What It Used To Be
November 4, 2010	Rodeo Stampedes Into Allen
November 11, 2010	Playing Cards In The Poker Palace
November 18, 2010	Homer Price Book From Library
November 25, 2010	Bivianos Thanksgiving Column (Reissued)
December 2, 2010	Hockey - The Hanson Brothers
December 9, 2010	Allen American Newspaper - Buddy Camper
December 16, 2010	Crazy Gifts For Pets
December 23, 2010	Box of Memories (Christmas Ornaments)
December 30, 2010	Tuning In To The Top 100 Hits WABC
January 6, 2011	Allen Wranglers Football Team
January 13, 2011	This Year I Get Organized
January 20, 2011	St. Thomas Visit - The Black Book
January 27, 2011	Gene Reed Biography
February 3, 2011	Allen Americans Hockey (Behind the Scenes)
February 10, 2011	Road Trip To Kentucky - Winter of 78)
February 17, 2011	1930's Society Columns
February 24, 2011	Frances Norton Biography
March 3, 2011	You Can't Fool Mom (Stories)
March 10, 2011	Marty Graman - The Pizza Guy
March 17, 2011	Belz Mall (Redo from 2007)
March 24, 2011	Underground Newspaper - Scout Newspaper
March 31, 2011	Cereality - Cereal Bar
April 7, 2011	Tom Ereckson Bio
April 14, 2011	Loaf - Allen Americans Equipment Manager
April 21, 2011	Vasser Field - Church Bells
April 28, 2011	Bobby Hull Table Top Hockey
May 5, 2011	Prom Advice - Promma
May 12, 2011	45 RPM Record Labels
May 19, 2011	53 Buick Not a Classic
May 26, 2011	Alphabet Binds Graduates -(Redo)
June 2, 2011	Mother In Law Column - Old Article
June 9, 2011	Spamalot Musical Review
June 16, 2011	Swimming Pool Stories
June 23, 2011	Top Golf Revisited
June 30, 2011	Seventies Scholck For Sale On Ebay
July 7, 2011	Top Golf Goes Top Shelf
July 14, 2011	Summer Daze Not Purple Haze
July 21, 2011	History of Allen Rotary Club
July 28, 2011	I-35 Distractions and Attractions Part 1
August 4, 2011	I-35 Distractions and Attractions Part 2
August 11, 2011	Hitchhikers Guide To NJ
August 18, 2011	Kids Off To College
August 25, 2011
September 1, 2011	Nash Brougham Car
September 8, 2011	Sweet Tooth - Moon Pies Scooter Pies
September 15, 2011	Tool Box Junk Box
September 22, 2011	First Concert Memories
September 29, 2011	TRE Facts
October 6, 2011	West Side Story Review
October 13, 2011	Old Slot Car Set
October 20, 2011	Old Yearbook Advertisers / Downtown Businesses
October 27, 2011	St. Louis Cardinals - World Series
November 3, 2011	Honoring Godzilla - King of the Monsters
November 10, 2011	Military Career In One Paragraph (Separation Papers)
November 17, 2011	Allen Christmas Parade
November 24, 2011
December 1, 2011	Television History Channel (HOT)
December 8, 2011	Hockey 101 For Fans (Eric Adams Interview)
December 15, 2011	Never Too Old To Rock and Roll (Chicago Concert)
December 22, 2011	Stocking Stuffers (Thom Cat)
December 29, 2011
January 5, 2012	No Place Like Home - College Kids Come Home
January 12, 2012	Jersey Pizza Tour
January 19, 2012	Old Cassette (Greg Allman Tommy James & Mom)
January 26, 2012	Getting Organized Again (Repeat)
February 2, 2012	Allen Cemetary
February 9, 2012	Stairway To Heaven - Most Classic Rock Song
February 16, 2012	Country Radio DJ - WTPR
February 23, 2012	Allen Sports - Lone Star Basketball Tournament
March 1, 2012
March 8, 2012	Million Dollar Quartet Musical Review
March 15, 2012	Going For a Ride In The Country
March 22, 2012	Los Angeles Traffic
March 29, 2012	Allen Wranglers Football Team
April 5, 2012	Convention-al Wisdom - Weird Conventions
April 12, 2012	Too Old To Rock and Roll - Old Rock and Roll Stars
April 19, 2012	Three Stooges
April 26, 2012
May 3, 2012	Senior Wills & Junior Prophesies / Prom Story
May 10, 2012	Go-Kart  Running Full Speed On Kid Power
May 17, 2012	Honeymoon Is Never Over (Honeymooners)
May 24, 2012	Old Songs You Love To Hate
May 31, 2012
June 7, 2012	Driving The Cadillac Fleetwood
June 14, 2012	Stuff My Dad Said
June 21, 2012	Packing For Summercamp (Scouts)
June 28, 2012	Swimming Pool Stories 2012
July 5, 2012	Fireworks Store - Lake Lavon
July 12, 2012	TV Theme Song Composers
July 19, 2012
July 26, 2012	Electric Football
August 2, 2012	1912 Newspaper - Politics
August 9, 2012
August 16, 2012	College Advice From 1974
August 23, 2012	Lois Curtis Column
August 30, 2012	Football Crazy Town of Allen (Stadiums)
September 6, 2012
September 13, 2012	Soapbox Derby - Red Bull Event
September 20, 2012
September 27, 2012	Addams Family Show at Fair Park
October 4, 2012	Seventh Grade Diary
October 11, 2012
October 18, 2012	Five Year Diary - Freshman - College Freshman
October 25, 2012	153,000 Word Essay - Final Flipside Column

