Happy Birthday to TV’s Catwoman, Julie Newmar!
Happy Birthday to TV’s Catwoman, Julie Newmar!
Happy Birthday to TV’s Catwoman, Julie Newmar!
I apologize for not posting very much lately, but my time has been taken up with new duties at work & dealing with my parent’s estate.
Speaking of estates, I bought a large collection of the weekly, Life magazine-knock-off, Look magazine at an estate sale, here in Springfield. My sister was looking at them & found several articles mentioning something from that year, that I had forgotten about, that certainly keeps with that theme of not knowing the future.
According to the articles, in these Look magazines, this guy was going to marry President Johnson’s daughter.
This was featured on a Tumblr I follow called Batman On The Cover. It is a compilation of old Batman comic book stories for readers in Brazil. It was from 1965, right before Batmania happened in the United States.
Saturday night was a SVSC Wolves Basketball home game. College basketball was the biggest event in Spring Valley. They were playing the Central Missouri State College Mules. Since it was early in the semester, Clint was in good standing with his grades so he was able to participate in the game.
Mykel had never been to a SVSC Wolves sporting event, because he wasn't interested. He wasn't interested in sports high school, but part of that was because the Lemming Pond Wasp football team never scored during a game. It also didn't help his school spirit that the jocks like to bully him, since he was only five foot and had asthma.
Things were different at SVSC. He was friends with two basketball players, so he invested $5 in a SVSC Wolves sweatshirt at the campus bookstore and decided to make an appearance at a home game.
Since this was a home game, the Wolfettes were going to perform at halftime. Mykel wanted to see what Grace could do as a Wolfette, since she seemed to be the clumsiest person he had ever met in his life.
He walked, through the cold wind to McDonald Area from Bonner Hall. The rock salt on the sidewalk crunched beneath his feet, passing by the piled up snow, along the streets and parking lots, that were getting blackened by the passing vehicle exhaust. He walked inside and saw the girls, except for Grace, from the Bonner Hall, in front of the concession stand.
“MYKEL!” came a familiar scream, causing people to look for the person, who screamed, never guessing it had come from the mouth of adorable, blonde girl with a friendly smile. Sherry waved him over. “Come sit with us!” She didn't have to ask him twice. Mykel gated over to her like his feet were no longer touching the ground.
“Would you like something from the concession stand?” Mykel asked Sherry.
“I could go for some popcorn and Pepsi,” Sherry answered, then asked, “Are we going to get popcorn and watch a movie tomorrow after chapel?”
“Sure. I hope there is a good movie on,” Mykel said. “Or we will end up watching Harold Ensely catch fish.”
Henry walked in to the lobby and the group made their way up the steps, to sit in the upper cheap seats. Mykel had to get out his Primetine Mist Inhaler and take some puffs.
“Are you okay?” Sherry asked with concern on her face.
“I'll be fine in a moment,” Mykel reassured her, which brought back her sunny smile. He was beginning to notice another of Sherry's little habits. If she had a cold, fountain drink with ice, she would dig and stab the ice with the straw. Ever so often, she would shake the ice in her cup. Sometimes, sucking a piece of ice up into the straw, dropping it into her mouth and munching it loudly. It wasn't as cute as the little “da-da-da-da” song she sung while studying, but it also wasn't as strange as when she would rub her hands with witch hazel and peroxide.
“What are those things on that little table, with the Foremost sign on it, where the team sits?” Sherry asked, of an ice chest, provided by Foremost Dairy, filled with tiny, liquid, non-lethal, equivalents of Chekhov's firearm over the mantle.
“Those are little fruit drinks that Foremost provides for the team during the game,” Mykel explained. “Clint has brought some back to our room. They are pretty good, but you have to be careful. They are in these little, flimsy containers. It's like the drinking cups they give you at the dentist and instead of a cap, they have a piece of tin foil over the top.”
“I thought Foremost was a dairy,” Sherry said. “I didn't know they made juice.”
“Yeah, I don't know where the juice comes from,” Mykel quipped. “Unless it comes from fruity cows.”
Sherry laughed loudly, “You're so funny! They kind of look like Christmas decorations or toys from up here.”
There was an older couple sitting a row down from where Mykel, Sherry and Henry were sitting. Henry was sitting besides Mykel on the outside and Sherry was on Mykel's right side, with the other girls, Kathy, Debbie, Silvy and Carlene, were in the row behind them. They looked around at the group and gave them a disapproving look.
“I hope you youngsters won't make noise during the game,” the grumpy old man snarled. “My wife and I don't like it when you college kids cheer real loud.”
“It's a basketball game, Gramps! What are we supposed to do? Sit with our hands folded and whisper?” Mykel fired back at the old man.
“You can clap, but me and the misses don't like a lot of loud screaming and shouting.”
After the “Star Spangle Banner,” the teams came out. From the tip off, the Wolves controlled the ball, to a point that the Mules barely touched the ball during the whole game. Clint and Slick played and integral part in the embarrassing defeat of the Mules. It was the usual Clint to Slick, Clint to Roy, Clint to Danny, Slick to Danny, Slick to Lou. Slick hit two three shots and Clint hit three two pint shots, however, the biggest play of the game was when Clint passed the ball to Lou, a senior, and he shot a three from mid court, just before the half time buzzer. The game should have stopped at that point because the half time score was Wolves 50 and Mules 9. The Spring Valley State Wolves were whipping the Central Missouri State Mules.
The Bonner Hall students really got into the game and cheered loudly, must to the annoyance of the old couple. The old man turned around and shushed the group several times, but they kept on cheering. During one of the fantastic displays of Clint and Slick, the old man reprimanded Mykel and Henry.
“Do you have to yell at the players like that? They can't hear you!”
“I'm cheering on my roommate,” Mykel explained. “He is one of the two freshmen scoring points!”
