September 10, 2018

Reply with thoughts, guesses or comments to john.oconnor@eagleradio.net. We will note them next Monday.

Is this really the 365th edition of this weekly excursion through the back roads of your mind? (Sounds like part of a lyric from a late ‘60s song.) Why, yes it is, and thanks for asking. When I began this venture in 2011, I figured it might last a few dozen weeks and then I would run out of material. Not so. There always seems to be something that rears its head and says “why doncha talk about me?” Okay.

Well, this time it’s football. The colleges have already been at it for two weeks (and KU got a win!) and the pros are just today wrapping up their first week of the season. (Go Pack!) Thank goodness the ‘pre-season’ contests or as I like to think of them, ‘exhibition games,’ are once again behind us. I know, they need some real contact to evaluate players and build teamwork, but I’m sure they could get by with just two or three pre-season games. A lot of players and coaches have said the same thing, but until the NFL decides it wants to drop that nifty little revenue stream, I guess we’re stuck with it.

I was thinking the other day about how late I came to be a football fan. You’d think that growing up in Packerland (Green Bay is 38 miles from my old home town) I would have been bleeding green and gold since I was a mere babe in my mother’s arms. Maybe my family just took the team for granted. We had the Milwaukee Braves for baseball and the Packers for the cold part of the year. Plus we had a semi-pro football team, the Manitowoc County Chiefs, who were very popular. We would watch the Packers on TV now and again, but I personally didn’t get all that interested until they became crazy big in the ‘60s and started winning championships under Vince Lombardi.

The friends I hung around with at the time made sure I got ‘into the spirit’ of the thing. Sundays we would usually gather at their house and turn on the ‘big’ 21-inch RCA for noon kick-off. My friend’s big brother was a rabid fan and instant analyst (fanalyst?) who would rage at the Pack for every blown play or missed opportunity. I mean, he would yell at the TV and rock back and forth in his recliner, seemingly just a hairsbreadth away from throwing a rock through the screen. His play analysis would get more hilarious with every Pabst Blue Ribbon he would open.

“Look at that!” he would holler in despair, “Nitschke (Ray) missed another one! My grandma could have run through that hole! Most valuable linebacker in the league? I doubt it! Most valuable to the Bears, maybe. Jeez, I don’t believe this.”

The only time he would pause is when he would look sadly into his empty beer can, turn to me and say, “Johnny, grab me another, okay? One for yourself, too.” I would head for the fridge and he would resume his running commentary.

“That’s the third time today Starr’s tried that pass! When’s he gonna learn, it ain’t workin.”

All the craziness aside, it was a good time to become a fan. We got to see all the legends of the era like Paul Hornung, Jerry Cramer, Bart Starr (and his back-up, the memorably named Zeke Bratkowski) and of course, stars of the other teams as well, like the ‘Kansas Comet’ Gale Sayers who put his other-worldly skills to good use for the Bears, zig-zagging through throngs of defensive players as he streaked down the field for another TD. And Jim Brown of the Browns, Johnny Unitas with the Colts, Sam Huff and Frank Gifford with the Giants, Lenny Dawson of the Chiefs, Mike Ditka and George Blanda of the Bears, Joe Namath of the Jets and so many more.

Ah yes, good times. Maybe if they still make Pabst Blue Ribbon I’ll have to have one this Sunday, just for old time’s sake.

Hey, we had a couple of trivia winners in the mail from two weeks ago. Terry answered the circus question: yes, it was during the 1760’s that circus companies started using rings to sort of focus the audience’s attention. They started with just one and eventually expanded to three. Personal note: I still have a fond attachment to the whole circus thing, as my Uncle Dick O’Connor was a Ringling Brothers clown for some years.

Honors go to Edith for answering the Willner Building question. Yes, it’s right across the street from the Tribune. The name is on the top and you can see some beautiful and colorful inlay work in the stone up there. Edith says it was once the home of Western Power. Must have been ‘before my time,’ ‘cause when I got here in ’73 they were located where their modern day successor Wheatland is. I remember K P and L being on that Forest Avenue block, though, just a door or two west of the Willner.

Okay, a few questions remain: what was the prominent piece of ‘body art’ (several decades running) on a certain Pontiac model?

Why is the Basenji dog unique?

What 1991 movie about a boy genius starred a multi Oscar-winning actress who appeared in Paper Moon?

Where was the Girl Scout House located in GB?

What QB took his team (now in the NFC North) to three Super Bowls in the ‘70s and came away with three losses?

Fire off an email to john.oconnor@eagleradio.net. We’ll reply in our next post.

Well, I hope your team(s) win this weekend. Thanks for visiting once again. We’ll chat again next week.

John

September 17, 2018

Reply with pithy thoughts, clever comments or just plain observations by emailing john.oconnor@eagleradio.net. We will duly take note of them next week.

