The movie Mary Poppins came to theaters when I was in kindergarten. Not that I got to see it in the theater, mind you, but our classmate Machelle did and she taught us the song, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” which we sang for our kindergarten graduation ceremony. Eventually, the movie was shown on the Sunday evening television show, The Wonderful World of Disney, and our family watched along with probably 95% of households in America. What magic and fun! Later in childhood I learned the song from Uncle Albert’s ceiling tea party, “I Love to Laugh,” which I believe should be considered a life theme song for me. Funny stuff just…well…makes me happy! I love making other people laugh, especially those closest to me. And when they make me laugh, the more deeply ingrained they become in the fabric of my being.
I think I got it from my Grammy and Grampy. Though they were often quite serious, having survived the Great Depression, World War II, and the resulting deprivations of each, they delighted in making us kids laugh. For instance, Grammy had these crazy glasses with holographic paper lenses; when she moved her head slightly, her eyes seemed to be swirling like someone in a cartoon. And all the while she sat there deadpan. Our Grampy had the most amazing collection of funny faces. They had parties with just us Miller kids, once a Black Cat Society party on Halloween; a New Year’s Eve bash with great fun and food. They read us Dr. Seuss and Bible stories.
We kids spent a lot of time with them, experiencing many facets of life in ways only that grandparent/grandchild relationship can foster: responsibility for getting one’s chores and school work done well; the predictability of life’s routines; balance in one’s life–they said, “When we work, we work; when we play, we play.”–with enough of each.
But, I digress. Grammy and Grampy loved to laugh; me too!
By high school, I had my own radio. Okay, that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but my big brother, Randy, and I worked at home a whole summer between eighth grade and freshman year (I think), and our parents paid us with these psychedelic and really cool AC/DC radios. They stood maybe 12 inches high, 8 inches wide and 5 inches deep covered in a reptilian-patterned, glossy brown vinyl. The whole lower half of the front was a faceted, plastic screen behind which were small multicolored lights that “danced” with the music, according to the volume. I have just spent more time describing this wonderful radio than you think is warranted, but I’m tellin’ you it was a big deal. I spent a lot of time in my room listening to KLEO and KEYN play the current hits, learning all the tunes and words to songs that were, in many ways, harmless but have stuck with me to this day. In the evening on Sundays, Casey Kasem hosted a program, American Top 40, which I tried not to miss so I could know all the best songs and be cool. Sometime in there, I discovered another Sunday evening radio program, Dr. Demento, which specialized in recordings that were comic, novelty, and just plain weird. While I should have been learning important stuff, like Algebra and German, I was instead memorizing these goofy pieces. And I have attached a recording of one such piece I found particularly funny, which will prove to you that I didn’t go off on this radio rabbit trail for nothing. I love to make people laugh, so I memorized and regaled my family and others with “Them Poems” by Mason Williams.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18aTC21w1SmzdIe-Oi3uNv2C3zqdDTPbD/view?usp=sharing
