Okay, so I know I was going to post about my GG today, but instead I'm going to talk about spending time at my Grandparents' house. They actually owned a motel in Creston, Iowa, and we lived not far away, and got to visit with them almost every day. They had a TV in their Unit #1, which opened right off of the office, where I could go to watch my shows if the grownups were watching something else.The Monkees was one of my Faves - and no, my crush was NOT on Davy Jones, it was on Peter Tork. Look at him here - such a hottie!! He was usually the goofy one, but not in this pic - hey!! :) That's one cutie patootie!!
Dear David Cassidy, if only we could bring back your youth and make you about 7 inches taller, and make it that somehow we would be in the same place at the same time, and meet and fall in love, I would be all over that. You were my very first crush! I wanted to marry you at age 3. I also thought Lori was really pretty, but the I heard she hooked up with my man while they were filming the series and then I was through with Susan Dey. HA! Just kidding, my peeps!!
Now of these boys, I don't remember any crushes. By the time I was watching their re-runs on TV, the oldest one was married to Katie and they had triplets. And I don't remember his name - wait, was it Robbie? And Dodie was Steve Douglas's little stepdaughter,brought in to keep the cute factor going because Ernie and Chip were getting too old. I later saw really old reruns of the show and they did the same thing when Chip got too old - they adopted Ernie. Then there was a whole other older brother named Mike who disappeared from the show. Scary!
I LOVED this show - I thought Marlo Thomas was so pretty and I loved her hair, and mostly what I remember is she had that kite with her face on it in the opening credits, and I really liked it. Do I remember anything else about the show? Just that she had a boyfriend named Don, but she was a single girl. And the kite. Okay, maybe it was all about the kite. 
*Ah* Family Affair. One of my very favorite shows ever! I wanted an Uncle Bill and a Mr. French - and a Mrs. Beasley doll, but I never got one and I'm glad now, she was NOT cute! And I got my first perm (a home perm - a Toni, remember those?) at age 5, and I wanted it so I could have curly pigtails like Buffy. Then Buffy died from an overdose the next year, and it was hard for me to think she was so much older, because in the reruns she was not that much older than I was - but then, Jody was on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (another great show - "Shello?" okay, I know, I know - ONWARD), and he was a teenager. So anyway, Buffy died young, and I remember that made me sad. I also thought Cissy looked maybe like Daphne on Scooby-Doo might look if she were a real girl.
The Courtship of Eddie's Father - another great one - I loved Bill Bixby so much in this I thought really fondly of him and wrote him a letter before he died of prostate cancer. I am sad he is gone - and why did he get a nose job later? Don't you think he has a perfectly nice nose? I think so.
So these now are the foods I learned to like at my Grandparents' house (not that that was a difficult task with Tootsie Rolls!). The other candies, which I didn't get pictures of, were Brach's Butterscotch and Cinnamon hard candies. I think these were candies that my GG liked. She lived with my grandparents until I was maybe 4, then she moved into a nursing home, and she had a bag of butterscotch candies in her bedside drawer, and I was allowed to have one or maybe two when we visited her. Such a sweet lady - more on her tomorrow, I promise! Anyway, my grandma had tootsie rolls in a drawer in the kitchen. I think I snuck them sometimes - well, I'm pretty sure I did sneak them sometimes - okay, YES, I snuck them sometimes!
Mmmmmm - Kraft American cheese, cold out of the fridge - nuff said! I have an Australian friend who thought this was possibly the grossest cheese ever - kind of like rubber he thought. Hey, they guy eats EVERYTHING with "tomahto sauce" - or ketchup, as we say in AMERICAN English. So what does he know?? AUSTRALIANS! I'm just sayin'! :)
Okay, I know I got some foods mixed in with my media - this is the kiddie stuff - Captain Kangaroo - a classic! I loved Mr. Green Jeans, and the naughty Mr. Moose, who always dropped ping pong balls on everybody's head. Also I got to meet Captain Kangaroo once when we lived in Minneapolis - he signed a picture like this for me, too. He was the first celebrity I ever had up on my wall.
The Floppy Show. It was on every noon, and sometimes I got to watch it, but I had to ask. I would say, "Can I watch the Floppy Show?" and my grandpa would say, "What? The FLOOPY Show?" and I would say, "No, FLOPPY!" and we would go back and forth like that a few times, cause that's the way we rolled. On the Floppy Show they showed cartoons like this:
I learned so much of 1940's (and later) culture from these cartoons! And my grandpa knew all of the songs, like "The Blues in the Night". He loved music. He was a music lover. And like that.
This picture is NOT the way we made graham cracker cookies! We made them with vanilla frosting - either like below, or my mom would make it from scratch. Peeps, these are heavenly things! Especially if you let them sit out awhile, and the graham crackers absorb moisture from the frosting and get all soft - oo la la!!
Oyster crackers. Down in the bottom cupboards in my grandma's kitchen were things like this. I spent a lot of time inspecting these cupboards. There were also yucky things like cans of deviled ham, or tuna fish. But I liked the little devil-man and the beautiful mermaid on the cans - I liked the mermaid's commercial, too. Anyway, I could have these crackers in a little peach lustre Fire King ramekin. But not more than one ramekin full!
This was the root beer that was stocked in the pop machine right outside the motel's front door. You were only allowed one pop per day, but I think my cousins may have bent that rule when they visited. :) Now I say soda instead of pop, because I am a west coast girl - how did that happen?? Funny. Anyway, this is the BEST root beer I have EVER tasted!