Greeting (as the draft board used to say.) They didn’t use an ‘s,’ just ‘greeting.’ It’s another edition—Week 367– of How Much Fun Can We Have in Just One Page, brought to you by the Silly Grin Foundation. Their motto says it all: “Yes, I’ve been up to something.”

It seems whenever our family gets something (or someone) that we think is unique, it turns out that from then on we see it (or them) everywhere.

Example: when our daughter was born we thought ‘Erin’ would be a good name. There didn’t seem to be many around and it was a good old Irish name after all. Then my wife came home from first grade enrollment.

“Do you realize there are three Erins in her class?” she asked, referring to our uniquely named daughter, of course.

“You’re kidding,” I protested. “Well, those other kids are just going to have to change their names, that’s all there is to it.”

“I’m not sure that’s a realistic solution,” she replied. Bless her. She keeps me grounded in sanity.

So, we lived with it and all was well. Well, not WELL, but acceptable.

Then a few years later we got a Yorkshire Terrier dog. We thought it might be one of the first in town, no doubt. Well, it was for about six weeks. Then we started seeing them everywhere.

“Saw another Yorkie today,” I would grumble after coming home with Jack after our walk. “He was walking with his person on the other side of the street. Good thing he was on a leash. He wanted to take Jackie apart.”

“And what was Jackie’s response?” she queried.

“The same,” I said. “Total blind frothing-at-the-mouth rage. I had to hold him back.”

“Yeah, typical Yorkie,” she replied. “ And what about the other dog’s ears?”

“They were standing straight up. As opposed to you-know-who.” It’s true; we had the only Yorkie in town who had lay-flat ears. They just flopped down like a beagle’s. Never saw another one like him. It became a point of pride with us. There may have been 900 other Yorkies in town, but our Jack sported the ‘relaxed look’ in ears. So, yeah, I guess he was unique after all. He was also a bit bow-legged in the hindquarters, come to think of it. When you watched him walk from the rear it looked like some ol’ cowpoke who’s been in the saddle too long.

Now it’s our car. Last fall we bought a pre-owned car in a color called (at least by that company) ‘Lapis.’ It’s sort of a deep blue with maybe a little something else in it. Okay, fine, we had a nifty new-to-us car in a sharp color that you didn’t see every two minutes.

Well, that lasted about two days. Then we started seeing that color everywhere. Every manufacturer (collusion!!) was suddenly pumping out cars in a ‘lapis’ blue hue.

“There’s another one,” my wife would say, pointing at the latest interloper.

“Yeah,” I saw about five of ‘em yesterday,” I replied glumly.

Nothing we could do about it. We had had our brief moment of uniqueness. I know, you’re probably thinking: those cars were there all the time and we just never noticed until now. Maybe so, but it all made me long for the days of pink-over-gray 1957 Fords and suchlike. Let’s see them bring back THOSE color schemes. I double-dog dare ‘em. If they would, I’d guarantee the company at least one sale.

We had a couple of winning answers in our weekly trivia battle. Edith got the ‘boy genius’ movie title: it was ‘Little Man Tate,’ with multi-Oscar Winner Jodie Foster playing the Mom of one very smart nine-year-old. Good movie. We saw it on Movieplex (Ch. 2084 on Cox.)

Julie remembered the Girl Scout House, which had been at 1120 Morton (SE corner of 12th and Morton) until it burned, maybe in the ‘90s. Don’t quote me on that. Good job, Julie.

Terry and Roger guessed Jim Kelley of the Buffalo Bills as the QB who took a team now in the NFC North Conference to the Super Bowl three times in the ‘70s and came away with three losses. Well, Kelley was QB of the Bills, but those SB losses came in the early ‘90s. Go back to the ‘70s. Remember this team is in the NFC North. Buffalo is not.

Had a guess on the Pontiac hood art question. Mary Jo guessed the Indian Chief, which adorned many a Pontiac up until the early ‘60s. No, sorry. The ‘art’ in question was on a certain Pontiac made in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. By the way, that Chief hood ornament (which lit up on some models!) was my favorite hood ornament of the ‘50s.

Okay, that leaves the QB question still alive, also the Pontiac hood art, ditto the question about what makes the Basenji dog unique. Let’s add two more:

What place in the 1100 block of Main was sort of a ‘teen center’ in the ‘60s?

Annnnd, this one: the co-writers of John Denver’s first BIG hit had a HUGE hit themselves five years later. Name the people or the hit.

And last, a Big thank you to Terry who sent along a picture of the Crest Theatre in Sacramento, California. It has a fancier marquee, but looks very much like the Crest in Great Bend. The Crests were owned by Commonwealth Theatres and thank goodness, there are still a few around.

Terry also mentioned another legendary Packer—fullback Jim Taylor—who I forgot to mention last week. Terry also had good memories of Pabst Blue Ribbon at a Milwaukee Braves game when he was on National Guard training up in Wisconsin.

I appreciate you dropping in here once again. Reply with comments, etc to john.oconnor@eagleradio.net. We’ll talk more next week.

John