“I hope your roommate isn't the Negro!” The old man growled at Mykel, who didn't find the comment very friendly.
“The Negro is MY roommate,” Henry spoke up.
The old man gave them a disgusted look, like they had just broke wind, and said, “What is this country coming too? This is what happens when you let a cowpuncher from Texas be President!” The old guy turned back around.
As impressive as the first half of the game was, half time was really memorable. The public address announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the state of Missouri owes much of it's rich heritage to the American Indians, who settled in this area. Such tribes as the Shawnee, Kickapoo, Osage, Quawpaw and the Sauk, played an important part in our states history. So we, here at Spring Valley State College take great pride in presenting a tribute to the American Indian by the Spring Valley State College Wolfettes.”
The lights in McDonald Arena dimmed slightly and Grace walked forward, wearing a tan, fringe vest and fringe, wrap-around sarong, and a feathered headdress, spinning a fire baton, as “Apache” by the Shadows thumped on the loud speakers. She stopped and spun it over her head, tossed it in the air, and caught it. Then spun it behind her back for a few revolutions, then returned it to the front to spin it some more. She then began skipping around the court, still spinning the flaming baton.
Sherry said to Mykel, “She is so good at this!”
“I wonder if the the college realizes how dangerous it is to let Grace dance with baton that is on fire in a gymnasium filled with people?” Mykel joked.
Then, Grace returned to the middle of the court and screamed, “YEEE-WAAW-TAY-OH-WAHNEE!” The lights came up and the other Wolfettes ran out in matching vest and sarong, like what Grace was wearing. With the lights up, you could see Grace and the other Wolfettes had “warpaint” on their faces. A boy ran out on the court with a bucket of water and Grace stuck both ends of the baton into it, to douse the flames. Another Wolfette handed her a baton with bright, colored feathers on it and the music on the loud speakers switched to “Running Bear” by Johnny Preston. They began dancing, on one leg, skipping and spinning their feather decorated batons, like Grace had earlier, while screaming “Yeee-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa!”
The old couple got up and left, “Let's go, Honey! We don't need to see anymore of this vulgar display!” As the stomped out Mykel thumbed his nose at them and Sherry stuck her tongue out at them. Henry laughed.
The routine ended and McDonald Arena erupted with applause for the Wolfettes. The girls all smiled, bowed and curtsied to the appreciative audience.
“Grace, you were fantastic!” Kathy yelled. Grace's other friends were cheering and waving at her. She saw them and waved, blushing with pride, as she started off the court, waving at them, not realizing she was about to walk into the table where the Foremost ice chest held the little jugs of fruit drink. Sure enough, Grace blundered into it, knocking it over. Ice cubes were soon floating in a orange, grape, lemon and raspberry punch flavored river on the side of the court. Some men ran over and helped Grace up. That caused a slight delay to the second half, but that still didn't help the visiting team. The final score was the Wolves 102 to the Mules 28.
After the game, the group, braved the cold, and went over to Sam's Little Sicily to eat pizza. Clint and Slick came after everyone else. Grace kept complaining that her arm was sore. She had some rather large bruises on it.
“I think your arm is broke!” Kathy said. “We probably should take you to the emergency room.”
Mykel accompanied Sherry and Kathy as they took Grace to the emergency room at Ralph I. Dix Medical Center. Clint and Slick took Henry and Debbie back to the dorm with them. Before they left, Silvy stopped Slick.
“You are coming to church with me and Carlene, aren't you? We are having a basket lunch and a guest speaker. He's a young preacher, with the SCLC, who was beat up, by the cops, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.”
“Sure, I wouldn't miss his witness,” Slick said, as he started out the door to Clint's Mustang. “I'll see you in the morning.”
Next morning, Clint got up and got dressed in his white, dress shit and tie. He then poked Mykel.
“You will be late for chapel,” Clint reminded him.
“I'm not going. I'm going to layout. We were over at Dix until 3 A.M.”
“Was Grace's arm broke?” Clint asked.
“No, They took X-rays, but her arm was just sprained and bruised. Kathy went in with Grace. Sherry and me were out in the waiting room, drinking the complimentary coffee and water. They had a TV in the waiting room and we were watching a movie on Dr. Cadaverine's Late Night Horror Show called Invisible Invaders, about aliens taking over dead people's bodies, but this cranky, old nurse turned it off, because it might frighten these two little kids that were in the waiting room. She turned it over to another movie on Channel 4, where Joan Crawford was a hooker in Pago Pago, being harassed by some old, cranky preacher. Personally, I thought that was much worse for a kid to see than Invisible Invaders. I also didn't know Joan Crawford was ever that young and pretty.”
“What were the kids there for?” Clint asked, as he polished his shoes.
“Their grandfather had a heart attack,” Mykel explained, still groggy. “Sherry found one of those Uncle Arthur's Bed Time Stories books and she suggested we should pass the time by reading to the kids, from the book. Some of those stories are kind of sad, although, there were some about bratty, little girls, which we said reminded us of her friend, Alice Schnatzsky. After reading that book, to those little kids, me and Sherry decided that was enough religion for this week. It was sad though, the parents, had went in with their grandfather, came out and told the kids that their grandfather died. Poor kids cried and I think me and Sherry did too. Between the Joan Crawford movie, Uncle Arthur's Bedtimes Stories, and seeing that...and that colored couple...the guy had been stabbed by some white guy. The old nurse, who changed the channel on the TV, almost didn't let them see a doctor. Cop showed up and talked to the guy's girlfriend. At first, the cop didn't seem to care either, then she gave a description of the white guy and it turned out he was an escaped psycho from the funny farm. He killed a teenage girl and her mom back in 1957.”
“Sounds like you and Sherry had some excitement,” Clint said. “What did they do to Grace?”
