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SIS: “Hey Bro, you better put some pants on, Mom’s got the camera out again.”
BRO: “I’m not falling for that old trick Sis! The last time I put on pants you beat my high score!”
The kids in this old photo are playing something on an Atari 2600. My sister and I had a Pong game console with 4 variations that we would play after school. The only time we looked like these kids was on Saturday morning– but we weren’t playing Pong, we were watching Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the Roadrunner.
-image from PatmanQC video, ‘The History of Pitfall!’

Now this 8-bit doughnut shop after dark is the kind of world I could slip into. Of course I would have to accept the fact that my existence would be less defined and extremely shorter in that squared off reality. Oh sure there’s cool adventures to be had and super feats of strength to show off– but once the person on the other side of the screen runs out of quarters my life is over. Still… I can dream.

Thursday night we took Evelyn to the Dragon Inn. It was her 90th birthday! Peter (on the far left) has known Evelyn since he was a teenager in the 1970′s. His family runs the Dragon Inn so he covered the tab. Barb (next to Peter) and Jenny planned the whole thing. Later that night we went back to Evelyn’s house to sing happy birthday and eat cake. It took all four of us to hold her down for a birthday spanking. After 90 whacks we were pretty worn out so she didn’t get “one to grow on.”

This isn’t how it actually happened. Those people are not us. I am balding and her hair is lighter. We didn’t meet in a studio. I called her up and she said “hello.” She wasn’t spinning a record, but there were birds in the background. I wasn’t smoking a cigar, but I was drinking coffee. Here’s a preview of my next interview with Becky on THE EPILOGUE CABIN.

So this actually happened once upon a time in the 1970′s. Anyone who picked up a DC Comic book had a hotline to hear what writers, artists, and editors were doing every week. You can read more about it on Retroist. Back when you had to pay for long distance calls I used to wonder how many different 1-800 numbers existed. One night at my friend Dek’s house, we dialed every 1-800 number combination we could think of. We stayed awake until 4:00– but we never found Superman.

Last week I put on a few Monday songs at Homer’s to welcome the crowd that comes in before sunrise. Today I’ll add some new ones. The playlist includes:
Manic Monday by The Bangles (pictured above)
Blue Monday by Fats Domino
Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters
I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats
New Moon On Monday by Duran Duran
Come Monday by Jimmy Buffett
…and of course you can’t have a list like this without The Mamas and The Papas singing Monday Monday.

There is a Balm in Gilead is a comforting old hymn that Jenny and I will sing when we need to hear the words. Our coffeehouse kids, in the same way, can make the tough times easier just by being in the same room. Katelyn loves spending time with Jenny. In the pic above they are watching a Mickey Mouse cartoon. In the one below we are saying goodbye at her birthday party. She turned 3 the next day.

Today’s guest on THE EPILOGUE CABIN moved to Oklahoma sometime after high school. It’s been 25 years since I’ve seen Daylene. We used to ride the bus to school together and rehearse for the school plays. We got caught up recently, and talked for an hour about old times and how our lives turned out.

Back in the 1980′s, when I watched TV on the weekends, there was no one cooler on The Love Boat than Isaac Washington, the bartender played by Ted Lange. Whitney Matheson actually made this cool bad drawing that you see above. She is a pop culture junkie who used to write for USA Today. The newspaper let her go, but she still writes about the coolest books, movies, bands, etc., and emails her findings to people like me. Two weeks ago she included audio from The Love Boat, and promised listeners a bad drawing of Ted Lange if anyone mentioned it in a reply email. So I did. And then she did. Here it is!

…this blog to hear the the next episode of THE EPILOGUE CABIN! It’s a new podcast that will grab you, keep you in suspense, and leave you breathless!!! The next show features a conversation with Daylene! here’s a sample of what you’ll hear: