Memorial Day

Monday was Memorial Day. In truth our family celebrated the meaningful part of the holiday on Sunday as we had a very nice service honoring the men and women who sacrifice so much for us. Then on Monday…we took advantage of our freedoms and had a great time outdoors on our bikes and with our friends. We rode downtown to the Farmers Market, walked around a little, let the kids play on the play ground a little and then back home for some lunch and rest before joining back up to grill dinner in the evening. It was an especially nice day and we really enjoyed ourselves.

We were talking during the evening about educational films while watching some program about how they make grated cheese and I brought up the films we used to watch in elementary school that we called “Hot Dog Films”. I am apparently the only person that remembers Hot Dog Films but they were great little shows, hosted by comedians who were popular at the time. I looked it up online when I got home and found very little, but there is some proof that they existed on www.imdb.com. Evidently, it was a very short lived television show that starred some of the comedians from “Laugh-In”. When I saw the films the show had already been canceled and marketed in segments to schools. I can especially remember in fourth grade, Ms. Nelson would show films. This was before the VCR and our school had about three of the old projectors that the teachers would set up in the middle of the class room facing our screen. The class would wait patiently for the reels to be put on correctly, the belts and gears to run things smoothly and the light to come on so we could watch the countdown to our entertaining education. We loved the countdown, not just because it was a chance to speak up, out loud as a group and help everyone get to the film, but also because when we got to three…there was a picture that would pop up on about three fourths of the films we got. It was a picture of a woman from the shoulders up and she was heavily made up and had a big 60’s Bouffant hairdo. The class would cheer loudly and all look at Richie. For some reason Ms. Nelson had labeled this woman “Richie’s girlfriend.” And she lives in infamy to this day as such. After the film was over we would all beg to watch it backwards. We were rewarded with this treat about once a month. It was especially fun when the film featured some food production and we got to see someone pulling potato chips out of their mouth or milk being sucked back into a cow’s utters. You just can’t beat fourth grade entertainment.

This memory brought my mind to another funny incident in fourth grade that I told Kris about that night. Some of you may remember the ad’s for the Jergen’s shampoo called “Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific.” I remember my mom buying this product one time and I had been using it regularly. During our reading group time in class we were told to kneel at our chairs to do a simple activity in our reading workbooks. I was next to Brett Clemens and in our little kneeling circle was close enough for him to catch a whiff of my hair. He whispered…”what shampoo do you use?” and I immediately started laughing and hesitantly whispered back…”Gee, your hair smells terrific.” He said “no way!” and went back to his book. It was as if we had been trapped into reciting the commercial and though it seemed to make him uncomfortable…I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face until recess. In looking the product up on the web I found that you can still purchase this very fragrant shampoo. It is evidently still made in the Phillipines and can be shipped to your door for about $20.00.

Joey is back today and he and Owen are downstairs right now calling for me to come get them out of their respective entrapments. Joey is in the swing and Owen is belted into his booster seat. I suppose I’d better get down there.