Sunday, November 12, 2023

On a Sunny Afternoon

Began the morning with breakfast and the Happy Holidays Vol. 13 record I found in Woodbury a few weeks ago. Charley Pride's "Christmas and Love" and Julie Andrews singing "Jingle Bells" are the new ones for me here. We also have a few nice instrumentals, including "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" by the Philadelphia Orchestra and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" by Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass. 

Headed out to work just as that ended. I spent the majority of the day pushing carts. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. The weather was gorgeous today, sunny, blue, and in the mid-50's without a hint of wind around. I had a harder time keeping up with the carts once the morning bagger left at 3 and I had to sweep too, but it could have been worse. We were steady, but not overly busy. (The Eagles being off this week may have helped there.) I was in and out with no trouble.

Listened to The Strawberry Shortcake Christmas Album while eating a quick leftovers dinner. The title is actually a cheat. The story has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas. After the snow arrives, Strawberry and her friends quickly pick their berries before they freeze, then make jam. Plum Puddin' helps them get outside after Strawberry's door freezes. They do have a good time playing in the snow...but then the jam is gone when they get in. 

This may not have anything to do with Christmas, but it does have some really lovely, folksy music, done with pianos and banjos. "Time for Winter" is a gorgeous slow number after the snowfall, while the kids get the hoedown "Jam and Jelly" when they make those treats. Christmas or not, this was worth having for the beautiful songs alone.

Finished out the night after a shower on YouTube with tonight's Match Game Sunday Classics marathon. Bob Barker and Johnny Olsen weren't the only Price Is Right regulars to appear on Match Game. Three of the models who worked on the show in the 70's and 80's turned up as well. Janice Pennington did a week in 1975, while Anitra Ford was on for a week in 1976. Both weeks proved to be so memorable, I wish they turned up again. Gene carried Janice off-stage in one episode. Anitra spent her week watching Richard Dawson flirt with a gorgeous blonde named Darlene who just kept winning, and eventually became the show's top winner at that time.

Feisty Texan Holly Hallstrom appeared by far the most on the show. She was a semi-regular during the show's syndicated run from 1979 through 1981, even after it left CBS. When Holly wasn't sporting off-the-shoulder dresses and super short-shorts that left little to the imagination, she was doing her own flirting with contestants and fending off Gene Rayburn's advances. She was on the episode where Charles Nelson Reilly held up the "boring" card seen so often online and everyone rubbed his shirt to feel how soft it is and spent a week in 1980 watching Bart Braverman and Debralee Scott feud and flirt with each other. There was also the time Gene gave a contestant his coat, and the nighttime episode where she had to explain her answer about what Dumb Donald thought Bo Derek's "10" meant.

Come on down and enjoy when Barker's Beauties were the next panelists on Match Game!

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