How the rookie copy boy learned his lesson: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’

Live and learn!

Zoo Lou of St. Paul reports: “Subject: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’

“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. I remember putting out these one-page papers (Opie did the same thing in an episode of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’) that dished the dirt and spread rumors like a Hedda Hopper or the National Enquirer.

Continue reading “How the rookie copy boy learned his lesson: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’”

Seven decades later, the memory is as fresh as the cement they stumbled across!

The Permanent Sisterly Record

The Gram With a Thousand Rules: “Subject: A Tale of Two Sisters.

“My sister Ruth kept a daily diary from her teenaged years until she suffered a stroke in her late 80s. When she experienced a damaging flood in 1981, Ruth dried out the waterlogged books and salvaged as much as she could. Some of the passages were unreadable, but the bulk of them survived. She told her daughter that they ‘weren’t a secret’ and she hoped she would read them someday.

Continue reading “Seven decades later, the memory is as fresh as the cement they stumbled across!”

Riddle us this, Charlie Brown: Name one wagon that was easier to own than the 1961 Ford Falcon!

Gee, our old La Salle ran great
Leading to: Please release me! (responsorial)

The REF in White Bear Lake: “Subject: Gee, our old La Salle Ford Falcon ran great.

“Seeing the post from John in Highland about Fizbee touting Clark Super 100 brought two things to mind: that The REF in White Bear Lake is from Highland, too (but that’s neither here nor there for this discussion), and that I have the program from the Rose Bowl of January 2, 1961. (January 1 fell on a Sunday, so the game shifted.)

Continue reading “Riddle us this, Charlie Brown: Name one wagon that was easier to own than the 1961 Ford Falcon!”

During the Golden Age of Jingles, you could take it from Fizbee: ‘Clark Super 100 gasoline, / Thousands say it’s best . . .”

Gee, our old La Salle ran great
Leading to: Please release me!

John in Highland writes: “Remember Fizbee?

“He was the comic commentator who gained local fame in the 1950s and ’60s as the radio spokesman for Clark gasoline stations. He was a big fan of the 1960 Gopher football team, which played Washington in the Rose Bowl.

191229bbcut-fizbee

“I can still hear Clark’s jingle (earworm), which played over and over on the radio:

Continue reading “During the Golden Age of Jingles, you could take it from Fizbee: ‘Clark Super 100 gasoline, / Thousands say it’s best . . .””

The snow was falling, soft and gentle, on that good night, as tears were falling from every eye . . .

What is right with people?
‘Tis the Season Division

Deuce of Eagan: “Subject: Hospice Holiday.

“‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know . . .’

“St. Joseph’s Hospital of St. Paul has made the local news lately. Rumors have started of the possibility of its closing within the next three years. That got me thinking: I bet there are many hundreds of stories that the staff, health-care providers, former patients and volunteers could tell.

Continue reading “The snow was falling, soft and gentle, on that good night, as tears were falling from every eye . . .”