Norm Nathan’s Vault of Silliness w/Tony Nesbitt - Ep 267 - A Merry Ol’ Broadcast

[00:00:00] Speaker A: This here broadcast is filled with stories, whether from our guest or all the callers. It's a good one to entertain you as you do some last minute shopping by the date on the cassette. It's all from December 23, 1995, but there's some peepers talk later in the show, so we may have a splash of spring 1996. Well, even if that's the case, the title shall be A Merry Old Broadcast. The guest that night was Teresa Rice Ingalls, author of Just Before Christmas Children's Stories to Read Aloud. Norm couldn't find the copy of the book, but begged for mercy. The guest was delightful and was a great one to have on Just Before Christmas she reads a story so you might want to get a hot cocoa or a hot toddy and curl up by your audio broadcast device and enjoy. Callers. There are callers and we have a few of them that we know the name of. Janet, Gilly, Marie, Monica, Harriet from Quincy, Marianne and Danvers, Fred from Medford, or maybe not John and Somerville and David. And then there's at least 10 plus calls. We have no idea who they are. Check out the links below for ways to support the show and if you voted for us in the Podcast Tonight awards. Thank you. Shortlist announcements are on January 26th, so I will update you then whether we made it to the finals. Episode 267, A Merry Old broadcast, jingles its way to your ears in 3, 2 and 1. [00:01:27] Speaker B: He's my kind of man. I listen to no Nathan every time I can on WBC in Boston show. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Ah, yes, this is that very same show. And we'll be around through the night. But you knew that anyway, didn't you? Time is now six minutes after midnight here in Boston. And let's see, a couple of sports things. I want to talk with Teresa Rice Angles, who's put together a book called Just Before Christmas Children's Stories to read Aloud. You suppose many, many people read to their kids anymore. I. I really hope so. Anyway, we'll talk about that just a bit tonight. A couple hours before the program, there would be a copy of the book that I could look through and there really was not and so I'm kind of flying blind. Oh no, I know, and I feel like a jerk. I hate to do that. I hate to talk with an author not having read their book. That doesn't make any sense. So having made this confession, why don't we just go on with anyone. You can help me out. Okay, well, all right. [00:02:46] Speaker D: I. I'm sorry. The U.S. postal Service. And I will have to apologize to you, Norman. [00:02:51] Speaker C: Well, it may have come here and somebody. Somebody may have followed up somewhere in the. I can't believe somebody at WBC would follow up. [00:02:57] Speaker D: No, no, it must be some. Some blind Postal Service employee guilty there. Well, let me tell you a bit about the stories then. [00:03:07] Speaker E: Okay. [00:03:07] Speaker C: I just wanted to mention that. That basically you have compiled a list. I. Much information anyway, compile a list of kind of offbeat. That is, stories that are not the usual kind of children's stories for Christmas. And the whole idea of reading to your children, it sounds like such a great. Or even just the whole family sitting around while somebody reads them stories. [00:03:31] Speaker D: Sure. [00:03:32] Speaker C: Anyway, please, you. You, if you would pick it up at that point, I would appreciate it. [00:03:36] Speaker D: Well, sure. You know, these are stories that our family has read some of them for almost 50 years, you know, and now they're not for preschoolers, really. These are not stories for toddlers. They're really stories that begin, you know, for maybe the early grade schooler and on up through adult. We tried to put together a collection of stories that would be as fun for the child to listen to. I mean, for the adult to read as well as the child to listen to. And, you know, having read these stories annually, and as I said, one of them, the Christmas Cuckoo, we've read every year since 1946 at least once and probably about five times, depending on the endurance of the child. You know, those stories have to be good stories. You know, they have to have something there for the adult. And I think that's essential when you're talking about reading aloud. You know, there's a lot of wonderful things published, but let's face it, there's a lot of junk out there, too. [00:04:33] Speaker C: No, that's at any field, wherever you pick. I was looking through the list of the authors of the stories that you have there. Everybody from Ogden Nash, who's always been one of my favorites, to Langston Hughes to Emily Dickinson, and some. Some biblical stories from St. Luke and St. Matthew and all of that. I. I will get a copy of the book, even if it's after Christmas, but it just looks like some. Some really lovely things. How did you go about deciding which stories you wanted to include? [00:05:06] Speaker D: Well, you know, as I said, we. We have been reading many of these stories for years and years, and my husband and I had a bookstore for years in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and we kept waiting for our favorites to be reissued and we'd find new treasures along the way, and they never were reissued. So, for example, the story that we start out with, the Christmas Cuckoo, was written by an Irish woman named Frances Brown. She was a folklorist who lived around Dickens time. She was actually his contemporary, and her story was published in 1857. Now, that's not that much longer after the Christmas Carol was published. And it's really a delightful tale. It's got a bit of humor in it. It's got a good, honest sentiment. And of course, it begins long ago and far away. And, you know, it's a wonderful story. We've got another one by Charles Tazewell. Now, he wrote the Littlest angel, but this story, the small one, was read annually on the Kate's starting about 1937 or 38. And then she had it on her show for years. And then Bing crosby in the 40s made a recording of it that was reissued in the 60s where our family picked it up. And it was kind of hard to trace a written version of the story. We do have the original story. It's in a Disney version too, but this is the original Tazewell version. And it's really a delightful story with a Hispanic touch for all those who love small children and donkeys. [00:06:34] Speaker C: And you have the, and you're talking about A Christmas Carol as you were just a little while ago there, or the, the woman who wrote a story around that time. You do have an excerpt from A Christmas Carol called, I Assume It Is it's the Cratchit's Christmas Dinner. [00:06:47] Speaker D: Well, yes. You know, oftentimes I think I've counted six, six versions of the Christmas Carol that I'm familiar with. And a lot of times we don't read the Christmas story. We see it in a variety of versions. And of course, it's a wonderful tale. This is a little bit about just the family dinner that the poor crusted family has. And it's really heartwarming and kind of an evocation of all those family dinners that, you know, are enlivened by a good hearty spirit. Maybe not as much money as it could be, but a lot of family feeling and a good thing for Christmas. [00:07:21] Speaker C: And you mentioned a woman named Natasha Simkiewicz who was an illustrator under the name Marie S. Stern. Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. Her real name is Maria Stern and she. And she uses these. She used to use these pseudonym Natasha Simsko. It sounded like it should be the other way around. [00:07:42] Speaker D: Well, you know, it's kind of an interesting story, really. She was a very well known illustrator in the 40s, and yet that was Kind of. She was known in the industry in those days, I believe. The illustrator was not necessarily a personality in their own right. Now we know a lot about Tommy Deported, Paula, and even a couple decades ago, Tasha Tudor in her Day. In 1944, Life magazine had their list of top 10 children's books, and she had illustrated three of the top 10, but each was under a different name. She received an award by the New York Herald Tribune for the illustrations which we used in our book. They're from a book that was first published in 1940. And to show that she was a very strong person, she retained the copyrights, which was not very common in that time, for her to retain her own copyright for her own material. [00:08:34] Speaker B: And we had a dickens of a time locating her. [00:08:37] Speaker D: But she's alive and well. She lives in Sarasota, Florida. She's 86 this year and is still living and working with art. And a delightful person to meet. [00:08:47] Speaker C: You sound like a delightful person, too. I'm just noting that you were a teacher at one time. You mentioned that you and your husband have had a bookstore in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Plus you were the mother of nine children. Is that right? [00:09:00] Speaker D: Well, you know, I mentioned that really just to. Not for all of you to hold. [00:09:04] Speaker B: Your arms and say, oh, my gosh. [00:09:05] Speaker D: But to just evoke the fact that I've got kids in their 20s and I still have a couple in grade school. And, you know, my children in their 20s come back and they talk about what really was important about their Christmas and what is that? You know, it's not usually that wonderful gift. Every once in a while, there'll be a wonderful present, a remembered treasure that comes to mind. But most of the time, the things that they remember are the things we did together, the family traditions we built up. And, you know, I think everybody kind of reinvents Christmas each year, whether consciously or subconsciously. You kind of pick and choose. You prune those things back. [00:09:44] Speaker B: That didn't quite work out that well. [00:09:46] Speaker D: Last year and in the previous years. And when we're talking about blended families in this day and age, whether you're a newlywed couple starting out or someone who's been divorced and remarried, you know, we all have to work together to make our traditions work, but the binding thing of them is the fact that we're doing something and we're doing it together. [00:10:08] Speaker C: Do you think that's. That's fairly common now that. Do you know of many families or as a result of the book, have you heard from many families who actually do sit down and read stories to their children, because I think that's a delightful custom. And I. I just wonder whether, you know, radio or television, movies, all that hasn't pretty much wiped that kind of thing out. And if it did, I. I think that's sad. [00:10:32] Speaker D: Well, you know, actually there's a. A very strong read aloud movement in the United States today, but there always have been those families like ours who enjoyed reading. I think the key is to get a good, solid story. There is nothing worse than having kind of the desire to get all the good things that you get from reading aloud. They say there's wonderful academic benefits, you know, there's wonderful emotional benefits. That, just that closeness of a child next to you, that physical closeness, that kind of tying. You get to share a lot of wonderful jokes. You get to share things on a level you would not otherwise have done. But, you know, that has happened really, you know, all the time. And I think right now there's a real movement back toward doing that. But you have to have a good story or you and your child, emotionally, if not physically, get up and walk away. If it's a boring story, it's just not going to work. [00:11:26] Speaker C: That's true. I remember as a kid in school, the teacher reading us not only a story, but a whole book, you know, a chapter each day. And I could hardly wait to get to school to hear some more of it. And I don't hear much about that kind of thing going on anymore. [00:11:44] Speaker D: That's alive and well. As I said, I still have kids in grade school, and that's very much a part of all of their grade school backgrounds these days. Now, I don't know what they do in Boston, but I'm sure it's pretty much pretty common. That is very much done. It wasn't done a while and it's come back. And, you know, it's fun for a family to share those things, too. I think a lot of times when you're on a trip, you know, you can bring out a book and maybe while away those hours on the freeway with a chapter or two of a good book. [00:12:14] Speaker C: I think that would be great. Now, you have read to your kids and did your husband also. Does he read to them or has he read to them? [00:12:22] Speaker D: Well, sure. You know, as a matter of fact, we can. I almost have to duke it out. Who gets to be the one reading? [00:12:27] Speaker C: Okay. Because you were the teacher, so I can see you taking over that role. Was he a teacher or does he read? [00:12:33] Speaker D: Well, he enjoys reading it. You know, I don't Think you have to be an actor to do a good job reading to your own family. You know, you don't have to do voices if you can do them. Hey, that's wonderful and it's a lot of fun. But, you know, our point is that it's the reading, you know, the time you spend. It's a good way to do bit. A quite quality time. And hey, at Christmas time especially a lot of times you sit down for a family get together and you're a tad crabbier than you planned. You planned this rosy event, this wonderful happening and. And you're a little crabby and you're a little irritated and things haven't worked out and the children are squabbling and, you know, a good story takes you all away. You're all gone away together on this journey and you all feel those wonderful things that the storyteller is trying to bring to you. And the stories we've chosen, they're good, solid, fun things. And