Headed out after Yogi ended. My first stop of the day was Dollar General to buy an Orange Cream Coke Zero and make change for the bus. Turns out it was a moot point. They were using a larger bus usually reserved for longer trips of an hour or more, and the payment machine was broken. I got a free ride to Barrington.
I was in Barrington to check out the Antique Center. That huge warren of tiny rooms is filled with everything from antique china and glassware to relatively new DVDs and CDs...and it's one of the few South Jersey thrift shops open on Mondays. They were also surprisingly busy for a Monday. I had to dodge several people searching shelves for fancy glasses or vintage Easter decorations. I just ended up with two records:
Unpublished Cole Porter (Another Ben Bagley album, this time featuring songs that were cut or never released.)
Peter Cottontail - The First Easter Record for Children (Songs about or related to either rabbits or the more secular side of Easter, performed by Rosemary Clooney, Gene Autry, and Art Carney. This comes from Columbia's Harmony label. There's a few more children's titles on the back I'm definitely going to look for, including Gene Kelly's performance of Peter Rabbit and The Pied Piper of Hamlin and two albums of fairy tales.)
Fortunately, the closest bus stop is a block from the Antique Center. The bus to Deptford was right on time. I did have to pay, and it was one of the older, wider buses intended for shorter trips, but it got me to the Deptford Mall with a minimum of fuss and little traffic.
Since it wasn't far from where I got off, I went in through Macy's and had lunch at the food court. I really like their Mediterranean Pitas & Greens booth. Had a messy chicken gyro with slender fries and a cup of iced tea that tasted home-brewed. It was almost 1 at that point, and the food court was relatively busy with college kids and parents taking younger children on a trip to the mall enjoying their lunches.
Spent the next hour or so at Round 1 Entertainment. The skee ball machines were down again, but everything else worked just fine. I played Princess Peach on Mario Kart Deluxe and came in second on a tougher course. I also got second on the Death Valley course in Crusin' Blast. Tried Tetris on a Japanese machine, too. Didn't do too badly shooting baskets. All in all, I ended up with over 2,500 points. I didn't see anything I liked, so I got a mini boom box from the same line as the mini-radio to give to my nephew.
Explored stores for a couple of hours after that. Though I looked at Miniso, Otaku House, Rally House, Fan Treasures, FYE, The Loft, Hot Topic, and Box Lunch, the only place I bought anything was JC Penney. I dug a pale blue cable sweater and yellow three-quarters-length sleeve t-shirt on the clearance racks. The sweater came to about $8.50, the sweater to $5.50. Stopped at Ginny's Cookies and Ice Cream and treated myself to a wedge of chocolate chip cookie "cake" with green frosting.
Headed across the street past the abandoned shopping center to HomeGoods first. I looked at pots and pans, but didn't see anything I liked. I'll do more research there on what type of pots and pans I want. Had more luck at Old Navy. I picked up a pair of jean capris there.
I also just enjoyed the gorgeous day. The clouds had been in and out all morning, but by 4:30, they'd taken a temporary leave of absence. It was breezy and far warmer than it had been, into the mid-60's.
Barnes and Noble was surprisingly busy, too. It was after 4:30 by then, and the high schoolers and college kids were out of school. I considered records, but I already bought two, and I didn't see any on sale that I liked. Found two CDs on sale and another that was just cheap, along with two books:
The Essential Michael Jackson (2-Disc set of his best-known songs, including from before he went solo.)
Wicked soundtrack
The Very Best of the Electric Light Orchestra (This was the $8 one. The other two came to $14.40 each with 20 percent off.)
The Lies That Bind - Kate Carlisle
The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods
Mom called me when I was wandering around the children's section. I sat down in a quiet corner to chat. She wanted to wish me a happy birthday and was glad to hear I was enjoying my day. I told her about my trip and thanked her for the online Amazon gift card she sent me. Her card and Lauren's would pay for a new CD/cassette player. The CD player Dad and Jodie gave me in 2017 was skipping, too big for the room it was currently in, and I never liked that it was a front-loader. The CD part of my more than 15-year-old Emerson CD/cassette player hadn't worked in years. The cassette part did, but I didn't know for how much longer.
Met Jessa for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse in front of the shopping centers. I haven't eaten there in years. She had salmon, with broccoli and rice. I had a small steak with the same broccoli and a baked sweet potato. We shared brown bread and a Bloomin' Onion. Yum! It was all delicious, including the onion. I made sure to order a steak that was just the right size to finish in one go. Jessa did take home her rice and salmon, and I gave her the last of the bread and what little remained of my steak. I was more embarrassed when waitresses came up and sang "Happy birthday," but I felt better when they left a dish of velvety vanilla ice cream with a candle in it.
We went across the street to another shopping center and explored Hobby Lobby next. I'd love to take up another hobby...but I don't want to spend money on something and not follow through. I've dropped every single hobby I've tried, from crocheting to woodwork, because I'd get bored after a while or would tackle projects that were too large.
I originally wanted to check out Hallmark, too, but it was getting late. Hallmark and Hobby Lobby closed at 8. Jessa just ended up driving me home, running the Beatles and other classic rock songs all the way back to Oaklyn.
Finished the night after a shower, taking the recycling out, and bringing the cute T-shirt and box of Merci European chocolates a friend gave me for my birthday upstairs with my favorite episodes of the syndicated Match Game. Even after the CBS run ended in 1979, interest remained strong enough for the show to restart in syndication a few months later.
Buzzr has ran a lot of the best early syndicated episodes, so I just stuck to a few of the ones that are my favorites or haven't been done to death. I couldn't leave out the time the contestant gave one of the most unlikely answers in game show history to "Cuckoo __" in the Head to Head, or the one where everyone but Dick Martin walked out while Gene droned on.
There was also the time Gene seemed to get "electrocuted" by the question holder! Charles insinuated that someone would have to host, then said he'd never take over a part that badly acted. Charles was the one causing the trouble when he and Gene got into an argument over the merits of the original Sho Gun miniseries and he hit Gene with his card. Gene collapsed onto Jonnelle Allen while McLean Stevenson took over hosting for a couple of questions. Charles also got to clean up after Gene when people were throwing cards around.
Kirstie Alley wasn't the only later celebrity to win big on the syndicated show. Future talk show hostess Jenny Jones also made a big win on a week with Betty White and George Kennedy. Betty had her own fun on her next appearance flaunting her legs in a short red dress made by a friend of Sharon Farrell. That episode was wild in general. Sharon and Richard Paul inadvertently demonstrated mud wrestling to illustrate McLean's answer to a question about what should be an Olympic event, and McLean ran off after being scared by a contestant with a shrill laugh that he apparently used to wake his kids up every day.
Betty was there during the very last episode, along with McLean, Brett, Charles, Skip Stevenson, and Melinda O'Fee. Charles claimed he was dating the dummy used to test the color levels, while a curly-haired contestant asked to kiss McLean. Brett was right that he was blushing after that. He was the same color as his red sweater. Skip even rushed over and kissed the other contestant! Betty quipped that she should take some of that and send it to Richard Dawson.
Check out the best from one of the most underrated Match Game series!
No comments:
Post a Comment