Author: Steve

True Story of Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne”

One of my “fondest” songs to end the year with is Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg released in 1975. This song hits home with anyone who ran into an old flame some where years later. Fogelberg is as good a story teller in his songs as Harry Chapin. As he sings each line the listener can visualize the scene in their mind. This song is based is based in fact of an encounter he had while looking for whipped cream on New Years Eve for his Irish Coffee and his old lover from an on again, off again relationship meet in a convenience store and reminisced over a six pack of beer in his car.

I was going to do an in depth report on this relationship that revealed who his old lover was. While doing research about this song and relationship I came across this video which did an outstanding job explaining it along with a visit to that convenience store and then to Folgerberg tributes in his hometown. Excellent video Kyle from the Track X Track channel on Youtube! Thanks for your work on this!

Vavoom From Felix The Cat

I was in a restaurant with my wife celebrating our anniversary and there was a table with kids. All were well mannered but one kid was just so loud I said he reminded me of the cartoon character Vavoom which gave me the inspiration for this post.

Vavoom was an Inuit (Alaskan indigenous person) on the Felix the Cat cartoon who used his voice to get them out of situations, like blasting rocks away in this video.

I grew up watching Felix The Cat on the Saturday morning cartoons. Surprisingly Felix The Cat only ran from 1958 to 1960 for a total of 126 episodes. CBS revived in the 90’s from 1995 to 1997 under the name The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat for just 21 episodes.

Did you ever give someone the nickname Vavoom. Please tell!

Skittle Everything!

Aurora Toys had big success with Skittle Bowl when it launched in 1969. It seems their company started making EVERYTHING Skittle, except for the candy!

This was one of the games my dad played with me and my four brothers that we actually started leagues with playoffs and championship. We even had a cup like the National Hockey League.

You can still find the games on eBay, but way more than $6.99. I bought one over fifteen years ago and play it with my kids from time to time. Sometimes when my brothers get together one of us will break it out and relive the memories.

Here is the commercial on Youtube I wonder where we got the idea for leagues and a championship cup? !!

Who Remembers Warren Ferguson aka Jack Burns?

For five memorable seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, Don Knotts superbly played Barney Fife, sheriff Andy Taylor’s well-intentioned but inept deputy. Deputy Fife was such a beloved character that anyone who attempted to replace him would have a difficult task. Knotts opted to pursue a movie career at the end of the 1964-65 TV season and left the TAGS cast. His replacement was comedian Jack Burns who was cast as deputy Warren Ferguson. Ferguson was the nephew of town barber Floyd Lawson. He was a recent graduate of a police academy who zealously enforced Mayberry’s statutes. (In one episode he raided a ladies’ club bingo game.) Ferguson is best remembered for his grating habit of punctuating his monologues with the word “Huh?”. He was also bungling, but nowhere near as popular as Barney Fife. After just 11 episodes, deputy Ferguson vanished without explanation. He was never seen or even mentioned again. Sheriff Taylor never had another regular deputy throughout the rest of the series (which ended in 1968).

This article was originally written by YouRememberThat member Lava1964 in February 1969.

The Munster Test Pilot

The Musters was a series that ran from Fall of 1964 to the Spring of 1966 and aired on CBS at 7:30 on Thursday nights. It was written by the same writers from Leave It To Beaver.

Here is the 1964 pilot that was recorded in color. It was recorded for 15 minutes but edited to 13 minutes. Many say the network didn’t want to spend the extra money to produce it in color while others say it was to copy Universal’s vintage monster film’s appearance from the 1930’s and 40’s.

There were a total of 70 episodes recorded. The show ran for two years until it received stiff competition from ABC’s Batman that aired opposite of the Munster’s. The show continues to run in syndication. At the time of this writing it has been picked up by Cozi-TV

As you can see, the characters weren’t finalized. What did you like or dislike about the original cast? Do you wish it was recorded in color?

Oklahoma’s 1957 Time Capsule

Time capsules are fun. They are usually buried which creates challenges for preserving the artifacts. In 1957 the State of Oklahoma celebrated it’s 50th anniversary of statehood by burying a brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere along with other artifacts of the time period. This was during the cold war so the car was buried in a cement vault capable of sustaining a nuclear blast. They held a contest for the car, all you had to do is guess the population of the state in the year 2007 to win. See the unveiling in this fun and interesting video:

Cheers – Death Of Eddie Lebec

Jay Thomas, who appeared as Eddie Lebec in nine episodes of the TV sitcom Cheers, died from cancer on August 24, 2017 at the age of 69. On Cheers, Lebec was a French-Canadian goalie for the Boston Bruins whom Carla (Rhea Perlman) meets while he is riding a hot streak. However, as soon as Eddie and Carla start dating, he slumps badly. (To thwart the jinx, Eddie and Carla continue to date, but they go through a ‘breakup’ ritual before every game.)

The Eddie Lebec character was popular, so the show’s writers decided to have Carla and Eddie marry. However, Thomas, who hosted a radio show, got himself into hot water one day when a caller innocently asked him what it was like to be a Cheers cast member. The irrepressible Tomas replied, “It’s brutal. I have to kiss Rhea Perlman.” Perlman happened to be listening to the broadcast–and Thomas never made another appearance on Cheers. The show’s writers had to come up with a way to drop Eddie Lebec from the show.

In his final episode on Cheers, Eddie’s hockey career was over so he had gotten a job in an ice show as a skating penguin. The writers came up with the memorable idea of killing Eddie off in a Zamboni accident in an episode cleverly titled “Death Takes a Holiday on Ice.” (The premise is quite ridiculous: Have you ever seen how slowly a Zamboni moves? Its design makes it almost impossible for a Zamboni to run over anyone.) Despite the absurdity of the plot twist, Cheers fans loved it. Eddie’s death also led to a further plot development: At Eddie’s funeral it was revealed that he was a bigamist whose second wife was strikingly similar to Carla! According to writer Ken Levine, this idea worked well as it made Eddie look like a heel, thus viewers were happy he was no longer part of the show.

This article first appeared in our former website YouRemeberThat.com on August of 2017 and written by member Lava1964. Eddie LeBec played by Jay Thomas died on Thursday at 69 after a battle with cancer. 

Howard Johnson Restaurant Specials

What was your favorite item or special at Howard Johnson’s? Who didn’t love their clams? My all time favorite was the strawberry ice cream, the only brand that I chose over chocolate ice cream!

Howard Johnson chairman, George Carter was quoted as saying back in 1987 to the Orlando Sentinel “We have the concept, but it desperately needs to be modernized, internally and externally. Howard Johnson was allowed to become tired and stale. We must get rid of that plastic image… Anything can be salvageable if a great deal of time and money and effort is put in it. And Howard Johnson needs all those same things.” So they just let the restaurant chain die. Sadly, only the hotel chain remains.

VA Home Loans

This site is recommended by the Veterans Affair and is in their newsletter.

In this episode of theSITREP, Paul sits down with Rick Bettencourt*, a VA-partner in educating Veterans about VA Home Loans, and discusses everything from how to apply, refinancing, credit scores, PCS’ing and much, much more. To find a specific topic that interests you, refer to the chapters below.

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