The sun is shining (sort of) after what seems like a couple of straight weeks of rain. The balcony door is open, there is not much air blowing through the place, fluffy gray clouds fringe the window, the neighbors across the way on their balcony enjoying their turn in the sun as it moves around the courtyard. I’m sure that if a palm tree were in the picture, it would be swaying gently in the breeze.

Time seems to be going by very quickly these days; I’ve been in El Lay for almost six months already. Weekends are somewhat boring, especially with the weather I’ve been having, and for the first time in my life going to work five days a week is somewhat appealing, if only to break up the monotony and getting out of the place on a regular basis.

One of my faves, Gene Scott, died last Monday after a stroke on Friday. The first time I heard of Doc Scott was in 1978, when Heirship was on tour in southern California. We had played at what must have been a morning chapel service for a big religious publisher in Pasadena. After the performance the head guy of the company hooked us up with an afternoon gig on a local live TV show in Glendale. We went, not knowing too much about what it was all about. Turns out it was at Doc’s studio, although it wasn’t Doc’s show, but the only other person he allowed to have a show. But we were in the same room, within feet of ‘the chair’, on the stage with the painted cityscape background, the same stage where was performed the now-iconic ‘I Want To Know’.

Anyway, a few months later, when I left Heirship in Colorado I found myself spending the night iin the Greyhound bus station in downtown LA. What with my guitar and my bag, I dared not try to sleep. So I camped out in one of those chairs with a little five-inch coin-operated TV mounted on the arm. I fed quarters into it watching the only thing that was on all night long – Gene Scott. When I eventually moved to SF, I discovered that Doc owned a TV station there and was broadcasting 24 hours a day…at least until the FCC took it away.

With all the fol-de-rol about his antics and his lifestyle, I always saw him as a brilliant Bible scholar, the genius of whom was hidden in the glare of his behaviour. Now he’s gone – but he will live on via videotape.

Now get on the phone!

This is a history exam for those who don’t mind seeing how much they really remember about what went on in their life. Get paper and pencil and number from 1 to 20. Write the letter of each answer and score at the end. If you’re over 40 you’re expected to do very well!

1. Before they moved to the steering column, where were automobile
headlight dimmer switches located?
a On the floor shift knob
b. On the floor board, to the left of the clutch
c. Next to the horn

2. You find a Royal Cola bottle cap with holes in it. For what was it used?
a. Capture lightning bugs
b. To sprinkle clothes before ironing
c. Large salt shaker

3. Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern winters?
a. Cows got cold and wouldn’t produce milk
b. Ice on highways forced delivery by dog sled
c. Milkmen left deliveries outside of front doors and milk would freeze,
expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

4. What was the popular chewing gum named for a game of chance?
a. Blackjack
b. Gin
c. Craps!

5. What method did women use to look as if they were wearing stockings when none were available due to rationing during W.W.II?
a. Suntan
b. Leg painting
c. Wearing slacks

6. What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn’t tell whether it was coming or going?
a. Studebaker
b. Nash Metro
c. Tucker

7. Which was a popular candy when you were a kid?
a. Strips of dried peanut butter
b. Chocolate licorice bars
c. Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

8. How was Butch wax used?
a. To stiffen a flat-top haircut so it stood up
b. To make floors shiny and prevent scuffing
c. On the wheels of roller skates to prevent rust

9. Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?
a. With clamps, tightened by a skate key
b. Woven straps that crossed the foot
c. Long pieces of twine

10. As a kid, what was considered the best way to reach a decision?
a. Consider all the facts
b. Ask Mom
c. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo

11. What was the most dreaded disease in the 1940′s?
a. Smallpox
b. AIDS
c. Polio

12. “I’ll be down to get you in a ________, Honey”
a. SUV
b. Taxi
c. Streetcar

13. What was the name of Caroline Kennedy’s pet pony?
a. Old Blue
b. Paint
c. Macaroni

14. What was a Duck-and-Cover Drill?
a. Part of the game of hide and seek
b. What you did when your Mom called you in to do chores
c. Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. What was the name of the Indian Princess on the Howdy Doody show?
a. Princess Summerfallwinterspring
b. Princess Sacajawea
c. Princess Moonshadow

16. What did all the really savvy students do when mimeographed tests were handed out in school?
a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you high
b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs out the window
c. Wrote another pupil’s name on the top, to avoid their failure

17. Why did your Mom shop in stores that gave Green Stamps with purchases?
a. To keep you out of mischief by licking the backs, which tasted like bubble gum
b. They could be put in special books and redeemed for various household items
c. They were given to the kids to be used as stick-on tattoos

18 Praise the Lord, and pass the _________?
a. Meatballs
b. Dames
c Ammunition

19. What was the name of the singing group that made the song “Cabdriver” a hit?
a. The Ink Spots
b. The Supremes
c. The Esquires

20. Who left his heart in San Francisco?
a. Tony Bennett
b. Xavier Cugat
c. George Gershwin

ANSWERS
1. b) On the floor, to the left of the clutch Hand controls, popular in Europe, took till the late ’60s to catch on.

2. b) To sprinkle clothes before ironing. Who had a steam iron?

3. c) Cold weather caused the milk to freeze and expand, popping the bottle top.

4. a) Blackjack Gum.

5. b) Special makeup was applied, followed by drawing a seam down the back of the leg with eyebrow pencil.

6. a) 1946 Studebaker.

7. c) Wax coke bottles containing super-sweet colored water.

8. a) Wax for your flat top (butch) haircut.

9. a) With clamps, tightened by a skate key, which you wore on a shoestring around your neck.

10. c) Eeny-meeny-miney-mo.

11. c) Polio. In beginning of August, swimming pools were closed, movies and other public gathering places were closed to try to prevent spread of the disease.

12. b) Taxi. Better be ready by half-past eight!

13. c) Macaroni.

14. c) Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. a) Princess Summerfallwinterspring. She was another puppet.

16. a) Immediately sniffed the purple ink to get a high.

17. b) Put in a special stamp book, they could be traded for household items at the Green Stamp store.

18. c) Ammunition, and we’ll all be free.

19. a) The widely famous 50′s group: The Inkspots (Note from Randy: I always thought it was the Mills Brothers).

20. a) Tony Bennett, and he sounds just as good today..

SCORING
17- 20 correct: You are older than dirt, and obviously gifted with mental abilities. Now if you could only find your glasses. Definitely someone who should share your wisdom!

12 -16 correct: Not quite dirt yet, but you’re getting there.

0 -11 correct: You are not old enough to share the wisdom of your experiences. `