Let the Good Times Roll

Began the morning with breakfast and the last episode of Pac-Man I'll be doing for now. (The series finale is a Thanksgiving episode I watched last November.) It's "Super-Pac Vs. Pac-Ape" when an organ grinder's monkey eats Super Power Pellets and grows huge. Super-Pac tries to help, but it's Pac Man who has to rescue Pepper when Pac-Ape grabs her and starts destroying Pac Land. Pac Man hopes their new computer will change their lives, but "Computer Packy" bites off more power pellets than he can chew when PJ messes around with it and it sucks in Pac Baby, then the two of them.

Honestly, the first cartoon based after a video game...isn't bad. It's very much of its time, especially in the slightly goofier second season. I definitely like the first season better, where the focus is on Pac Man and his family and the ghosts and he's more of a hero. Neither PJ nor Super Pac add a whole lot in the second season. Super Pac's antics and incompetence are good for a few mild chuckles, but PJ is just obnoxious, a Pac-Fonzie without the charm. Worth checking out if you're a fan of 80's kid action cartoons, Pac Man, or want to see what Pac Man would look like on the small screen.

Did a few things online, then headed out. Collingswood was having its first major outdoor fair of the year. The Green Festival was on the street and parking lot behind the old brick school building on Haddon Avenue. It was booths filled with plants, flowers, local Collingswood information, and information on lawn care, ecology, composting, and indigenous flora. I didn't buy anything, but I did run into one of the little boys from Healthy Kids who sits at my table and his mommy. I waved and told them I was out walking around.

The real reason I was in Collingswood was to hit Innergroove Records for Record Store Day. The small, narrow store was jammed with records, CDs...and record collectors looking for great deals. I managed to dodge the collectors long enough to pick up: 

Theme from Growing Pains - Steve Dorff and Friends (Collection of songs from 80's TV shows - including the title sitcom. I almost bought this on my birthday, then decided to wait for Record Store Day. At $12.99, this was the only Innergroove album that cost more than $2.)

The Official Music of the 23rd Olympiad Los Angeles 1984 (Yes, the 1984 Olympic music collection. I thought it was especially appropriate with the Olympics going back to LA in 2028.)

Gold Rush '79 Volume 2 (K-Tel collection)

The Best-Loved Music of Christmas (I mainly bought this for the nifty pop-up cover.)

Diana Ross - Diana

The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys' Party!

The Cars - The Cars' Greatest Hits

Went down the block and across the street to Haddon Culinary after I got out. I was there for a drink. Picked up a Diet Dr. Pepper, a treat, and a container of their amazing house-made potato chips. 

Had a quick lunch when I got home while watching two episodes of Bluey on Disney Plus. Bluey and Bingo are excited to spend "The Weekend" with their dad Bandit. Bandit gets so into a game he and the girls playing where Bingo is a statue that keeps moving around, he doesn't hear when Bingo points out a bug that resembles a walking leaf. Chili insists that her daughters do "Housework" and clean up their blanket fort, but their way of walking while they put things away is so funny, their parents end up watching them instead.

Hurried off to work after I finished eating and changed. I was slightly late, which was the worst thing that happened all day. They were really busy when I got in. I needed help around 4 PM to gather carts. The later it got, the quieter it got. By the time I left, the store was much quieter. At least it was a gorgeous day for pushing carts, sunny, breezy, and much cooler, a perfect lower 70's. 

Picked up a gift card for my nephew Khai for his birthday tomorrow after I finished. I can't believe he'll be turning 16! I brought his card with me and dropped it off at his mom's house on my way home. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and I wasn't planning on riding the bike. 

Since it was still open and two blocks away, I stopped at The Score Records on my way home. They're smaller than Innergroove, and I didn't make as many great finds, but I did pick up a few good titles:

Peggy Lee - Miss Peggy Lee Sings the Songs of Cy Coleman

Lena Horne - Nature's Baby

Aerosmith - Rock In a Hard Place (This was the most expensive here at $13.) 

Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits (The lone CD I picked up today.)

Changed and had dinner when I got home, then spent the rest of the night watching the Saturday Match Game marathon. With The Lone Ranger in re-runs on TV and radio, questions joking about his relationship with Tonto and what he and Tonto did out there on the plains were heard throughout the entire run of the 1973-1982 series. They weren't always the most politically correct, and several episodes with Native jokes are no longer seen on regular TV. In one episode, Charles tied his tie around his head in his idea of a Native headdress as his answer to a question. (This was also the episode where Gene got mad at the cameraman and attacked him.) Another featured Bertha, the sweet older woman contestant whom the panelists were so kind to. They fanned her, got her a seat, and Johnny Olsen brought her water. There was also the early episode with the charming British contestant who needed the money because he and his wife had gotten into a car accident the day before. His wife was in the audience with a bandage around her head.

Of course, there were occasional questions about the other Indians, the ones from India. They weren't any more politically correct than the Native American jokes. In one episode, Gene and Betty White ended up on the floor to demonstrate how an Indian fakir blows on a horn to charm a snake. There were also more jokes about "Gunga Dingy" than you can shake a snake charmer's basket at.

At any rate, take a trip out west and to the mystical east with these wild wild episodes!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Lone Ranger, Tonto, and Indians

Holidays On Ice

Began the day with breakfast and Paw Patrol. "Pups Save the Marooned Mayors" when Mayor Goodway and Mayor Humdinger are stranded in a chasm, chased by Arctic wolf pups who wanted Humdinger's "hum-burgers." The pups recruit Everett to help rescue them, then get them off an block of ice floating out to sea. "Pups Save the Game Show," what amounts to an animated version of Wild West Challenge being filmed at a local ranch. After Humdinger's cheating drives off the competition, the pups help competitor Chase out to clean up the havoc Humdinger caused and make sure everything remains fair.

Switched to Super Password on Buzzr. Leslie Bloom and comedian Jack Carter were the celebrities. Jack was really impressive. He might have been even better at Password than he was at Match Game. He got a lady through the Super Password bonus round with maybe one bobble in pretty decent time. 

Got my schedule at this point, too. I wasn't sure I'd get the whole week off, but...thank heavens, I don't work at the Acme again until early next Saturday. I won't be back at the after-school program until January 5th! I'll be able to enjoy a nice, quiet Christmas break doing what I want to do without rushing. 

Headed out after that. I wanted to get my grocery shopping done before the snow and ice arrived. My first stop was the Target Starbucks for a treat. I was surprised at how quiet they were. All the teens who usually hang out there must have been at home, messing with their new gadgets and listening to music. I got a wonderfully minty peppermint hot chocolate without a fuss.

Sprouts was only a little busier. I didn't need much here under any circumstances. Found more of those white chocolate-filled coconut pillows, this time marked down to 99 cents. Got dried mango slices, coconut milk, and diet soda and sparkling water. Found white chocolate macadamia cookies with clearance stickers on the bakery rack.

Hurried down Cuthbert, past the library, the McDonald's, and the Haddon Township High School to the Acme. They were a lot busier, and had been even worse earlier, if the lack of carts up front and the devastated shelves were any indication. Mainly needed yogurt and apples here. Grabbed probiotic sodas on good sales. Grabbed bread to have sandwiches this week. Had online coupons for yogurt, bags of gala apples, and granola. Finally found the Fresca again. Got one last bottle of Winter Spiced Cranberry Sprite Zero, too.

By the time I rode home alongside Newton Lake Park, it was much cloudier. Those clouds had the pearly gray sheen of ice and snow. The park is now fully embracing winter. The grass is a little greener than usual for this time of year, probably due to all of the rain and snow we've had, but the trees are black brushstrokes, the lake is still slightly frozen, and the only animals around are the honking Canadian geese. (And even they were pretty scarce today.)

When I got home, I put everything away, then had lunch and spent the rest of the evening watching YouTube. Match Game Productions fixed the audio issues he had with his What's My Line Christmas marathon. Though there were two color episodes from the early 70's with a man who sold Santa Claus suits, the majority of the episodes were the black and white shows from the 1950's and early 60's. In addition to flat-out Christmas shows like the one I watched last week with Johnny Marks and the Salvation Army, there were episodes featuring singers associated with Christmas songs (like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Eartha Kitt, Johnny Mathis, and Andy Williams) or those with Christmas-related "lines" (like the man who sold bells). There was even the Christmas episode where the spouses of the panelists (Tony Randall joining regulars Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, and Dorothy Kilgalleon) appeared as Mystery Guests. 

Find out if the holidays are really bigger than a bread box in this elegant and delightful marathon!

A What's My Line Christmas Marathon

Wait, there's more! We have the 1983 and 1984 Christmas episodes of the Richard Dawson Family Feud, Brett giving a naughty answer that got censored on Match Game in 1977, a hilarious and rare post-Christmas episode from 1978 where a contestant gave Fannie a huge kiss despite losing the match, more of the Carol Burnett-Bert Convy battle on Password Plus during Christmas 1979, and Illene Graff and Pat Harrington tossing out wisecracks on Super Password during Christmas 1988. It's the gift that keeps on giving - more game show bang for your holiday buck!

Family Feud (1983)

Family Feud (1984)

Match Game (1977)

Match Game (1978)

Password Plus (1979)

Super Password (1988)

Called Mom during the What's My Line marathon. Apparently, she's doing fine, and everyone liked my gifts. Aurora really loved that book on being a big sister I found at the thrift shop in Woodbury! Mom said it really helped her. She's more worried about my brother. Apparently, his knees are going and he has gout and arthritis in his hands, and he's only in his early 30's. I have an arthritic thumb (though my bad knees are more from bike accidents than family history), so I do understand what she's saying there. With Keefe, I wonder if he's just worked a little too long at the Naval shipyard.

