Archive for the 'Relief' Category
July 29th, 2010 by Mike Redding
It was about a year ago when I first confessed my sickness to SASTP Nation.
Through my confession I learned from your responses that many of you share a similar disease. Many of you wake up each morning with your brain radio already playing a song from your past. For a great majority of you you wake up to a song you like. For the rest of us it’s pure hell.
Billy Ocean? What kind of name is that?
I had a week where I awoke to Billy Ocean playing in my head every day. It was beyond cruel. My particular form of brain radio is the worst kind. It plays only music I would never buy but had memorized due to some other weirdo in my life playing it in my presence.
Day after day… one crappy song after another… each and every morning.
I healed temporarily right after my initial admission to having the disease. But a week or two passed and whammo! I wake up to the torturous sounds of Leif Garrett. I wanted to die. My only solace was thinking he
Leif (pronounced "talentless") Garrett...
ended up in prison for meth or heroin or something like that. I wish him no harm but his “music” was every bit as awful as Britney Spears’. In fact, give him a couple of breast implants and I defy you to tell them apart.
Somebody shoot me...
Well, I have good, no, GREAT news! I am healed. It took a new baby to change the channel. I no longer wake to the soul sucking sounds of Bananarama. Now when my eyes catch first light, I hear the musical stylings of five animated creatures called The Backyardigans!
Awesome.
It’s pure goodness. For those of you with no toddlers in your life radius, The Backyardigans is a children’s show with better music than almost the entire 1980s decade.
I have a dozen or so of their songs deeply embedded in what’s left of my brain. I can’t remember my computer login at work but I know every friggin word to, “Eureka eureka, when you finda what you seeka eureka eureka…”
I have to admit, it’s a step up. No it’s a whole flight of stairs up. It makes me smile. And that’s as good as it gets for my brain radio.
Looks like my baby boy is bringing healing to my life I never expected. We can all use a little of that… MR
July 27th, 2010 by Mike Redding
I’m curious which ones of the “100 things our kids will never experience” from the previous post hit you in the heart.
It’s interesting to me which ones caught me off guard. Most of the ones that hit me hard had to do with what I’ll call “simple pleasures.” Drinking from a garden hose, playing “Kick the can” after dinner with all the kids in the neighborhood, playing for hours with matchbox cars on imaginary roads in a dirt patch next to my house.
Others that hit me were things like “pay phones” and “album artwork” and one I didn’t even add to the list: a banana seat and a sissy bar on my Schwinn Stingray. I felt like Easy Rider on that thing. And in reality I was the least cool kid in the neighborhood. But that bike made me feel impossibly cool.
I’m just curious which of the 100 hit you over the head.
Tell all… MR
July 26th, 2010 by Mike Redding
We passed 100 but I get the sense there’s a few more good ones out there so I’m not ready to move on just yet. I put the most recent add-ons to our list at the bottom this time because I didn’t feel like renumbering the whole list. I’m sleepy. They’re in RED.
SASTP Nation is compiling a list of things we all grew up with that our kids will likely never see or experience. The age range of those writing in is all over the place. I’ve tried to edit the list down to something, say, people 35-and-up could agree on.
If I dropped one of your suggestions and you think I’m nuts, just suggest it again. I’m slow, but I get there. Usually.
Enjoy…
1. Standard 3 speed transmission in cars with the shifter on the column
2. All businesses closed on Sundays
3. Only 3 channels on the TV (ABC, NBC, CBS), maybe 4 if you could get PBS
4. BBQ grills with real charcoal (No one had a gas grill! Or had ever heard of one!)
5. Matchbooks or wooden stick matches, no butane lighters
6. S&H green stamps.
7. Clipping baseball cards to your bike spokes so it sounded like an engine when you were riding
8. Getting punished by your friends parents if you step out of line.
9. Playing with little green army men in the dirt for hours
10. Drawing out roadways on the driveway with a stone or chalk and playing with matchbox cars
11. Making your Halloween costume from items found in your house (or friends house) instead of buying one at the store
12. Records Players… later the more sophisticated name “turntable” was all the rage
13. Electric football where the players just vibrated around
14. Holly Hobby dolls
15. Boom boxes
16. Sleeping with the windows open
17. Playing outside all day when your Mom didn’t know where you were, but knew you were ok
18. Drinking from the water hose
19. Pulling into the gas station and having someone fill your tank and check the oil as a courtesy
20. Cracker jacks had nice prizes
21. Plastic glasses in oatmeal boxes
22. Dirt roads
23. Milk truck delivering to your house (although they are making a come back)
24. Family farms
25. The Little Rascals on TV
26. Bath night
27. The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Hour
28. In my grandmother’s neighborhood (in Hamburg, NY) we loved walking the few blocks to go buy some milk in glass jugs from the vending machine
28. For the ladies, remember short hairstyles with “spit curls”
29. Clothespins. I heard someone at Target ask the cashier, “Where would I find clothes pins?” The cashier looked totally blank
30. Using the phone maybe once a day… maybe less than that
31. Getting spanked or paddled by teachers in school
32. Black & White TV
33. Powdered dishwashing detergent
34. Kitchens with NO automatic dishwasher
35. Clothes lines
36. Painting a house with a paint brush
37. Sandwiches wrapped in wax paper
38. Non-electric pencil sharpeners
39. 8 tracks
40. Tape recorders with actual cassette tapes, not digital chips
41. Home heat source was wood fired furnace
42. A big, round, black, vinyl disc you lay on a spinning table and a special “needle” would be placed on it… VOILA! Music!
