"It's the Great Adventures of me ......."

Southwest Airlines recently introduced their new passenger boarding protocol that, in my opinion, ranks right up there with the introduction of the in flight cocktail. I love it! Yesterday, as I was making my flight arrangements for an upcoming trip to Phoenix, I was loudly singing the praises of Southwest Airlines when my friend in the next cubicle asked me if I’d ever heard of PSA ………… a nanosecond of thought later and I sang him the “PSA gives you a lift” jingle from my childhood. Like a crumb in a back tooth that tidbit of jingle was lodged somewhere in a dark and untapped recess of my brain but I pulled it outta’ there as easily as Wart pulled the sword from the stone. Wow! Funny because lately I can try to think of an ordinary word and not come up with it until three days later. The brain is a mysterious organ. Far more mysterious than that other organ the average male thinks is so terribly fascinating and irresistible … but I digress. Me singing this jingle got our entire group started down memory lane and recalling loads of other jingles from our 60’s and 70’s childhoods. Once we’d exhausted our mutually memorable commercial jingles we moved onto our cartoon memories and I started talking about Tom Terrific … and was met with blank stares. I’m shocked and appalled! How is this possible? How can you not remember “it’s the great adventures of me, Tom Terrific, with Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog”? Now my listener’s eyes narrow with suspicion and I’m teased about making this one up. “Not so” say I, “he was a regular cartoon segment on Captain Kangaroo”. A twinkle of recognition now as everyone remembers the Captain and Mr. Green Jeans, Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit … but sadly not “Tom Terrific”. Well thank God for the wonders of the internet cuz one small email link later and everyone is “oh yeah, I remember him”. Harumph! See I told you so. Victory is mine. In flight cocktails and new boarding protocol, as much as I adore them, still take a backseat to being right … but alas, victory was short lived as the conversation moved speedily on to theme songs from 1960’s television shows. I surprised myself by pulling the entire theme song from “Family Affair” out of my aging brain like a rabbit out of a hat.

And rabbits and hats remind me of “Bullwinkle” …

Bullwinkle: “watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat”
Rocky: “again”
Bullwinkle: “just button up my sleeve …presto” (as he pulls out a roaring lion’s head)
Bullwinkle: “oops wrong hat”

I now visualize my future self merrily singing the tune from “Rocky and Bullwinkle” while my grandkids, whose names I won’t be able to remember, visit me in the old folks home.

Dadut dadadadadut dadadadadadadadada dada dadut

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