“Wrapped her arm in one of those stretchy, flesh-colored bandages and gave her some pain pills,” Mykel explained. “I was glad to get out of there. I told Sherry we may go to Hi-Boy later and then get some popcorn at Katz, for a movie on the big television downstairs. Hopefully, nobody changes the channel this time.”
“Do what movie will be on?” Clint asked, as he put on his heavy coat and prepared to leave for chapel.
“I have no idea, but that is part of the fun. Besides, it is a chance to be with Sherry.”
Mykel went back to sleep, until he heard the single, loud ring of the telephone, around 11:30 AM. He scrambled out of bed and answered the phone.
On the other end, Sherry informed him, “I just got out of the shower and as soon as I get my clothes on I will meet you downstairs.”
“Can I take a shower?” Mykel asked.
“Sure. Especially after we spent last night, shut up in the hospital waiting room with all those people smoking,” Sherry said. “I can't stand to smell cigarette smoke on my body. Wear a heavy coat, I think it is only thirteen degrees outside.”
“I'll be down as soon as I can,” Mykel told her, before hanging up the phone and taking a quick shower.
He put on a checked, long, sleeve shirt, jeans and his PF Flyers, went downstairs, where Sherry was waiting in the lobby in a dark, blue, turtle neck, sweater, tan ski pants and her white, Hullabaloo boots. She was thumbing through a Glamour magazine, that was on one of the tables in the lobby. She saw Mykel and she began smiling.
“Have you been down here long?” Mykel asked.
“No. I just found something to read while I waited,” Sherry answered, as she reached around Mykel and gave him a hug. Mykel gave her a squeeze in return. The warmth of Sherry's body and the scent of her perfume gave Mykel a comforting feeling, yet he couldn't help but think he was in a tantalizing dream and his mother would wake him up any moment to go to Lemming Pond High School. He help Sherry put on her coat and they walked out into the cold air and dancing snow flurries, to Mykel's Impala in the parking lot. Mykel hoped that it would start after sitting in the cold weather with out starting. Luckily, it started.
As Mykel backed out, Sherry took one of those little bottles, out of her purse, and dabbed some of that concoction of witch hazel and peroxide on her hands. She then powdered her nose, using the mirror, attached to the passenger side sun visor.
On the radio, The Lutheran Hour ended and after the oh-so serious, top of the hour ID, a jazzy tune played and a group of girls sang “It's the K-I-double-L Killer Countdown Show with your host, Lovable Lance Powers!”
“THANK YOU LADIES! I'M LOVABLE LANCE WITH SOME MUSIC TO MAKE YOU DANCE AND SOME HAND HOLDING KISSY-FACE MUSIC TOO. IT'S NOON AND A COLD SUNDAY AFTERNOON. SEVENTEEN DEGREES WITH LIGHT SNOW IN SPRING VALEY. IT'S TIME FOR THIS WEEKS COUNTDOWN OF THE MOST POPULAR SONGS IN SPRING VALLEY AND GREAT STUFF, INCLUDING NEW MUSIC FROM BARRY McGUIRE, BOB DYLAN, THE GENTRYS, THE WHO, ROGER MILLER AND MORE! TWO SONGS, THIS WEEK, ARE FROM HIT MOVIES AND ONE IS FROM THE MOST POPULAR NEW SHOW ON TELEVISION.. COMING UP LATER WILL BE A SONG FROM THE HIT MOVIE, FRANKENSTIEN VERSUS THE SPACE MONSTER, BUT WE START OFF WITH A SONG FROM A M-G-M HIT MUSICAL CALLED WHERE THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS. HERMAN'S HERMITS SING THIS SONG IN THAT FILM. IT'S CALLED “LISTEN PEOPLE,” AT NUMBER FIFTY, ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN!”
“I'll wait until you stop, before I put on some lipstick,” Sherry said with a smile. “You might hit a pothole and I would have Jewel of India lipstick all over my face.” She giggled and then asked, “Do you think that shiny, white lipstick would look good on my lips? Carlene and Silvy were wearing it last night and it looked really cool, but Alice has been wearing it and I didn't think it looked very good on her.”
“The only thing that would look good on Alice Schnatsky is a metal bucket over her head,” Mykel joked.
Sherry swatted Mykel's arm, in a mock scolding, while laughing loudly with her head throw back and her mouth wide open. “That was mean, but really funny!”
“You will be pretty no matter what you wear,” Mykel complimented her.
Sherry blushed and smiled at Mykel. Her eyes were dewy, as if she was about to cry. “Do you really think so?”
Mykel nodded his head up and down, “Yes, I do!” Mykel wondered why Sherry would have to ask him if he honestly believed she was attractive. He would have thought that a gorgeous girl, like Sherry, would have heard that every day, but then he got his answer as to why she seemed surprised by his compliment.
“Chip never told me I was pretty,” Sherry lamented. “He never seemed to pay attention to me. I often wondered if he even knew I was sitting next to him.” Sherry put her legs up in the seat and scooted closer to Mykel. “I'm going to put you on the spot. Do you think I'm pretty enough to be in movies or on TV?”
“As a matter of fact, I've always thought you looked like someone on TV and I figured out who it is,” Mykel said, without thinking about how she would take it. “You know that TV show, The Farmer's Daughter? You look like the actress that plays Katy on that show.”
“You mean Inger Stevens! Oh wow! That is so cool that you think that! That is one of my favorite shows on television. She is really pretty,” Sherry giggled. “I was afraid you were going to say I looked like Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.” She then leaned over and kissed Mykel's cheek, which caused him to be so excited, that he almost struck a median strip that was pilled high with snow.
“I couldn't think of her name,” Mykel explained. “I knew she had an unusual first name.”