43. Mix tapes (we spent hours, even days making these. Now kids assemble “playlists” with mouse clicks on a computer in minutes)
44. Flashcube cameras (The four-sided kind you popped on and off)
45. Wax fingers and lips
46. Balsa wood airplanes (some had rubber band powered propellers)
47. Waiting days to see what your pictures looked like
48. Carbon paper
49. Rabbit ears (that’s a TV antenna for the kids reading this)
50. Getting up to change the channel
51. Party lines
51. Tang
52. Betamax tapes (This format lost out to VHS tapes)
53. Pull tabs from soda cans… the type that actually came off
54. Grass trimmers that worked like giant scissors you actually squeezed by hand
55. Lawnmowers that required no gas or electricity… just you pushing
56. Tube radios and TVs that had to “WARM UP” before they worked right
57. Rotary dial phones
58. Garage doors without remotes
59. Houses without AC
60. GameBoys, Atari, Pong,
61. MS-DOS
62. 45’s,
63. PF Flyers
64. Photos in physical albums
65. Newspapers in print
66. Transistor radios
67. Sack lunches
68. Princess telephones
69. Ice cube trays (especially the metal trays that had the lever that you pulled up to break the ice)
70. The small box on your TV that you had to get up and turn the dial to make the antenna on house turn to pick up another channel.
71. Cars without seat belts
72. Seat Belts that were lap only
73. Cars with the high-beam button on the floor you pushed with your left foot
74. My Partridge Family (Metal) lunchbox
75. Free Hotwheel cars and tracks when the service attendant pumped your gas and washed your windshield.
76. Mimeograph machines and the smelly purple ink on mimeographed paper
77. The MovieFone guy/voice that you called to get movie listings
78. Pay Phones
79. Catching lighting bugs at dusk
80. Chatty Cathy or Mrs. Beasley dolls
81. Real Crayola Crayons (not the waxy ones out now)
82. Reading an actual book
83. Camping… in a tent… and a huge rock or tree for a bathroom
84. 10 cent ice cream cones
85. Playing outside in the summer from dawn ‘til dusk
86. Playing house with dirt for a floor and trees for a roof
87. Dippity Do (for your hair)
88. Making mudpies after it rains and having to be hosed off before being let back in the house
89. Saturday morning cartoons…. from 7 a.m. until noon
90. AM radio
91. Bee hive hairdo
92. Cut out paper dolls with full cut out wardrobe
93. Playing Spud
94. Flashlight tag
95. Tetherball
96. Walking on stilts your dad made for you
97. Pogo sticks
98. Playing neighborhood ‘kick the can’
99. The great art on LP record covers
100. Knowing all your friends’ phone numbers! (Now we just push a button on speed dial.)
101. Stretch Armstrong
102. Cabbage Patch Dolls
103. Fuller Brush Man
104. Jelly jar glasses
105. Penny candy
106. Candy cigarettes (these truly seem like a bad idea to me now… but then it was cool. Stupid… but cool.)
107. Bands releasing a new LP every year, sometimes more often!
July 19th, 2010 by Mike Redding
I asked and you delivered!
I wanted to compile and extensive list of all the things we grew up with that kids today will never see… and VOILA! Some of you left comments here… some e-mailed. This list makes me laugh and groan in amazement.
But it feels incomplete still. Read through it and add your 2 cents. And I’ll keep building this list. (Remember when a penny could get you a piece of gum?)
Rotary dial phones
Getting spanked or paddled by teachers in school
Black & White TV
Powdered dishwashing detergent
Kitchens with NO automatic dishwasher
Clothes lines
Painting a house with a paint brush
Sandwiches wrapped in wax paper
Non-electric pencil sharpeners
8 tracks
Tape recorders with actual cassette tapes, not digital chips
Home heat source was wood fired furnace
A big, round, black, vinyl disc you lay on a spinning table and a special “needle” would be placed on it… VOILA! Music!