I said a lot of jokes and good, honest sentiment. [00:13:26] Speaker C: And it's published by Partridge Press. Is the book General? I mean, can people pick it up between now and Christmas? [00:13:32] Speaker D: Oh, sure, sure. It's available at Barnes and Noble, B. Dalton, Walden Books has it in many stores and of course, independent booksellers will be glad to get anything for you that they don't have. And it's a wonderful time of year, really, to stop in a bookstore. Is this Christmas time. [00:13:50] Speaker C: I wanted to take a break now and then. Could you. Would you mind reading Christmas stories in a book called Just Before Christmas Children's Stories to Read Aloud. I mentioned Christmas Cuckoo. You can pick any one that you want that you think would be fun or that you particularly enjoy reading. [00:14:08] Speaker D: Well, Christmas Cuckoo is my favorite. Okay, if it isn't too long for you folks. [00:14:12] Speaker C: No, no, no. Hey, hey, listen, we break all the rules in broadcasting. I can't think of the last time anybody read a story on radio that's kind of goes back a few years. Radio used to be like that at one time. [00:14:27] Speaker D: Well, yes, it did. As I meant, did I mention that the small one, the story that we had was a Kate Smith read along? [00:14:33] Speaker C: Yes, yes, you did mention that. You mentioned Bing Crosby doing. [00:14:37] Speaker D: Yeah, he's got a wonderful recording of that. And I don't know why it's not reissued. It really is well done. It's kind of radio theater of the air. I mean, you can hear the clip clop of the. The cobblestones and stuff and, you know, reading aloud, the reading just straight reading of Stories is coming back also, so I think that. [00:14:56] Speaker C: I think that is lovely. Okay, I tell you what, I'm gonna sit back here with the kids here in the teen canteen, and we'll just enjoy it and just go right ahead. Theresa, Rice angles, whenever you're ready. [00:15:09] Speaker D: All right. This story is the Christmas Cuckoo by Francis Brown. Once upon a time there stood in the midst of a bleak moor in the north country a certain village. All its inhabitants were poor, for their fields were barren and they had little trade. But the poorest of them all were two brothers called Scrub and and Spare, who followed the cobbler's craft. Their hut was built of clay and wattles. The door was low and always open, for there were no windows. The roof did not entirely keep out the rain, and the only thing comfortable was a wide fireplace for which the brothers could never find wood enough to make sufficient fire. There they worked in most brotherly friendship, though with little encouragement. On one one unlucky day, a new cobbler arrived in the village. He had lived in the capital city of the kingdom and by his own account, cobbled for the queen and the princesses. His awls were sharp, his lasts were new. He set up his stall in a neat cottage with two windows. The villagers soon found out that one patch of his would outwear two of the brothers. In short, all the mending left scrub and spare and went to the new cobbler. The season had been wet and cold. The barley did not ripen well, and the cabbages never half closed in the garden. So the brothers were poor that winter, and when Christmas came, they had nothing to feast on but a barley loaf and a piece of rusty bacon. Worse than that, the snow was very deep and they could get no firewood. Their hut stood at the end of the village. Beyond it spread the bleak moor, now all white and silent. But by that moor had once been a forest. Great roots of old trees were still to be found in it, loosened from the soil and laid bare by winds and rains. One of these, a rough, gnarled log, lay hard by their door, the half of it above the snow. And Sparrow said to his brother, shall we sit here cold on Christmas while the great root lies yonder? Let us chop it up for firewood. The work will make us warm. No, said Scrub, it's not right to chop wood on Christmas. Besides, that root is too hard to be broken with any hatchet. Hard or not, we must have a fire, replied Square. Spare. Come, brother, help me with it. Poor as we are, there's nobody in the village will have Such a Yule log as ours. Scrub liked a little grandeur, and in hopes of finding having a fine Yule log, both brothers strained and strove with all their might till between pulling and pushing, the great old root was safe on the hearth and beginning to crackle and blaze with the red embers. In high glee the cobbler sat down to the ground bread and bacon. The door was shut, for there was nothing but cold moonlight and snow outside. But the hut, strewn with fir boughs and ornamented with holly, looked cheerful as the ruddy blaze flared up and rejoiced their hearts. Then suddenly, from out of the blazing root, they heard cuckoo. Cuckoo. As plain as ever. The spring bird's voice came over the moor on a May moor morning. What's that? Said Scrub, terribly frightened. Is it something bad? Maybe not, said Spear. And out of the deep hole at the side of the root, which the fire had not yet reached, flew a large gray cuckoo. And lit on the table before them, much as the cobblers had been surprised, they were still more so when it said, good, gentlemen, good. What season is this? It's Christmas, said Spare. Then a merry Christmas to you, said the Cuckoo. I went to sleep in the hollow of that old root one evening last summer and never woke till the heat of your fire made me think it was summer again. But now, since you have burned my lodging, let me stay in your hut till the spring comes round. I only want a hole to sleep in, and when I go on my travels next summer, be assured I will bring you some present for your trouble. Stay and welcome, said Spare, while Scrub sat wondering if it was something bad or not. I'll make you a good warm hole in the thatch, said Spare. But you must be hungry after that long sleep. Here is a slice of barley bread. Come help us keep Christmas. The cuckoo ate up the slice, drank water from a brown jug and flew into a snug hole, which Spare scooped for it from the thatch of the hut. Scrub said he was afraid it wouldn't be lucky. But as the birds slept on and the days passed, he forgot his fears. And so the snow melted, the heavy rains came, the cold grew less, the days lengthened, and one sunny morning the brothers were wakened by the cuckoo shouting its own cry to let them know that spring had come. Now I'm going on my travels, said the bird, all over the world to tell men of the spring. There is no country where trees bud or flowers bloom that I will not cry in before the year goes round. Give me another slice of Barley bread to help me on my journey and tell me what present I shall bring you at the 12 months end. Scrub would have been angry with his brother for cutting so large a slice, their store of barley being low. But his mind was occupied with what present it would be most prudent to ask for. There are two trees hard by the well that lies at the world's end, said the cuckoo. One of them is called the Golden Tree, for its leaves are all of beaten gold. Every winter they fall into the well with a sound like scattered coin, and I know not what becomes of them. As for the other, it is always green like a laurel. Some call it the wise, some the merry tree. Its leaves never fall, but always remain green like a laurel. But they that get one of them keep a blithe heart in spite of all misfortune, and can make themselves as merry in a hut as in a palace. Good Master Cuckoo, bring me a leaf off that tree, said Spare. Now brother, don't be a fool, said Scrub. Think of the leaves of beaten gold. Dear Master Cuckoo, bring me one of them. Before another word could be spoken, the cuckoo had flown out the open door and was shouting its spring cry over moor and meadow. The brothers were poorer than ever that year. Nobody would send them a single shoe to mend, and Scrub and Spare would have left the village but for their barley field and their cabbage garden. They sowed their barley, planted their cabbage, and now that their trade was gone, worked in the rich villagers fields to make out a scanty living. So the seasons came and passed. Spring, summer, harvest and winter followed each other as they have done from the beginning. At the end of the ladder, Scrub and Spare had grown so poor and ragged that their old neighbors forgot to invite them to wedding feasts or merrymakings. And the brothers thought the cuckoo had forgotten them too, when at daybreak on the 1st of April, they heard a hard beak knocking at their door and a voice crying, cuckoo, cuckoo. Let me in with my presents. Bear ran to open the door and in came the cuckoo, carrying in one side of its bill a golden leaf larger than that of any tree in the north country. And in the other side of its bill, one like that of the common laurel, only it had a fresher green. Here, it said, giving the gold to Scrub and the green to Spare. It's a long carriage from the wood. World's end. Give me a slice of barley bread, for I must tell the north country that spring has come. Scrub did not grudge the thickness of that slice, though it was cut from their Last loaf. So much gold had never been in the cobbler's hands before, and he could not help exulting over his brother. See the wisdom of my choice, he said, holding up the large leaf of gold. As for yours, as good as might be plucked from any hedge. I wonder a sensible bird would carry the like so far. Good master Cobbler. Cried the cuckoo, finishing its slice of bread. Your conclusions are more hasty than courteous. If your brother is disappointed this time, I go on the same journey every year, and for your hospitable entertainment will think it no trouble to to bring each of you whatever leaf you desire. Darling coo poo. Cried Scrub, bring me a golden one. And Spare, looking up from the green leaf on which he gazed as though it were a crown jewel, said, be sure to bring me one from the merry tree. And away flew the cuckoo. This is the feast of all fools, and it ought to be your birthday. Spirit, said Scrub, did ever man fling away such an opportunity of getting rich? Much good your merry leaves will do you in the midst of rags and poverty. But Spear laughed at him and answered with quaint old proverbs concerning the cares that come with gold. Till Scrub at length getting angry, vowed his brother was not fit to live with a respectable man. And taking his last his awls and his golden leaf, he left the old hut and went to tell the villagers. They were astonished at the folly of Spare and charmed with Scrub's good sense, particularly when he showed them the golden leaf and told that the cuckoo would bring him one every spring. The new cobbler immediately took him into partnership. The greatest people sent him their shoes to Mend. Fairweather, a beautiful village maiden, smiled graciously upon him, and in the course of that summer they were married with a grand wedding feast at which the whole village danced, except Spare, who was not invited because the bride could not bear his low mindedness and his brother thought him a disgrace to the family. As for Scrub, he established himself with fair weather in a cottage close by that of the new cobbler, and quite as fine. There he mended shoes to everybody's satisfaction, had a scarlet coat and a fat goose for dinner on holidays. Fair with her too, had a crimson gown and fine blue ribbons. But neither she nor Scrub was content for to buy this grandeur, the golden leaf had to be broken and parted with piece by piece. So the last morsel was gone before the cuckoo came with another sparrow. Lived down in the old hut and worked in the cabbage garden. Scrub had got the barley field because he was the elder. Every Day his coat grew more ragged and the hut more weather beaten. But people remarked he never looked sad or sour. And the wonder was that from the time anyone began to keep his company, he or she grew kinder, happier and more content. Every 1st of April the cuckoo came tapping at their doors with a gold leaf for Scrub and a green one for Spare. Fairweather would have entertained it nobly with wheaten bread and honey, for she had some notion of persuading it to bring two golden leaves instead of one. But the cuckoo flew away to eat barley bread with spear, saying it was not fit company for fine people and liked the old hut where it slept so snugly. From Christmas till spring, Scrub spent the golden leaves and remained always discontented. And Spare kept the merry ones. I do not know how many years passed in this manner when a certain great lord who owned that village came to the neighborhood. His castle stood on the moor. It was ancient and strong, with high towers and a deep moat. All the country, as far as one could see from the highest turret, belonged to its lord. But he had not been there for 20 years and would not have come then. Only he was melancholy, and there he lived in a very bad temper. The servants said nothing which would please him, and the villagers put on their worst clothes, lest he should raise their rents. But one day in the harvest time, his lordship chanced to meet Spare, gathering water cresses at a meadow stream, and fell into talk with the cobbler. How it was, nobody could tell. But from that hour the great lord cast away his melancholy. He forgot all his woes and went about with noble train, hunting, fishing and making merry in his hall, where all the travelers were entertained and all the poor were welcome. This strange story spread through the north country, and great company came to the cobbler's hut. Rich men who had lost their friends, beauties who had grown old, wits who had gone out of fashion, all came to talk with Spare, and whatever their troubles had been, all went home merry. The rich gave him presents, the poor gave him thanks. Spare's