“There is a woman in Knob Knoster named Inger,” Sherry said. “Big, fat, German lady...kind a cranky...she is one of Dad's patients. For awhile, every time she had an appointment, she would bring Dad a gallon jar of sauerkraut. Mom told him to tell her to stop doing that, because we couldn't eat that much sauerkraut.”
“DEBUTING AT NUMBER FIFTY ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN IS HERMAN'S HERMITS WITH “LISTEN PEOPLE.” I'M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND THIS IS THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN, SPONSORED BY D-X GASOLINE WITH SUPER-BORON, MCDONALDS HAMBURGERS, WITH TWO LOCATIONS IN SPRING VALLEY, AND YOUR OZARKS PEPSI COLA BOTTLING COMPANY. RIGHT NOW ON THE COUNTDOWN, AS PROMISED, THE NEW RECORD BY BARRY MCGUIRE, THE FOLLOW UP TO “EVE OF DESTRUCTION,” ALSO WRITTEN BY P. F. SLOAN, COMING IN AT NUMBER FORTY-NINE IS HIS LATEST “CHILD OF OUR TIMES” ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN!” Lovable Lance introduced the new song, as Mykle pulled into Hi-Boy's parking lot.
“I hope this one doesn't mention atomic war,” Sherry said. “That's not something I want to hear someone sing about. It hits a little close to home for me.”
“I noticed when the chaplain brought it up, in his sermon, last Sunday, you kind of got uneasy,” Mykel said. “Is that something that frightens you?”
“Whiteman Air Force Base is in Knob Knoster and that is where most of the missiles for the United States a kept,” Sherry informed Mykel, as she began applying her lipstick, once again using the mirror on the sun visor. “Everywhere you go, you see the missiles. You see them out the window of the school bus and you could see them from my elementary school playground. Let's face it, if the Soviet Union fired missiles at us, they would probably aim them right at Knob Knoster.”
“We didn't have missiles in Lemming Pond,” Mykel said. “Just aluminum boats.”
“Aluminum boats?” Sherry asked, with a giggle in her voice, as she put her lipstick into her purse.
Mykel then explained, “Supposedly, Lemming Pond is the aluminum boat capitol of the United States. I'm not sure if that is according to the chamber of commerce or the Guinness Book of World records.”
They got out of the car and walked across the ice glazed parking lot to the Hi-Boy entrance and sat down in a orange vinyl booth. They each took a menu and began searching for what they wanted to eat. K-I-L-L was playing on the overhead speakers and Barry McGuire was asking, “What will you grow up to respect, Tell me what will you grow up to protect, In you burning turning mind, You are your own worst enemy.” When the waitress came over, they both ordered a Hi-Boy burger, French fries, and Pepsi.
“Just so you know, we are Dutch,” Sherry told the waitress. The waitress didn't understand what she meant by that statement.
“Y'all enjoying yer visit to the United States?” the waitress asked with a toothy smile. This caused Sherry to burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter.
Mykel was laughing too, but managed to say, “Miss, my friend meant this would be on separate checks. We are students over at Spring Valley State College.”
When she went to turn in the order, Sherry began to regain her composure. “I thought everyone knew what it meant to 'go Dutch.' Especially if they worked at a place that served food.”
The ballsy voice of Lovable Lance echoed through Hi-Boy, “THAT WAS BARRY McGUIRE, AT NUMBER FORTY-NINE, ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN, WITH 'CHILD OF OUR TIMES!' I'M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND HERE IS ANOTHER BIG DEBUTE ON THE KILLER COUNTDOWN! ONE OF THE LATEST NEW BANDS FROM MERRY OLD ENGLAND. WE'RE STILL PLAYING THEIR FIRST BIG RECORD, 'I CAN'T EXPLAIN', HERE AT K-I-DOUBLE-L AND AT NUMBER FORTY-EIGHT IS THEIR NEW WILD ROCKER. HERE IS THE WHO WITH 'MY GENERATION' ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN WITH ME, LOVABLE LANCE POWERS!”
Mykel and Sherry laughed, giggled and snorted until their food arrived. They continued to laugh and giggle. Mykel ran through a catalog of impersonations for Sherry's amusement that included Groucho Marx, John Wayne, Boris Karloff, Lawrence Welk, Walter Cronkite, Lyndon Johnson and the cast of the Man from UNCLE. Later, they both ordered a hot fudge sundae. Mykel had considered paying for everything, but he was actually glad Sherry suggested the 'go Dutch,' because, if he had paid for both of their tickets, he would have been out $2.50. He looked in his wallet and saw he did have ten bucks left. He still needed to buy the King Sized Pepsi and giant sack of buttered popcorn at Katz for their afternoon of movie watching on the big color television in the student lounge.
There were two older women sitting in an adjacent booth. When they got up to leave, they walked over to Mykel and Sherry's booth and scolded them. “You two are loud and obnoxious! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” snapped one of the younger of the two women. They, turned and stubbed off, out the door, into the cold, icy, parking lot.
“And you are old and ugly!” Mykel snarled, as he watched them walk out the door. Sherry began laughing again, even louder than when the waitress thought she said they were from Holland. Mykel added, “Probably in her fifties.”
“Seems like older people in Spring Valley are crabby,” Sherry observed. “Remember the old man, last night, at the basketball game.”
“I'm finding out that there are people in this town that hate us college kids,” Mykel said. “It's like they don't want us here.”
“THAT'S THE WHO ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN AT NUMBER FORTY-EIGHT WITH 'MY GENERATION.' I'M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND HERE IS THE SONG FROM THE HIT MOVIE FRANKENSTIEN VERSUS THE SPACE MONSTER. IT'S BY AN IRISH BAND CALLED THE POETS AND THE SONG IS 'THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE' ON THE K-I-DOUBLE-L KILLER COUNTDOWN, WITH YOURS TRUELY, LOVEABLE LANCE POWERS!”