Mix tapes (we spent hours, even days making these. Now kids assemble “playlists” with mouse clicks on a computer in minutes)
Flashcube cameras (The four-sided kind you popped on and off)
Wax fingers and lips
Balsa wood airplanes (some had rubber band powered propellers)
Waiting days to see what your pictures looked like
Carbon paper
Rabbit ears (that’s a TV antenna for the kids reading this)
Getting up to change the channel
Party lines
Tang
Betamax tapes (This format lost out to VHS tapes)
Pull tabs from soda cans… the type that actually came off
Grass trimmers that worked like giant scissors you actually squeezed by hand
Lawnmowers that required no gas or electricity… just you pushing
Tube radios and TVs that had to “WARM UP” before they worked right
Garage doors without remotes
Houses without AC
GameBoys, Atari, Pong,
MS-DOS
45’s,
PF Flyers
Photos in physical albums
Newspapers in print
Transistor radios
Sack lunches
Princess telephones
Ice cube trays
The small box on your TV that you had to get up and turn the dial to make the antenna on house turn to pick up another channel.
Cars without seat belts
Seat Belts that were lap only
Cars with the high-beam button on the floor you pushed with your left foot
My Partridge Family (Metal) lunchbox
Free Hotwheel cars and tracks when the service attendant pumped your gas and washed your windshield.
Mimeograph machines and the smelly purple ink on mimeographed paper
The MovieFone guy/voice that you called to get movie listings
Pay Phones
Okay, if you want to add something, make a comment (remember when you had to sit down and write a letter with a pen on paper and send it by ground mail to comment on anything? It’s amazing, all that has changed just in our generation… MR
July 15th, 2010 by Mike Redding
I need you all to help me make a list. I was having this conversation in the newsroom with some interns (God love them) and they were stupefied when I said the word “galoshes.”
Let’s make a list of all the things you and I used as kids that our kids and grandkids will never even see.
#1. Galoshes. Remember the “rubbers” you slipped over your shoes when it was raining? A brilliant invention.
#2. Typewriters. Too easy.
#3. Matches… maybe?
What else? Free associate. Remember, there are no stupid ideas, just stupid people. Wait. That’s not right. What’s the saying? Forget it. Moving on…
Okay, have at it, class… MR
July 13th, 2010 by Mike Redding
The dark vans are gone and my Internet is working again. If you haven’t read the previous couple posts, you have some catching up to do.
Obviously, calling them out left the Russians and Americans no choice. I hope BOTH governments learned a thing or two about the pen being my t-shirt than the, um, uh, er… what would George Bush say here? The pen is a might tighter than the, hmmm… we won’t get fooled again.
In this case, the blog is mightier than the international incident. And if you think I’ve made all this up, you’re wrong. Mostly. Somewhat.
Parts of the story are true. I had to tell the story in code. (Whispering now.) They’re listening.
And for those of you who don’t believe Anna is THAT disconnected from all sports, I’ll have her write you about it. She doesn’t feel it’s a down side. And she’s right! I’m just a junkie. To quit the NFL NOW would send me into shock and possibly cause a personality fracture so deep even Mel Gibson would seem sane in comparison. And that dude is flat our whacked in the head. Talk about Mad Max.
Okay, I’m off to the bank to exchange some rubles for dollars… MR
July 12th, 2010 by Mike Redding
I recently wrote about a real estate agent, Varushka, who the U.S. Government thinks is a spy. She’s renting a room from us for 12,400 rubles a month. She’s also very pretty.
She does seem to ask a lot of questions about Dick Cheney. I just figured she was curious about who ran the country before Obama was elected.
Anyway, this has caused problems. Either our government or the Russians are jamming our Internet now. We think our house is bugged too. A roofer showed up in a suit driving a Crown Vic and said he needed to look at our phones. I’m not stupid. I only let him look at our land-line. NOT our cells.
So we have no Internet at the house. Two vans with blacked out windows are sitting out front. The Chevy is obviously the Russians. They are always taking delivery of Marlboro’s and Vodka. Plus it has a direcTV Satellite on top and you can hear them watching the World Cup and blowing those stupid Vuvuzelas.
The other van has the American agents inside. It’s got spinners.
So I’m communicating with you from my office during lunch. And will continue to do so until the Russian Capitalist Pigs work a deal with the U.S.
In the meantime, Varushka (which by the way means “stranger” in Russian) is selling homes, paying her rent and racking up wild amounts for credit card dept like any good American.
I have to go interview an Associate producer candidate named, Fayina. Coincidentally, she’s from Russia. Says her name means “Free one.”
Right! A “free one”! And pigs might fly! Or, for my Russina friends, “А дело бывало — и коза волка съедала.”