It started raining - and raining hard - somewhere around 6 PM. I'm not sure when the ice came, only that by the time Family Feud and Match Game were on, everything was covered in a sheet of dully glistening ice. Good thing I am off tomorrow. If it doesn't melt by early afternoon, I won't have to go anywhere. 

Finished the night with Forest by George Winston. This was a better choice than I thought. The CD includes lovely versions of "Walking In the Air," "Building the Snowman," and "The Snowman's Music Box Dance" from the British animated special The Snowman. Other lovely, calming numbers here include "Troubadour," "Graceful Ghost," "and "Lights In the Sky." 

Happy Holidays With Family

Began the morning with the Colliers Harvest of Holidays book Linda Young sent me years ago. My favorite of the short stories here is "Miss Flora McFlimsey's Christmas Eve." An old doll stored in an attic manages to walk downstairs and see the tree on Christmas Eve. The other dolls make fun of her when Santa puts her aside to give to a little girl, until her mouse friend and the tree angel bring down her trunk and remind her of how beautiful and loved she really is. There's also the story of "Barney and the Wee Cap," as an Irish miser tries to escape his neighbors begging for charity by taking a leprechaun cap that allows the wearer to travel wherever they want. He discovers that poverty and charity are everywhere, and it's not so bad to help your fellow man out.

Since we're supposed to get snow later this weekend, I put on The Snowman while eating breakfast. This dreamy British special has a young boy creating a snowman who comes to life. He introduces him his home and room. The snowman rides a motorcycle, then takes the boy to the North Pole, where he meets Santa Claus and dances with other snowmen.

Switched to The Little Drummer Boy as I got organized. I went further into this classic Rankin-Bass religious special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog on Christmas Eve 2020.

The Little Drummer Boy

I first opened gifts with a friend and her teen daughter. I had gifts for them, for her adult son and his girlfriend, and for their cat. They gave me fluffy pink sleeper socks and candy, including a bag of peanut brittle, a box of chocolate truffles shaped like shells, dark chocolate "wave" candy shaped like potato chips, and chocolate-covered gingerbread.

Headed out to Rose's shortly after at around quarter of 1. As at Thanksgiving, Finley and their dogs Oreo and Cider met me at the door. Jessa arrived just a few minutes after I did. Though she seemed to like the dinosaur book, Finley was mostly excited about the Pokemon cards I gave her, especially the ones I found in the parking lot of the Acme! Finley is also crazy about magnetic tiles. She had made a massive castle with her new set and had spent her morning trying to keep the dogs from knocking it down. 

I got some pretty nice gifts from them, too. Rose and her family gave me a small but elegant box of Godiva chocolates. My present from Jessa was a lovely glass popcorn ornament and a gift card to AMC Theaters. (Good, I want to see the new Hugh Jackman movie Song Sung Blue sometime next week, probably Tuesday. I'll go to the Deptford theater - it's nicer than the AMC in Cherry Hill.) 

I spent most of the afternoon chatting with Rose and Jessa. It was nice to be able to talk to adults! I don't get to see Rose that often, and we don't really get to talk as sisters. We discussed our jobs, how happy I was to be off of both my jobs this week, and why Rose and her family stayed in South Jersey for the holidays instead of going to New Hampshire. Rose had a huge spread out. In addition to most of the same things she had at Thanksgiving - the shrimp cocktail, vegetable tray, plate of grapes and berries, platter of cheese, and bowls of chips, rolls, and crackers - there were wet, tasty steamed clams. Rose said she should have soaked them longer before she brought them out, but they tasted fine to me.

Craig spent most of the afternoon watching the Cowboys-Commanders game. Considering the Commanders are not great this year, this was a lot closer than I thought it would be. In the end, the Cowboys finally outran them 30-23.

Jessa finally drove me home around 4. I spent the next few hours eating a ham and cheese wrap and watching game shows on YouTube, starting with the annual Match Game Christmas marathon. I came in for the 1975 episode. In 1976, Charles complained about not getting to dress as Santa again. (He did that once, in 1973.) He got his wish in 1977, where he pretended to be a drunk Santa complaining about appearing on all the other networks. (At least, I hope he was pretending to be drunk.) He and Brett had more fun in 1978, where he dressed as Santa, and Brett was a little girl sitting on his knee.

The only Christmas Syndicated episode ended with the entire panel singing "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Christmas on The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour featured Jon Bauman in a Santa hat and beard, while Nedra Voltz dodged sexual and age-related questions and Marty Cohen reminds everyone that Hanukkah ended a few days ago. Match Game '90 got even more into the holiday, with lavish decorations and Rip Taylor and his confetti replacing an on-vacation Charles. Marcia Wallace spent her week explaining her increasingly wilder injuries, while Taylor hit Fred Travalena over the head with his toupee for doing a bad imitation of him.

Wait, there's more! The 1977 Match Game Christmas episode, with Charles dressed as a drunken Santa, was run separately later. We also had the 1982 Christmas episode of Family Feud, Bert Convy and Carol Burnett doing battle on Password Plus during Christmas week 1979, and the 1987 All Star Super Password with the cast of Father Knows Best not doing very well guessing words. It's a riot of ho-ho-ho holiday game show hilarity!

Match Game Merry Christmas 2025 Blank-a-Thon

Family Feud (1982)

Match Game (1977)

Password Plus (1979)

Super Password (1987)

Finished my night at Amazon Prime with The Christmas Toy. I go further into this classic Jim Henson holiday special from 1986 at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Merry Christmas! - The Christmas Toy

And I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend, surrounded by all the people you love to match with! 

Thanksgiving With the Family

Began the morning with the Thanksgiving material in the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. The long piece for Thanksgiving is a story about a Pilgrim grandmother relating her memories of the first Thanksgiving to her family. There's also several hymns and poems, including "Over the River and Through the Woods."

The original book version of Molly's Pilgrim is pretty close to the half-hour special that debuted in 1985. The biggest difference is it's likely set in what I suspect to be the early 1900's. Elizabeth, the girl who bullies Molly, has long black ringlets rather than straight blonde hair, they go a little more into Molly and her family being Jewish, and Molly doesn't get extra help for English after school. It's still a sweet and charming story, though, a reminder that "pilgrims" continue to search for religious freedom even today.

There's a short story in the Disney Storybookland anthology called "Pilgrim's Party." Mickey takes Minnie, Donald, and Pluto to Plymouth, Massachusetts for a real old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner. It's all fun and Pilgrim cosplay, until Pluto steals the turkey!

Changed and had breakfast while watching the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade. They've gone through a couple of different sponsors through the years. The current sponsors are ABC and Dunkin' Donuts, the latter of whom had an extremely pink donut float in the parade. The only balloon I saw in the air was Clifford the Big Red Dog. There was a modern Netflix Strawberry Shortcake, but I think she had deflated by the time they showed her on the broadcast, because she seemed to be laying down. I saw an Acme float, too, appropriately based around a cornucopia bursting with harvest produce. 

Thank heavens this was broadcast for free on WPVI 6's website. The Macy's Parade is the exclusive domain of Peacock online, but it was more fun to see what Philly did for Thanksgiving anyway. A huge tap group did an enormous number with dozens of kids all tapping together. We had songs from the stage Beauty and the Beast and Here's Love (under the title Meredith Wilson's Miracle On 34th Street: The Musical). The Four Tops, Jordan Sparks, and a group called Cameo performed their hits. There were marching bands from as far away as Indiana. Unlike Macy's parade, which ends with the arrival of Santa, the Philly parade ended with a huge number that included the tap dancers, the All-American Cheerleaders, Santa, and piles of confetti.

Called Mom while the parade was on. We weren't able to chat for very long. She was making pies for my brother's Thanksgiving dinner. Keefe insisted on making the rest of the dinner, including the turkey (though his wife Julia was apparently in charge of the sweet potatoes). There had been a few problems when Elijah came out, but he's as healthy as any darling baby ever born now.

Switched to two delightful Thanksgiving specials from the 1980's after the parade ended. I go further into the charming Paul Fusco puppet show A Thanksgiving Tale at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Thanksgiving Short Subject Special - A Thanksgiving Tale

The 1985 Molly's Pilgrim won an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Subject that year...and richly deserved it. The story is now reset in the mid-80's. Molly is a young Jewish girl from Russia whose family came to a small Midwestern town in search of religious freedom. Molly is still bullied by children who envy her gymnastics abilities and don't understand her accent or her Borscht lunches. She's upset and feels out of place, especially after her mother makes a clothes pin Pilgrim that looks more like a traditional Russian peasant than the usual Pilgrim. Molly's teacher finally explains to the class that Molly's mother is right - pilgrims still exist today, and they come to America for the same reason the ones at Plymouth Rock did. As her classmate Arthur said, it does take all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving.

Since I had food to carry and I wasn't sure how late I was going to be at Rose's, I walked to her house. It was a gorgeous day for it. Yesterday's off-and-on clouds had given way to a beautiful, sunny, if chilly afternoon. It was in the 40's, cold, but really more in line with what it should be during late November.

I was greeted at the door by Rose's two dogs Cider and Oreo barking their hellos. Jessa had already arrived (in fact, she texted me earlier to ask which house was Rose's) as the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game began. It was just Rose, Craig, 8-year-old Finley, 15-year-old Khai, and Jessa this year. Craig's mother apparently went up to New England to visit his brother. 