coat ceased to be ragged. He had bacon with his cabbage, and the villagers began to think there was some sense in him. By this time his fame had reached the capital city and even the court. There were a great many discontented people there. The king had lately fallen into ill humor because a neighboring princess with seven islands for her dowry would not marry his eldest son. So a royal messenger was sent to Speyer with a velvet mantle, a diamond ring, and a command that he should repair to court immediately. Tomorrow is the 1st of April said spear, and I will go with you. Two hours after sunrise the messenger lodged all night at the the castle, and the cuckoo came at sunrise with the merry Leaf. Court is a fine place, it said, when the cobbler told him he was going, but I cannot come there. They would lay snares and catch me. So be careful of the leaves I have brought you, and give me a farewell slice of barley bread. Spare was sorry to part with the cuckoo, little as he had had of its company. But he gave it a slice which would have broken Scrub's heart in former times. It was so thick and large, and having sewn up the leaves in the lining of his leather doublet, he set out with a messenger on his way to the court. His coming caused great surprise there. Everybody wondered what the king could see in such a common looking man. But scarcely had his majesty conversed with him half an hour when the princess and her seven islands were forgotten and orders given that a feast for all comers should be spread in the banquet hall, the princes of the blood, the great lords and ladies, the ministers of state after that discoursed with Spare. And the more they talked, the lighter grew their hearts, so that such changes had never been seen at court. The lords forgot their spites, the ladies their envy. The princes and ministers made friends among themselves, and the judges showed no favor. As for Spare, he had a chamber assigned him in the palace and a seat at the king's table. One sent him rich robes, another costly jewels. But in the midst of all his grandeur, he still wore the leather doublet and continued to live at the king's court, happy and honored and making all others merry and content. The end. [00:31:30] Speaker C: Okay, that's lovely. Thank you very, very much. Hear the spoken word? I guess I should. I don't know whether my saying the spoken word makes any sense since we tune into radio and that's all we hear is the spoken word. But I guess the the word telling a story you don't hear hardly at all anymore. Not at all. So that was kind of pleasant. [00:31:54] Speaker D: It's a fun story. And we've got a number of other stories that each is different and they each have a little point of view, but they are fun to read and they are fun to listen to. That one was a longer story. I wouldn't start my first grade hour on that one. But there are fun stories in there to read. [00:32:12] Speaker C: I think anything that can sharpen the imagination and put you in a different way world, I think is fun to hear. [00:32:20] Speaker D: Well, you know, there's nothing like that Wonderful feeling you do get from listening to the word when the lights are down and say you've turned on the tree and you've turned off the lights, you've lit some candles and you're sitting around the tree. You know, that heightened sense of awareness that you have is really just a wonderful gift. That's something. That's really a wonderful tradition in our family. We. We do that at least one night a year during our Christmas season. And it's a lot of fun. We wouldn't, you know, we don't do it for, you know, something we have to do. We do it because it's fun. And as I said, our older kids do remember those things when they come back. [00:33:01] Speaker C: And I have a. Have a feeling that there are people who are listening who may be in bed at this moment because we're about an hour ahead of you. You're in Minnesota right now, I would assume. Assume. [00:33:11] Speaker D: Yes, I am. [00:33:12] Speaker C: Okay, so you're on Central Time, and here it's 19 minutes before 1 o'. Clock. And people lying in bed may be staring up at the darkness and hearing the human voice telling a story, which I think is delightful. And I'll just repeat again that it's. That it's called Just Before Christmas Children's Stories to read Aloud. And that's just one of the stories, a whole bunch of them by some very distinguished writers in different categories. Stories, poems, and all of that by Teresa Rice Engels, who actually put the book together. [00:33:47] Speaker D: And I can't claim to be the author of any of them. And of course, I wish I were, but I'm not really a storyteller. I'm just kind of like everybody. I love a good story. [00:33:58] Speaker C: Okay. And all put out by Partridge Press and available at a lot of bookstores. And if anybody decides to pick it up tomorrow, be kind of nice stuff. [00:34:08] Speaker F: To read on, on. [00:34:09] Speaker C: On Christmas Eve or anytime. Hey, thank you very much, Teresa Rice Angles. Pleasure to talk with you. And I thank you very much for taking the time to read us a story. I. I like that a whole lot. [00:34:20] Speaker D: It was a treat. It's something I enjoy doing. [00:34:23] Speaker C: Have a very happy Christmas. [00:34:24] Speaker D: I hope you will, too. Thank you. And I hope your listeners will as well. [00:34:27] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:34:28] Speaker D: Bye bye. [00:34:29] Speaker C: Bye bye. And even though they were recorded not too well, because they were. They were recorded on disc and stuff due to technical advances, and they kind of souped them all up. And the quality of a lot of that stuff is really quite good. [00:34:45] Speaker D: I'll have to see if I can. [00:34:46] Speaker C: That sounds interesting, but Even, even, even aside from that one, there were a lot of other dramatic things. And I think the fun was just listening and using your imagination. [00:34:57] Speaker B: It is. [00:34:57] Speaker D: It's great. I. [00:34:58] Speaker B: In fact, I turned it on my son's radio when I came home. He probably doesn't even know it's on. [00:35:02] Speaker D: He's sleeping. [00:35:03] Speaker B: Okay, thank you. Have a nice holiday. [00:35:05] Speaker C: Thank you, Janet. [00:35:06] Speaker E: And, you know, they used the saliva and they just wash their fur. [00:35:10] Speaker C: Yes. [00:35:11] Speaker D: Okay. [00:35:13] Speaker E: Cats in their saliva have something in it that kills germs because they're always constantly washing themselves, you know, and, you know, putting their paw on their tongue and you know, to what, the pollen and wash their fur again. So cats have this stuff in their saliva and mixed with the oil on their fur. And usually that's what happens when they're standing on the furniture washing themselves. That's when they're right there. Usually they'll make the stain after they're done washing themselves. They'll stand right on the furniture. That stuff in the saliva mixed with that oil on their fur causes the stains on, on the furniture. And I found out what gets it off there. There is a thing called simple green. [00:35:58] Speaker C: I'm sorry, say that again. Is that green, like in the color? [00:36:01] Speaker E: Yeah, it's like a stuff like, fantastic, but it's, It's. It's very strong. It's expensive, but it's very strong. Veterinarians also sell stuff to get stains off your furniture from cat paws and, you know, other things like that. [00:36:14] Speaker B: But no, but remembered it and I thought I dreamt it. [00:36:20] Speaker E: And you finally came out with it. The Witch's Tale. [00:36:25] Speaker C: Yes. Do you remember that? I do. I do remember that. Yeah. But. And you remember that from. [00:36:32] Speaker E: I remembered it, but nobody else did. [00:36:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:34] Speaker B: No, not even my sister, who's six. [00:36:36] Speaker E: Years older than I am. [00:36:37] Speaker D: She couldn't remember it. [00:36:38] Speaker C: Well, no, that's. That was one of. That's one of those, you know, really rare kind of programs that I don't probably know. You and I are the only two. [00:36:46] Speaker E: Who remember it just so. [00:36:49] Speaker B: And that used to be on late. [00:36:51] Speaker E: At night too, if I remember. At least it was late for me. I was just a youngster. [00:36:56] Speaker C: Yeah. At one time it was between 10 and 12. Yeah, it had to be one of those spooky late, late night things. There used to be a program on a local program on a radio station called wmex. The call letters don't exist anymore. And this was before I got to the station. So that, I mean, we're going back, like to the early 40s is when it was up. [00:37:22] Speaker E: Yeah, I think I, I. [00:37:24] Speaker C: There was a guy named Milton Yakis who was, who died a few years ago. But he was a real nutcake. I mean, this was really a crazy man who had an advertising agency in later years. But he used to write, he wrote this program, I forgot the name of it. And he used a lot of local actors and it was a spooky thing that went on, I guess around midnight. And he would be, he would be still writing the script after the program got on the air. The actors would be like on page two or page five, say, and he'd be writing page six, seven. And you know, so as they, as they performed it, nobody, none of the actors knew how it was coming out. I don't think even Milton Yis knew how it was coming out. I don't know. Those were kind of fun days in radio. And it was just kind of, kind of nutty. Everything is kind of stylized now. [00:38:18] Speaker E: I used to write stories from that witch's tale in school. [00:38:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:22] Speaker E: And the teachers used to say to me, Michael, goodness, you have a vivid imagination. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Where do you get these ideas? [00:38:29] Speaker C: I think that's great. I think it's a great compliment for anybody to be told they have a vivid imagination. Do you still have that? [00:38:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I do, but I. [00:38:38] Speaker E: Never really pursued it. When I was in high school, my teachers used to try to encourage me to write, but I never really pursued it. I enjoyed it while I did it. [00:38:50] Speaker C: What about now? It's not too late to write. [00:38:53] Speaker B: No, they don't get up on them. [00:38:56] Speaker C: Oh, this is to keep them off the furniture. And it's called no, no. Yeah, okay. [00:39:02] Speaker B: And I also wanted to tell you I beat that guy that had his Christmas shopping done. I had mine done and Ky, I make mine. [00:39:10] Speaker C: I'm sorry, you, I, I didn't get what you said. You make what? [00:39:13] Speaker B: I make my Christmas presents. I have mine all them in July. [00:39:17] Speaker C: Oh, you make them. What kind of things do you make? [00:39:20] Speaker B: Mint, crochet and sweaters, afghans, those kind of things. [00:39:23] Speaker C: Oh, I see. Okay. You do a lot of knitting and crocheting and that kind of thing? [00:39:27] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:28] Speaker C: Oh, that's nice. Those are the nicest kind of gifts to get. His real name is Gary, but he calls himself something else to make it a little fancier. Who am I thinking of? He's sort of a latter day Gene Shepherd. [00:39:40] Speaker E: I can't, I can't, I can't think of name. [00:39:42] Speaker C: Garrison Keiller. Okay, Garrison Keiller. Who does that kind of stuff when I was a kid, there was a lady called. She called herself the singing lady. She'd sort of sing a little bit, but then tell stories. And I remember she. I still remember the sponsorship was Kellogg's and she'd sing the little Kellogg song and she had a little sweet voice. It was for very young kids. And she'd tell the story, of course. Jean shepherd was re for grown up. Yeah, I mean I was a kid. [00:40:09] Speaker E: I mean he used to just. I used to get him on this FM station which I can't even think what it was on Sunday nights. And he used to come on for. [00:40:19] Speaker C: Like an hour, you know. I know it was recorded, but it. [00:40:23] Speaker E: Was so interesting, you know. [00:40:24] Speaker C: Well, he did, he did one show on Sunday nights that was carried on a network. WNAC in Boston, the radio station used to broadcast his Sunday night. He used to. This may not be the same thing you're talking about. We both are talking about Gene Shepard. [00:40:42] Speaker E: Probably in the middle 70s. [00:40:46] Speaker C: Yes. He used to do a thing in the Village in New York, Greenwich Village, in a club. He would tell stories and it was broadcast on a New York station, maybe WR in New York then too, I don't know. But WNAC in Boston used to pick him up and it was on Saturday night and it was live and it was before an audience. [00:41:06] Speaker E: There used to be another fellow on. [00:41:07] Speaker C: Who I think passed away a couple. [00:41:09] Speaker E: Of years ago and it was a. It was a weird show that he would. People would call in and you couldn't hear what they were talking. I guess he used to be a movie critic and he used to just like talk on the phone. [00:41:23] Speaker C: Oh yeah. The reason for that was that was before they perfected technologically the way to put people on the phone on the air. And his name was. There were a few of them when you're thinking about. May have been a guy named Ken Mayer. [00:41:37] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:41:38] Speaker C: He used to broadcast from his. Passed away, didn't he? Yes, he did. He died several years ago and I used to. [00:41:44] Speaker E: He used to get calls in and like you couldn't hear what the questions were. [00:41:48] Speaker C: