1967 - Hang on to your hats and flip your wigs as we jump right into the thick of it today. This was the era of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the Beatles were EVERYWHERE, with merchandise galore and multiple Fan Clubs, which leads us to our first entry today entitled, 'Did The Beatles record the most irritating Christmas song ever made?' Answer (and song) below!
https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/beatles/is-this-the-most-irritating-christmas-song-ever-made/
Our 'way-over-the-top' tale of '67, however, goes to the Birmingham, Alabama, Christmas Parades - this is my favorite story of the year! 'The Magic City' got it in their heads that anything New York City could do, they could do better. Balloons? We'll SHOW you balloons! One problem, though - those pesky low-hanging electrical wires crossing the street, unlike NYC. What the heck - we're STILL having balloons. And not just ANY balloons - TAKE your Rocky The Flying Squirrel, Big Apple - we've got DRACULA (!) and Sea Serpents, Baloo the Bear and possibly Cthulhu, too! There are some HILARIOUS quotes in the articles below, including, 'The “past-their-prime” balloons delighted children, but puzzled adults, Merrill wrote. “They have the most horrible expressions on their faces,” one woman told Merrill.' Not surprisingly this tradition only lasted a few years, as the balloons and the entire parade became a dumpster fire, with the flames getting higher and higher, as evidenced here: 'The 1969 parade featured thinly-veiled knockoffs of kids’ favorite characters. “Just
to be sure no one mistook them for the real things,” Hollis wrote,
“each monstrosity had a mutilated name painted on each wooden platform.” Imagine
the joy lighting up each child’s face as Charlie Braun, his dog
“Snooper” and pals Linnus and Licy, rolled through Birmingham.' Check out the whole horrifying, hilarious story in the two articles below - and make SURE you look at the slides! https://www.al.com/news/2023/11/birminghams-bizarre-holiday-balloon-parades-were-a-strange-chapter-in-1960s-history.html
http://www.birminghamrewound.com/features/christmas_downtown2.htm
We'll wrap up today with a report may cause hives in some of our older readers who went through this in their childhoods - the 'Suzy Homemaker' cult, or as the ads say, 'A busy little mother’s work is never done without modern toys like these that really work.' The big push for these was that they weren't toys, but Working Appliances ... and the resulting havoc that ensued. Take a look back at what passed for fun (and pity your grandmothers) below! https://clickamericana.com/topics/family-parenting/life-for-kids/who-is-suzy-homemaker-1966
Can't top that! Come back tomorrow for a look at 1968.
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