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DRINK IT UP!

Now that the weather is getting warmer, my kids are constantly in the fridge, reaching for the drinkables. We go through a gallon of milk a day, plus several pitchers of lemonade, numerous liters of soda and countless bottles of Gatorade. And, of course, water, which comes right out of the front of the fridge (unheard of back in my day).

When we were growing up, we had milk for breakfast and lunch. At dinner, my mom would bring out the sleek plastic teacups, and we would have a cup of hot tea liberally cut with milk while my parents had their evening coffee.

Of course, the real treats were the rare occasions when my parents allowed us to have chocolate milk. Remember Ovaltine? Those chocolate crystals never quite dissolved all the way, sticking to the top of the glass until we scrapped them off with our spoons. They were delicious.


When summer came, however, the four of us wanted something lighter and cooler than glasses of chocolate milk or hot milky tea. By the time school was out for summer, we were pleading for Kool-Aid, in fantastic colors and flavors. My mom reluctantly agreed....the packets of unsweetened drink were cheap enough, but we weren't the neatest kids when it came to adding sugar (and we always complained the drink wasn't sweet enough when she added it). What was your favorite Kool-Aid flavor?


In 1964, Pillsbury decided to challenge the Kool-Aid monopoly by introducing the Funny Face Drink mixes. I can remember the original line up - Goofy Grape, Injun Orange, Freckled Face Strawberry (my personal favorite), Chinese Cherry (complete with gong), Loud Mouth Lime and Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry. I remember loving their commercials, which started like this:

By 1966, the commercials were pulled due to protests from Native Americans claiming the name "Injun Orange" was racist. Pillsbury changed the name to "Jolly Olly Orange" and did some damage control by turning "Chinese Cherry" into "Choo Choo Cherry." The new commercials looked like this:

My mom preferred Funny Face to Kool-Aid because it was pre-sweetened, meaning we didn't need to be near the sugar bowl. Unfortunately, in the early years, Funny Face was sweetened with cyclamates, which were banned by the FDA in 1968 as a possible cancer risk. Goofy Grape and the gang were pulled from shelves, returning the following year sweetened with saccharine. The aftertaste was no winner, so in 1970 a new Funny Face was introduced with the tag line "just add sugar." Back to the sugar bowl!

Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose

This Day In Boomer History
THE BIRTH OF ROBERT HEGYES
May 7, 1951

"Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out..."

The year was 1975. TV, that nursemaid of my generation, was going through a lot of changes. In January, Another World became the first soap opera to air hour-long episodes. A brand new game show, Wheel of Fortune, made its debut, and the beloved Colonel Henry Blake was killed off on M*A*S*H.

And then - in September, of course - America headed back to school, and TV did too, by way of  Brooklyn. Welcome Back Kotter entered our homes - and our vocabularies - in September 1975. It was a vehicle for stand-up comedian Gabe Kaplan, and based on his own high school years. Now, the show is probably best known as the show that introduced us all to a young unknown named John Travolta.

Travolta played Vinnie Barbarino, the leader of a group of, er, academically challenged teens who called themselves The Sweathogs. Check out this video - it looks like an early audition for Saturday Night Fever, eh? The other Sweathogs were the smooth black basketball player Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington (played by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs),  the childish oddball Arnold Horshak (Ron Palillo), who raised his hand enthusiastically and yelled, "Oooh, ooh, oooh!" whenever he "knew" an answer, and the tough "Puerto Rican Jew" Juan Epstein (played by birthday boy Robert Hegyes), who had a note from his mother for every occasion.

The Sweathogs' time in high school pretty much echoed my own, and the show was canceled in 1979. As a side note, Hegyes was a Jersey boy who attended Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), which is where I took my post-baccalaureate certification classes. While I was there, Hegyes came back (a conquering hero, I guess) and took the stage for one night in a college production. I attended the production, which was a vanity piece for the local-boy-done-good, who didn't turn out to be nearly as interesting as I remembered Epstein to be. But at least he isn't getting beat up by Screech!

What A World!

This Day In Boomer History
THE OPENING OF WALT DISNEY WORLD
October 1, 1971

When most of us think of Walt Disney World today, we think of the four-park, multi-resort complex near Orlando, Florida. It's the most popular tourist attraction in the country, and for good reason - you can't beat Disney for the complete package. In fact, my family is headed back there in just thirty days, and we're already counting down to the character meet and greets, the fantastic thrill rides, the wonders of Main Street and the delicious food. We visit WDW annually, sometimes even more than once, and we've never had a bad time. Who knew a mouse could show so much hospitality?

When I was growing up, there was no Disney World. My kids find this hard to believe. In fact, my little girl asked me,"Were your class pictures in black and white?" (which I can assure you they were not). What there was, way back in that age of innocence, was a Disneyland. It was a place where dreams came true, where wishes were granted and where our favorite princesses, heroes and flying nannies paraded every day down Main Street.

It was also a place in California, which meant it was a place we'd never be able to visit. Our family never seemed to leave the east coast except for a visit to relatives in Indiana. California could have been on Mars, for what it was worth to us. We knew that the Matterhorn, the Jungle Cruise and that wonderful Main Street were stuff of dreams for us east coast kiddies.

But then, the impossible happened. Walt Disney, the smart businessman that he was, realized that 75 percent of the country's population lived east of the Mississippi. So he decided we needed a theme park all our own.

Plans were made, property purchased - and then Walt died on December 15, 1966, before his vision was realized. Luckily for us, the dream didn't die with him. Walt's brother Roy postponed retirement to oversee the venture, and announced the name Walt Disney World in honor of his brother. The first park, known as The Magic Kingdom, opened 38 years ago today.

I didn't make it to Disney World until my high school senior trip, still some six years away at the time WDW opened. Still, I remember watching the ceremonies on TV and knowing I'd make it there someday, unlike the impossible Disneyland. (Of course, little did I know I'd be there as much as I am...but who knew the world would get so big?)