No, he would repeat. Right. You can hear the. He would say, so how is your family? Family is okay, is it? And what, what have you been doing lately? You've been going to the market shopping for batteries, have you? And he would repeat what they were saying and that was, that was the closest they came to two way talk back then. Right. And it sounds kind of silly now. There was another, another fellow too, I think his name was Jim Fitzgerald. He would do the same kind of stuff during that same period. Also, he'd say, hello, telephone. I guess people would call in. But again, he also would have to repeat what they were saying because you couldn't hear them technologically. They didn't know how to do that at the time. Oh, we've come a long way, Pete. We have. [00:42:35] Speaker E: Hey, Norm. Have a very nice holiday. [00:42:38] Speaker C: That's the title of an Elton John album at home. And I really love that. That. Sure. [00:42:43] Speaker G: It's one of his ballads. Ramps, Decks and Bridges. [00:42:47] Speaker C: It's my home. Yeah, something like that. Treacherous. I'm sorry, we had a little bit of a mix up there. Maybe nobody noticed, so I shouldn't have brought it up. We. I don't know, we've been having a little computer problem here. [00:43:01] Speaker G: Well, you know, that's. [00:43:02] Speaker C: That's the. [00:43:03] Speaker G: That's this age of live radio. [00:43:05] Speaker C: Live radio is just so darn wonderful because even when. When something horrible happens, it's kind of, you know, it's not rehearsed or anything. It just comes on and it's extemporaneous and it just. It's just a darn wonderful. [00:43:18] Speaker G: Sure, sometimes, like, a traffic reporter will die right here at the microphone. We just step right over him and continue reporting just like nothing happened. [00:43:25] Speaker C: In fact, if he did it here in the studio, we'd step right on him, as a matter of fact, you know, wipe our feet and then just go right out there. [00:43:32] Speaker G: Just raise the microphone bit higher. [00:43:34] Speaker C: Ramps, decks and bridges. Yep. [00:43:38] Speaker G: Especially treacherous. Oh, yeah. [00:43:42] Speaker C: Anyway, we'll be playing the dumb birthday game in about an hour. [00:43:46] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:43:46] Speaker C: And of course, we look forward to that because it's a chance for us to get together. Do you work? You work Christmas night? [00:43:53] Speaker G: I will be here Christmas night. [00:43:56] Speaker C: Oh, that's good. You're not going to do a little thing about. There's a little something in the sky with a guy with red. And it's. People have. It's holding up traffic as people are looking up at him. [00:44:06] Speaker G: Well, you know what I'm thinking is that by the time I get here in Christmas night, hopefully old Sandy Claus will have made his rounds to all the houses. [00:44:13] Speaker C: But we are. [00:44:14] Speaker G: Will be on alert all day tomorrow as Santa leaves his home in the frozen north to start heading out over the continental United States, etc. [00:44:25] Speaker C: We. We were driving by with. I forget, one of my daughters and I. We saw, well, there was a Santa Claus in front of a store, you know, kind of waving at people and stuff and trying to attract your attention. So they come into the store and, and I remember saying, shouldn't he be back at the, you know, getting, getting final ready trips ready and stuff. What does that do to kids? And my daughter said, and she's a great grown up, by the way. So she's, she's got a crazy sense of humor also, as you might expect. You know, she said, he's got all his elves going in the sweatshop up there while he stands around waving at people. You know, this is the kind of guy Santa Claus is. [00:45:04] Speaker G: He's relaxing in a comfortable department store. [00:45:06] Speaker C: And yeah, he's no, he's no like the guy who runs the Methuen Mills, you know, really kind to his workers. Santa Claus obviously would be a terrible. Got to work for. I don't know why I'm telling you all this. You know why? Because I feel like talking a lot and I've got nothing to say. [00:45:23] Speaker G: Well, you know, I'm disillusioned now. Now I'm picturing all these poor, poor little old elves in a little old sweatshop possibly, you know, in a fire trap of a, of a, of a sweatshop kind of a thing with, with irons around them and, and, and big machinery and gears with, with their hands going in and out of the gears and, and, and old Santa Claus just sitting up there in his foreman's office smoking his pipe. [00:45:46] Speaker C: As a matter of fact, there was a short story like that. There's a. One of my favorite writers is a guy named S.J. perlman who's a humorist. If you ever, if you ever pick up, if you see any of his stuff, he's got a lot of collections of things. He used to write for the New Yorker and things. Anyway, a very funny writer. Woody Allen, later on sort of picked up his style and writes a lot of the stories that Woody Allen wrote. Not the movies, but he wrote for the New Yorker also. Very much in the SD Perelman style. Except SD Perelman used these incredibly long words and stuff, you know, but they, but when you look them up in the dictionary, they really fit, you know, they were, they were great. But anyway, he had a story about, about Santa Claus with the sweatshop elves stuff, you know, saying, here I am, my name. Here I am making. What are they used to call those sleds? The. [00:46:44] Speaker G: Oh, the, the flyers. [00:46:46] Speaker C: Flexible. Here I am spending the entire day with flexible flyers, even though I have the gout, while this guy is, I don't know, wandering around waving at people in front of department stores or something. But it was a very funny story. Maybe if I could think of it, maybe I could bring it in and read it on the air over. Sometime over the weekend before. Before Christmas. Would that be dramatic and lovely? [00:47:08] Speaker G: You know, I think that would be dramatic and lovely, especially if you. If you read it with. With a dramatic bit of Elan. [00:47:17] Speaker C: A dramatic bit of Elon would be nice. Anyway, I'll. I'll be. I'll be quiet so you can put your commercial on. But meantime, meantime, I think you still have that. They're still kind of hanging there. Yeah. Meantime, I'm going back to my ramps, my decks and my bridges. [00:47:33] Speaker G: On Dasher, on Dancer, On Prancer. [00:47:36] Speaker C: On Prancer. Okay, fire away. We'll talk to you soon. Big. Okay. I've always sent out Christmas cards that just say season's greetings. You know, happy Season or something like. And then I thought, that's. That's ridiculous. The only reason we're sending the cards out is because. Because it's Christmas and New Year's, so why not? Why not? There should be Christmas on there. I still get cards from people who are little because I'm Jewish, kind of hold back and do the season's greetings thing. But I'd like to be wished a happy Christmas, you know? And people, when they send you Hanukkah cards or Yom Kippur cards, that is the New Year's cards, they don't say season's greetings. They actually say the holiday. So why should we hold back and not say Christmas on there? So this year when I bought cards, I insisted that they also add the word Christmas on there because that other thing is just a cop out that the season's greeting stuff. What does that mean? You know, happy winter. You know, that's nothing. So I wish you a very happy Christmas, and I know it'll be a nicer one. And I hope 19 6, 91. Every year is coming up, I lose track of the years. 1996. I hope it treats you very nicely, Norm. Yes, ma'. [00:48:49] Speaker D: Am. I'm glad. [00:48:50] Speaker B: I think I'm going to be able to cover the whole gamut by a statement of happy wishes that we used to say way back when I was a teenager and in my early 20s. And that is, I wish you a cool. [00:49:08] Speaker D: You will. [00:49:10] Speaker B: And a frantic first without too many sips. [00:49:14] Speaker C: Okay, that's nice. I'm hip. Hey, boy, you were so. You're so hip, man. So. [00:49:19] Speaker F: Because you died. [00:49:20] Speaker C: That's right. And two movies. Then again, our life was different than our folks. [00:49:25] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. [00:49:25] Speaker C: Things keep changing all the time. I think maybe a mistake that we make is to think everything was so wonderful for us. Too bad these kids. Kids don't have the same kind of fun. And they live kind of nothing lives compared to the way we live. And that isn't true. You know that. [00:49:40] Speaker F: Oh, no, no, I know that. [00:49:42] Speaker C: I really hate it also. But at this stage of my life, to have a job where I get a chance to sit up and act like a ninny all night long and just talk kind of silly and stuff, I think is so fantastic. So I would never tell you boys to have fun and radio. And now it's a bore, because it's really not. I can, but I'll go through that some other time. [00:50:05] Speaker B: I think we get up in the morning, it was Saturday morning, I believe. And we just put our little selves and our little tummies on the floor. And we could just go anywhere with this. We could just shut our eyes and just listen. And all of a sudden there's a whole world opened up to us. [00:50:23] Speaker C: I thought, let's pretend, Nyla. Max. Let's Pretend was one of my favorites. You remember the theme song? That's right. And then later on we Tina. [00:50:34] Speaker B: The Magic Garden. [00:50:35] Speaker C: Yeah. Later on, we Tina sponsored the program. [00:50:39] Speaker B: Right. And h o o. It's Jimmy somebody from some. [00:50:41] Speaker C: Well, no. Yeah, but the Wetina sponsored it. No, it wasn't. We Tina was Cream of Weed, and there was Uncle Bill, who was the announcer on it. And the theme was Cream of Wheat is so good to eat that we eat it every day. Was that right? [00:50:56] Speaker B: I didn't remember that. [00:50:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:59] Speaker B: Well, you know, these things, I hope they take on tape some of the things that are going to be gone, like hieroglyphics in the early parts of Egypt and the beginning of time. I guess this part of the world and time that we lived in as children was never really recorded. A lot of it's been lost. I think people calling in like this are going to probably, like Joe Franklin, yourself and many others perhaps, that we never really had any connection, whether we're privy to other than hearing it from our older brothers and sisters or just being taken to a movie when we were very young. And that's what happened to me. My mother had a girl whose mother traveled. She and her father and mother were in vaudeville. And I remember her name was Doris. She was a girl that traveled with her parents but never had a chance for much education. But the interesting part of it is she was in the eighth grade. And I was like, in first grade, and she would take us, my sister in a baby carriage. And we was down to these places like I think the Rivoli or something, whatever they were called. Probably it was Boston, you know, because I know we lived in Boston. [00:52:15] Speaker D: But they had these wonderful vaudeville pieces. [00:52:18] Speaker B: With like the body and the top of the two people with the father and mother, but underneath them was this person. But they could be upside down. It would be a big fat lady upside down. When you turn over, you or somebody else, you know. Do you know what I'm saying? It was. No, they were like billions. [00:52:39] Speaker C: A boy and his experiences and so on. [00:52:42] Speaker F: And you wondered if you could get that book or if somebody would call about it. [00:52:46] Speaker C: Well, some, some, some fellow who's a volunteer reader of the fourth grade students was wondering about books that he could read to the kids. I just mentioned, I don't remember the book, but I remember looking through, forward to it each, each day or each week or something. The teacher would read a chapter of the book and we would be so thrilled by it. No, I have no idea what the book was. That was a very, very long time ago. [00:53:08] Speaker F: Yeah, well, the book I'm referring to. [00:53:10] Speaker C: Was written a very long time ago. [00:53:12] Speaker G: By. [00:53:14] Speaker C: I guess he is an author and also a statesman. Thomas Bailey Aldrich. And it's called the Story of a Bad Boy. And it takes place in New England in the 1870s and 80s. That's fantastic. [00:53:28] Speaker F: Book on the experiences of a youngster. [00:53:30] Speaker C: From the age of about 10 until. [00:53:33] Speaker F: Maybe 14, you know, grammar school days. [00:53:35] Speaker C: Oh really? Yeah, yeah. That sounds like fun. Maybe that would be the, the gentleman who called us earlier. Maybe that would be a book for him to look up. The author again was Thomas. Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Aldrich, yes, that's right. A well known man, American statesman. Okay, okay. And that's called the Story of a Bad Boy. That's right. Okay. It's out of print, but I'm sure that the library in Boston or you know, a larger library would have it. Yeah, I would think so. Yeah, I would think. I like the title. It reminds me of Peck's Bad Boy. Do you remember that? [00:54:07] Speaker F: Oh yeah. [00:54:08] Speaker C: A whole series of those books. In this book, Thomas Bailey Aldrich is writing about his own boyhood. And he is not really a bad boy, but that's. I think he's more mischievous as we. [00:54:19] Speaker E: Were when we were younger. [00:54:20] Speaker C: No, I know that's. That's the same with Pack's Bad Boys. Some of those other things, they weren't, they weren't bad to the point they were mugging old ladies or robbing banks or anything. They were mischievous. Just a little, little, little things like, like Tom Saw or Huck Finn. They were not bad. Nothing they did was really bad. [00:54:36] Speaker E: Right. [00:54:37] Speaker F: And you were correct about Irene Wicker. [00:54:40] Speaker C: She was Kellogg's singing lady, because I remember it well. I'm the same age you are, by the way. Okay, well, you're an old poop. I guess so. But we used to look forward to that when we were little kids, you know, listening to her tell a story and when she would say, and tomorrow we'll be telling the story about. She had a sweet voice. [00:54:58] Speaker E: Oh yeah. [00:54:59] Speaker C: And we can hardly wait for the new story to come in. It's kind of funny. I don't know whether you could sit kids down and, and do the same thing to them today or not. [00:55:06] Speaker D: Not. [00:55:06] Speaker C: But that was a very natural part of life at the time. Yeah. You know, because we, you going to the movies was a big deal, but most of the time we didn't see anything. We had to listen to it on radio. So all of that stuff was very vivid and lovely. [00:55:20] Speaker F: We used our imagination greatly. [00:55:22] Speaker C: I used to lay on the carpet. [00:55:24] Speaker F: In front of our big four model. [00:55:26] Speaker C: American Bosch radio, I think it was. [00:55:28] Speaker F: And you just use your imagination and. [00:55:31] Speaker C: Maybe enclose your eyes and you're there with whatever the, the story happens to be. That's right. No, that's right. It was a, there were, it was, it was fun times. When the CBS Mystery Theater came back on radio in, in recent years, one of my daughters and I used to listen to that and she, she was, she was really excited about that. She got a kick out of it. I think there are certain things that kids might get a kick out of today, but putting on drama on radio was such an expensive product opposition. It's easier than just taking old poop like me sitting in front of the microphone with the telephone and it's a lot cheaper or, you know, giving a guy a whole bunch of records to play. Disc jockey. But when you're talking drama, you're talking, you know, writers and actors and sound effects peoples and all that, and they just, they just. Nobody's about ready to spend that kind of money anymore. Although some of the programs that feature old time radio shows, the old tapes, they, they know. Santa Claus. A man named Santa Claus has checked into the Gainesville Veterans Affairs Medical center in Florida for treatment of an irregular heartbeat. This comes out as happy, despite the fact that, that it doesn't sound that way, but because he, he was okay. But He's. He's a 77 year old man and his legal name is, excuse me, is Santa Claus. And he walked into the hospital dressed as Santa Claus. What makes a man do that? A 77 year old man change his name legally to Santa Claus and walk around with the Santa Claus suit? I suppose. What the heck. Anyway, the hospital director said at first he thought the whole thing was a joke. And he later said, honest to God, there was a man admitted named Santa Claus. He's legally listed in VA records as Santa Claus. Silly of me. Of course we did. We had some. We had some great fun. [00:57:30] Speaker F: Yeah, it was fun. I was wondering maybe you'd like to do it again sometime. [00:57:34] Speaker C: Absolutely. I don't know. [00:57:36] Speaker F: Are you working on the 30th? [00:57:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Let me see what the 30th. 30th would be next Saturday, Next set? Yeah, Week from week from this coming night. [00:57:47] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:57:47] Speaker C: Yes, I will be. As a matter of fact, I'll be here all this coming week. Well, starting Tuesday on the overnight. [00:57:53] Speaker D: Oh, really? [00:57:54] Speaker C: Tell me you guys are run from midnight to 2am on? We are, yeah. From 11 to 2am11 to 2am yeah. [00:58:00] Speaker F: Tomorrow night we're doing something we've never done before. I don't know how it'll go. We're doing a remote from a bus. [00:58:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:06] Speaker F: And you ever done one of those? [00:58:10] Speaker C: Yeah, but it's been a long time. I haven't. Haven't done much of that recently. [00:58:13] Speaker F: Yeah, I don't know how it'll go. I'm, you know, a little apprehensive I. [00:58:16] Speaker C: Guess because that's kind of interesting because you'll be on live, but will there be somebody who can hit the delay? You know, Would you be on delay? [00:58:24] Speaker F: Yeah, I guess they're gonna put us on a microwave thing. They call it a Marty or something like that. They have this fancy hookup. Our little AM station doesn't have any money. But the FM stations that are our sister stations, I guess they're all excited about it. So they want us all the fancy equipment you could. [00:58:38] Speaker C: You said your little AM station We are, I thought was one of the major stations, wasn't I? Because I remember always reading, you know, the top 10 records of the week picked by disc jockeys across the country. And Bill Randall always was listed as working at wer. If I get the wrong place. [00:58:58] Speaker F: No, it's the right place. [00:58:59] Speaker E: It's just. [00:58:59] Speaker F: It used to be a really big station. I guess back probably when AM was more of a force in playing records than you know. [00:59:06] Speaker C: It is now. [00:59:07] Speaker F: Bill Randall's still around, I think. He works on AM850, WRMR. It's the music of your life. [00:59:14] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:59:15] Speaker F: That's one of those. [00:59:17] Speaker C: Yeah. If you stay in long enough, you. Then you become the oldies guy. [00:59:20] Speaker F: Yeah, he's about your age, I guess, and he, you know, that's the number one AM station in town a lot of the time. [00:59:25] Speaker C: Is that right? [00:59:26] Speaker F: Really is more so than. The big One in town is three w. E. There are 50,000 watts. We're only 5,000, which is surprising that, you know, we are used to be a big force. [00:59:36] Speaker C: No, I know, I know it was. I've always thought. I didn't realize you were only 5,000 watts, but I worked at a not. It was not music of your life. It was another station kind of memory, tunes like that for a couple of years of years. And boy, I hated it because most of the songs we played, I hated that when they were new. [00:59:53] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:59:53] Speaker C: And I thought, here it is 9,000 years later, and I'm playing songs I hated way back then. But it depends on what your taste is. [01:00:01] Speaker F: You know, it's like, I listen to it and it's. I. I swear, every time I tune in that station, it's Frank Sinatra. I mean, I like Frank Sinatra, but not. You know what I mean? Every time I was thinking, you know. [01:00:11] Speaker C: Okay, I know that. Well, that's interesting. That would go heavy on him because the station I worked for, he used to be an oasis. Because most of the time we played real nothing stuff. So by the time we got to even an old Sinatra thing or an old Count Basie thing, I thought, boy, I'm really living now. The rest of the time in between was reading. I mean, most of the music of any period is really nothing very great, Norm. [01:00:37] Speaker F: If they would play Count Basie, I'd be thrilled. [01:00:39] Speaker C: Yeah, we didn't play much of that, but occasionally we would. And it was like cleaning out your head, you know, I really enjoyed that. So you're on. Anyway, what are you going to do at the bar? [01:00:48] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:00:49] Speaker F: I mean, you know, we're going to do this remote and we're not going to be able to take phone calls. I don't think so. We're going to have like 50 or 60 people in the room and play games. And I wrote a. Of course, you know, I've admitted several times I ripped off your dumb birthday game and called it the stupid birthday game. And I wrote one of those. [01:01:04] Speaker D: And we. [01:01:05] Speaker F: We've got about I don't know, a few hundred bucks worth of stuff to give away. So we figured we can buy their love if they don't like us, you know. [01:01:11] Speaker C: Oh, that's, that's, that's very good. You actually have legitimate prizes there. [01:01:15] Speaker F: Yeah, and it's really weird because we're getting popular. We've been doing this like a couple of years now, and all of a sudden we had a Brad supplement, a local weather guy from the TV station down and he says he listens all the time and all these media people are supposed to show up and like, it's like we're the Anfont Tareeb Z Talk Radio in Cleveland or something. [01:01:32] Speaker C: That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Any I do now Christmas night. Are you, do you guys, are you guys on Christmas night? [01:01:41] Speaker F: No, just Saturday nights. [01:01:42] Speaker C: Oh, you're just not. Okay, Saturday night. That's why we're talking, we're talking the, the end of the month then. Okay, let's see if we can't do something. I think we haven't talked to you. [01:01:51] Speaker F: In a while and it's, it's almost New Year's Eve. [01:01:54] Speaker C: That's right, too. Yeah. [01:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:56] Speaker F: I wish it were New Year's Eve because I prefer to work on New Year's Eve than have to go out there and, you know, you have to have fun on New Year's Eve whether you like it or not. Sometimes I'd rather just stay home and listen to the radio. [01:02:07] Speaker C: You know, it's kind of funny because I remember as a young person, the great thrill was staying up all night and that, you know, and on New Year's Eve you had to do that, because if you didn't do that, you know, but it was like you had to tell your friends, I stayed up all night. Right. And then later on, you know, like you, I, I, I've been working all night off and on through the years. And so the thrill is really going to bed New Year's Eve instead of staying awake. It, it's somehow the thrill. It's too bad. There's a lot of the things that we enjoyed so much as kids, we become so jaded with later on. [01:02:41] Speaker F: I have a quick question for you. [01:02:42] Speaker C: Yes? [01:02:43] Speaker F: How old Jack Hart? [01:02:45] Speaker C: Jack is. I think he's about in his early 30s, 33, 34. Can I talk to Jack Hart? Ed, can we, can we get Jack Hart? We might as well put him on and you can ask him directly because there's no sense of my just guessing about all of that. We can find out I just wondered. [01:03:08] Speaker F: Because I'm 34, and when I listen to Jack, I think I really relate to him on a level, because I. I think he seems to know stuff about, you know, older stuff that a lot of people don't know. [01:03:17] Speaker C: No, I think. I think he's about the same age you are. Ed is punching him up there and see if we can't get him on the air. We're having trouble with our computer screen. [01:03:27] Speaker F: Yeah, that's what Ed said when I called. Yeah, we've had that occasionally back when we had a computer. But, you know, our station's really gotten to the point where we don't even have that anymore. It's really kind of sad. [01:03:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I spoke. I spoke. But in a way, I kind of envy you, for you get all these modern devices like computers, and once they're down, you're dead. It was. It was so much easier just to do things mechanically. [01:03:49] Speaker F: Oh, I don't know, though. I mean, you know, people complain about the bank machines and the bank cards don't work, and I say, yeah, but would you really want to go stand in line at the bank? You know, sometimes it's a lot easier. Most of the time, it works if we just don't appreciate it when it does quit. [01:04:02] Speaker C: No, I guess that's true. [01:04:03] Speaker F: I went to the grocery store, and they ring those things through with the scanner so quick. Yeah, they went through about a hundred items in literally three minutes. I thought, boy, can you imagine if she had to punch all those things in like they used to? [01:04:14] Speaker C: Well, we used to. Because I used to work in a grocery store. What we would do is we'd have to get all the items, because back then I worked in a. What was called a service store. People would give you their order or tell you what, and then you go bring it, put it on the counter, get all of the. And then you'd get the bag. You'd put it in or bags, and you'd put down the price of the items, and you'd have to add them up by hand to this moment. I can add or subtract. Subtract mostly. You know, deducting milk bottles and things that people would turn in. Are we getting. Jack, can I talk. Oh, there you are. Okay. Jack, I'm sorry you've been standing by all that time. Yeah, just standing here. Okay. This is Gilly, who does a show Saturday nights on We Are in Cleveland. Hi, Jack. And we did a couple of things together. At one point, he had some questions he wanted to ask you. [01:05:07] Speaker F: I just Wondered how old you were, Jack. And I was curious because when Norm said he thought you were about 33, 34. [01:05:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:14] Speaker G: Yeah, I'm 311. [01:05:17] Speaker F: I'm 34 myself. I just. I just thought it was. I always enjoy listening to you on the birthday game. I enjoy your sense of humor and your wit. And you just seem like a guy who. I guess people tell me I know things about stuff that happened, you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago. And I. I always admired the fact that you seem to as well be interested. Interested in history of entertainment and whatnot. [01:05:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I just like to, you know, read. [01:05:39] Speaker G: Read whatever comes my way and such. It comes from taking subways. You know, you're gonna read anything. But I'm glad you enjoy what we do. [01:05:47] Speaker F: Oh, I do so much. In fact, we. We try to copy it on ware as much as we can. [01:05:54] Speaker C: Gilly was saying they do a thing called the stupid birthday. And we did a. A joint broadcast at one time. We'll do it again probably maybe next weekend, where we're on his station and he's on our station. Uhhuh. And I said between. Between Cleveland and here. I tell you, we just. We. We just captured everything. [01:06:15] Speaker G: You just can't tour up America. [01:06:17] Speaker F: Well, I'll tell you this. You know, I. I listen to a lot of AM radio in the middle of the night. And you guys are the best station going that I can find. I mean, you're not syndicated, you know, you're. You're live right there in Boston. You guys come in usually pretty clear. As long as I'm not in the car with the heater on. Because for some reason I have to turn the heat down if I want to hear Norman Jack. [01:06:35] Speaker C: So you think of us and you get cold just automatically. It's kind of interesting because we've done. We've done a joint broadcast with One station was WJR Detroit, which is, I think, Clear Channel. 