Five-Year Diary Offers Slice of Life

  A slice of life…that is what an old diary of mine offers when I am able to unscramble the handwriting.

   As I mentioned last week, I kept a daily log book starting in 1969. Beginning in 1971, I switched to a 5-year diary that chronicles almost every day of my life from sophomore year in high school through sophomore of college.

   The diary hardly reveals my inner thoughts. Instead, it reads like the log of a detective assigned to follow a suspect.

   On October 11, for example, I bought an Army jacket at the Army Navy store in 1971. A year later I had a half day of school and drove around all afternoon with a friend who recently got his driver’s license. In 1973 I spent October 11 taking a math quiz and working in the school darkroom. As a college freshman, I played pinochle all evening and in 1975 I was camping in the rain in the mountains of New Jersey.

   Little can be learned from reading the diary up and down but it does include special days like the very first day of college in 1974: “Drove to Glassboro (NJ) with Bill. Got lots of pamphlets and moved into dorm room and went to a movie on campus.”   The following day I “stood in registration lines all morning, got my schedule, bought books and went to a coffeehouse.”

   Wow – that just about captures all of the excitement and anxiety of my first two days at Glassboro State College.

   Some entries do a better job of capturing the seventies.  “Hitched to the mall and bought a Moody Blues album at Sam Goody’s.” Another sign of the times refers to my first paycheck from the Garden State Farms dairy store: “Got paid $26 for my first week at Garden State.” In another entry I put $3 in my father’s gas tank.

   Two stars in the margin show that an extra special event in 1973 was seeing Elton John in Madison Square Garden for my first big concert. The only other entry over 5 years that earned stars in the margin was the purchase of my first car; a ’57 Chevy that I’ve written about on several occasions.

   Movie theaters were a cheap date in the 1970’s and the book is filled with references to movies like Poseidon Adventure, Lady Sings the Blues and The Godfather for example.  Cabaret was the most memorable movie but not because of its Academy Award.  The entry on June 27, 1972 explains that “snuck into the Newton Drive-In and watched Cabaret outside – got tons of mosquito bites.”

   A phrase that most readers can relate to is “hung out.” Throughout high school a bunch of us (without girlfriends) hung out a lot.  We hung out at the mall, at Friendly’s Ice Cream Parlor, at the park, and at each other’s houses. Hanging out was also free- at least for the kids. 