The waitress picked up the plates and discarded wrappers from the old ladies table, as the overhead sound system thumped with the bass guitar in the song. Sherry watched her and then reached into her purse, pulling a dollar bill from her billfold. “I want to give her a good tip since we laughed in her face. I feel bad about that now.” Mykel felt bad about it too, now that Sherry mentioned it. When the waitress came to get their money, Sherry gave her the dollar and Mykel gave her two dollars and told her to keep the change. The waitress was overjoyed by Mykel and Sherry's kind gesture.
“Thank you! I appreciate it! Those two old biddies, in the booth behind you, ran me back and forth with the coffee pot, complainin' about everything...then, instead of a tip they left me a callin' card, from their church, with a Bible verse on it!” the waitress explained. “I know yer supposed to be nice to old folks, but some of 'em take 'vantage of you. I know people talk bad about ya, but you college kids don't cause trouble like the older folks do.”
Mykel and Sherry left Hi-Boy and went over to Katz to buy the sack of popcorn and Pepsi. It really wasn't a pleasant experience to go to Katz on Sunday, because of the nonsense of the Missouri Blue Laws. You were only allowed in the grocery, drug, automotive sections and the snack bar and cafeteria. Everything else was roped off and, on this Sunday, they had added a new twist of covering the shelves with opaque sheets of cloth. Mykel and Sherry stopped on their way into the open portion of the store and gave the covered shelves a confused stare.
“Hey, you two! You are not allowed to look at merchandise in the departments forbidden under the Missouri Blue Law!” A middle-aged jerk with a buzz-cut and a pin, reading 'Manager,' on his vest, came charging over to where Mykel and Sherry were standing. “There is no shopping in this section on Sunday!”
“We weren't shopping, Baldy,” Mykel snapped. “We were try to figure out why everything is covered up. We couldn't possibly do in shopping with things covered up.”
“You are not allowed to look at this section! You are forbidden to purchase any of the merchandise or peruse the merchandise in any section forbidden under the Blue Law!” The manager with the buzz-cut screamed at Mykel and Sherry, as if they were dangerous criminals. He then began to go into details about the need to deter Sunday shopping. “We are initiating stricter store rules. You are not even allowed to look over the ropes, at the covered shelves, on Sunday. We may have to start putting up curtains to keep trouble makers, like you, from trying to shop in the forbidden merchandise sections of the store! Only the edibles and pharmacy sections are allowed to sell merchandise today. We also feel you should find what you need and not linger in the store...AND STAY BETWEEN THE ROPES!”
They started walking over to the snack bar area and Mykel began grumbling to Sherry in a low voice, “Jackass! I'm just glad they don't let that guy carry handcuffs and a gun. He would be dangerous.”
“Like we were talking about at Hi-Boy, he's another one of those cranky adults of Spring Valley,” Sherry said, as they each got two King Sized Pepsi bottles, which were on sale at four for a dollar.
They took them over to the snack bar and asked the girl, at the counter, for two of the jumbo buttered popcorn bags. She scooped the popcorn out of the popper and tied the bag at the top. As she was ringing the bagged popcorn and Pepsi up, she said, “I saw Oscar was yelling at you about something. Don't pay any attention to him. This is his first week as manager and he has let it go to his head. Last week, he was running the paint shaker in the hardware department. Why they made him manager, I don't know.”
Mykel and Sherry went back to the dorm. They went to the TV lounge in the basement, turned the color television to channel 11's Sunday Afternoon Movieland. They were soon eating popcorn and drinking Pepsi, on the big, green couch, as Red Ryder and Little Beaver helped a little boy injured in stagecoach accident and, after that, Charlie Chan had to figure out, who was killing the cast of a radio soap opera with poison cigarettes.
Mykel and Sherry heard some boys yelling and making a commotion. They had fell asleep, during the Charlie Chan movie, and three boys had come into the TV lounge, turned over to channel 4 and were watching a basketball game. They decided to go to Mykel's room and watch the rest of the movie on his TV, since it was in black and white anyway. They got to the room and found that the movie was already over.
It didn’t make the Billboard Top 40, but it was on many Top 40 radio station’s hit surveys in the early part of 1966. It is well remembered as one of the great rock anthems of the Sixties. The Who’s classic “My Generation.” Here is a great video I found on YouTube with news reel footage of young people dancing. Enjoy!
One of the complaints made against the excerpts of my novel, posted on Facebook, was that i mentioned “songs that people are not familiar with.” Granted, this person is in my age group and quite a few people, of my generation, refuse to listen to any music made before 1981. So, here is a playlist I compiled of cover versions of the songs, mentioned in the novel or might be mentioned, that people would recognize. Some of these are pre-1981, but they are often heard on radio, in movies or TV commercials. Maybe this will help some people enjoy the novel better.