Jessa played Dinosaur Bingo with Finley and Khai while Craig and I watched the game and we all had appetizers from three huge trays. One tray had sliced vegetables and dip. One had sweet goodies - donut holes, my pumpkin bread, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, pomegranates (Finley ate most of those - she apparently loves them), Danish butter cookies. There were also bowls of chips and pretzels and a yummy shrimp cocktail.

(Oh, and the Packers did very well against the Lions, who are no slouches themselves. The Packers would run and get a touchdown, then the Lions would get one. In the end, the Packers finally outran them 31-24.)

It was well into the Kansas City Chiefs-Dallas Cowboys game before dinner was ready. Rose apparently forgot to put the turkey in early! Jessa left before dinner, but the rest of us sat down to turkey, ham, green beans with bacon and crispy onions, mashed potatoes. cubed orange and purple sweet potatoes, canned cranberry sauce, tossed salad, and rolls. Oh, yum! The two meats looked like they belonged on the cover of a food magazine or the main page of a food website. The turkey was so juicy, I saw Rose cleaning up turkey juice she'd spilled (with the help of the dogs). Even the white meat was moist and tender. The ham was almost as good.

(The Chiefs-Cowboys game didn't go nearly as well. Their game was also close and well-played, but the Cowboys just managed to push ahead at the end 31-28.)

While Khai disappeared into his "office" (a tiny storage area where he plays computer games) and Craig and Rose prepared dinner, Finley and I played something called Zingo. You get a board containing small words, like what, the, she, if, and or (along with the numbers two and three). Someone pushes a lever that makes two yellow chips with words on them slide out of a slot. You have to grab the word before the other person does to fill your card. I did win a few games, but not only was Finley faster, I was tired and couldn't really focus on where the words were.

It wasn't until almost 7 when Rose and Craig brought the sweets tray back out, along with pumpkin pie, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, and home-made whipped cream. Finley and I both went for pumpkin pie with whipped cream. (In fact, I think Finley mainly had whipped cream. There might have been pumpkin somewhere under the enormous mounds of white fluff on her plate.) Khai insisted that he wasn't a fan of pies, so he had a root beer float instead. 

Finley and Craig brought drove me and a huge bag of leftovers home around 8. I went straight online and into the annual Match Game Productions Thanksgiving marathon. This year's theme was "personal favorite episodes of the channel's owner." The marathon started much earlier, but I did get to see two classic syndicated episodes that were also personal favorites of mine. 

In a 1979 syndicated episode, Joyce Bulifant wears a crazy red fright wig that made her look like a demented Little Orphan Annie to keep from being mistaken for the other blonde on the show that week, Elaine Joyce. A later contestant was almost as weird, giving a very strange answer to what a jock centipede bought along with 100 pairs of shoes. 

Betty White turned up in a much later syndicated episode from 1981 wearing a short, flaming red and gold dress made by a friend of Sharon Farrell's. Sharon was no slouch either in her pink pants outfit. She and Richard Paul inadvertently demonstrated mud wrestling when she landed on him during McLean Stevenson's answer for what form of "wrassling" should be an Olympic event. Later on, a contestant's laugh that he supposedly used to wake up in the morning was so terrifying, it sent McLean hurrying for Gene's entrance doors.

At any rate, enjoy your own feast of favorites with this bountiful showcase!

Match Game Thanksgiving 2025 Countdown Marathon

You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween

Began my Halloween with material from the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. "The Blue-Nosed Witch" is a scatterbrained young sorceress who is always late for her coven's flight formations. She sets her alarm back so far, she ends up trick-or-treating with the kids on Halloween instead. Another young witch tries to make a fairy appear for her friends, but she ends up conjuring "The Water Nixie" instead. We also get a couple of poems on trick-or-treating and Halloween traditions.

Watched The Woody Woodpecker Show on Disc 3 of my first Woody Woodpecker set during breakfast. Woody spends most of the episode between cartoons blowing up balloons for his boss Walter Lanz. They're preparing for a big Halloween party with all of the Lanz characters created up to the early 60's (most of whom were actually comic book characters). They're holding a big "Spook-a-Nanny," but won't let Woody in. He joins a ghostly rock band, but forgets he can't walk through the walls like they can.

Switched to Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile as I made my grocery list. Ann, Andy, and their dog Arthur bring a glum pumpkin who wasn't bought for Halloween to a little boy whose aunt won't let him enjoy the holiday. After they finally get the gourd to the kid, they remind his aunt that you're only young once, and there was a time when she enjoyed Halloween, too.

Put on Sale of the Century while I got organized. Their "Trick or Treat Week" from 1988 played pretty much the same, only with Halloween-themed questions and prizes. The one woman came back during the Speed Round to win a beautiful heart-shaped diamond pendant necklace that would look pretty on her. Too bad she didn't have as much luck with the Bonus Round.

Hurried to go grocery shopping next. I didn't need a whole lot, and I didn't have much time to get it. Sprouts was having a buy one, get one 50 percent off sale on their bakery cookies. I went with their seasonal flavors, ginger molasses and white chocolate cranberry shortbread. Also picked up coconut milk and sparkling water. Found cookies and cream Made Good granola bars and a plastic container of lemon curd dried mango slices that were on clearance.

The Acme was a lot busier when I arrived. I'll be getting fruit and vegetables at the farm market tomorrow, so I mainly needed yogurt here. Got canned tuna and sliced chicken for my own mini-pantry. The Kind Kids' bars were on clearance, too, and I had a good online coupon for Kind granola. Popwell and the new Bloom Pop sodas were on good sales, and yes, they had Fresca this time. Dug mini chocolate Bundt cakes off the bakery clearance racks. 

Cut through Newton Lake Park on the way home. It's fully fall here now. The trees have finally turned fabulous shades of gold, rust, scarlet, and lime green. It couldn't have been a nicer Halloween. Though 40-miles-an-hour winds lingered from yesterday, it was otherwise sunny and relatively warm when you could get out of the wind, in the upper 50's-lower 60's. 

Put everything away, then had a quick lunch while watching Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special. Witch Hazel chases Bugs, turns Speedy into her, and spooks Daffy's niece in this piecemeal anthology. At least they used sequences from horror shorts and ones actually set on Halloween, rather than the random cartoons seen in Bugs' Easter and Thanksgiving specials. 

Hurried off to the Thomas Sharp School after the cartoon ended. I was slightly late...but I could have been infinitely late. There were nine pre-schoolers there when I arrived. I colored printed pictures of Jack o'lanterns and Pikachu in a witch's hat laying on a pumpkin with the girls. By 3:30, when we took the kids outside, there were five boys left. In fact, they originally said I could leave at 3:30, but I figured I could at least help get them out to the playground. I finally left the boys running around and enjoying the lack of line for the swings at 4. (Oh, and I was one of only two teachers who dressed in costume. The other was a Phillies baseball player. One teacher did admit that her Spirited Away costume was a bit too lavish for school.)

Soon as I got home, I hurried upstairs and grabbed the rest of my cowgirl costume. Yes, I was a cowgirl this year in my blue-checked LL Bean shirt, the corduroy vest Mom made me for my first cowgirl costume in 1989, jeans, boots, a jean jacket, and the hat I picked up from Goodwill. Glad I got the bandana and metal sheriff's badge. They really completed the costume. Added a crocheted "belt" with a plastic knife and bow tied on. Grabbed the trick-or-treat bags and candy and hurried outside with my red stuffed bull Romeo soon as I was ready.

I got outside at just the right time. Trick-or-treating starts at 3, but it doesn't really pick up until around 4:30. We had a ton of kids. I gave away all of my trick-or-treat bags in less than an hour. All but a few Sour Patch licorice sticks were gone by 6. 

Saw lots of great costumes, too. There was a pretty and adorable baby dressed as a pearly pink shell. A Winnie the Pooh group had a dad Pooh, a big brother Tigger, a mom Eeyore, and a pre-school girl Piglet. Another large group were all Lord of the Rings characters, including a mom Gandolf. Two teen girls were variations on Alice In Wonderland, while a third was the White Rabbit. Teen boys wore a gas mask and a Jason Voorhees mask. A couple in long Matrix black coats walked their dog Trinity. A tiny pre-school Wednesday was too adorable! There were two Elsas and three KPop Demon Hunters. Saw a couple of Ghostbusters, a bloody nurse, an Iron Man, a Spider Man and Spider Girl, Ginny from SuperKitties, and Connor from PJ Masks. 

I headed back out around quarter after 6 to have dinner at Phillies Phatties. Trouble is, they were mobbed with families who just came in from trick or treating and people ordering a quick dinner. I had to wait more than 20 minutes for my slice of cheese and slice of sausage. (I did get the can of Diet Pepsi right away.) 

It took them so long, I ate them on my way two doors down to Tonewood Brewery. My sister Rose was there with her 8-year-old daughter Finley and several of Fin's friends from school. Finley was an absolutely stunning marionette in a black and white sequined ballet outfit, wrist ribbons, black and white spooky stockings, a bun, and spooky makeup. I ate my pizza and chatted with Rose and the kids a little bit, admiring Rose's sleek new haircut and telling her about my vacation earlier this month. 

For once, the Halloween Parade started right on time. I saw a lot of great costumes here, too. One boy was dressed as Ben Franklin, complete with flying "kite." Another was a dinosaur in a home-made costume. One little firefighter had a pretty realistic costume, including a bright red and yellow jacket. There was a Mario Kart group with a big sister Peach, Mario in his cart, and a dad Luigi. Two little oceanographers rode around in a huge cardboard "shark" wagon. Saw two more Demon Hunters, an elementary schooler dressed as a grandma with gray hair, curlers, and a cane, a lovely witch in glittering purple and black, a big Ghostbusters group that included a mom dressed as Louis Tully and inflatable Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, and a hilarious Men In Black group with parents in sunglasses and suits and an infant alien in a flying saucer stroller. The Nightmare Before Christmas group had impressive inflatable and hand-made costumes, including Oogie Boogie and the Mayor of Halloween Town. I thought the pre-teens dressed as Sesame Street characters were adorable, especially Ernie in what I suspected was a hand-made head. 

