pop cultured

Who doesn’t remember the Life Cereal commercials from the early 1970’s? The cherubic young star of the commercials, Mikey, didn’t like to eat anything- but he chowed down on that Life cereal! He became a pop culture icon, especially in the late 70’s when a rumor spread that he died (the rumor was that his stomach exploded after eating Pop Rocks, a popular candy, and drinking soda).

The child actor who played Mikey was named John Gilchrist. The “Mikey” Life cereal commercials aired for 12 years- an unprecedented amount of time for a TV commercial. Oh, one other fun fact. Gilchrist’s 2 brothers played his brothers in the commercial. Remember them?

“He likes it, hey Mikey!”

Youtube it if you’re too young to remember this classic commercial.

The big news on Wednesday night (besides the last few innings of Game 5 of the World Series) was Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s 30 minute television special. Actually it was a commercial. Actually it was commercial containing information about him, so actually it was an infomercial.

I certainly won’t liken it to an ad for the Thighmaster, Proactive Solution or Richard Simmon’s Deal a Meal, but it is what it is. And sure, it was a bold move on Obama’s part, but at this point in the game nothing surprises me. This  was Obama’s chance to get his word out to the nation without being interrupted by a moderator. His camp spent millions of dollars to have his 30 minute spiel air on several networks.  In another week or so, guess we’ll find out if it was money well spent or not.

What’s not to love about Fred Flintstone? He’s a pop culture icon, in my opinion. The “star” of the 1960’s primetime cartoon series “The Flintstones”, Fred is known to millions all over the world as the gruff, prehistoric quarry worker with a heart of gold.

The character of Fred Flintstone was voiced by Alan Reed  and was loosely based on the Ralph Kramden character from “The Honeymooners”. Fred lived the Prehistoric Dream. He had a nice cave, a car, a pretty wife named Wilma, an adorable baby daughter, Pebbles, a dinosaur named Dino and a best buddy, Barney Rubble.

Fred was a working class guy, always squabbling with his grouchy boss, Mr. Slate. He was a member of the Buffalo Lodge, liked to go bowling and his favorite food was brontosauras burgers.

One of my favorite Scholastic books from the 1970’s was Truth and Consequences by Miriam Young. Young, who was best known for her early childhood books and whose book “Miss Suzy” was also one of my childhood favorites, delved into the pre-teen scene with “Truth and Consequences”.

It was the story of Kim, a precocious pre-teen gal, and her best friend Alison. Disgusted with all the little white lies she hears from the adults around her, Kim decides to go on a campaign to tell the complete truth all the time. But things go awry when she’s a little too truthful to her friend Alison. The book is set around Fall and the Christmas season, which makes for a nice background. And although Truth and Consequences in no longer in print, I found a copy on Ebay to add to my collection (my beloved original copy is long gone, donated to a  church bazaar, I think).

When recollecting favorite childhood books, this one brings back a ton of memories for me because it was one that I picked out and bought at the school Scholastic book fair.  For me, some books just never go out of style.

When I was a kid, my dad would take the family out on Sundays to a local farmer’s market. They sold barrels of fruit and fresh homemade pies, but my favorite part of the market was a section where they sold discount books and magazines. Back then, they sold Archie series comic books for 6 for $1.00. I had quite a collection at the time. If you’re a collector, these were the Bronze series comics. I wasn’t a collector, though- just a kid looking for a few laughs.

I owned a huge stack of Archie’ Pals ‘N Gals, Betty and Veronica, Reggie and Me, Jughead and Me, Pep and more titles. I’m not sure what happened to my comic book collection when I moved out on my own, but now of course I’ve scoured Ebay, trying to replace a few of my favorite titles.

Today, modern Archie comics are still in print. But if you’re looking for a little nostalgia, complete with the characters wearing Nehru jackets and saying words like “groovy”, then check out some of the old Bronze age series comics.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows how much I love the classic TV sitcom “Bewitched.” One of my favorite characters on the show was Tabitha Stephens, played by Erin Murphy. Tabitha was my age, which is probably why I related to her. Plus, she had magical powers and made a cute twitching sound when she wiggled her nose. I so wanted to be her!

Occasionally Tabitha was played by Erin’s sister, Diane Murphy. This was more common during the earlier years of the show. The two girls looked similar, but since they were fraternal twins and not identical, it was noticeable on the episodes that Diane played Tabitha. As the girls grew and began to look less alike, the producers dropped Diane from the show. In later episodes it’s all Erin.

So where is Erin Murphy today?  She’s now a mother of 6 boys, married to a man named Darren (pretty ironic, eh?) and does hosting gigs and works as a television correspondent.

The scent wafted through the halls of my junior high school. Every girl I knew wore the telltale fragrance of Love’s Baby Soft. The bottle was pretty and pink.

The ad’s tagline ‘Because innocence is sexier than you think” was over my head at age 12. I just knew I liked the clean, baby powdery smell and the way the cute bottle looked on my dresser.

But here’s the thing. Although this stuff is a major 1970’s blast from the past, turns out it’s not completely discontinued like I thought it was. I did a quick web search and it appears you can still buy “Love’s Baby Soft” from a few places. So if you’re looking for a nostalgic lift, remember that fragrance is a powerful way to take yourself back!

Oh the 80’s! The era of slasher movies.  But I was not a Jason or Freddy fan. My all time favorite horror movie from the 1980’s was “The Lost Boys”.

Starring ultra-sexy Jason Patrick (who looked uncannily like Jim Morrison) and a young Keifer Sutherland, “The Lost Boys” was a tale of a boy who got bit by the vampire bug. The town featured in the movie was Santa Clara, a sleepy beach town that had a lot of missing children and an awful lot of vampires. 

“The Lost Boys” was a campy movie—funny—and it had a supporting cast that included Jamie Gertz (love her), Corey Haim and Corey Feldman (yes! The two Corey’s!). The soundtrack was totally hot for the time and the movie had just enough gore to qualify it as a horror flick. But it was so campy I was never scared.

Great movie. Go rent it this Halloween.

Just in time for Halloween, here’s another creepy movie recap. This one was frightening– not in the slasher/blood and gore sense, but it was extremely creepy.

Back in 1965, Terence Stamp was eerily twisted as Freddie Clegg in “The Collector”. Freddie is an oddball bank clerk who wins a lottery. He quits his thankless job, buys a secluded home along the London countryside, and kidnaps a pretty artist named Miranda Grey (played by Samantha Eggar).  You see, Freddie collects butterflies- and he’s always been mercilessly teased about it. He wants to add the beautiful Miranda to his collection.

He’s sure he can get her to fall in love with him and granted, Miranda will do just about anything to save herself—even convince herself that she likes him. But this sure isn’t a love story.

This movie airs on movie channels often, but if you can’t find “The Collector” on TV, it’s available on DVD.

I remember the smell and the feel of it well. The halls of my junior high school were filled with girls standing at their lockers, slathering on another application of Maybelline’s Kissing Potion lipgloss. We were only 12 years old at the time– too young to seriously think of kissing anyone, but Kissing Potion made us feel glamorous.

It  felt like an oil slick on our lips and it came in a ton of flavors. My favorites were Cinnamon Stick and Cherry Smash. Big ads for Kissing Potion were splashed across teen magazines like Seventeen. It was the hot  beauty product of the late 1970’s.

And although I didn’t kiss a boy until several years later, Kissing Potion made it worth the wait!