Christmas past and that silver Christmas tree

This is an older Christmas post!

As the Captain and I have the Christmas boxes in from the storage shed, going through my collection of Christmas stuff and anticipating decorating for Christmas, it got me to thinking back on Christmas past when I was a child.

Although I have always had a fascination of everything sparkly and flashy, I was never too keen on the silver tree with the revolving light, making the tree seem to turn colors.

In fact, I hated that tree.

How did that fad catch on anyway?

Yuck!  It was an awful looking tree!

There is something about a green tree with tinsel, flashing lights, homemade popcorn garland, and the toy ornaments that did  something for me.  That silver tree felt cold and sterile.

Something that bugged me about that silver tree is that it just didn't go with the nativity scene and the little houses that were lit up at the bottom of the tree.  And the sweet little plastic glittery deer I loved to  play with were not welcome at the foot of that silver tree.  It was a different "Christmas look."

The "normal" green Christmas tree was a tremendous fascination for me, I loved all those festive little things that were banished from the silver tree . . . I could sit on the floor by the tree  and be entertained for hours . . . but not the silver one.

We had a Christmas tradition that involved the neighbors . . . stringing popcorn garlands for everyone's Christmas trees. This was done every year . . . a total of three families got together with lots of bowls overflowing with popcorn to eat and string. It was loads of fun sitting around stringing popcorn after dinner, drinking hot chocolate and singing along with the Christmas music playing. The party was always hosted by our next door neighbors who never had one of those awful silver trees.

Funny thing about this annual party . . . we also helped decorate their tree . . . it was part of the festivities.   The next door neighbors had no children, so they kind of adopted us neighbor kids and loved to spoil us throughout the year. The funny thing . . . and looking back in the real world as an adult, not really funny, but sad . . . anyway, Tom (the next door neighbor) was a serious drinker who insisted on putting the topper on the tree AFTER it was decorated later in the evening when he was a bit lit up himself from way too much booze. The problem was that he would always fall into the tree and come out laughing . . . then everyone helped to tidy it back up.

It was also traditional for him to fall into the shrubs putting the outside lights up.  The neighborhood men always made sure to be around to help him back up when he would holler for help.  He never failed to end up there!

LOL He was quite a character!

Those Christmas memories of my childhood are rather sad since almost everyone involved have passed away or moved away, a time in place that has truly moved on.  However, I fondly think of them every Christmas and smile at the thought of Tom's big butt hanging out of the tree.

Happy Holidays!

Cat In the Hat ages . . . can you relate?

We are all getting older every day . . . but we don't

usually consider getting older from the perspective of

a timeless creature we all know and love . . .

The Cat In The Hat.

You know you are reaching the "Golden Years" if

you can relate to the poor cat's woes.

Dr. Seuss is turning in his grave . . .

The Reader’s Digest name is one of the most recognized and trusted brands in existence today. The Reader's Digest Store gives you access to our great selection of unique books, music, and DVD & video products to entertain and inspire people of all ages!

Remember the Shake 'n Bake television commercials?

 This is one of those commercials that we had so much fun with by being silly and mocking it endlessly. Actually, I had forgotten about this commercial until The Captain made the statement along with the accent . . . "and I helped" . . . and we took off with it being silly for the longest time as I remember doing back in the day. 
 I love these type of commercials that you can goof on endlessly!
In my opinion, Shake 'n Bake was the worse thing to happen to chicken . . . it was awful stuff even though the concept was a good one.

Shake 'n Bake is particularly noted for its television commercials in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The most popular in the series featured the children helping make Shake 'n Bake with their mothers, enthusiastically exclaiming "And I helped!"

In 1998, a new commercial was tried with a different catchphrase . . . "I made Shake 'n Bake, and Mama helped". This was on aired a few times and is the least recognized commercial.

Source:  Wikipedia

Gidget . . . The Taco Bell Dog

When I think about some of my favorite television commercials of all time, The Taco Bell Dog is in my top 5 . . . could possibly even be my favorite.

Since Gidget died and Taco Bell changed their television marketing, their commercials just aren't special anymore.

This is my tribute to Gidget . . . The Taco Bell Dog.  Miss you!

Babyboomer Weddings

The Captain and I finally made it legal and got married . . . hopefully we can now get back to the business of writing about the way things were back in the day and pop culture in general.

Babyboomer weddings . . . most are untraditional since it is usually not the first marriage.  Many of us want something totally different than the first time around.  

What we really wanted was a hippie-style wedding on the beach . . . but we settled for a tropical theme with everyone wearing casual beach attire.  

My niece discovered the old record player and LPs from way back in the day . . . we partied to everything from Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii to Paul Revere and the Raiders.

We conducted our own wedding ceremony . . . it was special and so meaningful for us.  Nothing traditional for these two babyboomer free spirits!

I'd love to hear about 

other babyboomer weddings!

An update for Babyboomer Flashback

My apologies for not being very active with this blog!

I've had so much going on . . . not only projects on and offline, but I have been busy planning my wedding.  So I guess you could say that instead of feeling nostalgic, I've been thinking about the future.

After things calm down a bit, my cute pirate (Capt Black Eagle) and I will be collaborating on this blog . . . we have so many awesome ideas that are coming up for this blog.