To my delight, Finley deservedly won first in the second-to-sixth grade division. She and Rose really did do well with that costume. I didn't win anything. The other adult costumes included a guy in a scary mask up on stilts. I still enjoyed walking in the parade from the Oaklyn School to the Fire Hall, twirling my garden rope "lasso" (I lost the cap gun walking over to Oaklyn) and cuddling Romeo. 

Took as shower when I got home, then put on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Linus spends his Halloween waiting in a "sincere" pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin, who is supposed to leave treats for all of the good little girls and boys. Against her better judgment, Sally joins him. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown has trouble trick-or-treating, Lucy is still pulling away that football, and Snoopy spends the night preparing for Veteran's Day and fighting the Red Baron.

Mom called me around this time. She sent me a really cute Halloween card. Needless to say, with a newborn around, they've been incredibly busy. Like most of my family, Mom and Keefe get really into Halloween and decorate inside and out. They were all bee-themed this year. Aurora was a bee. Julia and Elijah were bears, and Keefe was the beekeeper. (Oh, and three-year-old Aurora is apparently a huge fan of KPop Demon Hunters too.) Mom did tell me Anny finally got a duplex for her and her daughter Lilah in Millville. Not the best part, and she has to commute 40 minutes every day for her tiring job fixing fishing boats at Lund's Fisheries in Wildwood Crest. 

Switched to YouTube for this year's Halloween Marathon. I arrived in time for the second half of the 1994 Richard Dawson Family Feud. They only decorated (including with a very ugly paper mache vulture), but some people gave such bad Fast Money answers, it was scary. Caught the entirety of a Super Password episode I saw part of earlier in the week on Buzzr, with Pat Sajak and Rebecca Arthur of Perfect Strangers. The contestants all opened "tricks," like a jumping dinosaur, or "treats," like a propeller beanie cap. 

Bob Barker may have been getting on in years by the time of the 2004 Price Is Right episode, but he was still beloved by the college kids who appeared on the show. One woman said she'd watched him on Truth or Consequences, too...and ironically, she was one of the ones who made it to the Showcases. The first Showcase featured a witch model conjuring prizes with her cauldron (and running afoul of California's strict anti-pollution laws). The second had the witch dealing with a fussy Beverly Hills model trick-or-treater who wanted expensive prizes, including gold bars and a sports car.

Here's this year's Halloween Party, for your enjoyment!

Trick or Treat - Happy Halloween 2025 Spooktacular Marathon

Got my schedule at this point, too. In good news, slightly more hours. I do work next Saturday, but only 1 to 5, which means I'll be able to hit the Farm Market again. Still not enough hours, but after this week, I'll take this.

Stayed on YouTube to finish my holiday with two more vintage Halloween specials. Halloween Is Grinch Night has the Grinch, stirred up by animals howling in a sour-sweet wind, dragging his Paraphernalia Wagon full of wild psychedelic scares down to Whoville. When little Eukeriah Who gets lost in the mountains, he takes it on himself to make sure the Grinch never makes it to town.

The Halloween That Almost Wasn't has Dracula (Judd Hirch) in a tizzy because the Witch (Mariette Hartley) refuses to fly over the moon at midnight and kick off the holiday. Seems she doesn't feel appreciated and demands more even footing with Dracula. While he sputters over sharing the limelight with her, one little girl dressed as a witch reminds her of why she's so important to the holiday.

And here's hoping you had a spectacular Halloween of your own, with all your own little Demon Hunters, marionettes, and Ghostbusters! 

Birth of Fall

Began the day with breakfast and The Muppet Show. Hard rock star Alice Cooper was the other guest associated with horror who appeared on the show, this time in the third season. The Muppets played on his ghoulish reputation with a story where he tries to sell the Muppets' souls, but Gonzo is the only taker. Meanwhile, teeth complain about a toothache, Pigs In Space are turned into ghostly outlines by a virus, and Robin sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Work was pretty much the same deal it had been on Wednesday. We were dead the entire morning. It got a little steady around 11:30, then went right back to being dead. Like I said, we're between holidays, the next major holiday isn't really food-oriented anyway, and the weather remains gorgeous. It was sunny and windy, but not quite as warm as it has been, likely in the lower 60's. 

Got my schedule here, too. In good news, I only work Sunday afternoon and Wednesday morning next week. I asked for Halloween off (we're never busy anyway), but I didn't expect to get Saturday! In bad news, that means a really bad paycheck the week after. 

Headed home after work, then changed and briefly went right back out. I bought a pepperoni-stuffed pretzel and two regular pretzels for lunch. Got them at the A&A Pretzel Shop, then rode home.

Had lunch while watching Paw Patrol. "Pups Save the Trick or Treaters" when Mayor Humdinger's giant spider costume steals all of the trick or treat candy. They make use of a marshmallow web Marshall inadvertently created to catch him. "Pups Save an Out of Control Mini Patrol" when Alex accidentally takes Daring Danny X's new rocket bike while delivering cow shampoo to Katie. Chase and Marshall keep him from ending up in the bay.

Rode to the Thomas Sharp School after the cartoon ended. Though the teacher did read a book about various kinds of tools and their uses after snack time, we were mainly outside. I had to settle a lot of arguments over the swings! They all really love them, but there's only two. I told them I'd choose who went next and would keep them from hitting each other. They love it when I push them! The girls say I push really high. We had a somewhat smaller group than usual that disappeared quicker than usual. The school was apparently holding a "trunk or treat" event on the blacktop in the back of the school later in the evening. It was just starting as I left.

At this point, I also got two big announcements. First of all, my fourth nephew was born this afternoon! Keefe's wife Julia had her son, Elijah Jackman, and mother and son are apparently doing just fine. Second, Jessa texted me to say Rose's husband Craig's father just passed away and asked me if I could come to his funeral tomorrow. (I can't. I'm working in the morning.) 

Made a quick stop at the Speedy Mart on Collings Street after I got out. They were really busy with teens from Collingswood High getting snacks and drinks. I just bought bagels and a Propel.

Watched Match Game '76 while eating dinner. Tom Poston and Laugh-In comedienne Barbara Sharma made their only appearances on the 1973-1982 run of the show this week. Neither played especially well, though Tom Poston at least had a sense of humor about it. 

Moved to YouTube after dinner for a rare Halloween special. Boo! is another attempt at a Halloween variety show, this one coming from Canada in 1982. It's even stranger than Paul Lynde's special. Monsters, including a rather adorable orange-haired Frankenstein, appear in a series of blackout sketches. The wolfman is hypnotized to not go crazy at the mention of the full moon, Dracula and his Countess sing "If Our Friends Could See Us Now," and truckers discuss the death of the variety show on regular TV. (Real variety shows had just gone out of fashion in the late 70's.) Dionne Warwick sings "Deja Vu" and "Just the Way You Are," the latter to Frankenstein's monster, and Rip Taylor appears as a prisoner with a few screws loose and sells his wares to aliens in a bar.

Jessica Fletcher recreates another Halloween favorite in Murder She Wrote. Dorian Beecher (Thom Bray), a nerdy young man who teaches poetry at a private school in Vermont, calls Jessica to act as his mother and impress the father (Doug McClure) of his sweetheart (Karlene Crockett). Dorian is at odds with bullying riding instructor Nate Findley (Barry Williams), until he's found dead with his head missing after witnessing "The Night of the Headless Horseman." Dorian is arrested for the crime, but Jessica doesn't think he's capable of murder. She realizes the obnoxious Findley had other enemies, including the town dentist (Charles Siebert) whose fiancee ran off with Findley. 

4th of July Revolutions

Kicked off my 4th of July with material from Colliers Junior Classics: Harvest of Holidays. The long piece here is a segment from Little Town On the Prairie in which Pa, Laura, and Carrie enjoy the town's small but festive celebration. The girls are delighted to drink lemonade from a dipper, watch people pass by in Pa's shop, and cheer on their friend Alonzo in the buggy race. We also have The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, the first part of the Constitution, and several shorter poems on fireworks and independence.

Threw on two classic holiday shorts while having a quick breakfast. "Patriotic Popeye" wishes his nephews would forget the fireworks and find other ways to have fun on the 4th. He teaches them a lesson when their largest rocket carries them off, and he has to rescue them. Bugs defends Boston as a "Bunker Hill Bunny" fighting against Hessian (Yosemite) Sam.

Hurried out the door at 9:55. The Oaklyn 4th of July Parade was supposed to start at 10. One of the things you can always count on is it's NEVER on time...and considering I saw people lining up on Johnson, too, I suspected it would be even less so today. I could have stayed there, but all the fun stuff is on West Clinton. I arrived just in time to see the Mr. Softee truck pull up in the municipal parking lot. 

My brother-in-law Craig, 8-year-old niece Finley, and 15-year-old nephew Khai were already sitting in lawn chairs, waiting for the show to begin. I got to hand Finley, whose birthday was yesterday, her stuffed Squishmallows unicorn. She absolutely loved it! She loves animals of all varieties, including mythological. After she opened her present, we got free ice cream from Mr. Softee. I went simple with a cup of soft-serve vanilla and chocolate sprinkles. She got a chocolate/vanilla twist with strawberry crunch sprinkles. 