50,000 watts at night. That is 50,000 watts at night and clear channel at night. I mean, it's 50,000 watts all the time. In any event, there was a guy named Ed Hines was his last name. What the heck was this? I'm forgetting his first name. [01:07:04] Speaker F: I remember you having this conversation on the air with someone. [01:07:07] Speaker C: Yeah, we had Hines on, and then another time we had another station further west. And I thought with the signals of all these stations, we pretty much cover the whole country. Because we don't. We go as far west maybe on a good night, as far west as maybe Wisconsin, Illinois, out that way. But. But Adding another station to the other side. We went over to the West Coast. Maybe we can do that. Maybe we can tie in with you one night and then tie in maybe with a couple of other stations further west and maybe in the south or something like that. And we could. We could. We could blanket the entire country and do really nasty stuff like Wolf Man. [01:07:50] Speaker F: Jack back in the 50s or something. [01:07:52] Speaker C: With Mexican stations maybe causing. It may cause an insurrection or something like that. Yeah, yeah. That way we could band the whole. [01:07:59] Speaker G: Country together for some cause. [01:08:01] Speaker C: We just have to come up with a cause. [01:08:02] Speaker F: The sky is falling. That would be a lot of fun. [01:08:06] Speaker E: Pardon me. [01:08:06] Speaker F: I have some sort of cold that. Something that attacks just the vocal cords. [01:08:11] Speaker C: Everybody here has that. [01:08:12] Speaker F: It's like all I have is this constant trying to clear my throat. I've had it for a week. [01:08:16] Speaker C: I know. I've been doing that too. Now we've had. We. We have some of the. Our broadcasters here, Bob Ames and who. Who's the guy who preceded you tonight? Jack on the Traffic was Lou. Lou Lo Amino, who has. Who had a bad throat, you know, was hoarse and. And Bob has. I think we're all coming down with something. You know, I've got a little bit of a. A little bit of a. Myself going on. [01:08:43] Speaker F: We're all trying to lower our voice. [01:08:47] Speaker C: Just trying to get it low. Yeah, nice and low. [01:08:50] Speaker F: Like Ken Nordine there with a guy with a voice everyone would just. [01:08:53] Speaker C: Yeah, he's still. He's still doing commercials. It's incredible. He's still. [01:08:57] Speaker F: It's like 77 or something now. [01:08:58] Speaker C: Oh, he's gotta be. He's gotta be. He. He made records at one. I don't. We're talking Ken Nortina. I'm surprised that you know who he is. [01:09:06] Speaker F: Oh, yeah, he's the greatest. [01:09:07] Speaker C: He's his choice. Ah, that guy. Oh, yeah, yeah. He didn't. And he did. He did an album once of funny readings with a jazz background. [01:09:15] Speaker F: They called it word jazz. [01:09:17] Speaker C: Word jazz. You know, all that stuff. Yeah. [01:09:19] Speaker F: They used to play it on a college station around here. And you could send away to someplace in Wisconsin to get a tape of it for 10 bucks, you know. And if you'd like a copy of this program, please send $10 to. And the other thing about the olives and how he always is eating in the middle of the night. That sort of. [01:09:36] Speaker C: In fact, they had. [01:09:36] Speaker F: Ken Nordeen was on Larry King's show once, and he said, you remember the time Larry says. [01:09:41] Speaker D: Remember that time? [01:09:42] Speaker F: You know, that kind of thing. We used to sit across the table and have lunch. And there was so much smoke in the room, you couldn't breathe. And he says, you know, of course, we both quit smoking. And Ken says, yes. I tell people it's bad for me. I had to give it up. It's bad for my lung. So apparently, maybe he only has one left. [01:09:58] Speaker C: He sure gets a whole lot of volume out of that. And great voice. [01:10:02] Speaker F: Larry King said something about. He goes, you know, if you went to a job interview for a voiceover, and Ken Nordeen walked up and said, good morning. You just go home. [01:10:10] Speaker C: You really would. You really would. His voice sounds exactly the same as it did when I was playing Word Jazz, which came out 58. Yeah, it was. That's about 40 years old. That's right. Close to 40 years old. He still sounds exactly the same. [01:10:25] Speaker F: The last I'd heard of him, he was touring before. Before Jerry Garcia died, he was touring with the Grateful Dead. [01:10:30] Speaker C: Oh, really? [01:10:31] Speaker F: He would do live readings and before Dead concerts and, like, readings, you know, with. I guess instead of Word Jazz, it was Word dad or something, you know, and they would have the Deadhead music behind him, you know, And I guess he had long, flowing white hair. And Larry King said he looked like God. [01:10:48] Speaker C: Okay. Because I've never seen him. [01:10:50] Speaker D: Hey. [01:10:50] Speaker C: Okay, Gilly, we'll. We'll talk maybe week after next week. [01:10:55] Speaker F: Try and hook up with you on the 30th. And nice talking to you, Jack. And I enjoy listening to both of you. [01:10:58] Speaker G: Oh, thank you very much. [01:10:59] Speaker D: All right. Well, good night. [01:11:00] Speaker C: Good night. Good night, Gilly. And good night to you, Jack. Oh, goodness, you're just a wonderful person. Okay. I don't even know how to cut you off. [01:11:09] Speaker E: No, that's because. [01:11:10] Speaker C: Okay, okay. Ed says he'll do it with a great pleasure. We have some more people on the line and I see. Oh, that's. Well, you must have been. You must have been. Just stood out in the crowd. [01:11:23] Speaker B: Oh, I thought I was. [01:11:25] Speaker C: Look at Marie. She has an orchid and all. And all. All you gave me was a gardenia. Oh, that's nice. I appreciate you sharing all of that with us, Marie. You're a good person. [01:11:36] Speaker B: Okay. Good talking with you. [01:11:38] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:11:38] Speaker B: And I'll be calling you again, I hope. [01:11:40] Speaker C: You will. I look forward to that. Thank you. [01:11:42] Speaker B: Good enough, sir. [01:11:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Bye. Bye. Marie. Certain career. Didn't he respect what you wanted to do? [01:11:49] Speaker E: No. [01:11:50] Speaker C: Okay. [01:11:51] Speaker D: See, he figured as long as he was going to be a chemist, he. [01:11:54] Speaker B: Would want me to be a chemist. [01:11:55] Speaker D: And work in the laboratory with him. And I didn't want to do that. [01:11:59] Speaker C: Did you ever. You didn't marry him then? [01:12:00] Speaker D: No, I married another girl and had seven children. [01:12:04] Speaker C: Did she. What did she become a chemist? [01:12:06] Speaker D: No, she became a housewife, period. [01:12:09] Speaker C: I see. [01:12:09] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:12:10] Speaker C: Okay. [01:12:10] Speaker D: So now another boy I had gone. [01:12:12] Speaker B: All the way through grammar school with. [01:12:14] Speaker D: Went to Boys Latin school on the seventh grade grade. So he took me to my senior prom. [01:12:19] Speaker B: He played football for Boys Latin. [01:12:21] Speaker D: So now I had a blue gown, this time with red roses. So now I dated him for a while and then we used to go to Steuben's with all the football team, you know, after the final game with English, Latin. [01:12:34] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:12:35] Speaker D: So that's my career. Then I married a boy that graduated from Brookline High. [01:12:42] Speaker C: Going to have to pick up the story another time, Monica. [01:12:44] Speaker D: Okay. [01:12:44] Speaker C: Because I got news coming up, but thanks a lot for calling. [01:12:47] Speaker B: Okay, bye. [01:12:47] Speaker D: Bye. [01:12:48] Speaker C: Bye, bye. Oh, she really. She really wrapped it up quickly, didn't she? Okay, WBZ, Boston. Norm Nathan here. And the time is 1:30. Kids, Quincy. Hi, Harriet. [01:12:59] Speaker D: Hi. [01:12:59] Speaker C: How you doing? [01:13:00] Speaker D: I'm doing fine, Mom. [01:13:01] Speaker C: Good. [01:13:02] Speaker D: I got a story. [01:13:04] Speaker E: I talk to people, too. [01:13:06] Speaker B: And imagination. [01:13:08] Speaker C: You talk to yourself, in other words? [01:13:09] Speaker D: Yeah, mostly. My husband, he died in 85. [01:13:12] Speaker E: And I talked to him a lot. [01:13:14] Speaker C: Really? [01:13:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:15] Speaker E: I asked him if I should do this. [01:13:17] Speaker B: How do you feel about that? But anyway, about five years ago, every night when I went to bed, I felt somebody in the bed and I. [01:13:29] Speaker E: My God, I got a ghost, I said. And I'd say, franny, is that shoe. [01:13:34] Speaker B: Hug me or something? And nothing. [01:13:37] Speaker E: And I didn't tell a soul. I said, my God, if I tell anybody I think I got a ghost. [01:13:42] Speaker C: They'Ll tell me I'm nuts. [01:13:45] Speaker B: So my son had brought home a kitten. And one day he was down on the floor playing with a kitten. And the kitten went under my bed. And when the kitten went under my. [01:13:57] Speaker E: Bed, there was a hole in the. [01:13:58] Speaker B: Mesh, the sun of the box spring mattress. [01:14:01] Speaker E: And the carrot had gone up in the box spring. And that was my ghost. [01:14:06] Speaker C: Oh, I'm sorry it didn't turn out to be something more ominous. [01:14:09] Speaker B: Oh, no, I don't really believe in ghosts, but it had me kind of. [01:14:15] Speaker C: That kind of scares you a little. [01:14:16] Speaker E: Bit, Larry, for a few days. [01:14:19] Speaker C: And you shared that with us. And as a result, we here at the WBZ are going to vote by the movie rights. [01:14:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:14:27] Speaker E: All right. [01:14:27] Speaker C: To that story. [01:14:28] Speaker E: It's quite a story. [01:14:30] Speaker C: Anyway, I. I appreciate that. Where do you talk to yourself mostly, by the way? [01:14:35] Speaker E: I used to Drive and talk a lot. [01:14:37] Speaker C: Yeah, in the cars, usually. That's where most people talk themselves, yelling at the dashboard. Anyway, I appreciate the call to slow. [01:14:45] Speaker E: Down and things like that. [01:14:47] Speaker C: Oh, really? You. Would you give instructions to yourself? [01:14:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:14:52] Speaker C: Oh, boy. That's kind of scary. Harriet. [01:14:55] Speaker B: No, not really. [01:14:56] Speaker C: Okay. Hey, take care of yourself. Thanks for the call. [01:14:59] Speaker D: Okay. [01:15:00] Speaker C: Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Okay, let's see. 2, 5, 4, 1030, area code 617. This is Marianne in Danvers. Hi, Marianne in Danvers. [01:15:09] Speaker B: Good morning, sweetheart. [01:15:11] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. Good morning to you, baby. Sweetheart. You saucy wench. [01:15:15] Speaker D: I am. [01:15:16] Speaker C: You are a saucy bad one. Oh, that's great. That's great. [01:15:20] Speaker B: Listen, I have a question for you. [01:15:22] Speaker C: Yep. [01:15:25] Speaker B: How do any of us get any sleep if Bob Raleigh is out sick? [01:15:34] Speaker C: Let me see if I understand the question. I don't know. [01:15:38] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I. You know, I can take it if. If, you know, if you're working Friday and Saturday night. [01:15:45] Speaker C: All right. What a nice thing for you to say. [01:15:47] Speaker B: I sleep and I wake up. But Sunday and Monday also. [01:15:52] Speaker C: Yeah. I thank you very, very much for. For saying. That's very nice of you to say that. [01:15:56] Speaker B: Well, you're a sweetheart. [01:15:57] Speaker C: Oh, I want you. I want you so bad, Mar. [01:16:00] Speaker D: I know. [01:16:01] Speaker C: And you live right next door to me up there. [01:16:03] Speaker D: Yes, I do. [01:16:04] Speaker C: I bet I could walk to your house. [01:16:06] Speaker B: Yeah, you probably could. And I think you know one of my dearest friends from Middleton. [01:16:12] Speaker C: Now, who would that be? [01:16:13] Speaker B: And she said she saw you with your daughter in a restaurant recently. [01:16:20] Speaker C: Okay, let me see. Who would that be? [01:16:22] Speaker B: Her name is Virginia. [01:16:24] Speaker C: Oh, sure, you don't want to mention her last name, but I