“I Can’t Explain” The Scorpions (The Who)
“I Do” J. Geiles Band (The Marvelows)
“Flowers On The Wall” Eric Heatherly (The Statler Brothers)
“Five O’Clock World” Hal Ketchum (The Vogues)
“Black Betty” Ram Jam (“Looky Yonder/Ballad of Black Betty” Odetta)
“Shady Grove” Ricky Skaggs
“Tainted Love/Where Did You Love Go” Soft Cell (Gloria Jones/The Supremes)
“Sounds of Silence” Disturbed (Simon & Garfunkel)
“Husbands & Wives” Brooks & Dunn (Roger Miller)
“Funnel of Love” Southern Culture On the Skids (J-Ann-C Trio)
“Wonderful World” Paul Simon, James Taylor etc. (Herman’s Hermits)
“Let’s Hang On” Barry Manilow (Four Seasons)
“I Fought The Law” The Clash (Bobby Fuller 4)
“Tracks of My Tears” Go West (The Miracles)
“More Than I Can Say” Leo Sayer (Bobby Vee)
“Time Won’t Let Me” The Smithereens (The Outsiders)
“Working My Way Back To You” The Spinners (Four Seasons)
“Shape of Things” Rush (The Yardbirds)
“The Last Time” The Tractors (Rolling Stones)
“King of The Road” Randy Travis (Roger Miller)
“Boy From New York City” Manhattan Transfer (The Ad-Libs)
“Rosalyn” David Bowie (The Pretty Things)
“You Really Got Me” Van Halen (The Kinks)
“I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” Tom Petty (The Byrds)
“One More Heartache” Detective (Marvin Gaye)
“Any Way You Want It” Kiss (Dave Clark 5)
“Babe I’m Going To Leave You” Led Zeppelin (The Association)
“Elvira” The Oak Ridge Boys (Dallas Frazier)
“California Girls” David Lee Roth (Beach Boys)
“Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Anymore” The Divinyls (The Rascals)
“I Want Candy” Bow Wow Wow (The Strangeloves)
“You Can’t Hurry Love” Phil Collins (The Supremes
“Eve of Destruction” Red Rockers (Barry McGuire)
“Fever” Madonna (The McCoys)
“Heart Full Of Soul” Box of Frogs (The Yardbirds)
“How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” James Taylor (Marvin Gaye)
“Gone Gone Gone” Alison Krauss & Robert Plant (The Every Brothers)
“Psychotic Reaction” The Cramps (Count 5)
“Just Like Me” Pat Benatar (Paul Revere & The Raiders)
“Hurt So Bad” Linda Ronstadt (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
“I Do Love You” GQ (Billy Stewart)
“Oh How Happy” Carlene Carter & Paul Carrick (The Shades of Blue)
“Groovy Kind of Love” Phil Collins (The Mindbenders)
“When a Man Loves a Woman” Michael Bolton (Percy Sledge)
“Our Day Will Come” Jamie Cullum (Ruby & the Romantics)
“Mountain of Love” Charlie Pride (Johnny Rivers)
“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” Pearl Jam (The Beatles)
“Get Ready” Rare Earth (The Temptations)
“The Monkey Time” The Tubes (Major Lance)
“Ooo Baby Baby” Linda Ronstadt (The Miracles)
“Remember Walking in The Sand” Aerosmith (The Shangra- Las)
“Tell Her No” Juice Newton (The Zombies)
“Treat Her Right” George Thorogood (Roy Head)
“Night Time” George Thorogood (The Strangeloves)
“Yes I’m Ready” Terri DeSario & K.C (Barbara Mason)
“You’re No Good” Linda Ronstadt (The Swinging Blue Jeans)
“Hippy Hippy Shake” Georgia Satellites (The Singing Blue Jeans)
“You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” Hall & Oates (The Righteous Brothers)
“One Fine Day” Carole King (The Chiffons)
“Needles & Pins” The Ramones (The Searchers)
“Apache (Jump On It)” Sugarhill Gang (Dave Allen & The Arrows & The Shadows)
“Running Bear” Sonny James (Johnny Preston)
“Come a Little Bit Closer” Johnny Duncan & Jannie Frickie (Jay & the Americans)
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” Nirvana (“In the Pines” Dave Van Ronk
The cafeteria in the Student Union was an adequate place to escape the snow and cold on that Thursday. Winter had struck the Ozarks with a hateful vengeance, as it had done in the rest of the United States. Everyone seemed to be in the mood for hot coffee and soup for their lunch. They were listening to Mykel tell about his first day at the radio station.
“The old lady, from the John Birch Society, hands Lovable Lance this petition, from people, who want the radio station to stop playing rock and roll music, and Lovable Lance held it up in front of her face and ripped it right down the middle! It was so cool!” Mykel told the group, from Bonner Hall, sitting at the table.
“They showed that on the TV news last night,” Dennis said. “We were in Keith Smith’s room and he had his TV on the news. I told Tommy I thought I saw you standing behind some of those people.”
“I might have been in camera range,” Mykel said. “I think both TV stations were there and the newspaper.”
“I bet that woman got those names on the petition out of the phone book or got them off of tombstones,” Slick said. “White people are shifty like that, when they are trying to get their way.”
“Some guy gave us coupons for that fried chicken they sell at the lunch counter at the drug store,” Clint told the others. “It comes in a little box with mashed potatoes, a roll and slaw. So we drove over there and got some Tuesday night.”
Owen slipped into the cafeteria like he was being followed by Mafia hit men. He kept glancing from side to side and behind him. He was selected his food with hands trembling. He sat down the table from the others, looking uncomfortable. His art class portfolio, seemed to be in disarray, like the contents had been stuffed into it in a hurried manner, as if he was fleeing for his life from a threat.
“Owen, move down here and sit with us,” Mykel commanded the nerdy fellow.
“Well, I don’t know…if I can…something happened in class and I should be alone,” Owen stuttered and stammered. He was white as a sheet, like he was haunted by the vindictive ghost. “And the girls are here…”
“Owen, we don’t bite! You’ve sat with us before at lunch,” Sherry tried to coax Owen into joining them.
“Don’t sit down there alone, Owen honey,” Silvy pleaded. “If you are having a bad day, we can give you some comfort. We all have bad days.”
“If you are having problems with your class, maybe we can think of something that will help you make a better grade in that class,” Kathy reassured him.
Owen tucked his head down and averted his eyes away, “That’s the problem! I saw something in class, that I never thought I would see at school and I don’t think I can even look at a girl right now.” Everyone at the table was now confused, but also incredibly intrigued by Owen’s situation.
“Owen, move down here and tell us what the problem is,” Clint ordered. “We won’t be judgmental.”