The Parade was over a half-hour late, but when it did arrive, it came by biker group. To my niece and nephews' amusement, the bikers came first, looking like fierce teddy bears on giant motorcycles. The Oaklyn Food Pantry had by far the best float. Their hot dog theme had everyone dressed as condiments, including mustard and ketchup bottle cone hats. Most of the others were local baseball and softball teams throwing candy, which is all Finley cared about (along with waving to her friends on the softball floats). I even managed to snitch lollipops and pieces of hard candy for myself. (Oh, and I love the names of the local softball teams - the Bubblegum Bombers and the Flamingos.)

Craig took Finley and Khai home for lunch after that, but I stuck around for the National Anthem (the lady who sang it was really excellent), and the winners of the float contest. I think you can guess that the Oaklyn Pantry deservedly won that one. Though there were also free hot dogs and bags of chips, it was way too early for lunch. I grabbed free red, blue, and silver beads and USA headband bobbles instead. I was going to stop at Common Grounds Coffee House, but I realized I forgot my money. Oh well. Just walked home instead.

Relaxed for an hour while watching two patriotic specials on mice making unusual contributions to American history. Chester the Cricket is a Yankee Doodle Cricket when he supposedly writes "Yankee Doodle" for all of the animals in the Colonies. Tucker the Mouse claims his ancestor the Declaration of Independence to prove cats and mice can get along, while Harry says his got a drunk Paul Revere moving on that famous midnight ride.

The Disney special Ben & Me takes us to Philadelphia to meet Amos, a poor church mouse. He moves in with Benjamin Franklin and helps him create memorable inventions like the Franklin stove and bifocals. Amos is also instrumental in starting the Pennsylvania Gazette and putting out hard-hitting news stories for that. He and Ben finally part ways after Amos is used as a test-mouse in the famous kite-flying experiment, but Ben calls him back to help write the Declaration of Independence. 

Headed back out after that, this time on my bike. Craig invited me to barbecue between 4 and 5, but it was only 12:30. I had plenty of time for a nice picnic in the park. Rode down to Haddon Culinary, which, thankfully, was opened. Bought a turkey club hoagie with their house-made chips and a Coke Zero. Enjoyed it under the trees at one of the old wooden picnic benches in Knight Park, near the pavilion. I was surprised at how quiet they were. I figured everyone would be picnicking on such a gorgeous day. It was sunny and breezy, slightly humid but not annoyingly so, probably in the mid-80's. I shared my table with a drowsy ladybug enjoying the one shaft of sunlight coming through the trees.

After I rode home, I put on Johnny Tremain. Johnny (Hal Stalmaster) is a silversmith's apprentice who agrees to remake a sugar basin for wealthy Johnathan Lyte (Sebastian Cabot). Unfortunately, he burns his hand while making it so badly, he can never be a silversmith again. He ends up as a messenger boy for the Sons of Liberty. He tries to sell a silver cup with the Lytes' crest, only for Lyte to claim he stole it. Fortunately, his former master's daughter Priscilla Lapham (Luana Patten) speaks for him in court. He's now able to throw himself into getting involved in the American Revolution, including tossing that tea overboard in Boston and joining the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Though this loses a lot of incidents and characters from the book, it does have excellent performances from Cabot and Ralph Clinton as Lyte and General Gage, and Richard Beymer looks a lot more engaged here than he would four years later in West Side Story. Still recommended if you're a fan of American history, the original book, or the Disney action films of the 50's and 60's.

Mom called me around this point. I haven't heard from her in a while. She did appreciate my finding another job that I like, but still insists that I should remain at the Acme for the pension and because I'll probably be retiring in a few years. She's also concerned about my brother Keefe. I'm thrilled that his wife Julia is pregnant, and they'll be having a boy in the fall, but she's worried about them needing a bigger home and how their daughter Aurora will react. 

Switched to my original cast CD for By the Beautiful Sea after the movie ended. Shirley Booth headlined this 1952 Broadway show as Lottie Gibson, a vaudeville performer in early 1900's Coney Island who falls for a Shakespearean actor (Wilbur Evans). His daughter "Baby" Betsy disapproves. Betsy's mother tries to keep her as a child to get better roles, but she's in love with a young waiter at the boardwalk. Lottie eventually gives her a dress and teaches her how to behave older, no matter what age her mother wants her to be.

I've had this CD since I found it at a long-defunct music store in North Cape May around 1996. To be honest, it's not that great of a show. They never did figure out what to do with the Baby Betsy subplot. She doesn't even get a song. Apparently, the book on this one was constantly re-written right up until opening, and it shows. The songs are something of a hodge-podge, with most of the chorus numbers not being anything but filler. I do like the comic lament "I'd Rather Wake Up By Myself" for Booth and the lovely ballad "Alone Too Long" for Evans, but most of the score is as much of a mash-up as the show in general. Only for major enthusiasts of Booth or 50's musicals.

Worked on Hilary and the Beasts for the next few hours. Hilary spends her evening making phone calls. Jeff hasn't been seen at his radio jobs that he was broadcasting with his secretary Victor on the situation overseas, nor at the stage roles manager Scott worked so hard for him to get. After she finishes, Puppy dresses her for dinner in a lavish black velvet and fur gown. She eventually takes her down to her dinner with the Beast in a beautifully-appointed dining room. He tries to ask her to marry him, but she tells him she's in love with someone else. That sets them fighting again, and she ends up running out the door, angry and wiling to leave.

I got so into working on the story, I didn't get to Rose's until after 5. I got there at the same time as Craig's mom and dad, who were just getting out of their car when I was walking up the driveway. Rose had a huge spread set out - bowls of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, plates of grapes and cherries, another plate of Doritos. Finley was just excited about her birthday yesterday. She went to a local spa for little girls, then went to Dave & Buster's and out to eat. We had grilled hot dogs, burgers, vegetables, and the sweet potatoes Craig's parents brought along for dinner.

Finley insisted on going swimming after dinner, even though she'd already changed. She changed back into a bathing suit. I totally forgot Rose and Craig had that big inflatable pool in the backyard. I would have brought my own suit if I remembered. I sat in the back and kept an eye on her while she splashed, swam, and showed off her swimming moves. She was so interested when I told her about the story I was writing, I gave her the revised version. I didn't think 8-year-olds knew much about the early Great Depression, so I put the story in a more generic fairy-tale-world. Jeff was a prince, Scott a knight, Victor a wizard, they were still turned into a troll, bear, and eagle by a wicked fairy, and the other ladies still had to rescue them. 

Finley especially liked hearing about how much Maple loved the adventure, how she stroked all the animals and will ride Victor later. "That's so me!" she squealed with delight. She put in a request to be in the story, or at least use her name. Maybe not this one, but I might get some local kids into the Maple Rapunzel story I have planned for after this one.

We finally dragged Finley inside around 8 to have cake. She apparently had cupcakes yesterday, but Rose had a small white cake for her to share with the family. It was a simple white and blue cake Rose bought from Wegman's, but it was nice and moist, and the icing was amazing. We all sang "Happy Birthday" for Finley, and I enjoyed my slice quickly before heading out.

Made a quick stop at Dollar General for Gatorade Zero before following everyone else making their way down to Newton Lake Park. Though the fireworks are set off at Collingswood High School, most people watch them at the park, where the entrance is free. I ducked around people on blankets and lawn chairs, making my way down to the hill overlooking the brand-new neon orange and bright lime green playground equipment. I was hoping to avoid the damp ground, but I just ended up plopping on the hill. 

Looked at my cell phone until the first lights were seen in the sky. Collingswood always puts on an amazing show, and tonight was no exception. I oohed and ahhed over purple circles, giant multi-colored sparkles, golden glitter, and rings within rings. Hurried off just as the big finale boomed and glittered against the ebony sky and the bare black outlines of trees.

Hurried home just in time for another type of fireworks. Tonight was the chat "premiere" for the School Riot. It's delicious irony that the head of Match Game Productions debuted this tonight. Richard Dawson and Debralee Scott hold their own revolution when producer and judge Ira Skutch won't match "school" with "finishing school." Here's the episode, so you can see how it all went down:

Match Game '77 1005 - School Riot Episode

Finished the night with a patriotic dose of Disney history. The 1989 Walt Disney World 4th of July Parade is where the balance started to switch to bands and advertising. New Kids on the Block were THE huge boy band in this era. We hear them performing two of their biggest hits in the now-defunct Pleasure Island, including "Hangin' Tough." The Temptations perform at the entrance to what's now Disney Hollywood Studios. Splash Mountain (now Tiana's Bayou Adventure) is featured. The actual parade doesn't really last that long. The last half-hour is given over to a too-long medley of old musical numbers, with an incredibly annoying Carol Channing and grown women dressed as Shirley Temple. It's ridiculous. They should have done ten minutes of this, tops, not 30. The members of the Mickey Mouse Club running around Typhoon Lagoon would have been of vastly more interest to me at age 10.

At any rate, here's how all this went down for yourself. And I hope you had a great 4th of July with your own families!

1989 Walt Disney World 4th of July Spectacular 

Thanksgiving Is for Family

Began a rainy morning with breakfast and Thanksgiving stories from Colliers Harvest of Holidays. They only have one long piece for Thanksgiving, but it's a pilgrim grandmother's charming recollection of what the first Thanksgiving was like. There's also several poems and the song "Over the River and Through the Woods." 

Since there wasn't much, I tossed in a few more short stories and children's stories. Molly's Pilgrim is the original version of the book that would become a lovely Oscar-winning short subject in 1985. Here, the story is set in what I presume to be the early 1900's, and it makes more references to Molly and her family being Jewish. The sweet ending with the teacher explaining why "it takes all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving" remains the same, though. 