know exactly who you're talking about. Sure. [01:16:28] Speaker B: Did you ever hear the story about her love affair? [01:16:34] Speaker C: No wonder you didn't want to mention her last name. Is it really torrid and spicy and wonderful? [01:16:39] Speaker B: Really beautiful? [01:16:40] Speaker C: Yeah, this is the fact. We were. We. We met her with the. The fellow she's going with. She's going to marry sometime this summer, is she not? [01:16:49] Speaker B: Well, she didn't tell me that yet. [01:16:51] Speaker C: No, I think she is planning to marry. [01:16:52] Speaker B: I'm going to be the maid of honor. [01:16:54] Speaker C: Oh, you aren't. But she hasn't told you she's getting married. [01:16:56] Speaker B: She didn't tell me what day yet. [01:16:58] Speaker C: Oh, what day? Okay. But they are getting married. And I. We did meet him. [01:17:02] Speaker B: Oh, he's the. He's a sweetheart. [01:17:04] Speaker C: He seemed like a very nice man. Tell us about this torrid, wild, crazy love affair that shocked a dozen continents. And the Entire town of Middleton. [01:17:12] Speaker B: Well, I'll tell you. [01:17:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:17:15] Speaker B: C and I used to go out occasionally, like on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. [01:17:19] Speaker C: So. Who did you say? C and I. [01:17:21] Speaker E: She. [01:17:22] Speaker C: Oh, she. And I'm sorry. Yep. [01:17:24] Speaker B: And she told me that she was going to the Bahamas over Christmas. Now this is like two and a half years ago, so would I drop her off at the airport. So at five o' clock in the morning, the weekend before Christmas, like a good soul, I drive her to the airport and we get into this gridlock, you know what I'm saying? [01:17:53] Speaker C: Heavy traffic is what you're saying. [01:17:55] Speaker D: It was horrible. [01:17:56] Speaker C: Okay. [01:17:56] Speaker B: I drop her off with her big bags and all this stuff and I'll call you if I need a ride home from the airport when I get back. She never calls me. She never calls me. [01:18:08] Speaker C: She fell in love with one of the baggage handlers. [01:18:11] Speaker B: No. [01:18:11] Speaker C: And he wheeled her home on one of his big carts. Was there. [01:18:15] Speaker B: She met this guy at the airport and they sat next to each other on a plane and that. And that's the end of the story. [01:18:25] Speaker C: They enjoyed their lunch together, bag of peanuts and everything. [01:18:29] Speaker B: And she totally forgot about me. [01:18:34] Speaker C: Oh, well, that's not a bad thing. [01:18:36] Speaker B: Well, I mean, was this on the. [01:18:38] Speaker C: Way back or the way over or both? [01:18:41] Speaker B: On the way over. [01:18:42] Speaker C: Oh. Oh, I see. So they sat next to it. Now where was she going? [01:18:48] Speaker B: She was going to the Bahamas. [01:18:50] Speaker C: Okay, well, how long and how long a trip is that by airs? [01:18:54] Speaker B: Well, you know, like two and a half hours. I don't know. [01:18:56] Speaker C: I see. So they were sitting next to each other for two and a half hours. I want to get the entire picture. It's terribly important. I have all the details. Yeah. Two and a half hours sharing the bag of pecan nuts. Right. [01:19:06] Speaker B: And he didn't want to go. [01:19:08] Speaker C: He didn't want to go to the Bahamas. [01:19:10] Speaker D: On the trip. [01:19:11] Speaker B: On the trip he went kicking and screaming. [01:19:14] Speaker C: Okay, this. Oh, this was a. This was an organized kind of. [01:19:17] Speaker B: His children bought this ticket for him. He didn't want to go. He sees her fumbling with her bags at the airport and all of a sudden he changes his mind. [01:19:30] Speaker D: Oh. [01:19:31] Speaker C: I mean, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten on the plane at all. [01:19:33] Speaker B: Oh, no. He thought she looked gorgeous and beautiful. [01:19:36] Speaker D: And. [01:19:36] Speaker B: Hey, there's something a little different about this trip, I think. [01:19:42] Speaker C: No kidding. Yes, sir. And she. Did she kind of flutter her eyelashes at him? [01:19:46] Speaker D: No, no, no, she's. [01:19:48] Speaker C: She probably never even saw him. [01:19:49] Speaker B: No, she's kind of off the wall a lot of times. [01:19:52] Speaker C: Well, I know, I've known her for a lot of years. I know. I know that. [01:19:55] Speaker B: I mean, she was mining roll business. [01:19:58] Speaker C: Well, that isn't off the wall. [01:20:00] Speaker B: Well, I know, but. [01:20:01] Speaker C: No, I know, and I'm just. I'm teasing. So what happened after they got to the Bahamas? [01:20:09] Speaker B: That's the story after the story. I never heard the whole story. [01:20:13] Speaker C: Oh, so the story. [01:20:15] Speaker B: But she didn't come home. [01:20:18] Speaker C: What do you mean? [01:20:18] Speaker B: They went to Florida after that. [01:20:20] Speaker C: She was not planning to go to Florida. [01:20:22] Speaker B: No. So she didn't call me to get a ride from the airport. [01:20:27] Speaker C: Yeah. So you don't even know. [01:20:28] Speaker B: She totally dumped me, Norm. You know what I'm saying? [01:20:31] Speaker C: I know what you're saying. You're saying she totally dumped you. Isn't that what you're saying? Yes, that's what you're saying. I thought that's what you were saying. What happened now that he. He was not planning to go to Florida. Neither one of them were. [01:20:42] Speaker D: No. [01:20:42] Speaker C: So they just stayed in Bahamas for a little while and they were so wildly in love is that they chased each other around the beach and everything. [01:20:49] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:20:49] Speaker C: And said, let's keep this going. We'll go to Florida. Just like that. [01:20:53] Speaker B: And you know what? This proof storm. You're never too old. [01:20:57] Speaker C: I know what you're saying. [01:20:58] Speaker B: Find a little romance. You know what I'm saying? [01:21:01] Speaker C: I know what you're saying. You're saying it's never too late to find a little romance. [01:21:04] Speaker B: You have to be open to some of this. [01:21:08] Speaker C: Well, of course, you know. No, Nobody ever said you were ever too old for romance. I hope to have nobody. Or did a scientific study and found that to be so. [01:21:17] Speaker E: Well, you know. [01:21:17] Speaker C: But, you know, what about you now? Are you married? [01:21:20] Speaker B: No. [01:21:21] Speaker C: No. [01:21:21] Speaker D: My. [01:21:21] Speaker B: My husband's been dead like four and a half years. [01:21:24] Speaker C: Well, okay. So it's time for you to find a romance, too, isn't it? [01:21:27] Speaker B: Yeah, but there's not much out there, Norm. You know what I'm saying? [01:21:29] Speaker C: I know what you're saying. You're saying that it was gridlock going to the airport. Yeah. No, no, that wasn't what you were saying this time. No, that was the other. You know what I'm saying? [01:21:41] Speaker B: It's kind of tough. I mean, when you had a great romance, you know what I'm saying? [01:21:45] Speaker C: I know what you're saying. [01:21:46] Speaker B: I know what you're saying, too. [01:21:48] Speaker C: Listen, could you do me. Yes, sir. One huge favor? [01:21:51] Speaker B: I'll do anything for you, North. Just ask me. [01:21:54] Speaker C: Oh, I changed my mind. [01:21:57] Speaker B: Commercial. [01:21:57] Speaker C: I think I got Something else I want to ask you then, if you're that much of a receptive mood. Now, what I was going to ask you was could you stop saying you know what I'm saying? [01:22:06] Speaker D: Oh. [01:22:06] Speaker C: Because you know something? [01:22:07] Speaker B: Bad habit. [01:22:08] Speaker C: Yeah, but. [01:22:09] Speaker B: But the bad habits. [01:22:10] Speaker C: Yeah. No, but the reason. Would you be quiet? Would you be quiet just for a minute while I tell you why it bothers me? [01:22:17] Speaker D: All right? [01:22:18] Speaker C: Because I find it terribly erotic and I'm getting all steamed up here. See, every time you say that, I don't know why it is. It must be some kind of a reaction. [01:22:26] Speaker B: Don't knock it, Norm. If you can get. Still get steamed up over a woman's voice, you're not dead yet. [01:22:37] Speaker C: And if I. If I don't get steamed up over a woman's voice, you know what I'm saying, I'm dead. Is that right? Is that you know what I'm saying? [01:22:43] Speaker B: No, no. There's still a lot of romance left, okay? And. And, you know, you find it in different ways if you talk to yourself or the peep frog. [01:22:53] Speaker D: I love it. [01:22:54] Speaker C: How can I find romance with the peepers? [01:22:57] Speaker B: Oh, I think they're very romantic, don't you? [01:22:59] Speaker C: No, they are too. Yeah. No, but I thought. You thought about romantic. [01:23:02] Speaker B: Play them for me. Do you have any peep frogs around there? [01:23:06] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, they're called peepers. Peepers. Yeah. Could you. Could you get that for me, Adam? Underneath the. Underneath the bumps it says, listen, how. [01:23:15] Speaker B: Many cars did that Nancy company get the next day? [01:23:19] Speaker C: No, it's right at the top. If you will just whirl that thing. Hold on a minute. I'm giving my forceful instructions to show you what kind of a leader I am, which I hope you'll. [01:23:28] Speaker B: Well, you aim to please, don't you? [01:23:30] Speaker C: I aim to please. So please take better aid. [01:23:33] Speaker D: All right? [01:23:34] Speaker C: You know what that means? Yes, sir. Okay. You know what I'm saying? [01:23:38] Speaker B: Yes. [01:23:38] Speaker C: Okay. Peep frogs. Yeah. On cue. Cue the peepers. Cue the spring peepers. [01:23:47] Speaker B: Made my day. [01:23:48] Speaker C: But they're not. They're not that loud anymore. They're starting to fade away. [01:23:51] Speaker B: Only because, I mean, they found their. [01:23:54] Speaker C: They found their mates. [01:23:55] Speaker B: That's right. [01:23:56] Speaker C: And the only ones that have not found their mates are a few losers. And that's why they don't scream as loud. [01:24:01] Speaker B: And they're. And they're made at the key rig. [01:24:04] Speaker C: What is that, please? [01:24:05] Speaker B: The losers are made into key rings. [01:24:08] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. Did you hear the key rings we had the other day? [01:24:11] Speaker B: I wonder how many cars did n Nancy company get the next day. [01:24:16] Speaker C: Oh, I don't know. I haven't. I haven't really checked the mail. [01:24:19] Speaker D: Why don't you call them up and. [01:24:20] Speaker C: Ask them right now? [01:24:21] Speaker B: Why don't you get a cut? [01:24:23] Speaker C: Oh, no, I can't do that. [01:24:25] Speaker B: Tell them you want 5% off. [01:24:27] Speaker C: That's right. And I'll use the facilities of WBZ in order to further my own financial ambitions. [01:24:34] Speaker B: Just don't tell them. [01:24:35] Speaker C: Don't tell bz. [01:24:36] Speaker B: No. [01:24:36] Speaker C: You think I can go on the air and work out deals like that? Well, they probably. They probably don't. Listen, I think you may be right. I have a feeling I can sit here talking secret code to some foreign nation. Let me turn off the peepers. Okay? Okay. No, but they're. But they're just a few of them now. The sounds are very dim. [01:24:56] Speaker B: Now, you have a neighbor up there any place near you and let me see, they had a place that was on a lake. [01:25:09] Speaker C: Now we don't have a lake in town. We have ponds. [01:25:12] Speaker E: Ponds. [01:25:12] Speaker C: I mean, yeah. We have the Ipswich river flowing through it's fast, majestic, beautiful blue waters. [01:25:19] Speaker B: I think I know about where you live. Is it. Is it down around. [01:25:23] Speaker C: I'm not gonna. Donut. Don't. Don't give any hints, okay? I got enough problems. [01:25:26] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no, no. Is it going towards cops, Bill? [01:25:32] Speaker C: Yes. [01:25:32] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, I know where you're. [01:25:34] Speaker D: I know. [01:25:34] Speaker B: I know about where you are. It's lovely down there. That's where you get all the peep frogs from. [01:25:40] Speaker C: That's right. The peepers are actually recorded in a bog and right on my own land. Yes. So those are Middleton peepers. [01:25:48] Speaker B: I used to live in Beverly. [01:25:49] Speaker D: And I used to call you right. [01:25:51] Speaker B: After my husband died. [01:25:52] Speaker C: Okay, listen, let's continue this off the air sometime. You know what I'm saying? [01:25:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:26:00] Speaker C: Oh, you finally just caught on. Okay, I gotta get going. Mary, you sound like a peeper yourself. Right there with that glass. Okay. You too, Marianne. You know, I think if I played my cards right. Never mind. Forget I said that. Oh, do we have to go to Fred in Medford? Oh, gee, talk about going from. Oh, so I think Fred hung up on me. Fred? Yeah. Maybe he didn't like that introduction. I don't blame him. John in Somerville. Hi. You're on wbc. [01:26:27] Speaker E: Hi. So everybody ends up on the moon tonight, huh? [01:26:30] Speaker C: Oh, did you see that David Copperfield show? [01:26:32] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. I had a friend, he invited me over to his house to watch and. [01:26:35] Speaker C: I turned it down, you know, and you put on dark Glasses, because you misunderstood. Kind of a moon. Yeah, Half moon. [01:26:43] Speaker E: Now, when that guy called in, we want to know your zip code, I thought he was going to start a magic trick too, you