Thursday, July 31, 2014

Cereal Box Music!



As I was putzing around my home office today, trying to make the rather small amount of space seem larger by re-arranging a few things, I came across some items that I had forgotten I had!

While moving and re-arranging some books and record albums, I saw a small plastic sleeve drop to the floor.   I looked, and discovered that it contained several 6 inch records!   Now these are not just any records...these are cardboard cutout records that came on the back of cereal boxes!   I doubt that anyone under the age of 40 will even remember these, but for some of us, these records represented the days when a prize in a Cracker Jack box, or a cereal box was something worth fighting over!! (and subsequently getting a spanking for!)

Now I do not recall liking cold cereal when I was a kid, though I did enjoy a lot of Quaker Oatmeal and Cream Of Wheat!  However, I do recall seeing these records on the back of the “high quality” cereal boxes, such as “Sugar Smacks”, “Sugar Frosted Flakes” and the like.  Those were expensive cereals for our family in the early days, but I can remember seeing a few boxes of these cereals making their way into our cupboards from time to time!  I don't remember all of the Artists that contributed their talents to the millions of General Mills, and Kellog Cereal eating children...but I do remember a few.   Oliver, (He sang the song “Jean”...which was my Mom's name) the Jackson Five, (yep, with little Michael Jackson) the Monkee's, Bobby Sherman and the Archies...to name a few!

Cereal Box Records!

I looked through the little records and saw that I have three Archies, two Monkee's and a Bobby Sherman record.  Now for some of you that don't know, I actually thought “Veronica”...the dark haired, keyboard playing girl, of the “Archies” ...was simply beautiful! (Hell, she still looks pretty good even after all these years!)  Well, she was the inspiration for my daughters name..True Story!

An interesting side note about the Bobby Sherman record, is that the title of the song is “Seattle”! I actually recalled the melody of the song from my childhood, but back then Seattle was simply a place far, far away on the other side of the Country.  It might as well have been on the other side of the world!   Little did I know how close to Seattle...I would end up living!?

I could not resist throwing a couple of these on the turntable and having a listen.  First up was Bobby Sherman and “Seattle”.   “The bluest skies you've ever seen...in Seattle”. ???  Hmm...after living here for twenty years...I wondered, who the hell came up with that lyric!?  Ahh heck, they might have been here during the summer...I will cut the writer some slack:)!  Next up, a classic Monkees tune, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”.   A bit “thin” sounding, as these are plastic coated pieces of cardboard...but it played just fine and the Monkees sounded...well, pretty damn good!

The records seemed to sound a bit better, and look a lot “cooler” in my memories, but that is a common experience when looking back through the years!

I decided to take a few photos of these childhood wonders and throw them up on the blog so you can see them.   I thought they might bring a grin to a few others out there!

Here is a quick video/sound recording of the Monkee's belting it out via cardboard record!!

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