Friday, April 14, 2006

Flashback Friday - A Plethora

Do you remember the concept of being blood brothers or blood sisters? This was very big when I was in grade school. In our inexperienced collection of ways to show particular loyalty and affection towards a friend, this was about the biggest thing you could do. You would cut your finger or prick it with a pin until you got it bleeding pretty good, and then you’d put it together with your friend’s bleeding finger. The idea was for their blood to flow into you and yours into them – bonding you forever as best friends.

A pretty revolting practice when you think about it, and something that I am sure would be immediately and urgently halted if kids were caught doing this today. But 30 years ago, hepatitis was unheard of and HIV wasn’t around, the disease bouquet we know now hadn't yet germinated ... We rode around without bicycle helmets and played with clackers and lawn jarts, too …

The seventies trifecta of concussions and bodily injury ... Good times …

I had 3 blood sisters. I don’t know what happened to any of them. So much for that.

I don’t know what made me think of that the other day. But there it was, and it triggered a lot of other long lost memories as well.

Remember when you used to hold dandelions under each other’s chins to see if you like butter or not? What kind of nonsense was that? Years later I learned in art class that this is merely a phenomenon called reflective color. Light rays absorb into an object, and those colors of the spectrum that you see and identifty to the item are the ones which are bounced back off the object. If you hold an object (such as, a dandelion) close enough to another surface (such as, a chin), you can often see the color reflected on to that as well. Hence, reflective color.

I know you’re thrilled. I’m just saying.

Regardless, according to our chins, we all liked butter back then - whether we did or not. And we never had any doubts about this highly scientific test.

There was also the dreaded sidewalk stamps. In my neighborhood, the contractor who poured the sidewalks placed a company stamp in the edge of every third or fourth scoreline or so. It was common knowledge that if you stepped on any of the squares with the stamp in it, you’d smell like fish for the rest of the day. Why fish, I don’t know. But it was a universal law.

After a while my brain started going to musical memories. Remember this guy, to the right? His name was Timer. Every Saturday morning between cartoon shows, he’d remind us that if our ten gallon hat feels five gallons flat and we seem a little weak in the knees, we could remedy that condition with a hunk of cheese. (“Look! A wagon wheel!”) He also showed us how easy it was to make sunshine on a stick by putting orange juice in an ice tray, covering it with cellophane, and carefully poking toothpicks through it. Freeze it for a few hours, and voila! A completely pain in the butt way to handle a popcicle. (My folks bought flat toothpicks, which always broke – leaving us with trying to eat the orange ice cube out of a cup and splintering up the roof of our mouths with the broken toothpick. That didn’t stop us from doing this little project a hundred times, though).

Of course, the king of all viewing when I was a kid was Schoolhouse Rock. How great were those things? We were learning grammar and history and science and government structure without even knowing it. And that stuff stuck, didn’t it? How many times have you sung, “I’m just a Bill,” and at least one other person chimes in with, “and I’m sittin’ here on Capital Hill!”?

Man I loved those. There were SO MANY classics! ...

Innnnnn-terjections show excitement or emotion ….

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function ….

3 - 6 - 9 - 12 - 15 - 18 - 21 - 24 - 27 – 30 (football players with jerseys numbered as such crashing through the wall)

Wee the peeeeeee-pulllle, in order to form a more perfect uuunion …

Mother Necessity, where would we be? ….

He was a hairy bear, he was a scary bear …

Lolly Lolly Lolly get your adverbs here …

So everyone knows I get some pretty serious selective OCD, especially with music. Once a song’s in my head it stays in there for hours, even days, and makes me batty. Thought I’d share the sensation with you :). You know you’re going to be singing these songs all day now! If you have trouble remembering some of the lyrics, visit the Schoolhouse Rock Lyrics site,
here.

Ah, memories!

If I don’t post again for a while, I wish you all a Happy and Blessed Easter. And if you get any Pop Rocks in your Easter basket, don’t drink any Coke or Pepsi with them. That’s what killed Mikey, you know.

19 comments:

Itchy said...

