The Puppet Plot

The puppet wagon was a summer highlight when I was a kid.  Once a week it would come into town playing music to alert the neighborhood that the show was about to begin.  The internet tells me the show has been going on for 35 years.  It was the coolest.  It was the place to be.

The picture above is the same wagon with the same puppets from back in the day.  The skunk named Aroma is the main character.  On the back of the wagon is a mailbox so you can write the puppets fan mail.  Seriously, that was a big deal.  I would draw pictures, bring them cool-looking rocks, and give them candy, all sorts of things.  I was a puppet groupie.

At the end of the show, the puppets would check the mailbox and read the fan letters out loud.  When you’re five, this is as awesome-sauce as it gets.

Every week, this older kid named Davey would turn up during show time to pick on the younger kids and make fun of the puppet show.  He generally made our little lives miserable; a real troublemaker.

One day my brother and I told my mom about miserable Davey.  She hatched a devious plan.  Since miserable Davey would be at the show to heckle the puppets, wouldn’t it be nice to write some fan mail from him?

So out came the construction paper and crayons and we made a beautiful letter that probably looked something like this:

I was nervous about the plot, but when the puppet wagon rolled into town I mustered up some courage and put the letter in the mailbox.  At the end of the show they read the love letter from Davey.  I can’t remember his reaction but I know all the other kids giggled.

And that my friends, is how I learned how to humiliate a ten year old.  To this day my mom will still say he had it coming.

Probably not our proudest family moment. 

*Miserable Davey moved away a couple of years later (for non-puppet related reasons).  I don't know whatever became of him.

Monday

A fun weekend was had.

Two of Bobaloo's brothers came into town.  We had some beers and listened to records.

We also visited Golden City Brewery.  Visiting a new brewery was on my to-do list for this winter.  I enjoyed an IPA.

I'm hoping March is quieter than February. 

Frozen Dead Guy Days is going on this weekend.  It's one of my favorite winter happenings around these parts.  Next year I am putting together a team for the coffin race.  Any takers?

I've been spending a lot of time on the website Brain Pickings.  All sorts of interesting things on there.

I am reading Snapper for book club.

 

A couple of weeks ago Bobaloo and I had Terrific Lady Day.  We had brunch at Perkins and then visited the History Colorado Center.  Here's a picture of him milking a cow.

It's time to take down the VD decorations.

What's new with you?

You Should Know Better

I have a brother who is 3½ years older than me.  Not 4 and not 3.  3½.

As in Mom yelling, "David, you are 3½ years older than your sister.  You should know better."

My brother and I always seemed to be at odds about the little things back then.  I thought he was the coolest, and he thought I was a pest (which if we're being honest, may have been slightly true).

My mother drove an old Ford Escort when we were young (I was around 4, David 7½).  We called it the Dodo Bus for reasons I can't remember but probably had something to do with the movie Follow That Bird.  Because David and I loved to bicker over the little things on even days he got to sit in the coveted front seat and on odd days, shotgun was all mine.  Mind you, this is before little kids were always to sit in the backseat.

So it was an even-numbered day when we took the trip through the McDonald's drive-through.  David  basking in the front and I was stuck in the backseat of the Dodo Bus.  Though we loved to squabble, every once in a while the planets would align and we would team up against my mom.  2 against 1.

In the short time it took from Mom ordering the happy meals to paying at the first window, a plan was hatched.  David had the idea that I should tell the worker at the window that they were fired.  So because David was giggling and absolutely giddy about his plan, when we got to the window I yelled to the young man, "You're fired!"

The apathetic teenager at the window just sort of shook his head and maybe there was a slight eye roll.  Mom was trying not to be embarrassed and also trying not to give any laugh of encouragement but it was too late.  David was in stitches.  That was all the encouragement I needed, I now had a crowd.

"Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!"

I shouted as loud as I could over and over and over.  We were off to window number 2 to pick up the order with my mom trying to shush me.  The teen at window 2 was good-humored and started to chuckle at a 4 year old telling him he was fired.  More fuel.

"Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!"

Mom was mortified as she grabbed the happy meals with a defeated smile, David giggled, and I shouted "You're fired, you're fired!" all the way home.





Afterword:  I learned the F-word on Easter a year previous to this incident under similar encouragement from the one who should know better. 
 

December 22

Today's blog-a-thon post is to share a picture of wee me.

This is my brother and me.  Our neighbor Steve dressed up as Santa and I had no idea it was him.  I am getting excited to head back to that living room on Saturday to hang out with the family for New Years.

December 20

My first

job was at the mall.

thing to the left is a can of RC Cola.

grade memory is that I met my friend Melia.

book I ever read 

thing I do in the morning is dread the thought of having to get ready.  Getting ready to leave the house is my least favorite thing ever.
 
food I knew I didn't like was hamburgers.
 
memory was sitting on the front steps with my brother.

December 15

Who do you  love?

Of course these two...

and very soon I get to see my two besties...

and the whole family...

a lot of love to go around, I tell ya.

PS. I finished the Christmas tree....

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December 5

'Tis the season for lists, isn't it?  For this one, I'm going to keep it in the family.

1. I wear my Grandma J's wristwatch everyday for good luck.

2. My mom loved to sign me up for things when I was a kid.  I've taken dance lessons, figure skating lessons, trumpet lessons, quilting classes, soccer, etc.  I did not/do not have the coordination, patience, or social skills for any of these things.

3. Bobaloo is the only person (until now) who knows that deep down I hate sharing food.  This was expressed in a single sentence uttered by me at the bar, "I'm going to order nachos but you have to order something else because I'm not going to share."

4. I know that when it is eight at night here it is six in the morning in Iraq.  I used to work the late shift and passed a mountain that had a light up "M" on it at night.  My older brother was deployed and I would look at the "M" and think about how I was finishing my day and he was beginning the next.  (The "M" stood for Mines, I pretended it stood for Marines.)

5. One of my favorite winter memories is my Pops and Uncle Doug taking me to the ski jumping tournament in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  The noise the skiers make when they jump is incredible.

6.  I learned the F-word when I was three on Easter.  I shouted it to my Grandma Cille and she started giggling so I kept yelling it around the house to all my relatives. 

7.  My family used to go to my Aunt Doreen's house on Christmas to go ice fishing.  I loved it and still think that it's my favorite cold weather activity.

8.  I used to watch my younger brother Kyle after school and every afternoon we'd eat a snack and watch Spongebob Squarepants.

9. My cousin Kira used to watch my brother and I in the summer when we were little.  When the neighbor girls and I would stage our basement production of Annie, she would always enthusiastically play Ms. Hannigan.

10. Bobaloo and I found our dog Nik at a shelter.  When we first met her she sat her ass right on Bobaloo's foot.  I giggled, knew she was the one and that we weren't leaving without her.

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