Ah, 1979. A memorable year. Saw “The Muppet Movie”. Had a 3-year-old brother to pal around with (and occasionally get into scraps with). Successfully completed the 1st Grade. Good times.
When I was a kid my Dad, an IBEW lineman, frequently traveled to work assignments. Mom and I (and later brother Wook) held down the fort. In ’79, Dad had a rather long assignment in California. The plans were made for Mom and me to meet him there for a visit. The Wook stayed home with one of the Grandmas as I recall.
We went to the airport. I brought my Kermit the Frog doll. He went everywhere with me. Except at the airport they had to put him through the metal detector. The fellow at the scanning area assured me Kermit would come out safe and sound. And he did! An auspicious start.
We flew to California at a time when air travel was a luxurious, magical experience. We got drinks and snacks. I got a deck of cards and little “American Airlines” wings. I even got to go up into the cockpit and meet the Captain. (No “Airplane” jokes please.)
I feel like I need to point out that when I was 7 years old, I was cute. This has not been the case for at least 40 years. But when I was a kid, I was adorable. Which may be why people did nice things for me.
Oh! Before I forget! This little trip to sunny California happened right in the middle of the school year. My 1st grade teacher, Arlene Knickerbocker, also happened to be my Mom’s best friend. I’m not sure that had anything to do with me being able to cut 6 or 7 days of school, but I do remember taking a thick folder of spelling quizzes, math worksheets and other elementary school drudgery that had to be filled out in hotel rooms and the backseat of Dad’s car while we were roaming around.
So what did we do in California? Well, there’s a reason this is called “Spotty Memories”. I remember highlights. And TV stuff, because I’ve been like this my entire damn life. I remember when Mom and I got in the hotel in L.A. the TV picture was lousy and “Family Feud” was on. I remember seeing “Tom and Jerry” cartoons in the morning which blew my mind, because at home they were on in the afternoon. (That little nugget I actually included in a little speech I read to my fellow 1st graders upon returning.)
But as for actual California adventures (not to be confused with Disney’s California Adventure®), we did some classic stuff. We drove through a redwood tree. We went to the beach and dipped our little tootsies in. We were going to do Disneyland but! It was CLOSED! For decades, I wondered if maybe Mom and Dad just didn’t want to go there. (I’ve been to Disneyland several times and seen many a parent with an expression that says, “This was an ill-conceived notion.”) But yes, in the 1970’s DIsneyland was closed Monday and Tuesday during the “off-season.” So, we went to Knott’s Berry Farm instead. And saw stars!
Something was being videotaped at Knott’s Berry Farm, an amusement park in the Anaheim area. It could have been a television special. It could have been commercials for the park. It could have been a hundred different things. I’ve deep-tissue Googled this thing but no dice. What I can tell you is that Lucille Ball, Burl Ives and Chuck McCann were among the stars there to tape this thing. Lucy was doing her makeup and safely isolated from the crowd. I never saw Burl Ives. But I did see Chuck McCann. He walked by us, my Dad identified him as the “Hi guy!” guy in the Right Guard commercial:
And asked him to pose for a picture with Number One Son (that’s me. It’s a Charlie Chan reference…it took me many years to identify Dad’s references). So I got a picture with Chuck McCann. It would be brilliant of me to post that pic right about here but I don’t have it. It’s at home, with all of our family memories. I met Chuck McCann again in 2005 at an Old Time Radio Convention in 2005. I don’t have a picture of that either because I was stupid enough to think there would be nothing to photograph there and didn’t bring my camera. What I do have is a couple pics of me at Knott’s when I visited solo in 2010:
Incidentally, Kermit was also in the photo with Chuck McCann. The frog went everywhere I went. Except the time I left him in the hotel room and Dad had to drive a good chunk of miles back to the hotel to reclaim him. (I’m not sure if that was this trip or another.)
The grand finale of the California trip (as it plays out in my memory anyway): Dad got pulled over for speeding by the California Highway Patrol. Or as kids knew them in 1979:
Wow! Dad got pulled over by CHiPS! I couldn’t stop talking about it. Dad was less enthused.
The California trip was very special for a variety of reasons. It was the last vacation with just Mom, Dad and me until over two decades later when adult me met them in Branson. (We had wonderful trips with the whole family. And one where we all got food poisoning. But mostly delightful.)
I have been to Los Angeles several times since that trip beginning in the early 2000s when Pat Adriance and I went. It’s always fun because it’s the land of glitter and glamour. And restaurants we don’t have at home.