   The 5-year diary is not a literary work of art.  Like most people, I wouldn’t want people to read my diary but not because of its personal revelations. I just wouldn’t want to bore people with days like May 26, 1974. “Slept late, had lunch, hung out at Gary’s all afternoon, had to go home for dinner.”

   It’s like Déjà vu all over again.

On This Day In (My) History

   For all of the toys and clothes and albums I received from my parents as birthday gifts, I never would have guessed that my favorite is now a small black book.

   The peculiar book had the days of the week but no dates and embossed on the front cover was the word Diary.  Beginning in January 1968, I filled in each day with a short sentence or two describing the day’s activities. Unlike most diaries, there were very few personal thoughts although I did admit that I hated math.

   My mother gave me the book because she saw I was interested in writing. As always, mom was on target.  I enjoyed filling in the book so much that I was given a five-year diary the following Christmas. That book chronicles the daily activities of Timothy Carroll from 1969 – 1974. Together the books let me go back in time to almost any day from 7^th grade to my first year of college.

   The first entry was made one day after my birthday on December 28, 1968. It says “I had to serve the 8:45 / went to Paul’s house / watched the Colts beat the Browns 34-0.”

   It’s not exactly prose but it tells a story.  I served an 8:45 a.m. mass as an altar boy in church, went to my friend Pal Gilroy’s house for the afternoon and watched the Baltimore Colts earn a berth in the 1969 Super Bowl. To make this easier I will insert explanations along the way and offer a glimpse into that first diary.

   For example, (12-31-68) Saw Yellow Submarine movie with Peter Kremer / ate dinner at Biviano’s (family friends) for New Year’s Eve.  On New Year’s Day I served the 12:30 mass / went to Ray Kenny’s and played Batman and Twister.

   With a few exceptions, the school week entries outline various homework, punishments or highlights. A phrase that comes up often is “punish lesson.” The practice has fallen out of favor today but homework as punishment was common at St. Thomas the Apostle School and I seemed to attract a large share of those assignments.

   (1-3-69) Mrs. Bulmer gives us punish lesson; (1-6-69) Mrs. Donahue checks my homework every day now; (1-7-69) Donahue gives me punish lesson for not doing homework; (1-8-69) Mom makes me stay in after school cause of homework; (1-14-69) Granger and I got in trouble with Sr. Adrian (principal) for talking; and so on.

   Boy Scouts were a big part of this 12 year-olds life. From the mundane “patrol meeting today / did auto safety merit badge” to the exciting “…lots of snow for the Klondike Derby,” my years with the Scouts are well documented. Some great entries in April 1969 detail a scout bus trip to Washington D.C. Apparently we saw the Washington Monument, Mount Vernon, the Smithsonian Air and Space and Jefferson Memorial all in one day – wow!

   Reading the first book carefully, I found a few details that I had forgotten over the years.  I bet my friend Gary $1 on the Jets-Colts Super Bowl on January 12 and lost. I also proclaimed that I liked Patrice and no longer Eileen. Years later, when Patrice (Keegan) and I were dating in high school, I wrote down every date she drove me on and every movie we saw and every restaurant we visited. In 1969, I was content to pass notes with codes like TPCEKP on the front.  Texting would have been so much easier.

   In the coming weeks, we will continue with the amazing story of this columnist. I think I will title it “The Altar Boy Who Couldn’t Do His Homework” or “Love Struck Scout Strikes Out In Class.”

Buzzing About Electric Football

   The nation is buzzing over the news that Normam Sas recently passed away at the age of 87.  Sas is the inventor of electric football, a game that has captivated kids for more than 60 years.

   A mechanical engineer by trade, Sas worked for his father Elmer who owned the Tudor Metal Company. The company had created a motor that vibrated a metal sheet for horse and car racing games but Norman used the technology to invent the electric football game in 1949.

