So I finally branched out a little as far as my friendslist goes here.  I added a group called damnedportlanders which, not surprisingly, is a bunch of really cool peeps who live in Portland.  They talk about all kinds of things that fascinate and amuse me.  One guy has posted some old TV clips from the 70's and 80's, including a commercial for my favorite restaurant when I was a kid-The Organ Grinder.  This place was so awesome, the entire front wall of the restaurant was glass, displaying the giant, intricate tubes and accessories of the pipe organ that gave it it's name.  You went inside and stood in a line that often snaked back out the doors and down the sidewalk.  Cafeteria style you ordered your pizza-oh and it was amazing pizza too-pitchers of soda and desserts.  We always sat in the balcony area so we'd have the best view of the organ which raised up out of the floor every hour, the organist in black tie and tails already seated at the keyboard.  A movie screen above the organ showed Laurel and Hardy flicks while the organist played along.  Bubbles streamed out of the organ, my favorite part of course.  I nearly fell over the railing one night, leaning out to grab one of those bubbles...I was just sure that Glenda the Good Witch of the North was inside and if I caught her she'd have to grant me a wish.  Hey, I was five or six at the time...cut me some slack.

I emailed the girl who posted those clips and asked her if she happened to remember a kids show from the 70's that was taped in Portland.  It was one of those cartoon shows where the host, usually a wacky middle aged guy in a sweater a la Fred Rogers, chatted with the studio audience (grade school children and their parents who usually remained hidden off-camera) in between cartoons.  I've been trying to remember the name of this show for years and bless the girl who emailed me back to say...Ramblin Rod!  It was teh Ramblin Rod Show!  Yay.  Somewhere lost in the annals of time is a scrap of footage of me and my sister, in matching patchwork dresses made by our mother, matching shit-fountain hair-do's on our heads, teased to within an in inch of our lives and lacquered with enough Aqua Net to prevent movement in hurrican force winds.  I was singled out because it was my birthday and I was cute damn it.  But of course all my friends same me, dressed by my mom with my shit-fountain hair.  I took crap for that for weeks...but I did get a Duncan Butterly YoYo and a case of Pop Shoppe Pop so it was totally worth it.

Michael and I have decided we want to retire to Rhodendron Oregon after Max graduates and goes off to college.  It's a quaint Swiss Village on the side of Mount Hood.  Of course the houses start at $950,000 so we'll need to get rich first.  But just think, 40 minutes to Portland, 2 hours to Seaside?  I'd be in heaven!