Thursday, May 03, 2007

Actually no, I don't remember


Yesterday in the supermarket, I ran into the girl who sat in front of me in homeroom throughout high school. Four years staring into the back of her head;we were pretty good friends. After a big hello I had a serious mind blank and could not remember her name. I was quick enough to figure that her last name had to be a "D" name and definitely a D followed by a letter that came before E. We sat in alphabetical order. I was getting nervous and answered her casual "catch up" questions in an irregular way. Before DE? Must be DA. Dallinger. No, she is Italian. I remember that. D'Antonio. No, that girl sat in front of us. Maybe DB. Can't think. DC. DD. Come on! DD. That's silly. Had to be DA. She was staring at me by then, waiting for a response. I had no idea of what she asked. She was kind and said that she had an appointment and it was so nice to see me, after all these years. Twenty-nine to be exact, but I didn't say that. I was thinking still. D'Ancona. No. Definitely not. D'Dado!! That's it. I want to chase after her, have a really good catch-up conversation and tell her how much I liked her hair when she cut it like Farrah Faucett.


My memory is inconsistent. It is acute only when digging up the most useless facts while compelling information is totally lost. Today I went to the market and was totally distracted by the jingles in my brain until I realized that I could turn this into a really cool game. I want you to try it. When walking through the market or better yet, do it now at home. All you need is a pantry full of food. As you gaze upon each box, bag, jar or can of food, cleaning supplies and toiletries, sing the jingle. I started with Nutter Butter Cookies. "Have another nutter butter peanut butter sandwich coooookie. By Nabisco." If you can hear the tune as you read this, you are probably about my age and will definitely recognize, "Hot Dogs. Armour hot dogs. What kinds of kids eat armour hot dogs? Fat kids, skinny kids, kids that climb on rocks. Tough kids. Sissy kids. Even kids with chicken pox. Love hot dogs. Armour hot dogs. The dogs kids love to bite." Not very PC but memorable. And if you're from Philadelphia I'd lay odds that you know the Tastykake jingle as well as The Melrose Diner one. See, it is fun. You can stop worrying about your memory. Your memory is perfect. When we can no longer remember that the underwear go on before the pants and we are sent to the "memory park" at our local nursing home, we can all have a giant, jingle sing-a-long.

7 comments:

The middle sister said...

I just love the old TV jingles. It also amazes me how much of this stuff I remember and I can't remember what I did an hour ago. Good memories of TV when there was only 3 channels and it went off with the news at night.

Here is one of my favorites:

Does your shoe have a boy inside? What a funny place for a boy to hide. Does your shoe have a dog there too? A boy and a dog and a foot in a shoe.

Well the boy is Buster Brown and the dog is Tige his friend and they are only just a picture but it's fun to play pretend.

So look, look, look in the telephone book for the store that sells the shoe with the picture of the boy and dog inside that you can put your foot into.

Buster Brown shoes, Ruff, Ruff.

The middle sister said...

From 1959 - 1977 Gene London was one of the favorites of the children of the Philadelphia area.

One of the favorite parts of the show was when Gene would draw the stories he would tell. He started this part of the show with a song I still remember:

Let’s pretend that it’s story time and I’ll tell a tale to you. I’ll tell you a story of make believe where all your dreams will come true. And when the story’s over and when we reach the end, you’ll live happily ever after – Where? – In the land of let’s pretend.

I left the area over 30 years ago but remember these good things.

Anonymous said...

Choo Choo Charlie was an engineer
He had an engine and it sure was fun.He used Good n Plenty candy to make the train run.Charley says,"Love my good n Plenty.Charlie says,"Really rings a bell. Charley says, Love my good n Plenty. Don't know any other candy that I love so well.!

I love Bosco that's the drink for me Mommy puts it in my milk with lots of Vitamin C I love Bosco that's the drink for me.

The middle sister said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The middle sister said...

And then there is the infamous Alka Seltzer commercials. "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" and "Plop, Plop, Fizz Fizz, oh what a relief it is.

And remember the girl with the headache. It was an aspirin commerical, not sure which one. But she yells at here mom and says "Mom, I rather do it myself." Thought that one was rather weird.

Anonymous said...

Lorraine,
I thought of you yesterday. I was in a store with mom and a woman came in and said hi to me and asked about my family. She told me her kids were out of the house, and she is a grandmother. As I walked to the car, I pondered the question of who she was. I pieced the puzzle together with Charlie. By 7:00, we both figured out her name and the names of her kids.
See what happens when you turn 50!
Carol

Lorraine DeLuca Placido said...

Carol, That's hysterical! At least Charlie was able to help-don't you hate when everyone keeps saying, "I don't know", when you are trying to piece something together and although you may not remember everything, you KNOW the person who insists they don't remember was present while the particular memory took place.