Hey! I like butter, too! :P
Actually, when I was younger I think we rubbed the dandelion under our chin and if our chin turned yellow we liked butter! :P

i used to be me said...

hanker for a hunka
a slab or slice or chunka
hanker for a hunka cheese

Rebecca said...

Clew - you and I are CLEARLY sisters seperated at birth. I remember all those old Timer songs!!! And School House Rock - I remember all those too! I crack everyone up because I can belt into song at any given moment with regards to those. ;)

Suzanne was my only blood sister. Boy did you bring up some great memories I totally forgot about. And you're right, were we reckless back in the 70s. Rollerskating without helmets or kneepads, definitely bicycling - and across the city, not just in the neighborhood!!

You could never step on a crack for fear of breaking your mother's back!

I will leave you with this: "A noun is a person, place or thing... do do dooo doo doooo"

juanitagf said...

Brought a smile to my face. Good memories.

Saur♥Kraut said...

I loved Schoolhouse Rock and Pop Rocks and now my son does, too. I remember the flowers, but it was buttercups under the chin for us. And as for the sidewalk, it went step on a crack, break your mother's back. When we were mad at her, we hit every crack on the way home. ;o)

echotig said...

The 70's! Good times indeed. No helmets!

Have a Happy Easter!

Cheryl said...

Schoolhouse Rock was the best! A few weeks back a Prof. asked my class to write the Preamble to the Constitution. I was one of only two who could do it--because I remembered the song from when I was a kid. Teachers are using those in the classroom again.

Anonymous said...

I understand that there is supposed to be a new version of School house but nothing beats the original!! I LOVED those things! I still do. I have a mini constitution with me now and I carry it around a lot not always. There have been time that someone will ask me somehting and I can pull it out and show it to them in black and white about our guiding document. If you have never read it take 15 minutes and read the Constitution of the United States. You will not regret it and yes it only takes 15 minutes.

In His Service, Craig

Joy said...

Wow this post brought me down memory lane! We never held dandelions under our chins to see if we liked butter or not, but instead we used the many tiny buttercup flowers that would grow in our neighborhood. Looking back and remembering these things gives my childhood this almost whimsical feeing. Thanks Clew! :)

Martie said...

I never heard of Schoolhouse Rock....was it something specific to certain areas. I don't remember my kids ever watching it. The rest of the stuff I remember.....even I'm not to old for that! "Step on a crack, break your mother's back; step on a line, break your father's spine!"

Anonymous said...

I never did the blodd brother/sister thing because whenever it came time to bleed I usually ran like hell. lol

Anonymous said...

Memory lane. Often I don't think of the past because I think it holds so many bad memories. You brought some good memories back today. Thank you.

Oh, and lawn jarts! I loved them! And I have the scar to prove it. lol

In the pursuit of happiness (not quite like that of Schoolhouse Rock :o),

~Tim

Michelle said...

Was anyone a member of the Honeycomb gang? LOL

I took the blood brother/sister thing a step further in science call during the disection of pregnant frogs. We used the pins that held the frogs skin to the board beneath it to pierce our fingertips with. Wonder what kind of germs I launched into my system that day. Shudder.

Thanks for bringing back all those fond memories. Of course it conjured up all sorts of different ones, but they are too numerous to mention.

Bougie Black Boy said...

This was a great write-up. The blood brother/sister concept was going on when I was a kid too. I never did it, but I know people who had.

Bougie Black Boy said...

This was a great write-up. The blood brother/sister concept was going on when I was a kid too. I never did it, but I know people who had.

Bougie Black Boy said...

This was a great write-up. The blood brother/sister concept was going on when I was a kid too. I never did it, but I know people who had.

chesneygirl said...

OMG, I had forgotten all about the dandelion thing....lol!!!

I remember the Schoolhouse Rock too!

I never did the blood sister thing but I had friends that did it....I was too much of a wimp to prick my finger....LOL

chesneygirl said...

P.S. thanks for the fun trip down memory lane! :)

Anonymous said...

The 'Time for Timer' ads? I have them here if you want to see them again. They're Realaudio and the quality ain't the best, but if you're hankerin' for a hunk-a 20-year old nostalgia, they do the trick.