   Considering that the game is extremely noisy, unpredictable and somewhat futile to master; it is amazing that it became so popular.  Yet despite its flaws, Tudor sold 40 million electric football games over the next 63 years.

   The game was a hit because it allowed kids (and dads) to recreate NFL action on their dining room tables. In the days before video games, controlling the actions of players in a sports game was a unique experience.

   Of course the game only gave the impression that kids could control it. It was actually impossible to control the game because the small plastic players wandered helter-skelter around the field like they had recently attended a campus keg party.

   I inherited the original 1950’s version from my brother in the late 60’s. By then most players had lost their “cleats” and the teams had been painted and repainted at least 4 times. We overlooked its flaws and played the game for hours changing the rules to accommodate the lack of mobile players.

   A quick Internet search shows that some guys never stopped playing. Electric Football Leagues exist in numerous northern cities (think long winter days). The 17^th  Annual Electric Football Super Bowl and Convention was held in Columbus, Ohio in 2011 although no record exists of the 18^th annual event. It is possible that the other hotel guests complained at the buzz of 50 game tables below their room.

   I asked Facebook friends to post their own electric football experiences and found a common theme of futility.

   Tom Heline had an old game with metal players who had a mind of their own. He even kept a notebook of which direction players ran in so he wouldn’t give a ball to the guy who ran in circles.

   When the electricity was out, we just tapped on the board and it worked the same, said both Jim Cummings and Barry Lanier.

   “We used to stick a wad of cotton in the quarterback’s arm and let it fly. Unfortunately he almost never made a touchdown. Instead he would fall over and shake to the sidelines,” commented Mark Sceurman.

   Mike Keenen remembers being frustrated that his game vibrated too much and the players quickly fell over and just laid there shaking.

   I once bought an electric football game on Ebay and tried to convince my ten year-old son that we could spend some quality time together.  I didn’t remember the game being “that noisy” and it took way too long to set up plays. We played it about five times and then resold it on Ebay.  It just couldn’t compete with Madden 2003.

   So thank you to Norman Sas and Tudor Games for all of the collective hours that we played the most annoying and noisy game in our closet.

A Tribute To TV Theme Song Composers

If I could have dinner with three famous people, I might choose Hoyt Curtin, Vic Mizzy and Earle Hagen. You probably never heard of them but you know every word of their work. That’s because they wrote theme songs for ten of the most popular television sitcoms and cartoons of the 1960’s.

Popular television today still uses opening musical themes but the golden age of theme songs with lyrics was the 1960s and early 70s. It was a time when the opening music set up the whole series.

How did those castaways get on Gilligan’s Island again. We all know it was a three hour cruise because we can sing it. The composer of “Gilligan’s Island,” Sherwood Schwartz also wrote The Brady Bunch and the theme song for a short lived sitcom called It’s About Time.

When you step back from the shows and listen to the themes as complete songs, you begin to appreciate the art of composing 60 second songs that are informative and catchy.

Hoyt Curtin, for example, was writing a Schlitz Beer commercial when he was approached by the Hanna-Barbera studios to write a jingle for a new cartoon series. That project earned him a full time gig with the studios where he wrote their most famous theme songs such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound, Quick DrawMcGraw, Johnny Quest, The Smurfs and Superfriends.  When it came to cartoons, the guy had the golden touch.

Another composer who had the golden touch was Earle Hagen. Like many people in the music business in the late 50s, Hagen started with the big bands of the 40s playing with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey among others. He began writings cores for movies and ultimately moved into television.

He co-wrote a little song called The Fishing Hole which became inseparable from the popular Andy Griffith Show. He also wrote themes for the Dick Van Dyke Show, GomerPyle, That Girl, Make Room For Daddy and The Mod Squad.

Howard Greenfield lived in the same Brooklyn apartment building as Neil Sedaka and co-wrote many of his most popular hits like Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Oh Carol, Calendar Girl and Love Will Keep Us Together.  He took time out from his pop song writing to compose the theme songs to Gidget, Bewitched, Hazel and The Flying Nun.  Listen to some old Neil Sedaka and follow that up with his TV theme songs and you will hear the similarities.