Disney's Storybookland anthology features the 40's short story "Pilgrim's Party." Mickey takes Minnie, Donald, and Pluto east to visit New England and the Plymouth Plantation to join a group reenacting the first Thanksgiving in costume. It's all fun and Pilgrim cosplay, until Pluto steals the turkey! I also did a very funny retelling of "Babes In Toyland" from Fantasyland that was closer to the original movie than the one in Storybookland. 

Mom called as I was getting dressed. Keefe's wife Julia's side of the family tends to bring drama wherever they go, so they opted to have some of Keefe's friends from the Navy over instead. They did get to see the Macy's parade. Mom said Aurora adores Minnie Mouse and was as over-the-moon about seeing her balloon in the Macy's parade as her father was about the Pikachu balloon in 2001. 

Since the Macy's Parade is the exclusive domain of Peacock online, I put the Philly parade on ABC's website instead. I did see a few balloons, a toy soldier and Brainy Smurf. For some reason, they really got into disco and vintage rap in this parade. Chic, the Funky Bunch, and a Motown group all danced in the parade. I saw a float designed to look underwater, another themed around Philadelphia landmarks like the LOVE sign, and a train. The Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders really got into their routine. We had performances from the Neil Diamond bio musical A Beautiful Noise and Elf: The Musical. Everyone was in high spirits despite the continuing downpour, and it all seemed to go off without a hitch.

After the parade, I did things in my rooms and made the bed while watching Alice's Restaurant. I go further into this meandering 1969 retelling of Arlo Guthrie's epic folk song at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Happy Thanksgiving! - Alice's Restaurant

Thankfully, the rain had long subsided by quarter of 2, though it remained cold and damp. I quickly stopped at the kiosk in front of the former library to drop off a book, then rode my bike over to Rose's house. I was greeted by a noisy Oreo and Cider, who wanted to see what was going on and greet the new arrival. It took a few minutes to shoo them back in and put my things down!

Rose's husband Craig was watching the Lions-Bears game when I arrived. I spent the next hour and a half or so watching the game and playing with Rose's 7-year-old daughter Finley. Craig's parents arrived about a half hour after I did, walking with canes and sounding raspy. Apparently, they both just had surgery. Needless to stay, they stayed at the table the whole time.

Rose did put out quite a lunch spread. There was shrimp cocktail, a vegetable tray with cucumbers, celery sticks, and mushrooms, a crackers and cheese tray with a cranberry log, sausage sticks, and pepperoni, and a fruit tray with pineapple, blueberries, apple slices, and pomegranate seeds. I ate lots of almost everything but the apples, which I have plenty of at home. 

(Oh, and the Lions were up 16 - 0 when I got in. The Bears did make a huge comeback, but they missed a long throw at the end that cost them the game. The Lions just squeaked by them 23-20 in game that was much better than I thought it would be.)

Rose made an absolutely gorgeous turkey this year. Craig's mother and I both said it should have been on the cover of Gourmet Magazine. I'd never seen a turkey more perfectly brown and seasoned. Tasted pretty good, too. Along with the turkey, we had stuffing, mashed potatoes. sweet potatoes with brown sugar, green beans with bacon, white and pumpernickel rolls, cranberry sauce, and roasted Parmesan butternut squash. Everything was good, but I think my favorite thing was the squash. I didn't know squash could taste so good when so cheesy.

Joined Finley to watch the new Netflix movie Spellbound (which I'll go further into on Saturday) while Rose and Craig set out the desserts. Rose always makes a splendid apple pie, and there were tiny cherry tartlets and cheesecake along with my apple cider pound cake, but I only had eyes for Craig's pumpkin pie. Besides, it was all I could fit in after that big dinner! The pies could be topped with ice cream, but I don't think they're right without real whipped cream.

Headed home after I ate and Rose handed me a big pan of leftovers. After I got in, I spent the rest of the night watching the Best of Match Game PM countdown marathon. There's so many good nighttime episodes, the marathon began at 2 PM! The Admiral Color TV episode wasn't the first time Richard made a bet with Gene on the Audience Match and came up a winner. He did something similar when Gene didn't believe his "Cuts" would be up with "Burns __." There was also the time Richard and Charles wore big hats and claimed to be "Your Basic Big Picture Hat Society," or the time Charles gave his toupee to a balding but personable young man, or when two hapless contestants only made it to the Audience Match because Charles matched them each once, and then matched one again during a tiebreaker. 

Enjoy a feast of nighttime fun with some of the best Match Game episodes ever shown after dark!

Feast of Favorites - Match Game PM Countdown of Greatness

And I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving matching with all the people you love!

The Eagles Steamroll the Bengals

Began the morning with a quick breakfast and that original cast album CD for the 1966 Annie Get Your Gun Lincoln Center revival. Original star Ethel Merman joins Bruce Yarnell as Frank Butler and Jerry Orbach as Buffalo Bill's manager Charlie here. It loses the two numbers for the ingenues in the original and 1999 revival, but keeps "Indian Too" and adds what would be the last new Irving Berlin song heard on a stage. Frank wants "An Old-Fashioned Wedding," but Annie basically says to go big with the ceremony, or go home. It's Berlin's last attempt at two songs performed in counterpoint to each other, and it's absolutely hilarious.

Hurried out to work after that. It was basically a repeat of yesterday - quiet in the morning, picking up to become much steadier by early afternoon. It remained busy even after the Eagles - Bengals game started. Once again, I got so caught up doing other things in the last hour, I barely had the chance to do carts. This time, they wanted me to put away a cart full of cold items. Which put me behind on gathering the carts. I never did get to the ones at the main entrance.

At least I did get to see Rose and Finley doing their own grocery shopping today. They'd just come from the small Walmart in Audubon Crossings. Finley had a unique black metallic stuffed balloon-style dog. They'll be doing trick-or-treating and the Oaklyn Halloween Parade, and otherwise seem to be doing just fine. (Oh, and Finley is going to be an evil fairy for Halloween.)

Rushed straight home after work and into the Eagles - Bengals game on Paramount Plus. Fortunately, they were on halftime when I arrived. The Eagles were up 17-10 when I got home and dominated the game from then on. The Bengals tried, but kept getting steamrolled. It was a glorious game, played on no less than the Bengals' home turf. The Eagles eventually beat the tight pants off the Bengals, 37 - 17.

Went from the Eagles game right into dinner and tonight's Match Game marathon. This one was themed around Halloween, either having episodes that were filmed or debuted at Halloween or mentioned Dracula and Frankenstein in some way. The closest the 70's-80's show got to having a Halloween episode was the time Charles Nelson Reilly was late and head Boss Mark Goodson briefly filled in for him. Later in the episode, there was a question about what Charles' Halloween costume would be. There was also the syndicated show where Gene wore a white wig and called himself Old Man Periwinkle, and another when he had his head wrapped mummy-style. 

Match Game wouldn't attempt an actual Halloween episode until 1990. This one went all out, with decorations and costumes for the contestants and the entire panel. Host Ross Schafer was Dracula. Charles went as Superman, complete with inflatable muscles. Brett was a little girl with a big pink bow. The two soap opera actors that week were a wizard and Miss Liberty. Vicki was Little Red Riding Hood in a scandalously short dress. It was ventriloquist Ronn Lucas and his dragon friend Scorch, though, who managed to come up with the scariest costume of all.

Celebrate Halloween the Match Game way with these spooktacuarly hilarious episodes!

Match Game Sunday Night Classics - Match Game Halloween Costume Party

Cool Summer

Began the morning with breakfast and PAW Patrol. "The Pups Save Puplantis" when they travel underwater with mer-pups and witness a kid pirate and his puppy sidekick steal the shell that gives Puplantis its magic. Without the shell and its pearls, Puplantis is falling to bits! Rocky and Rubble try to keep it from getting worse, while Chase keeps an eye on them from above and the others go after the pirates.

Caught the second half of Press Your Luck as I prepared to go out. One of the two guys Whammied out almost immediately. The lead and the turns kept going between the one lady and the remaining guy. The guy finally hit a Whammy and couldn't make more money, leaving the lady to win with a ton of money and three vacations to Mexico, Puerto Rico, and a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. 

Headed out after the episode ended. I wanted to give the ride up to Barrington and Haddon Heights a second shot after my first attempt at the beginning of the month got rained out. It was cloudy, but this time, the dark clouds were just clouds. They kept it cool and windy, but I never felt so much as a raindrop the entire day. Made a brief stop at WaWa in Audubon for a watermelon Propel, but otherwise made it up the White Horse Pike to Barrington by noon without incident.

The Barrington Antique Center is huge warren of cozy little rooms jammed to the rafters with every vaguely collectible item you can imagine, from genuine antique glassware and furniture to DVDs and Barbies from a few years ago. I wish their records were cheaper. I have come up with good records there on occasion, but $10 for a rock title I could get out of the dollar bin at Innergroove is too much. I did find the Santana album Inner Secrets for $5 and Shirley Temple's Storybook, a collection of fairy tales and two Washington Irving stories inspired by her TV show of the same name. The book has gorgeous color and pen illustrations redolent of the early 60's when the show was out and even features a story I never heard of before, "The Land of Green Ginger."

Dodged the traffic on Clements Bridge Road and made my way down Atlantic to the industrial park on the other side of town. The House of Fun is next-door to the park in its own building. This store focuses on pop culture collectibles, toys, horror and cult DVDs and blu-rays, and stuffed animals. I was going to get a DVD, but it was too expensive. I just dug an older Beanie Baby ghost, Spooky, out for Halloween.

