Three Plays for a Quarter

I wrote a post about movie candy a year or so ago and it got lots of readers. It was fun to write and obviously struck a chord with my baby boomer friends, many of whom read this and leave comments when so motivated. I often think I should focus on things that "matter," and so eschew topics like the Top Ten Oldies of All Time, even though that would be fun to write about--much more fun than politics, despite having Nancy Pelosi's frozen-in-time face to poke fun at.

The fact that older people flip over any little thing related to their youth--like the Beeman's vs. Black Jack debate--is undeniable. Maybe it's because things were better then--let's face it. Lest you forget, or maybe you weren't there: There were only three TV commercials for every half hour of entertainment, there were no robo-calls from telemarketers, and few if any adults walked the streets playing with little portable toys. No AIDS to boot. Ahhh--the good old days.

I remember that at one of my earliest jobs, at a D.C. ad agency when I was 25, a forty-something guy named Larry who occupied the cubby next to mine kept his radio tuned to all oldies, all the time. Back then I thought he was pathetic, clinging to his spent youth while the world passed him by. Sometimes I wonder--am I Larry now? Maybe. Nevertheless, when one of those oldies come on the radio, which happens only rarely but since I own the entire Time-Life DooWop CD collection it doesn't really matter, I react quite strongly and sometimes even have to pull over to collect myself.

As for those Top Ten, I'll go out on a limb and say that "Come Go With Me" by the Del Vikings, "Calendar Girl" by Neil Sedaka and "Tears On My Pillow" by Little Anthony and the Imperials are surely on the list. Then of course there's Dion and the Belmonts, anything by Ricky Nelson, and "Eddie My Love," but that might just be because I had a crush on a guy named Eddie. And the Fleetwoods, can't forget them...