It had been cloudy, cold, and breezy all morning. I felt a few raindrops at work, but the showers didn't start coming down until I started riding home. They continued lightly as I changed, had lunch, and watched the infamous Thanksgiving episode of WKRP In Cincinnati. Station manager Arthur Carlson is bored with having nothing to do at the station, so he and promotional manager Herb Tarek come up with what they think will be a huge promotion. It's "Turkeys Away" when Les Nesserman is recruited to cover the event...and learns the hard way about turkeys being flightless birds when they don't exactly do what Arthur thinks they will.
Headed out early for the Thomas Sharp School. While the rain wasn't heavy, it wasn't stopping, either. I walked to the school so I could carry an umbrella and stop at Crust n' Cravings on Collings Avenue for lunch. Had quick and tasty slices of cheese and broccoli and tomato and a can of Coke Zero while half-listening to the TV on behind me.
Alas, the playground was wet enough by quarter of 3 that there could be no thought of playing outside today. Thanks to the band class running late, we had the younger kids in the library this afternoon. Though one of the teachers did read the Dr. Seuss classics Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Lorax, the kids spent most of the afternoon coloring in one form or another. After they got bored with coloring printed pictures of fall scenes and Pokemon, two of the teachers lay long pieces of paper down on the tables and let them work with stencils instead.
We finally moved the kids back to the cafeteria by quarter of 5. The younger girls and one of the boys spent the time practicing their cartwheels on the mat in front of the door, while the older kids colored and threw a ball around. It had calmed down considerably by the time I finally headed out around 5:15.
The rain slowed down long enough for me to stop at the Speedy Mart on Collings and pick up two bagels. One is for lunch at the school tomorrow, since they start early. The other had powdered sugar on it, and I just wanted to try it. Strolled home in the same light off-and-on shower that had been going all afternoon.
(I got lucky. The rain picked up about a half-hour after I got home and has been off and on ever since.)
Dug out my glass bread pan and all the ingredients for Golden Pumpkin Bread when I got home. This delicious recipe comes from my Baking Basics Land O'Lakes pamphlet I bought from the Acme's front registers so long ago, I picked it up when I worked in Wildwood. It's pretty simple to make. You just put butter, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda, and spices into a bowl together and turn on the mixer. The recipe actually calls for it to be three mini-loaves, but I only have one big loaf pan, so that's what I made. It took a while to cook, but it smelled marvelous when it was in the oven!
Watched Two for Tonight while I worked, and later as I had dinner. I go further into this sweet, small-scale Bing Crosby vehicle about a songwriter who has a few days to write a play at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Since I was already at YouTube, I switched to the QBert short "Thanksgiving for the Memories" from Saturday Supercade. I don't know how or why video game icons kept ending up in Thanksgiving cartoons in the early 80's, but this one has Pilgrims Q-Bert and Coiley competing to see who can win a horse and buggy. When Q-Bert's little brother Q-Bit gets upset and runs away, everyone, including the friendly Natives, work together to find him.
Finished the night with Christmas records while I worked on the review. Happy Holidays Vol. 21 from 1986 is one of the stronger True Value Christmas collections. Bing turns up here too, in the then-rare "A Christmas Toast." We also get Julie Andrews joining Andre Previn for "Angels From the Realm of Glory," Bobby Vinton's "Christmas Eve In My Home Town," and Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gourme's fun "Hurry Home For Christmas." They even give us two big band holiday numbers, Tommy Dorsey's version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and Glenn Miller and His Orchestra performing "Jingle Bells."
The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood is probably the closest we'll get to a true English pantomime on this side of the Atlantic. This 1965 TV musical features Liza Minnelli as the impossibly naive young lady in the red cloak, Cyril Ritchard as the fussy Wolf, and Vic Damone as the woodsman who may or may not be royalty. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill didn't quite match their earlier score for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, but there are a few pleasures here. Everyone claims "We Wish the World a Happy Yule" at the beginning and the end, and Ritchard and Minnelli really get into "Ding-a-Ling, Ding-a-Ling."
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is far better-known today. The big song, of course, is "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," performed with absolute menace by Thurl Ravenscroft. The other vocal number is the Who's lovely "Welcome Christmas" as they herald the season and trim their homes. The album I bought from Target last year pretty much features almost the entire special, including most of the dialogue. Of the instrumental tracks, "A Quarter to Dawn" and "I Must Stop Christmas" are probably the most notable.
Favorite Christmas Carols from the Voice of Firestone kicked off what would become a seven-year tradition in 1962. Unlike the pop and jazz-skewering True Value and Goodyear collections, the Firestone albums mostly feature classical or more traditional carols. Rise Stevens and Brian Sullivan perform "What Child Is This," "The Friendly Beasts," "Deck the Halls," "Silent Night," "The First Noel," and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," among others.
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