Owen, somewhat reluctantly, got up from where he was sitting at the end of the cafeteria table, picked up his tray and portfolio and moved over to a seat by Mykel. He turned so he was looking at Mykel, Clint, Slick and Dennis, trying not to make eye contact with Sherry, Kathy or Silvy.
“I went into Drawing 2, which I always go to at 11 o’clock on Thursday. We have been drawing figures. First with wood dolls, then manikins, then live people who would pose for us.”
“Did they make you draw a corpse?” Silvy asked in horror.
“No, but it was just as bad,” Owen answered her, trying not to look her in the face. This was irritating the girls that he was trying not to look at them. “There was a girl, on the platform, where the people who pose usually are, sitting with a big sheet over her. All I could see was her head sticking out from under this sheet. When we all seated and had out our drawing supplies, the instructor pulled the sheet back and this girl was naked!”
Everyone reacted with surprise. The girls began laughing with the realization that this was why Owen was avoiding eye contact with them. The boys of course reacted with excitement and hooting.
“Okay, Owen, tell us where this class is and can we come to class with you?” Slick asked jokingly.
“I’m going to sign up for that class next semester,” Dennis laughed.
“Owen, have you not seen a naked girl before?” Clint asked with more seriousness than the other boys.
“Not even seen a picture of a naked woman in Caviler or Playboy?” Mykel asked.
“No, my parents would get mad at me if they caught me with those kind of magazines,” Owen answered. “My mother does even want me to see her without her clothes.”
“I thought you boys said you wasn’t going to judge Owen!” Kathy scolded the guys. “Owen, don’t pay any attention to them. It’s perfectly fine to be unnerved by seeing a girl naked for the first time.”
“And don’t worry, we all pretty much look the same naked,” Sherry tried to reassure him. Unfortunately, Owen began to turn a mix of nausea green and embarrassed pink.
“But that isn’t the worst part,” Owen explained. “I was so nervous that I was trying to get out of there as soon as I could, when class was over. I knocked my pencil box off of my desk. I was trying to pick everything up as fast as I could and that girl got down off of the platform to help me pick up my pencils and erasers. She was STILL NAKED! I mean, she was real nice trying to help me pick my stuff up, but I wish she had put her clothes on first.” Then, a look of terror crossed Owen’s face. “Oh no! There she is! She is getting something to eat!”
Slick looked around to the buffet area, “Is she still naked?”
Clint laughed, “As cold as it is toady, she isn’t going to walk from the art department to the Student Union in the nude.”
“Which girl at the buffet is she, Owen?” Mykel asked. The boys were now staring at the three girls going through the line. One was a chubby girl with curly, red hair and freckles, another was a girl with thick glasses and her blonde hair in a ponytail, and the third girl was an attractive, exotic girl with a tan complexion and jet black hair, in a beehive.
“The girl with the black hair,” Owen identified the young lady, who was the first naked lady he had ever seen. “She’s not from here. She has a foreign accent.” The young lady got a cup of coffee from the machine and began to look for a seat.
“Owen, if that is who you saw naked, you should consider yourself a very lucky fellow,” Slick chuckled and the other guys agreed.
She spotted Owen and waved at him, then began walking over to the table. “She’s coming over here!” Owen screamed, as the attractive young lady made her way toward the group. He began to tremble.
“Hello! I’m glad I found you,” the attractive girl, with a pronounced accent, greeted Owen, who was getting nervous, seeing her again, even though she was now dressed. She reached in her coat pocket and pulled out a wooden protractor. “I found your protractor, after you left the class room.”
Owen sat with his mouth ajar and mesmerized look in his eyes. “Uh…uh, thank you! I…appreciate it,” Owen stammered to the young lady. The expression on his face, coupled with his awkward response, could be read like a book. It plainly said “I’ve seen you naked.”
Kathy, always the facilitator of hospitality for the circle of friends, spoke up, “You can join us for lunch, if you like.”
“Thank you!” She, slipped off her coat, which caused Owen to cringe a little, maybe expecting her to still not have clothes on underneath. She then sat down with next to Owen and across the table from the girls. Owen looked as if a grizzly bear was sitting next to him. The guys were watching this with amusement. Mykel noticed they had the same look on their faces, they had, at Kathy’s little mixer in the dorm suite, when Sherry put her leg across his lap. “I see you in Art Building often. Are you an art major too?”
“Yes, m-m-my name is Owen Stickley.”
“My name is Farrah Darabi, I am a sophomore art major, specializing in sculpture and my minor is in art history.”
Owen seemed to gain a little more composure, but was still not exactly a ladies man. “You’re not from Missouri, are you?”
Farrah just smile and politely replied, “No, I am from Tehran, the capitol city of the country of Iran. My father works for the government and I am part of a cultural education program where they send students to Western colleges to study.”
“So, you are along way from home?” Owen stated the obvious, but Farrah nodded her head and agreed. “I’m from here in town. My parent’s house is about two miles from the college.”
“Do you like Missouri?” Kathy asked before taking a drink of coffee.
“Yes I do. I like how pretty the terrain is in the spring, summer and fall,” Farah gushed, then added, “But I’m not enjoying this cold and snow.”
“None of us are,” Mykel groused. “I’m originally from Vermont and the one thing I hated there was the stupid snow. At least in Missouri, it is only around for about two months. In Vermont, it snows in November and hangs around until April.”
“We probably should introduce ourselves,” Kathy apologized to Farrah. “My name is Kathy and this is Sherry and Silvy. Next to Silvy is Slick and beside Slick is Dennis. Across from them is Clint and Mykel. We all live in the same dorm as Owen. Sherry and I were originally in Shelby House and Silvy and Slick were in Carver House. We all had to relocate to Bonner Hall for this semester.”
“That dress you are wearing is really pretty,” Silvy admired Farrah’s outfit, which was a dark blue dress with large white buttons down the front.”
