I hope everyone who reads this, has a Happy Thanksgiving Day and has something, to be thankful for–no matter how big or small.
Lifestyle
Who tooted? If you asked my little niece this question, she would probably deny that it was her and point to her accuser, because in her vocabulary, the word “Tooted” means to pass gas, fart, break wind…need I go on?
However, because of my broad intellect 
, “Tooted” could mean a number of things and in this particular case, it means to honk, blow, or toot a horn, (see how smart I am). I recall on long road trips with my family, my dad taught me the “secret” truckers gesture that makes them toot their air horns.
Many trucks had air horns that were typically mounted on top the roof of the tractor or cab portion of the big rig. These were no doubt much louder than the wimpy factory installed horns that came on the truck. And there was a cord, cable or chain suspended from the ceiling of the truck, that when pulled, honked the horn.
Well, back to the “secret gesture”. So here’s the scenario, you’re a kid in the back seat of the family car, and as you pass a big rig truck, you look up into the cabin at the driver and make eye contact. When he’s looking, display the “secret gesture” at the driver, and with any luck, he’ll toot his air horns for you. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
To perform the secret gesture, you bend your arm at a 90 degree angle with your clenched fist pointing up. Then pump your arm up and down. Simple, but effective. You now know how to do it!
Laura Bush knows the gesture and even Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel knows it.
Check out this YouTube video of a new generation of kids on the sidewalk using the secret gesture (sorry their video is so shaky). I’m starting to think that this is not really a secret anymore.
You Asked For It was an American television show that aired from 1950-1959. Viewers were asked to mail in requests for things they wanted to see on the show. The program showed how things worked, a behind the scenes look at movie effects, curiosities, etc.
The one episode that I remember seeing, was how they made it look like an actor was riding on a moving horse (close-up shot). The horse or fake horse was actually stationary (but would rock back and forth) and the background scenery would move behind the horse creating the illusion that the horse was moving forward. I believe it was in this same episode that they show how they used red colored wax bullets, so when they shot someone in say, a western movie, it would appear as though the person was shot and bleeding.
You know how they say that “Everything old, is new again”. Well, there are a number of current day television shows that take you behind the scenes of how things are done, such as “How It’s Made”. This is a show on the Science Channel and they have a series of episodes that show how just about anything is made. This is somewhat similar, but not quite, because they only show how things are made (hence the title How It’s Made) and they don’t show how special effects are done or any of the other curiosities someone might request. Even good ol’ Mister Rogers on “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” took you on field trips to show how things were made.
But the one show that comes the closest to the “You Asked For It” show, is a kids show called “Curiosity Quest”. Just like “You Asked For It”, they ask for viewers to send in requests for what they wanted to see. They’ve been to places like, the Vermont Teddy Bear factor showing how the bears are made, how bread, bikes, snowboards are made, to how they train fire fighters. A great show, even for adults that are curious about these things.
Curiosity Quest:
http://www.curiosityquest.org/
A few youTube videos of different You Asked For It episodes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRp55vdxzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztd5B_rAKAM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LVfdKmln8&feature=related
Wikipedia.com–You Asked For It
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Asked_for_It
Taylor Swift does it, Justin Bieber does it, even Sharon Osborne does it!
Heart Hands, or Hand Hearts have become so popular within the past couple years, but does anyone really know the origin of this unique hand symbol? I was searching high and low for the answer and my findings were non-conclusive. Many of the sites bounced me back to the same 2011 New York Times article which gives credit to Taylor Swift for popularizing its use, whereas other sites claimed outright that Taylor Swift may have invented it.
Well, according to The New York Times article, (see full article below), singer/songwriter, Taylor Swift started using this during her high school days, for pictures and out of car windows, before she was a singing superstar.
But, I personally know of one instance where this simple hand symbol was captured in a photograph way back in 1967 (or there abouts) which predates Swifts use of the symbol by a whopping 40 years! As a matter of fact, Taylor Swift wasn’t even born until 1989, so I know for sure, she didn’t invent it.
The photograph I’m speaking of, was of my younger sister who at the time, was about 8 years old. She was posing with my mother and older sister. I ran across this photograph several months ago and noticed the “heart hands” and thought it would make an interesting topic given todays extensive use of the symbol.
When Two Thumbs Down Are a Sign of Approval
By MARISA MELTZER
The New York Times
Published: August 9, 2011
HAND gestures can be vulgar, but recently a demure, loving one has risen to popularity. To make it, curl the index fingers on both hands with the thumbs pointing down and join them to make a heart shape. Two people can make it together: a human version of those best-friends-forever lockets that break apart to be shared.
The “hand heart,” as it is known, has been flashed by young stars galore, including Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Victoria Justice, Blake Lively, Jordin Sparks and an “American Idol” contestant vying for votes.
Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Steven Tyler, Jennie Garth, Wynonna Judd, Channing Tatum, Usher, Kylie Minogue and Janet Jackson have all been photographed making the gesture.
Advertisers have taken note: it has appeared in campaigns for LensCrafters and the clothing line Miss Me. A hand heart with the top fingers splayed apart like wings, however, was removed from a Virginia tourism ad after revelations that it was a symbol of the Gangster Disciples.
An intact hand heart is displayed during the credits of the reality show “Ice Loves Coco” and described (“you held you hands up / and they formed a heart in the air”) in a song, “I Corinthians 13:8-10,” by the indie rock band the Mountain Goats.
The hand heart is popular in the rave scene where tiggerlovesyou.com chronicles young people enthusiastically hand-hearting. Armin van Buuren, the popular Dutch D.J., has been known to do it during his live sets.
“The heart-hand symbol means something between ‘I love you’ and ‘thank you,’ ” the country singer Taylor Swift said in an e-mail from her “Speak Now” tour. “It’s just a sweet, simple message that you can deliver without saying a word.” She added that she started doing it in pictures and out car windows during high school.
“At the end of my sophomore year, I left school and went out on a radio tour to play free show after free show,” Ms. Swift wrote. “I was an unknown act playing shows night after night, and I was constantly trying out all kinds of different moves to try and get a response from the audience.”
One day during a festival, she said, she was in the middle of a song and decided to put her hands above her head in the heart shape. The crowd started doing it back and cheering.
The singer’s fans feel so proprietary about the gesture that a debate erupted on an online fan discussion board when Lady Gaga made the hand heart.
A commenter going by the moniker Longlivetaylor wrote that it was “like a code word almost, special to us swifties and now everyone is going to start doing so it won’t feel special anymore.”
But will it become as universally recognizable as, say, the peace sign? Patti Wood, a media coach and the author of “Success Signals: Understanding Body Language,” called the hand heart a “trendy thing,” likening it to when in years past celebrities like Goldie Hawn would make the hands-in-prayer namaste gesture.
“One performer or audience probably did it in an extraordinary performance,” Ms. Wood said. “It used to take longer for nonverbal culture to move. But now, with smartphones, it’s instant.”
Regardless of its possible ephemerality, Ms. Swift still feels the power of the hand heart.
“When the moment is just right and the crowd is screaming louder than any sound I ever imagined I’d hear,” she wrote. “I just want to tell them I love them over and over, but sometimes the simplest thing to do is to make a sign with your hands.”
The years when I was growing up at my parents house, I remember always having milk in the fridge. We rarely had to go to the market to get milk, because it magically appeared on our front porch when we woke from our sleep.
The Adohr Farms truck would cruise the neighborhoods during the wee hours of the morning, delivering milk to their customers. They would drive up to our house, open the wooden gate to our front porch and leave a wire basket that contained glass bottles filled with milk.
One thing that sticks in my mind after all these years, is that the milk that was delivered, would on occasion, be sour. There’s nothing like pouring yourself a tall cold glass of milk after walking home from school, putting it to your mouth, and taking a nice big gulp–YUCK! I ran for the kitchen sink and spit out the spoiled milk! EGADS!
Here’s an interesting tidbit of information. Do you know where the name Adohr, in Adohr Farms came from? Just so I get the story right, I’m going to quote from a May 29, 1997 article in the Los Angeles Times:
“The corner of Ventura Boulevard and Lindley Avenue in Tarzana was once the Adohr Milk Farm. However, the land was part of a cattle ranch empire owned by a Southern California family who later established the city of Malibu.
In 1892, Frederick Hastings Rindge bought the original Spanish land grants that made up Rancho Malibu Topanga Sequit. Rindge’s land purchases spanned more than 17,000 acres along the coast toward Ventura County and several miles inland over the Santa Monica Mountains into the San Fernando Valley.
At the time of Rindge’s death in 1905, the ranch lands were divided between his three children. In 1915, Rindge’s only daughter, Rhoda, married Merritt H. Adamson Sr., who was originally the ranch’s foreman.
A year later, the Adamsons established a dairy farm on the north slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains. To honor Rhoda, Adamson named the farm “Adohr”–his wife’s name spelled backward. Adohr Farms became famous for having one of the largest herds of Guernsey cattle in the world.
During the Depression, the Adamsons were forced to sell most of their land to pay creditors. However, the milk farm kept the family solvent.
The Adohr dairy moved to Camarillo in 1947. Adamson’s son, Merritt Jr., eventually sold the dairy operation to the Southland Corp. in 1966.”
A couple LA Times articles about Adohr Farms:
http://articles.latimes.com/1997-05-29/local/me-63477_1_adohr-farms
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/mar/01/local/me-24380
Do you have a favorite dream? Perhaps one that reoccurs time after time.
