Going On the Town

Started out a warm and humid but breezy morning with cereal, blueberries, and the American Top 40. The Top 40 went way back today to early August 1970. Protest songs, country-esque tunes, hard rock and bubblegum pop ruled the airwaves - Edwin Starr's "War," Melaine's "Lay Down," The Jackson 5's "The Love You Save," "Ride, Captain Ride" by the Blues Image, and one of my favorite Crosby, Stills, and Nash songs, "Teach Your Children."

That week's big hits were sweet ballads in the midst of a world in upheaval - Bread's "Make It With You" and the Carpenters' lovely "Close to You."

Did the same thing I did last week this morning - rode around Oaklyn, Collingswood, and Audubon and looked for yard sales. I hit six - a lot more than usual for this time of year - but didn't have much luck. Found some home-made vintage fashion doll clothes for the Sailor Soldiers (and had a nice chat with the fellow who sold them to me about crocheting) in Oaklyn and a favorite childhood film on video, Troop Beverly Hills, in Audubon.

I stopped at the farm market while in Collingswood. They were packed to the rafters today. No wonder. There was tons going on. I passed a food-preparation demonstration and watched a Peach Pie Baking contest. Plums are gone and blueberries are on their last week, but there's plenty of everything else. I picked up peaches, a zucchini, two small lavender eggplants, my final pint of blueberries for the year, red potatoes, a tomato, a cute little cantaloupe, and the first green seedless grapes of the season.

I debated riding up to Haddonfield for their annual sidewalk sale, but by quarter of noon, I was just too darn tired. Since I was in the area, I did make a quick stop at the Staples in the Audubon Crossings Shopping Center behind the Acme. I've been meaning to get there to see if they have any sales on packs of recordable DVDs, but I haven't had the time. I was in luck. They were having a big half-price sale on Memorex DVD packs. I picked up a spool of 50 for $17 with tax, far less than the $30.99 it normally costs.

Went over to Sonic for lunch. It was a nice day, windy if warmer and more humid than earlier this week. I ordered a Chicken Sandwich, Tater Tots (they were out of onion rings), and unsweetened iced tea. For once, both were quite tasty. The sandwich was so hot, it was a few minutes before I could dig into it.

Spent the rest of the day at home. The Acme called 15 minutes after I arrived. Could I come in from 3:30 to 7:30? For once, I said "no" without a tinge of regret. I've had lots of hours recently, have plenty this week, and won't be getting another day off until next Saturday. They can live without me for a day.

I crocheted while running the remaining two Thin Man movies. After the Thin Man takes Nick and Nora back to San Fransisco for a mystery involving Nora's upper-crust family. A very young James Stewart is the male ingenue here; Dorothy McNulty (later Blondie's Penny Singleton) is a singer caught in a blackmail scheme. Billy Benedict of The Bowery Boys movies has a brief cameo as a friend of Nick's early on.

Another Thin Man returns the Charleses to the East Coast. This time, a family friend calls Nick, Nora, and their new son Nick Jr. to Long Island when he thinks his life may be in danger. Among the familiar faces here are C. Aubrey Smith as the man who believes he may be on borrowed time and Sheldon Leonard as a hood who has been having dreams of Smith's death.

After that disc was finished, I switched to a trio of Gene Kelly's best 40s musicals while organizing my new DVDs and making chicken and summer vegetable stir-fry for dinner. The Pirate pairs him with Judy Garland in their second of three movies together. He's a roving performer in the Carribean in the 1850s who poses as a notorious pirate to win Garland. His "Be a Clown" numbers, with Garland and the Nicholas Brothers, are the stand-outs.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game and On the Town team him with Frank Sinatra and comic Jules Munshin. The first is set in the late 1800s and features Sinatra and Kelly as a pair of vaudevillians who play baseball during the off-season. The two are bamboozled when smart, athletic (and unusually dry) Esther Williams buys their team and groupie Betty Garrett makes a play for Sinatra.

On the Town keeps Munshin, Kelly, Garrett, and Sinatra and adds Ann Miller (as Munshin's love interest), Vera Ellen (as Kelly's), and Alice Pearce (as Garrett's perpetually-cold-infested roommate) to the tale of three sailors on leave in the Big Apple who chase landmarks and lasses...and happily find both in the course of 24 hours. Though this adaptation of the hit 1944 Broadway musical eliminated a lot of the score on its trip west, my favorite number is from the original. Betty Garrett does her darndest to get the naive Sinatra out of her cab and into her apartment in "Come Up to My Place." The two are an absolute riot - I don't think Sinatra ever had this much fun in his later career.

And of course, this one is best known today as the first musical to shoot on location. It does add to the experience to see the real sights as the guys do, and not just back-lot recreations. (Though there are those, too.)