December 22, 2015- Dad

Dad was the tire guy on the assembly line then the forklift driver at the Linden plant of General Motors. We went to the 75^th Anniversary of GM event there in 1983. There were tours of it which I think that we had been on one other time before.

   They had vintage cars in the parking lot and an air show.  He left that job after 23 years with only 7 to go before retirement which was pretty foolish. I wonder if he ever regrets doing this. He worked at a freight airliner at Newark airport after this, also as a forklift driver.

   He has an interest in the Civil War. He likes the movie Gone with the Wind and has the collectible dolls Rhett and Scarlett. He also has a book about that film. He got the Civil War chess set from either the Franklin or Danbury Mint. Mom bought him a nice book set for Christmas of 1986. 

   He started smoking when he was 13 or 14 years old and did so up until he had bypass surgery in the mid-1990s. A lot of mom’s stuffed animals got ruined because of the smoke/nicotine stains. This was so upsetting.

   We really should have tried to clean them somehow but we weren’t thinking clearly and just threw them out. My Finnegan seal that I got in PA then gave to mom a few years later was one of them as were 2 poodles. Mom loves poodles; her Dad had 2 of them – Shu Shu and Prince.

   Dad sure did like electronics. He had 3 stereos at once throughout our house – living room, parent’s room and basement. The older one with the 8 track player was down there. This was after we got rid of our big stereo which was lastly in my room.

   He had a radio that he could listen to broadcasts from other countries on it too. He had a Sony Watchman and 2 other portable TVs. I lost track of the number of digital watches that he owned – it might have been 4.

   He bought us our first VCR, a Panasonic, in Macy’s in 1983. I think that it cost $350.00 on sale. We had it for many years before it broke down – 1996? I paid a lot to have it repaired. It probably would have cost the same or even less to get a new one which we eventually had to do in 1999. That one only lasted about 5 years. They certainly don’t make things as good as they used to, from electronics to toys.

   Dad’s favorite shows included “Leave It to Beaver”, “The Munsters”,” The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Andy Griffith”. We would sometimes watch these with him. He also liked “Sanford and Son” which Grandma Next-Door would sometimes watch with us.

    God must be so displeased with me for having some unkind thoughts about my father. I have just a few good memories of him, like watching Dracula (Legosi) and other monster movies from the 30s-50s and also the wrestling matches with him and Mike. Mike used to frequently do his impersonations of some of them like Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

   He once took me to a small wrestling event at Roselle Catholic High School; Sgt. Slaughter was scheduled to be there but I have this vague memory that he didn’t show up. I can’t believe that we used to be so into this sport. Well, some people wouldn’t consider the then WWF as that.

    He probably would’ve been mad at us if he found out that we played with his 3 Hess trucks, the Goodyear Blimp and the 3 Beatles figures. I always wondered whatever happened to the 4^th one but was afraid to ask. I can’t even remember which guy was missing; I think that either Paul or John. I wasn’t really that familiar with their names back then but did like some of their songs.

1970s

1985

1988

1985

 

General Motors- Linden 1983

Rhett and Scarlett

 

Mom's Stuffed Animals

Shu Shu and Prince

 

 

1970s

1978

1980 Hess Camper

 

Sgt. Slaughter

Randy "Macho Man" Savage and Hulk Hogan

 

Note- the photos of the Hess Trucks, Beatles figures, Goodyear Blimp, and the wrestlers are from the internet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More TV

My brother was talking about Battlestar Galactica yesterday, not the new one but the cheesy one from the 70s. I did used to watch this and Buck Rogers with him back then. He likes the former more. We liked watching Star Trek together too- he was more into it than I was. I remember when it was on at 6:00 on Saturdays and we would watch this after Mission Impossible at 5:00.

We would watch some of the old shows with our parents. The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It to Beaver, The Munsters and The Honeymooners. Sometimes we'd watch the Addams Family but I always liked The Munsters more. Now I'm not really into any of these classic shows.

Why did we ever watch Gilligan's Island- Gilligan is so annoying. We liked The Brady Bunch then, don't know if I'd want to watch it now though. Definitely wouldn't watch Three's Company or The Facts of Life. I guess at the time we were into that sort of show. We did watch Little House on the Prarie but I liked the books much better.

Mom used to tell people a story about me that really embarrased me. She said that when I was a little girl that sometimes I used to dance around during the opening of I Dream of Jeannie trying to imitate how the cartoon image of her did so. We watched Bewitched also but I always liked the former better. I really did not care for Darren #2 and Tabitha.

Dad, Mark and I used to watch wrestling in the 80s. I remember many of the wrestlers- The Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter, Jessie "The Body" Ventura, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Hillbilly Jim, George "The Animal" Steel, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre The Giant and more. Captain Lou the manager just died last year. I can't believe that I used to be into this. Dad even had a record with the stars of wrestling singing. I remember Hillbilly Jim doing Don't Go Messin' With a Country Boy.

We liked Happy Days but mostly just the first couple of years before it became mainly The Fonzie show. A relative got me a necklace with him on the charm. My grade school classmate said that she liked it. I still have the charm but not the chain.

I love Hanna Barbera cartoons, especially Scooby Doo. Other favourites- Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, Hong Kong Phooey, Ricochet Rabbit, Auggie Doggie and Dastardly and Muttley. We watched The Jetsons and The Flinstones but didn't care for them as much. Same with Tom and Jerry. Jonny Quest was good too. We weren't as into Bugs and the Warner Brothers cartoons. Loved The Pink Panther, Spiderman and Friends, The Incredible Hulk, Godzilla (with Godzuki), The Superfriends and the Hall of Justice and The Fantastic Four as well

In the 80's we did watch The Smurfs. I'm kind of embarrased to admit that. Sometimes I wished that Gargamel would capture them though which is pretty mean. I liked the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. We watched Inspector Gadget and He-Man also. I think there were a couple of others but I can't remember them right now.

Were The Blue Falcon and Space Ghost Hanna Barbera? Probably. We did watch Rocky and Bullwinkle sometimes but I don't remember much about that. I did have a sweatshirt with them on it when I was a little girl. Nowadays I do have T-Shirts with Scooby Doo and the Pink Panther on them. I don't care that Stacey and Clinton on What Not to Wear say that this is childish and you shouldn't be wearing such shirts.

I think that I forgot to mention The Family Feud on my list of favourite game shows yesterday. A friend of ours had that board game and we'd play it sometimes. Now I'm thinking about the toys and games that I had in my childhood. I still have some of them but not many. That's a topic for another day, however. I've said enough for today.