know. [01:26:48] Speaker C: That's right. It's not the. Used to have these kind of contests, like put down first of all the length of the Amazon river, right. Then the number for the year that the Persian Empire was founded. Subtract your own age from that and add the age of my cousin Harry Fleet. And then deduct your own license plate number and multiply that by the number of square feet in Asia. And they would go on and on like that. And then at the end, they would give. Give some kind of a silly answer, like. And that what you just did is the exact age. Yeah. Of my Tanta Malka. That's right. [01:27:37] Speaker E: That's unbelievable. [01:27:38] Speaker C: That was my Tanta Malka just speaking then. Anyway, no, there used to be a lot of that. And they remember in the Sunday papers they used to have all kinds of quizzes like which. Which city is further west, Dallas or Methuen? And you would say, naturally, Dallas. They say, no, it's actually Methuen, Massachusetts. It looks like it's Dallas, but that's an optical illusion. Which of these three Andrew Sisters in the middle? The one in the middle or the one on the left? You don't remember those things? Remember you used to do coloring in the same? [01:28:14] Speaker E: Really? [01:28:15] Speaker C: Well, maybe I can bring it up to date. Okay, now you want to know about. [01:28:18] Speaker E: People who talk to themselves. [01:28:19] Speaker C: Which of the. I'm going to update the thing. [01:28:21] Speaker E: Oh, go ahead. [01:28:21] Speaker C: Which of the Pointer Sisters is in the middle? Is that? Okay, Pointers. [01:28:24] Speaker F: Little. [01:28:25] Speaker E: Which one are you pointing at? [01:28:26] Speaker C: Which one am I pointing at? The one in the middle or the one on the left? No, I'm actually pointing on the one on the right. It looks like I'm pointing at the other two, but it's an optical illusion. Why don't I shut up? Oh, geez. Anyway, what can I do for you besides shut up? [01:28:42] Speaker E: People talk to himself, right? [01:28:44] Speaker C: Yes. I wanted to know that. [01:28:45] Speaker E: Well, that's me. I fit in that category. [01:28:47] Speaker C: Do you do that a lot? [01:28:48] Speaker E: I do it a lot. I've done a long time too. [01:28:51] Speaker C: Now what? Where's that? Where? Use the. Is it any place, like at home? Any place. [01:28:55] Speaker E: I'll do it on the job. [01:28:55] Speaker C: I'll do it. What causes that? Have you just had an argument with somebody or something that sparks you. [01:29:01] Speaker E: Do you. [01:29:01] Speaker D: Do you. [01:29:02] Speaker E: You replay conversations that you've just had. You anticipate Conversations that are coming up or. You know, I'm kind of a shy guy, so I gotta like practice stuff before I say stuff, you know. And then once I do say stuff, it seems like, well, gee, that wasn't quite right. Let's play it back again and again. [01:29:24] Speaker C: That's right, that's right. You try to polish it after the fact. Right. [01:29:29] Speaker E: Really as bad as it was, as it sounded, you know, now I've also kind of grown up just like. Like everybody's been. You've probably been to a restaurant or something where there's people talking around you and you get offended by it. [01:29:41] Speaker F: These are either loud or, you know. [01:29:43] Speaker E: Stupid or something like that. But you always admire the guy that's sitting there talking to himself, like out loud. And so I've admired these kind of guys myself and I've kind of like incorporated other ways other guys have a talking to themselves into my own sort. [01:29:58] Speaker F: Of monologue, you know. [01:30:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:30:03] Speaker E: Like my cousin was telling me about this guy he was in the hospital with once and he was laying bed next to him. They were in the same room together. I think my cousin had a deviated seven or something and the guy was going something like, oh yeah. Do you hear what he said? [01:30:15] Speaker C: Oh, no. [01:30:16] Speaker F: Yeah, oh yeah. [01:30:18] Speaker E: So I, I try to do that. [01:30:19] Speaker C: Every now and then. You know, we used to do this. There's a guy named Freddie Taylor right now. Freddie used to own the couple of jazz clubs in Boston. Paul's Mall and Jazz. I forgot the other name of it. [01:30:33] Speaker D: Storyville. [01:30:34] Speaker C: No, no, Storyville was, was George Wayne. That was before that. [01:30:37] Speaker D: Okay. [01:30:39] Speaker C: In any event, at one time we used to go somewhere around one or two o' clock in the morning. It was delicate A in Park Square. This was parked between park and Copley Square, somewhere in that area. And it was open till very, very late. It was a very well known delicatest. A lot of the show people and people like that would drop by and we used to get a table. That'd be Freddie and I, maybe a couple other people right by the stairway. There used to be a stairway going upstairs. Freddie would do a narration like he was a director in a movie, right? And he was directing people as they were coming down the stairs. He would re. He would actually talk about what they were doing at that moment and it looked like he was directing them. Okay. Mr. If you just get to halfway, that's it, that's it. Just lean up against them. And he'd be talking like that for hours, you know, directing and that said, okay, that's A triple little bit. That's a good idea. On the bottom step. That gives a nice good humor. Excellent, excellent. Now fall into the guy's to do that. [01:31:38] Speaker E: It's a little like when you're in church and you start. They play a hymn, you don't know, but you kind of sing along just by getting the note like a second after they play it on that. [01:31:45] Speaker C: Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Did you pick that up from a previous Lister? [01:31:51] Speaker E: I don't know. I'm always picking up these things. These guys say. [01:31:54] Speaker C: Yes, I see. Hey. [01:31:55] Speaker E: No, but I was going down Mass Ave. Coming up from the south end a few weeks ago. [01:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:32:00] Speaker E: And I just. Stuff for no reason. I think I was mad about something. I just started saying, what are you doing? When people would pass by me? Get over here. What do you want to say? [01:32:12] Speaker C: No. [01:32:15] Speaker E: So sometimes when you see a guy like that, right. It might not be totally crazy. He might be, like, partly deliberate. [01:32:23] Speaker C: He may just be a kind of a. A guy who's having fun. Could be. Yeah. [01:32:28] Speaker E: I wasn't having much fun, but I was. I was just in there doing it. [01:32:32] Speaker F: You know what I'm saying? [01:32:33] Speaker C: I know what you're saying. Now you know what I'm saying? Because I know. What are you saying? I don't know what I'm saying. I know what you're saying, though. Hey, anyway, thank you very much for the call, Big John. Okay. Hey, you run the. Listen, I'm supposed to tell you. Ask you to. Hold on a second. Emilio Morata, Mr. Muscle. I knew he wants to talk to you. Okay, okay, hold on. He's our producer. What? What? God's gotta. We're gonna ask him if he wanted to be on the dumb birthday game was what that was all about. I'll be back in a moment, but first, watch this. Oh, did you. [01:33:06] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful land over there. [01:33:08] Speaker C: Yeah, it is nice. Yeah, it's Essex Technical. Yeah. High school and college now. [01:33:13] Speaker E: Yeah, I know it's the high school part. Yeah, I think. I mean, I can't judge now. I was the one that called you last week about the white supremacist guy. [01:33:23] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. [01:33:25] Speaker E: I tell you what, if you notice, like, all northern Essex county, all that is. No, it's beautiful land. All the far land. Of course, I. [01:33:33] Speaker B: That. [01:33:34] Speaker E: That reminded me when I was in the military, when I went over to Israel. It's so beautiful over there. I know that they have a lot of trouble over there, you know, as far as with the Arabs and all, but it's a beautiful land over there. [01:33:44] Speaker C: So I understand. I've never been there. I'd like to go there one day. [01:33:47] Speaker E: Yeah, because I. I was fortunate. I was baptized in the Jordan River. [01:33:50] Speaker C: Oh, were you? [01:33:51] Speaker E: Yes, I was. [01:33:52] Speaker C: Isn't that something? Now, how come? Were you. Oh, you were baptized when you were an adult then? [01:33:58] Speaker E: Yes, I was. I, I. Well, I was. I used to be a Roman Catholic and I got baptized over in a Salem mass on Lafayette Street. [01:34:09] Speaker C: That is, I sure do. [01:34:10] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, that big white church, St. Joseph. And then I became a born again Christian in 1990 and I accepted the Lord as my savior and I got baptized in the Jordan River. [01:34:22] Speaker C: Well, that's really nice. What happened to you after Essex, Aggie? Are you on any form of agriculture or florist business or anything? [01:34:29] Speaker E: I took a meat cutting, but what I do is I went right into the military. Yeah, I went right into the Marine Corps and you know, I just, I wanted to. [01:34:37] Speaker C: Did you become a cook in the service or anything? [01:34:40] Speaker E: Oh, no, no, I was the infantryman slash military police. [01:34:43] Speaker C: Infantry slash military police? [01:34:45] Speaker E: Yeah, I did like a few years in the infantry as a grunt. You know, they go hike along everywhere and everywhere. And then I became an mp and right now I'm doing a job similar to that. [01:34:58] Speaker C: Like what? [01:35:00] Speaker E: I'm a store detective. [01:35:01] Speaker C: How are you? [01:35:02] Speaker E: I'm stop and shop. [01:35:03] Speaker C: Oh, I see. Okay, good. [01:35:04] Speaker E: It's a pretty good job. I really enjoy the guys I'm working with. They're really wonderful people. [01:35:08] Speaker C: Oh, that's great. I got news coming up, so I got to take off now. But I thank you for the call, David. [01:35:12] Speaker E: Can I stay on the line after the news? [01:35:16] Speaker C: No, because of course I want to take as many other people as I can. I appreciate you asking though, David, but thanks a lot for calling. Maybe I could have said that a little warmer, more warmly. But anyway, we're coming up to 2 o' clock at news time and then we'll take some more calls. I'm doing okay. How are you doing? [01:35:35] Speaker B: Okay. My voice is kind of cracking on me. [01:35:39] Speaker C: So you have a cold? [01:35:40] Speaker B: I don't know what I have. [01:35:42] Speaker C: You have an allergy? [01:35:44] Speaker B: I guess so, but this is in my throat, so I don't know if you get allergies in your throat. [01:35:49] Speaker C: Yes, you do. Oh, yeah. I mean, well, you get. Maybe, maybe you. I'm a doctor, as you know, and so maybe I didn't take that course. I think I didn't get to medical school that day. [01:36:01] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [01:36:02] Speaker C: When we were talking allergies. Anyway, tell me what I can do for you. [01:36:05] Speaker B: Oh, I just wanted to say thank you for the photograph that you sent me. That's a very attractive picture. [01:36:12] Speaker C: Is it really? I wish I looked like that. [01:36:18] Speaker B: Nothing looks that good. [01:36:19] Speaker D: When. [01:36:20] Speaker B: When he gets older, I'll be very happy. [01:36:22] Speaker C: Oh, he probably won't, because most men are just very envious of the way I've aged. Just so gracefully and so wondrously. [01:36:30] Speaker B: Oh, he'll be envious of the hair that you have and that he won't have. [01:36:34] Speaker C: Oh, you're. You're. You're guessing now. You don't know what he's gonna look like. Ben, how old is. How old is your husband now? [01:36:42] Speaker B: Oh, how old are you? [01:36:44] Speaker C: Oh, he's right there. Can you. I thought he'd be asleep so he wouldn't hear this. [01:36:48] Speaker A: The thank yous reads like Santa's naughty and nice list, so we need to get to it. [01:36:54] Speaker C: You know what I'm saying? [01:36:56] Speaker A: Closing the vault and leaving this world a little sillier and merrier than we found it. 4. Being unprepared and falling on the mercy of the guest. Reading aloud to your children. Family dinners. Story time and quality time. Good books with honest sentiments. Barnes and Noble. B. Dalton Booksellers, Walden Books. Breaking Broadcast Rules. The Christmas Cuckoo. Barley Bread. Partridge Press. Theater of the Mind. Cat Saliva. Simple Green. The Witch's Tale. Wmex, wnac. Milton Yackis. Vivid Imaginations. Knitting and crocheting. Irene Wicker, The Singing Lady. Ken Mayer, Jim Fitzgerald. Hello. Telephone. Ramps, decks and bridges. Live radio. Ol Santy Claus. Sweatshop elves. The Methuen Mills. S.J. perelman. Season's greetings. Cool Yule. Let's pretend. Cream of Wheat. Thomas Bailey Aldridge Acting like a ninny. CBS Mystery Theater. Gilly from Weream in Cleveland. Blanketing the country with radio greatness. Throat clearing. Ken Nordeen. Word jazz. Talking to yourself. Saucy wenches. Torrid tropical love affairs. Peep frogs. The majestic Ipswich River. Norm's cousin Harry Fleet. Optical illusions. Throat allergies. Our guest, Teresa Rice Ingalls. Marianne from Danvers. Ed Leclaire, Emilio Morata, Jack Hart. And the jolly old radio elf, Norm Nathan. A merry and happy one to all. I'm Tony Nesbit. [01:38:42] Speaker C: At this stage of my life to have a job where I get a chance to sit up and act like a ninny all night long and just talk kind of silly and stuff I think is. Is so fantastic, I aim to please. So please take better a All. [01:38:59] Speaker A: Sa.