“Thank you! My father went on a business trip to Dallas, Texas and he took my mother and I with him. He and Mother bought it a big store, I think it is called Newman – Marcus. I really think he paid too much for it. Are all clothes in the United States expensive?”
“No no, we can show you places to get clothes and save money too,” Kathy said. “We know where to find the bargains.”
“Robert Hall, Mode-O-Day and Newburys,” Sherry added. “You can get good stuff cheep at those stores.”
“And if you need underwear, Katz, Kressgee and Woolworths usually have a sale on panties,” Silvy explained. “Three for a dollar.”
Mykel whispered to Owen, “You should give your new friend a compliment. Chicks like when boys compliment their clothes or perfume.”
“That dress is really nice and I like that perfume your are wearing,” Owen complimented Farrah as Mykel suggested he should do.
“It is patchouli,” Farrah explained. “It is quite popular in my country.”
“I like it, it smells like Top Job” Owen said with a smile, not realizing that he had just given Farrah the most awkward compliment in the history of romance.
The three girls covered their mouths because they were giggling. Dennis nearly fell in the floor laughing. Slick slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand and then slid it down his face, mumbling, “Oh Lord, he is no Romeo.”
“So what kind of art is your passion?” Farrah asked Owen.
“I like to draw,” Owen responded. “I would like to be a comic book illustrator like Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko.”
“Who illustrates the comic strip about the pilot, named Steve, in the newspaper?” Farrah asked. “The artwork in that comic strip is so wonderful.”
“I think you are talking about Steve Canyon,” Owen answered, like he had suddenly become an expert on the subject cartoonist. “That drawn by Milton Caniff. He is a legend in the business.”
“Which would you rather do, after college, draw comics for a newspaper or for a comic book?” Farah interrogated her new friend, like he was applying for a job. Surprisingly, Owen must have recovered from the shock of seeing Farrah naked and felt comfortable enough to tell her the friction his plans for the future were causing with his parents.
“Either one would be nice, although I would rather work in comic books, because the story lines are less serious. I would prefer stories about superheroes or monsters to stories about doctors, lawyers and detectives. My parents want me to become an architect. They want me to transfer to the Rolla School of Mines and studying engineering. They say I would make more money and it would be a more respected profession.”
The girls got up to go to their classes, “It was nice meeting you, Farah. I hope we can see you around campus,” Kathy said.
“It was nice meeting you as well.”
The guys got up to leave for their classes, “Wait! You guys aren’t leaving me here!”
“Owen, we have classes to attend,” Clint said.
“You and your friend are hitting it off nicely,” Mykel reassured him. “You can talk about art classes and tell her about Spring Valley.”
The guys and girls left the two new acquaintances, alone in the cafeteria, to talk to each other. When they left the cafeteria and got out into the hall, Slick and Dennis began laughing about Owen’s earnest but clumsy compliment to Farrah.
“You smell like Top Job! That’s what a woman longs to hear a man say to her,” Slick laughed.
“He looked at her the same way a possum, on the highway, looks at your car is heading towards it,” Clint chuckled.
“From what I have heard, girls from other countries are kind of hairy,” Dennis laughed. “Maybe that is why he was scared of her.”
The girls were not finding any of this joking about Owen and Farrah amusing. “Will you boys cut it out! I think it was very sweet that she was so concerned and showed interest in Owen. Most girls would have laughed at Owen for dropping his stuff, but she had helped him pick his stuff up,” Kathy scolded the boys. “Probably this is the first time a girl even attempted to talk to Owen.”
“She seemed like a very sweet young lady,” Silvy added. “Imagine being so far away from home.”
“And would you guys be able to talk to me if I was naked,” Sherry asked, as she reached over and rubbed Mykel’s hair, with a giggle. “Would you, Mr. Daring?”
Mykel didn’t know what to say to that. Would Sherry really take off her clothes in front of him?
In the novel, there are things in the background that drive the characters. Mykel wishes to be able to prove himself and rub his success in the face of his former classmates from Lemming Pond. With Clint, the dark specter of being drafted and going to Vietnam hangs over his head.
The dark specter that Sherry Ridenhour would like to rid herself of is Donald “Chip” Hallwell. She dumped him over Christmas time and would like to move on. Unfortunately, her frenemy, Alice Schnatzky, seems to wants to remind her that she broke up with a boy that everyone in their hometown of Knob Knoster, Missouri, would have given everything to date. Chip Hallwell’s family “put the knob in Knob Noster.” As the novel goes along, we find out that most people don’t blame Sherry for dumping Chip & they think Mykel is a better suitor. The only person who thinks she made a mistake is Alice.
I have a clear cut idea of what Chip is like: stiff, devoid of a humor or pleasure, but Aryan – mannequin looks. A blonde, preppy, jock boy with a crew cut. Like the guy in the photo above.
The name comes from a business man, who tried to get one of my co-workers fired over something he (inadvertently) said on-air about the businesses this guy owns. Fact is, it was true & other people on social media are talking about how bad this business is a shadow of its former self.
The other part of his name is a variation of the name of a prominent Missourian, who my former boss claimed worked for him & he was supposedly a better employee than me. I’ve read biographies on this person & it never mentions him working in radio.
I should say, I almost changed Chip’s last name. I saw a name on a mail box here in Springfield recently & I remembered there were quite a few people, when I attended Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) had this same name. I felt bad for those people, especially girls with this name, because I’m sure people teased them in school, because it was the name of a brand of feminine hygiene product. You see, I have considered changing Chip’s last name from Hallwell to Massengill, as in douche. After all, Chip is a douche. I’m still considering that change, but for right now, Sherry Ridenhour’s ex-boyfriend is named Chip Hallwell. You know his family put the knob in Knob Noster.
WIP: DYNAMIC DUO OF THE OZARKS 