One of my favorite types of dreams as a young boy and still today, are dreams of flying. Now I don’t mean flying in an airplane, but flying without wings or any other external devices, just my body.
Some of my dreams of flying were connected with nightmares and others were not. One of my most vivid dreams that I remember as a child, took place on the block of my childhood home. My home was on a slight hill and in my dream I would run from the top of the hill down the sidewalk and in my path were a line of monsters, maybe 4 wide waiting for me to approach them. As I got closer to them, I pushed off from the sidewalk and was able to fly over them just barely missing their outstretched arms. I’m sure there was a psychological reason for this dream.
Another dream was again, running down my street, pushing off and flying over the tops of the trees in my neighborhood. It was such an awesome feeling, the only thing that has come close to this feeling today was from parasailing or flying in an ultralight aircraft, which I did many years ago in Mexico.
When I dream of flying, I am primarily in a vertical body position unlike the horizontal flying position of superhero character Superman, although I have seen him hover in the vertical position at times.
Unfortunately, I rarely, if ever have dreams of flying anymore. I guess if I want that feeling again, I’ll have to go parasailing or ultralight flying again or maybe jump out of a plane…hmmm.
Due to comments I receive about bringing back Kellogg’s Concentrate cereal, I made an inquiry to Kellogg’s just to see if there was even a slight chance that they would reintroduce the product in the future. Here was their reply:
“Thank you for contacting us regarding Kellogg’s® Concentrate cereal.
Unfortunately, stores only want to stock the fastest moving products. If the stores start to discontinue an item, we find that we cannot produce the smaller volumes the business demands. It is always difficult for us to make the decision to discontinue a product, as we know it is always someone’s favorite. At this time, there are no plans to reintroduce it.
We know that it will be hard to find a replacement, but we are always developing new products so we are sure that you will soon find another favorite! You should try Kellogg’s® All Bran® Bran Buds cereal.
Please be assured that your wish to have this product back on store shelves has been shared with the appropriate department. We appreciate your interest and loyalty to our brands and trust that we will continue to meet your needs for many years to come.”
Here’s the original post about Kellogg’s Concentrate Cereal if you haven’t read it yet:
http://yesteryearremembered.com/?p=473
Got Gas?
Okay, based on my teaser post, I want to see a show of hands, how many of you thought I was going to write about a flatulence problem?
Fortunately, my experiences with gas were not bodily, but mechanical, for our family car.
Service, service, service! As a matter of normal operating procedure, gas stations of the 60′s & early 70′s (and probably earlier) use to provide full service on all vehicles that came in for gasoline, gas, petrol, fuel, or whatever you call it in your part of the world. I remember my dad driving into a gas station and as he pulled up to the gas pumps, the tires on the car would run over a rubber hose that stretched across the driveway by the pumps. This would trigger a bell to ring (ding, ding!) and an attendant would come out to your car and ask if you want a filler up and I think what grade of gas you wanted. After he started pumping gas into your car, he would grab a little spray bottle of glass cleaner along with several powder blue colored paper towels (don’t ask me how I remember that they were blue) and proceed to clean the windows on our car. He would also pop the hood and check the engine oil and would let you know if you the oil level was okay or if you were down a quart or so.
They didn’t have credit card scanners like they do today. They used a roller or pressure style credit card imprinter that you place your credit card in on top of a paper and carbon paper set and either roll the machine over the card or press the machine onto the card to imprint the credit card information onto the paper sheets. The attendant would then place the paper receipt onto a dark blue plastic clip board (at least they were this color in my area) and hand it to you to sign.
1973 brought with it a gas crisis as well as 1979, which was felt across the United States. Problems in the middle east caused a shortage of oil which in turn meant a shortage of fuel for vehicles.
Odd-even gas rationing was implemented in the United States, drivers of vehicles with license plates having an odd number as the last digit (or a vanity license plate) were allowed to purchase gasoline for their cars only on odd-numbered days of the month, while drivers of vehicles with even-numbered license plates were allowed to purchase fuel only on even-numbered days.
I remember people were getting so desperate, that they resorted to stealing gas from peoples cars by siphoning or other means. I even heard that one person made it in the news because they tried sucking gas out of a car using a vacuum cleaner. Gas fumes and vacuum motor sparks don’t mix. Well you could probably guess what happened next. Our family car was even one of the many cars that had its gas siphoned during this time.
As the years flew bye, gas prices continued to climb, so self service becomes the new norm and the usual full service becomes a premium paid option. Eventually, full service becomes a thing of the past at most, but not all gas stations. Oregon and New Jersey passed statutes to disallow self service stations due to the safety factors of a person pumping his or her own gas, among several other reasons.
Folow the two links below for news stories about a full service gas stations making a comeback:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/mathie&id=7500000
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/21/news/metro/doc4c1ed8b75264d962278010.txt