Next stop was what's now known as Doc's Finds, formerly Station Avenue Antiques in Haddon Heights. There's now fewer antiques and more locally made clothing and food, and the dollar record bins are gone. I still came up with some good finds of my own:

Maureen McGovern - Maureen McGovern

The Moody Blues - On the Threshold of a Dream

The Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons (the US version with "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday") and Beggar's Banquet

The Haddon Heights Library is next-door, so I stopped there next. I only fished a cozy mystery, The Cider Shop Rules, out of the row of books on that 50 cent sale, but I did have a nice chat with the young librarian when she complimented me on my Pokemon backpack. The owner of Doc's Finds complimented me, too. 

Rode down Atlantic Avenue, mainly so I could pull in at the Legacy Diner in Audubon for lunch. I was definitely feeling like breakfast, so I got coconut-pineapple pancakes. Yum. Tons of coconut and fresh pineapple pieces in three pancakes that were so huge, I couldn't finish them. By 3 PM they weren't all that busy, so I got to enjoy my meal in peace.

Went straight into working on the inventory when I got home. Along with adding the titles I just bought to the rock inventory, I did Kismet, Les Miserables, A Little Night Music, Lost In the Stars, and The Magic Show. Lost In the Stars, which I picked up at a yard sale two years ago, is the only album from this batch that didn't come from one of the record stores in the last decade or so...I think, anyway. I'm not sure where Kismet came from anymore. 

Had a very quick dinner while watching Match Game Syndicated. The late Peter Marshall turned up for what would be his first of two weeks. Gene sat in his seat in the opening, and he came out with Gene's microphone. They kept talking about how much they resembled each other. Personally, I don't see it.

Headed out for a treat after the show. It remained cool, cloudy, and humid, perfect weather for a walk to West Clinton for Oaklyn's Final Friday block party. Every last Friday of the month from June through October, there's a big street fair on the last two blocks of West Clinton near the school, with food trucks, craft books, face painting, and a live band. 

I ran into Rose, Finley, and Craig on the parking lot across from the school where the bean bag game and craft booths were. Rose had their two dogs Cider and Oreo and took them home after a few minutes. (Khai apparently had opted to go home early.) Finley insisted on her father buying her a second lobster roll from the lobster food truck and ran into Phillies Phatties to greet friends of hers. She had these cute pink, lavender, and turquoise streaks in her hair that I suspect were the result of combs or clips. After they left, I bought myself a banana donut from Common Grounds' booth. Alas, despite the sugary icing, it was rather bland.

Finished the night at home with Big Trouble In Little China at Tubi. Trucker Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) finds himself caught up in a very weird adventure in San Francisco's Chinatown when the fiancee (Suzee Pai) of a friend (Dennis Dun) who is kidnapped by a street gang. After they get between two warring mystical societies, she's kidnapped by an ancient Chinese sorcerer who thinks sacrificing her will break a long-standing curse. Her friend Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall) is also kidnapped when Lo Pan realizes she also has green eyes. He'll kill her and marry the other girl. Jack eventually aids an old friend who is also a warrior in solving the secrets of Chinatown and the mystical elemental warriors.

Supremely weird action flick wasn't a hit at the time, but I think it's worn much better than the other action film revolving around Asian mysticism that came out in the mid-80's, The Golden Child. Russell's clearly having a ball as the normal guy caught up in this oddly magical adventure. Not all of the Chinese stereotypes have dated that well, Cattrall has little to do in a boring love interest role, and some of the scarier monsters put this out of reach of the very young, but by and large this wild action fantasy is still a hoot for teens and adults who are into 80's adventures. 

Birthdays and Matches

Started off my birthday with breakfast and Match Game '73 on YouTube. Brett and Charles made their first appearances on the show's third week, while Bert Convy and Betty White appeared outside of the pilot for the first time. It's also the first of many, many times Brett chides Charles for not wearing socks, and the first time Betty and Brett trade quips.

Headed out after that. The Uber driver didn't even need a minute to arrive. Thankfully, there was very little traffic as he headed down the highway and turned off to Deptford. He dropped me off at the front Boscov's Deptford Mall entrance around 11 AM.

Explored Boscov's first. I didn't see any clothes I liked, but they were having good sales on socks. They always have a great selection of decent socks. I walked out with a 3 pack of tan and brown cotton Goldtoe socks that came to $12 with 25 percent off.

FYE is a few doors down from Boscov's. While they no longer have the wonderful selection of DVDs and CDs they once did, they do have a decent pile of records. I found jazz group The Charlie Hunter Trio's Bing Bing Bing for $15. 

Made my way down to the other side of the mall and into Round 1 Arcade. They were a lot busier than usual, with far more small kids running around with parents. The ring toss and Lane Master bowling game were down, but everything else worked. I ran from the Monopoly dice spin to the Nerf Arcade to the giant Pac Man game to skee ball to the spinning pirate wheel to Mario Kart Deluxe (I ended up with Luigi). Came up with over 2,900 points. Normal-sized Beanie Babies were only 400 points each. I got fluffy Tundra the Snow Leopard and sweet Chopper the Dalmatian, along with two tiny popping candy bags and one of those Chinese yo-yos for 10 and 30 points each. And I still have over 2,000 points left for when Lauren visits in June.

It was past 1:30 when I finally had lunch at the food court. I really loved Pitas and Salad, the Greek food booth where I had lunch when Lauren visited last year. Had a delicious lamb and beef gyro with thick, dry fries and big tomato chunks. 

Bubble Bear Tea literally just opened a few days ago. Thought I'd finally give bubble tea a whirl. Tried their coconut milk tea. The "bubbles" were tapioca pearls, and they had a rather strange, gummy mouth feel. The coconut milk tea was good, but the bubbles were weird. I think I'll stick to green tea from now on when I want to do an exotic tea drink.

JC Penney is right behind the food court, so I went there next. They were having big clearance sales, including buy-one, get-one free on any items with a pink label. It took me forever to decide, but I finally came up with brown jeans (my old pair are starting to go in the thighs - I don't know if they'll survive another winter) and a gold cable sweater. The buy one, get one was more like buy one, get them half-off. With the sale, I got both for about $8 all together.

Peeked at the toy and accessories stores Box Lunch and Miniso, but it was past 3:30 by that point. If I wanted to check out Barnes and Noble too, I figured I might as well get going. Besides, the mall wasn't getting any less busy. I could barely move around in the toy stores. Went out the main entrance door, around Macy's, and past Dick's to the parking lot.

I originally tried to cross at the corner, but it was too crazy. As I headed down the street to cross closer to my destination, I saw something small and dirty laying in the street. It was a little Beanie Baby giraffe, all covered in dirt and bits of leaves. I couldn't just leave him there sitting next to the curb, so I brushed him off as best I could and stuck him in my bag. 

Ducked past the abandoned shopping center that once held Christmas Tree Shoppes and Bed Bath and Beyond before making it to Barnes and Noble. They were also busy, but there's also more room to spread out. I dug two mysteries out of the cozy section and found a book on game shows on the entertainment shelves. Deptford does have a music and DVD area, and they too now sell records.  

My Barnes and Noble finds were: 

The soundtracks for Encanto and The Three Amigos (and I never thought I'd see a soundtrack for the latter - apparently, it's exclusive to Barnes & Noble)

Dim Sum of All Fears - Vivien Chien

Rhythm and Clues - Olivia Blacke

Game Show Confidential - Boze Hadleigh

Stopped in at the Starbucks there to wet my whistle. This time, I went with a small Green Tea Frappuccino. It was cold and I was thirsty. I went through my finds while downing my drink.

Soon as I got outside, I called Uber. It took the young woman about 9 minutes to pick me up, but it was the height of rush hour on a Sunday. At any rate, we once again hit no traffic, and I was home in 20 minutes.

Put everything upstairs, then went right back out again. It was too nice of a day to sit inside. The weather was gorgeous. It remained windy, but was also sunny and warm, probably in the upper 60's. I originally wanted to get a treat from Los Amigos, but it turns out that they close early on Saturday. I considered Dunkin' Donuts, but they didn't have much left, and I didn't feel like hiking all the way to WaWa. I just went home after that.

As it turned out, someone already took care of that. A friend, two neighbors, and their daughter made a pineapple-upside down cake for me. I love pineapple upside-down cakes! I've made them myself a few times. My friend also gave me a card and a huge bouquet of pale pink roses that smell so nice. 

I heard from my family, too. Jessa texted late last night to see if I wanted to hit the Cherry Blossom Festival in Philly with her. I didn't get to it until late, and she didn't read it until much later. We decided to go bowling tomorrow or Tuesday instead. Rose texted me, and I had a nice chat with Mom (who also sent a lovely card). 

Soon as I got home, I took that poor little stuffed giraffe to the sink and gave him a good scrubbing. I hope I got all the dirt off. It took me forever just to pull the needle-like leaves stuck in him. Since he didn't come with his tag, I had no idea what his name was. My friend suggested Geoffrey, after the Toys R Us mascot. I think that will do just fine. At any rate, he now looks much better, or at least, is less dusty.

Watched more Match Game episodes after I went upstairs. One of the most famous early episodes was from the only week where Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce got to sit side-by-side (and the only time Elaine was in Brett's character actress seat). The contestant's answer to a question about Batman and Robin's relationship now has this episode banned from the airwaves. 