I once devoted a column to Vic Mizzy and his traffic safety song about jaywalking called In TheMiddle, In The Middle.  Mizzy also wrote the classic Addams Family and Green Acres tunes. He went on to write the scores to all five Don Knotts movies.

Fans of country rock music in the 70s might remember a pedal steel session player named Pete Kleinow or Sneaky Pete. He was also a founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers but before his hippie days he wrote the odd theme songs for Gumby and Davey and Goliath – go figure.

My favorite TV theme song story takes us to the talking horse Mr. Ed.  His theme song was written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingstone. According to an interview with the pair, they never saw film before writing the music or words. They just imagined what the horse would say.  It was first sung by an Italian opera singer but the producers used Livingstone’s demo version and voice instead.

“I feel sorry if anyone ever has to sing these lyrics,” he said in the interview which is posted on YouTube.

The truth is that all of us have sung the lyrics to Mr. Ed and many more silly sixties theme songs. For that we say thanks to Hoyt and Vic and Sheldon and friends.

Blowing Stuff Up

There were three unrelated incidents that led to my respect or fear of personal fireworks.

Our family was visiting my mother’s clan in Chicago and I was introduced to Billy, a thirty-year old who had three fingers on one hand.  He had lost two fingers in a fireworks accident as a kid. It made an impression on me.

A year or two later I read a paperback book called “Follow My Leader” by James Garfield.  The book details the story of Jimmy Carter, a young Boy Scout who is permanently blinded by a firecracker. The book, which is still in print, probably doesn’t get a lot of checkouts from the library these days but it was a cautionary tale that made an impression on me.

Neither of the events above made a lasting impression though because we were shooting off fireworks ourselves just a few years later.

Like most states north of the Mason-Dixon line, New Jersey deemed all fireworks illegal with the exception of sparklers. That didn’t seem to stop the 13-16 year-old crowd from obtaining them. It just made the purchases more exciting.

My favorite experience was the day an older kid (at least 16!) approached us in the park and offered to sell us firecrackers.  “Give me $5 and I’ll get them from my basement,” he said. We followed him to a house on the edge of the park and gave him our money.  He went inside and just never came out.

It took about ten minutes to realize we had been swindled.  As you can imagine, our options were rather limited. We could knock on the door and demand our money back but even two dumb kids like us knew the answer would be “what money?”

We could indignantly tell our mothers that we wasted $5 buying illegal fireworks but we knew the answer would be “that’s what you get for dealing with criminals or something like that.”

Instead we quietly sulked away and ate a few less sundaes at Friendly’s that week.  I recently drove by that same house in Montclair, NJ and remembered that incident like it was yesterday. Maybe I should have stopped to ask for my money back or threaten exposing his crime to readers of the Allen American Newspaper.

Most readers my age know that firecrackers were only a gateway explosive.  Cherry bombs “blowed stuff up real good” and the waterproof ash cans were great for blowing stuff up real good in water. M-80’s were a whole different explosive.

According to Wikipedia, the M-80 was originally created for the military as a simulator for live explosives. The M in the name stood for Military and the 80 referred to the size of the tube. They typically held 3 -5 grams of explosive. It was the damage to property and people by M-80s that led the U.S. Government to pass the Child Safety Act in 1966 banning the use of most consumer (Class C) explosives.

I never actually bought an M-80 but the older kids would recklessly set them off at the local park and schoolyard around the Fourth of July. Rumors that an M-80 was equal to a quarter stick of dynamite (not even close) were enough to keep us at a safe distance.

The only thing more entertaining than blowing stuff up was watching stuff fly.  Fireworks with names like bottle rockets and pinwheels added suspense to the backyard activities because they were so unpredictable.

Unpredictable and unsafe – it sounds like a recipe for trouble but there will always be a new crop of kids looking for a thrill as they blow stuff up.