It means, “A goat was eating a wolf.” That joke kills in Mosow… MR
July 9th, 2010 by Mike Redding
My wife had no idea what was scheduled to happen at 9 p.m. last night. Nor did she care when I told her.
She’s heard of LeBron James. Like she’s heard of Tom Brady or, well, nah, she couldn’t even name one baseball player. She’s tried to watch football with me but often cheers at the wrong time…
Me-”That’s a punt, sweetie.”
Anna-”Oooh the ball went so high! That’s amazing! Who’s playing?”
As I was saying, LeBron could have told the world he was giving up basketball, having a sex change and joining the Ice Capades, and Anna would smile and say, “Good for him. Or her. Whichever.”
The only conflict there is that I accepted the National Football League into my heart as my lord and savior. And it’s not that I want her to convert to my beliefs but I do need her to respect my cult. And frankly, she thinks it’s mostly a waste of time on earth. I would agree but I have way too much of my life invested in the stoned-like high millionaire athletes give me.
Lord help us if my teams are competitive this fall.
On the flip side, it’s refreshing to know at least one human who could care less about sports. It’ll be nice to chill on the couch and hear Anna say form the kitchen, “Don’t forget to tell me when they’re about to kick the ball thingie way up in the air!”
She would have loved Ray Guy… MR
July 8th, 2010 by Mike Redding
Note: Tom, your comment about Jimmy Brown means a lot to me, thanks…
I’m not going to be able to explain this fully today. I will write about it again soon. But in the meantime, a number of you have sent me e-mails describing your life right now… and it’s one difficult season. Family crisis’. Unemployment. Broken relationships. You name it.
I fail at this with great regularity, but when I find myself in such a place, I try to pull back and look at my life from 35,000 feet. And I tell myself this is a season of divine discontent. It’s not what I wanted. Not what I hoped for. Not what I planned. But it’s what I got. Can’t avoid it. Have to live through it. One day after another. Is there something in it for me? Divine discontent.
What are you learning in your season of divine discontent?
Stew on that… and we’ll come back to this soon… MR
July 6th, 2010 by Mike Redding
I’ve done hundreds of Carolina Traveler stories. The one Andy and I did in Albemarle at the Music Store struck a nerve with viewers. It wasn’t the music store. It was what was on the second floor above the music store. It was a little boy’s dream come to life. So late in a man’s life.
Every week for about five years I’d get a letter or e-mail or phone call from someone wanting to know where that train display was?Eventually we posted a permanent link to the place on WCNC.com. I also kept Jimmy Brown’s number in my speed dial. After we did the story I visited the Albemarle Music Store every year. I brought my oldest son, Trevor, to see it. I was hoping to bring my baby boy, Crowley, to see it this coming Christmas.
It was a magical place. Andy and I were lucky to capture that magic on tape. I think Jimmy Brown was the magic. Yes there were dozens of model trains running on a half dozen different levels in a room that looked like it should have been at Disneyland, but the magic was still Jimmy.
Jimmy lived a life paycheck to paycheck. He ran a modest music store. It was the sort of shop you’d find in Mayberry. Locals would come and sit and talk and while a way half a day telling stories. It looked like a simple old fashioned music shop. If you didn’t know any better you would have come and gone and thought nothing of the Albemarle Music Shop. Quaint. Friendly. Unremarkable. Thousands did just that. Came bought music or an instrument and left.
But Jimmy Brown let our camera upstairs and the Albemarle Music Shop would never be the same. We aired our story in December or 2002 or 3. It’s been a while. I’ve forgotten. It was so long ago I wasn’t yet taking still photos of our subjects.
Jimmy told me after our story aired the store was swamped with visitors… and they never stopped coming. He told me once that our story turned his little model train fantasyland into a business. He started selling model trains. People came from all over the country to see his train world and buy a train from him.
Jimmy gave us all the credit. But the truth is viewers only react this way to the truth of a story, not to the words I wrote or the editing Andy did. People reacted to Jimmy Brown. An aging man with health issues who decided one day to fulfill his childhood dream before it was too late. So he cleared out the second floor of his music store and started building. He and some friends ceased to be adults. They crawled inside their childhood dreams and built something adults no longer can imagine.
I said it earlier, it was magical. You could sit for hours and never see the same thing twice. Everyone I brought had the same experience: it turns you back into a little boy. Jimmy was a man of suffering health. And Jimmy was a boy who fulfilled his dream.
His model train world is stunning.
Jimmy passed away 4th of July weekend. I don’t know what will happen to the music store or the train display on West Main Street in Albemarle. I do know that Jimmy Brown was a good man and a kind soul. He would be mad at me for fussing over him and for saying this… he will be missed more than he could have ever imagined. You brought smiles to thousands of little boys and girls of every age, Jimmy. You were an original. I was proud to tell your story.
Rest in peace, my friend… MR