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward ~ Hollywood Magic

“Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades,

 but to be married to a man who makes you laugh

 every day . . . ah, now that is a real treat.”

Joanne Woodward . . . 

married to Paul Newman 45 years

Falling Skies Episode 2

What is new in Episode 2?  Well we get a closer look at how the aliens use the kids they have captured, a new character is introduced along with a complication to personal relationships that it brings, and a bit more insight into the intelligence level of the aliens.

Every work of fiction requires us to suspend our rational selves to accept certain elements of the plot.  This work of fiction is a bit more intelligent about it. Some of these elements are as follows.

1. The aliens kill the adults, but use a spinal like device to control the children.  They are used by the aliens to carry out tasks like gathering scrap.  Now my question is this...why?  Wouldn't an advanced alien culture be able to construct machines to do the same job faster?  Then again a ready made expendable organic work force might be better?  That is something worthy of discussion.

2. In one of the first scenes, the character played by Noah Wyle organizes a group to try and free some of the kids, primarily his own son, exposes another good point for discussion.  If you had invaded and defeated an enemy that you consider inferior, what precautions would you take in guarding your captives?  The aliens only used a few mechs and skitters to protect their captive work party. Does this mean the aliens are spread thin?  Maybe they are so convinced of their own superiority that they don't feel they need more?

3. During the attempt to rescue some of the kids one of the rescuers sees his own son, and in true movie fashion he screws up the plan by dashing out to save him.  This sets in motion a series of predictable events and also gives us a little more insight into the aliens.  During the ensuing short battle, the rescuers save the man's son, but at the same time two of the rescuers are taken prisoner by a mech.  Later, some of the kids drag off one of the rescuers to do who knows what to her, while the other rescuer is left behind.  A mech is guarding him when a group of captured children are lined up and then shot by the mech.  The rescuer is set free to tell the others of what will happen if the resistance continues to resist.  This is straight out of World War II tactics by Nazi Germany.  It didn't work for the Germans...of course it will not work here. But would it work in today's world?

Those are some interesting things to ponder.

A new character is introduced...I remember this guy from the show "Wings" even though I seldom watched the show.  I also think he was in the movie "Hamburger Hill"...good movie. The new character is a doctor who says he can remove the mind control device from the kids.  We will see how that works out.

The main charcter (Noah what'shisname) captures an alien and now we will probably learn a lot more about these skitters in the next episodes.

The premier had way too many commercials...this time out in a 60 minute show there were ~20 minutes of commercials.  Commercials can be annoying..but they do make TV possible.  I will say that they planned the breaks in a fairly artful way.

This is only the second episode, will it keep me for the third?  Yes.  However, I do reserve the right to go fishing for the 4th.

Falling Skies Episode 1

My first impression of the movie was the promo image...suddenly I found myself doing the flashback thing to the original series "V".  I sort of watched "V", but mostly didn't.  So, I went into this experience with a prejudiced view of what I would see.

As with many shows there is, or at least should be some sort of plot.  If my conjecture of what I will see in future episodes is correct, I think many of you will be surprised.  I know I will be if I am right.  So let's start at the beginning.

WARNING SPOILER ALERT

If you have not seen the 2 hour premiere...read no further

The show starts with action...action is good.  Within just a few minutes you know a great deal of the background story...Aliens have invaded earth and destroyed the military...taken most of the cities..and are enslaving children.  A group of humans have formed a resistance movement to oppose the freedom sucking aliens.  If that is the story then this will bore me to tears...I don't think this will be the case...or shouldn't be...this story line has potential.

Noah Wiley (no clue who he is) and Dale Dye (I know who he is) along with some other (I don't know who they are) make up the resistance group.  The acting is...pretty good so far...so I will not be annoyed at people who are reading their lines.  Now lets look a little deeper into this whole storyline thing.

Noah Wiley makes references to the resistance movement style of the American Revolution.  He had to dumb it down for the younger people he was talking with by making sports references...I actually liked that they took the time to do some teaching in the world of reality.  

There were references to religion...neither in favor or opposition..just the statement of fact that people are religious.  Again a nice neutral approach to a touchy subject...bravo.

There were some other plot elements added that I think are exciting...and could make for some decent TV...but the biggest clue to a plot twist is what I call the "Inverse V". During two spots in the premiere clues were given about what I think will be an eventual plot twist.

The first is where children are gathered around an old man who is teaching them biology.  He tells the kids that we need to find a way to kill the "skitters".  The Skitters are the organic life form that are the aliens.  They have the required ugly heads, and 4 legs.  They are almost tripod-like in appearance.  The second alien form are the "Mechs".  The Mech's are two legged robots.  One of the characters asked about why the Skitters that have four legs and the Mechs have two.

Now...What if.  The Skitters are not the actual mastermind aliens (maybe they are more like dogs..or lemurs).  Since we humans make our robots to look like us...would it stand to reason that the actual mastermind aliens create Mechs to look like them?  If you remember in "V" the aliens disguised themselves as humans...what if in Falling Skies...the aliens do look human?  This could be fun.

Based on the premiere I am interested enough to watch the next installment on Sunday at 10pm Eastern.  Can they keep my interest?  We will see.