Switched to favorite episodes of the night time show after that. Two of the show's best early episodes has Gene questioning Richard's seemingly unusual answers in the Audience Match...and in the case of "Burns and __" and "Admiral __," let's say Richard was right both times. Another show begins with several panelists standing up and saluting a Scottish officer in full regalia. 

The Match Game Sunday Classics marathon began around 7:30 and ran until past 3:30. Ira Skutch, the show's producer and judge, was in the spotlight tonight. A tall gentleman with high cheekbones and a fondness for leisure suits, Ira generally appeared on camera when he had to replace a question that had been compromised in some way with a new one, or to explain his rulings. Among the time he had to do the latter was during the week Donald Ross and Patti Deustch played together. Donald said "a little yellow spot" as to what a dog did on the floor and it was passed. Two other people said "spot," and it was buzzed. Ira told them he passed yellow spot because it was specific.

Ira's rulings could cause a lot of trouble, most notoriously during the infamous "School Riot" in 1977. Ira let "college" and "scuba diving school" slide as answers to where Dumb Dora took her cultured pearls to, but not "finishing school" or "night school." Debralee Scott and Richard Dawson threw a fit. Patti Deustch was so scared, she could barely show her "night school" answer. Brett and Charles tried to defuse the situation by showing Charles as "the first victim of the school riot," but the damage had been done. The lower tier kept their answers up in protest for what little remained of the episode.

On the other hand, his decisions could benefit the contestants. When one woman struck out completely in the Audience Match in a 1976 PM episode and couldn't do the Head-to-Head, they let her match the panelists for 100 dollars each. She ended up going home with 600 dollars and a smile on her face. 

See if you can match answers with the show's infamously finicky producer and judge! 

Match Game Sunday Classics - Featuring Producer Ira Skutch On Camera

And here's the other episodes I watched today!

1973 - First Appearances of Brett, Betty, Bert, and Charles

1973 - Batman and Robin are What?!

1975 PM - Burns and Cuts

1975 PM - Stand Up To Salute!

1975 PM - The Admiral TV Incident

Oh, and the nice weather didn't last forever. The rain returned somewhere around 10:30. It rained hard for a while, but thought it remains windy, I don't think it's rained since. 

A Little Easter Magic

Began the morning with Colliers Harvest of Holidays. Since April Fool's Day is tomorrow, I started with the really cute April Fool's story about two boys who find a giraffe in their backyard and try to figure out how to keep him there and collect a reward. "Nino's Easter" follows the holiday traditions - and huge feast - of a peasant boy living with his parents in northern Italy. "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes" wants badly to deliver Easter eggs. After she proves her babies are capable of taking care of themselves, the head Bunny gives her a chance. He's so impressed with her, he gives her special golden shoes to get a beautiful egg to a sick little boy. 

"Grandpa Bunny" is a sweet short from the Disney Storybookland anthology. It's supposedly based on the Silly Symphony short "Funny Little Bunnies," but has nothing in common with it besides rabbits. Grandpa Bunny presides over all the rabbits in the woods, making sure they keep nature extra bright and colorful. The adult bunnies miss him when he's gone, but the children know Grandpa left one last spectacular surprise in the morning sunrise.

Put on It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown while I got dressed and organized. The Peanuts are excited for their own holiday festivities. Sally goes shopping for new shoes, while Snoopy buys a birdhouse for Woodstock. Peppermint Patty wants to teach Marcie how to color eggs, but her best friend has a hard time grasping that you have to boil them. Lucy's more interested in pestering Schroder for gifts and coloring and hiding her own eggs. Don't bother with all the fuss, says Linus. The Easter Beagle does that. Sally's skeptical after the incident with the Great Pumpkin at Halloween, but Easter morning brings more than one surprise for the kids.

Called Mom while the Peanuts were on. She, Keefe, and Julia were having an egg hunt for Aurora and her friends. Aurora was also delighted with her many treats this morning. They were briefly having Julia's family over, but it sounded like they'd mainly have a small dinner with them and some friends. 

Headed out after that for Easter brunch. It was sunny, windy, and cool but not cold, in the upper 50's. Just about as nice of an Easter as one could wish. If there's one thing I like about an early Easter, it's that all the spring flowers are still out. Usually, by the time we get to Easter, the daffodils are gone and the hyacinths are almost there. Almost every yard in Oaklyn and Haddon Township was a sea of yellow, white, and purple as I rode through the local neighborhoods, and it smelled so good! I even saw early irises.

As I did last year, I had brunch at the Westmont Diner on the hill under the Haddon Township Library. Since they were pretty busy, I sat at the counter to have lemon ricotta pancakes and a cup of fruit. A little boy and his dad sat next to me. The little boy was darling. He brought along a stuffed red bull, a cocker spaniel, and a plastic dinosaur who naturally got their own seat next to me. 

Rose finally got around to texting me while I waited for brunch to arrive. She and her family weren't planning on doing anything after the kids opened their Easter basket goodies. I told her I'd come around later with my treats for her family.

Innergroove Records is open every day but Monday and on all major holidays but Christmas Day. I headed there next. They were busy with record lovers on their spring breaks and looking for things to do before Easter dinner. I dodged the browsers long enough to find: 

The original Broadway cast of The Magic Show with magician Doug Henning

The soundtrack of the 1965 comedy The Great Race

Johnny Mathis - The First 25 Years

Waldo's Ragtime Orchestra - Spectacular Ragtime

Elvis Presley - Elvis' Golden Records

Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Nevada Fighter (This one cost $9.99. The others all came out of the 1 and 2 dollar bins.)

Went home, put the records upstairs, got the treats for Rose and her family, and went right back out again. It took me a while to actually get their attention. I didn't want to ring the doorbell and rile up their dogs, but that was the only way anyone heard me. I knocked on the door for almost five minutes with no results.

I can't believe how big Khai is getting! He'll be 14 in three weeks. He definitely looks like a teenager now. Finley was taking a nap when I came in, but her mother got her up. She spent most of the time I was there showing me her new Marine Biologist Barbie doll that the Easter Bunny brought her. Honestly, that doll was pretty darn awesome. She came with a trunk filled with nifty accessories, including an underwater camera, fins, a snorkel, and tiny plastic water animals. Rose mentioned she found her a Paleontologist Barbie, too. 

Rose herself just looked tired when she brought me mint tea. She's a lawyer, and her husband Craig works two jobs. I suspect they were just happy to rest today. Apparently, they had their big Easter dinner with Craig's family in Westmont yesterday. Craig was watching the Phillies play the Braves with their dogs Oreo and Cider. Lynx the cat climbed up on the dining room table (where he is not allowed) to mew his two cents, too. (Oh, and the Phillies beat the Braves 5 - 4 for their first win of the season.)

Made a brief stop at WaWa for a treat. I had no idea Mountain Dew made a zero version of their Baja Blast. Since they do the 2 for $4 sale, I got Mountain Dew Zero for later, too. Tried a strawberry birthday cake smoothie. It tasted a lot less like birthday cake than an ordinary strawberry smoothie. Good, but not what I thought it would be.

After I got home, a friend brought me a big ham dinner while I watched Easter Parade. I went further into this classic MGM musical with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog the day before Easter 2019.

Happy Easter! - Easter Parade

Switched to the closest thing Happy Days has to an Easter episode while finishing dinner. Ralph, Potsie, and Richie become "Three On a Porch" during the third season when they rent the front of a cabin during spring break. They lie to the three college girls renting the inside and tell them they're big businessmen from Tunsia, but the arrival of Fonzie knocks big holes in their story.

Did "Funny Little Bunnies" next. This simple Silly Symphonies short depicts the Easter bunnies who dye eggs and make candy and baskets for the holiday. Some of the details are really charming, though, especially how the entire bunny community, from the oldest grandpa to the tiniest bunny, find a way to help out. 

Tonight's Match Game marathon was a short one devoted to original Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall, who turned 98 yesterday. Marshall only did two weeks during the syndicated run in 1980, but they were among the most memorable of the year. A wacky Bill Daily and fairly annoyed Marcia Wallace joined in during the first week. Of the panel on his second week, only Brett Somers had never been a host and would never be one. In addition to Bill Cullen's dense resume, Dick Martin hosted the short-lived Mindbenders and The Cheap Show in the late 70's, Betty White had hosted a week of Password '75 and would go on to host another short-lived show, Just Men, and Elaine Joyce briefly hosted The Dating Game in the 80's. 

See the Master of the Squares have fun on his show's rival for hilarity in this nutty marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Peter Marshall's 98th Birthday Celebration on Match Game

Finished out the night on YouTube before and after the marathon with vintage Disney World Easter parades. I might have seen the one in 1987 on Easter morning as an 8-year-old. Ben Vereen and Joan Lunden hosted, while Regis Philbin interviewed tourists. The Disney Cruise Line got the biggest push here, with a goofy storyline involving Alan Thicke being chased by pirates, namely Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, before ending up with the Disney characters on a tropical island, listening to a Beach Boys tribute band. We also got a very brief bit of Snow White and a Snow White float for its 50th anniversary.

Philbin moved up to the host's chair by 1998; Lunden was replaced by Ann Jillian. With Disney in the thick of its Renaissance, the emphasis here was almost entirely on its animated features. Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid all had floats, and Hercules was seen at the Disney MGM Studios. Jillian even showed Mulan being made. The other big push in '98 was for the Animal Kingdom, which opened 10 days after this special debuted. Philbin even rode Countdown to Extinction, now known as Dinosaur. 

Celebrate Easter with a little vintage Disney springtime magic!

1987 Walt Disney World Happy Easter Parade

1998 Walt Disney World Happy Easter Parade

And I hope you had a wonderful Easter and an absolutely wonderful start of spring!