Judy Collins and the children will now trill for you

In case you doubt that the Internet is the greatest invention ever ever ever for realz, I found this song yesterday.

A fragment--a fragment, I tell you--of the lyric popped into my head. I Googled the fragment and . . .

Judy Collins and the Sesame Street kids were singing to me on the beach. She looks the perfect peasant hippie chick in this video---so cool that I can forgive her for mangling "Both Sides Now," which no one but Joni Mitchell should sing anyway.

MMMaybelline corn syrup kisses

Like smearing bathroom-deodorizer-scented corn syrup on your lips. Like the lip glosses of today, but far more viscous and sticky. Highly coveted by the 9-year-old set, though apparently marketed in an now-unnervingly  sexy way. I'm pretty sure none of us kissed anyone other than the family pets with this stuff on.

MMMaybelline Kissing Potion.

Summit candy bar?

In honor of Valentine's Day, I was thinking about chocolate. (I'm a chocoholic, so actually, there's not a day I don't think about chocolate.) But today I try to bring you a chocolate memory that's maybe not so obvious.

Here's a super obscure candy. Anyone remember the SUMMIT candy bar? It looks to be a KitKat with chopped peanuts on top. I do vaguely remember this one. The orange wrapper with the mountain logo is distinctive. Check out the commercial below.

Made by M&M Mars in the early 80s, it lasted just a few years before it was pulled, even after going through a reformulation that promised 30% more chocolate.

Another chocolate bar gone with the wind. Sigh.

Blip, blip, ohhhhhh BLIP!

So high tech. So groovy. So exciting.

I mean, look how the red LIGHT EMITTING DIODE (?) flits enticingly across the black screen. What fun to guess where it will land---1, 2, or 3---and send it back to your opponent!

Yes, I had one of these. High-tech for its time and now available for $30 on ebay. Blip, presented now for your memories.

Bing bong bang is Boomerang!

First, can they possibly sing this in a higher key? Dogs listen to this and go deaf.

Second, Marni Nixon, the host, really was in the movie version of The Sound of Music. She was one of the trilling nuns vexed by a problem like Maria. I think she was the nun who reminded everyone that Maria was a lamb!  Her voice was lovely, even in a kid's show. (And I love The Sound of Music, so quit smirking. Oh wait: if you were a smirker, you'd have given up on me long ago.)

Back to Boomerang, the kids' show of the 70s which featured...um...singing and lessons and kids playing. Apparently. I don't remember much more than the song! Please post and let me know if you remember more. I couldn't even really find clips of this one. I'm told it was local to Seattle?

In a land where the river runs free: you and me

Sometimes, I miss my childhood so much I could cry. This song is one of those times.

The Free to Be You and Me show was hosted by Marlo Thomas and featured everybody from Rosie Greer to Dustin Hoffman to Roberta Flack. The show, the songbook, the music, the memes---Free To Be You and Me was everywhere in the mid-70s. You couldn't escape it, even in school, where you had to watch it on film projectors. It was the rare stuff that felt teachy but not preachy. Also kind of edgy.

The show actually talked about gender (William Wants A Doll and Boy Meets Girl.) In 1974. Really. I remember being shocked that grown-ups would talk to us that frankly. Did the show break ground at the time, or did it just feel that way?

Michael Jackson, meanwhile, told us it was ok if we weren't pretty, that we didn't have to change at all (When I Grow Up.)  Didn't stop me from wanting blonde hair until I was in high school.

The opening theme is so cool. Is this merry-go-round in Central Park, or maybe Golden Gate Park?

ABC Afterschool Specials: the gold standard for bad

You may know that I'm a huge film buff, by which I mean a film snob. More on that on my professional blog, for those of you so inclined.

When I don't like a film because it's simple, pat, cheesy, or offers me too much of a lesson, I call it an ABC Afterschool Special. These specials really did air after school, and they always had a Lesson (initial cap intended.) My mom, of course, approved of these enriching and positive little vignettes. We, of course, hated them. This show tediously and heavy-handedly taught generation after generation of kids until 1995.

Kristy McNicholl seemed to be in a lot of these shows, as did Jodie Foster. And Robby Benson.

Sorry for the digression, but seriously--who knew Robby Benson was still really hot? (And still successful, as opposed to someone like Erin Moran?) Come to think of it, I think he's even hotter now. But then, I'm over 40 and so is he, so I would hope I would think that.

Sorry for rambling. And sorry to Erin Moran, who was a truly rad, beautiful Joanie Cunningham. I hope she finds a home.