Mmmm...I wish A & W still made baby burgers. I had to have mine plain, no ketchup or mustard - and I still like burgers that way from McDonald's - with cheese and nothing else.
My grandpa taught me to eat this cereal. Back then it was 40% Bran Flakes. He would say, "Hey, are you eating my cereal?!?!" probably to get me to eat it. Well played, Grandpa, well played. I still love it.
Creamy Jif peanut butter. Morning, noon, and night. Used to be the only sammie I would eat. Still awful tasty! I know, it's not organic. Even though most of the things I eat nowadays ARE organic, this is still the BEST peanut butter, in my humble opinion!
I do not know if they still make this bread since I don't live in the midwest anymore, but man - I used to love to eat it all by itself, and I used to bury my nose in a piece of it and suck in the wonderful bread smell. I used to have quite a sick relationship with white bread. Okay, that sounds bad - I mean, I ate it a LOT - just plain. Used to sneak it, and ruin my dinner.
Blackberry jam (not the weird apparent maple syrup on the plate - what's up with that?!?!) - I was a grape jelly girl until I tried you, blackberry jam. And I didn't want to try you, but my grandpa persuaded me. Now I am true only to you, blackberry jam.
Couldn't finish without this one. See how much that boy is loving his Franco-American spaghetti? I'm just sayin'!!!!
*DISCLAIMER* I just want to say, in case anyone OTHER than my family happens to read this blog and freak out, that I do not eat any of this stuff anymore, with the exception of blackberry jam and Jif Peanut butter, okay? xo
Mmmmmm - Kraft American cheese, cold out of the fridge - nuff said! I have an Australian friend who thought this was possibly the grossest cheese ever - kind of like rubber he thought. Hey, they guy eats EVERYTHING with "tomahto sauce" - or ketchup, as we say in AMERICAN English. So what does he know?? AUSTRALIANS! I'm just sayin'! :)
Okay, I know I got some foods mixed in with my media - this is the kiddie stuff - Captain Kangaroo - a classic! I loved Mr. Green Jeans, and the naughty Mr. Moose, who always dropped ping pong balls on everybody's head. Also I got to meet Captain Kangaroo once when we lived in Minneapolis - he signed a picture like this for me, too. He was the first celebrity I ever had up on my wall.
The Floppy Show. It was on every noon, and sometimes I got to watch it, but I had to ask. I would say, "Can I watch the Floppy Show?" and my grandpa would say, "What? The FLOOPY Show?" and I would say, "No, FLOPPY!" and we would go back and forth like that a few times, cause that's the way we rolled. On the Floppy Show they showed cartoons like this:
I learned so much of 1940's (and later) culture from these cartoons! And my grandpa knew all of the songs, like "The Blues in the Night". He loved music. He was a music lover. And like that.
This picture is NOT the way we made graham cracker cookies! We made them with vanilla frosting - either like below, or my mom would make it from scratch. Peeps, these are heavenly things! Especially if you let them sit out awhile, and the graham crackers absorb moisture from the frosting and get all soft - oo la la!!
Oyster crackers. Down in the bottom cupboards in my grandma's kitchen were things like this. I spent a lot of time inspecting these cupboards. There were also yucky things like cans of deviled ham, or tuna fish. But I liked the little devil-man and the beautiful mermaid on the cans - I liked the mermaid's commercial, too. Anyway, I could have these crackers in a little peach lustre Fire King ramekin. But not more than one ramekin full!
This was the root beer that was stocked in the pop machine right outside the motel's front door. You were only allowed one pop per day, but I think my cousins may have bent that rule when they visited. :) Now I say soda instead of pop, because I am a west coast girl - how did that happen?? Funny. Anyway, this is the BEST root beer I have EVER tasted!
Mmmm...I wish A & W still made baby burgers. I had to have mine plain, no ketchup or mustard - and I still like burgers that way from McDonald's - with cheese and nothing else.
My grandpa taught me to eat this cereal. Back then it was 40% Bran Flakes. He would say, "Hey, are you eating my cereal?!?!" probably to get me to eat it. Well played, Grandpa, well played. I still love it.
Creamy Jif peanut butter. Morning, noon, and night. Used to be the only sammie I would eat. Still awful tasty! I know, it's not organic. Even though most of the things I eat nowadays ARE organic, this is still the BEST peanut butter, in my humble opinion!
I do not know if they still make this bread since I don't live in the midwest anymore, but man - I used to love to eat it all by itself, and I used to bury my nose in a piece of it and suck in the wonderful bread smell. I used to have quite a sick relationship with white bread. Okay, that sounds bad - I mean, I ate it a LOT - just plain. Used to sneak it, and ruin my dinner.
Blackberry jam (not the weird apparent maple syrup on the plate - what's up with that?!?!) - I was a grape jelly girl until I tried you, blackberry jam. And I didn't want to try you, but my grandpa persuaded me. Now I am true only to you, blackberry jam.
Couldn't finish without this one. See how much that boy is loving his Franco-American spaghetti? I'm just sayin'!!!!*DISCLAIMER* I just want to say, in case anyone OTHER than my family happens to read this blog and freak out, that I do not eat any of this stuff anymore, with the exception of blackberry jam and Jif Peanut butter, okay? xo
N
