Category: CREATURE FEATURES (Page 34 of 37)

Yesterday’s post #200 was another milestone for this blog.  I pledged from the start to post at least one article a day about my transition into retirement.  Some of those posts have drifted off into sports and pets, but each tries to capture the experience of keeping busy and relevant without holding down a job.  I got off to a slow start, achieving the 100 milestone (See Post #100) on May 31st, while only averaging about 20 a month since my December 31 retirement date..  I then went to the other extreme, averaging 50 articles over the last two months.  I enjoy writing, but I also don’t want to burn myself out, so I hope to catch up to and maintain that One-A-Day pace.

I can’t mention “One-A-Day,” without thinking about my dad.  He worked for Miles Laboratories, makers of One-A-Day multiple vitamins, Chocks, Bactine and Alka-Seltzer, to name a few of their most popular brands.  “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!”  The world headquarters, at the time, was located in my hometown of Elkhart, Indiana.  One of the job perks was the company store, where employees could stock up on these and other items.  Every once in a while, he’d bring home some test products.  One of those was a headache remedy called Focus that was very effective, but never launched nationally, due to the high cost of market entry.  Ironically, the company was eventually bought by A.G. Bayer Corporation, and perhaps the Focus formula was incorporated into Bayer Aspirin, the market leader at the time.  Alka-Seltzer was heavily marketed, with the animated character, Speedy.  A badly faded Speedy Alka-Seltzer piggy-bank sits on my office shelves next to some of my dad’s service pins of 15, 20, 25, and 30 years.  There was a later television campaign, “No matter what shape your stomach is in,” and featured a jingle done by a band called The Meatballs.  I wish I still had the vinyl album that he brought home for me, featuring that catchy tune.  Because of the merger with A.G, Bayer, my dad was able to take early retirement at age 57.  He struggled in retirement, always looking for something to keep him busy, so this became a big concern to me as I approached leaving the job market.  He had no hobbies other than reading and doing crossword puzzles.  I, at least, have my writing to keep me entertained.

I think that it was these Miles products that peaked my interest in advertising.  One of my dad’s best friends was the marketing liaison between the company and its advertising agencies. The very first of these agencies was Wade Advertising in nearby Chicago.  The brand was launched with a print campaign in 1917, inviting people to get a free sample at their local drugstore.  This eventually led to radio in 1932 on WLS (World’s Largest Store) and a sponsorship of “Saturday Night Barn Dance.”   The tagline, “For prompt, pleasant relief” was used to establish the Alka-Seltzer brand.  Miles was the sixteenth rated national radio sponsor by 1939, with catchy slogans like “Be wise – Alkalize with Alka-Seltzer!”  Radio also helped establish the unique sound of the effervescent tablets – “Listen to it fizz!”  By the mid-1950s, the agency had creatively evolved “Action in a Glass!” into the more memorable, “Relief is just a swallow away!”  Red-headed, Speedy Alka-Seltzer was born the same year I was, 1951, and was a key in becoming the top commercial of the that decade.

The 47-year relationship with Wade Advertising ended in 1964,  in favor of Madison Avenue based Jack Tinker and Partners.  Wade quickly went out of business.  Tinker developed the iconic “Stomachs Montage,” campaign, and sales purportedly increased 64% compared to the previous year.  “Alka-Seltzer on the rocks” soon followed, and after a  migration of creative talent,  the account soon shifted to Doyle Dane Bernbach in 1969.  The new Alka-Seltzer Plus was then launched as competition in the antacid category increased.  Award-winning, humorous TV campaigns like “Groom’s First Meal” and “Mama Mia,” plus the “spicy-meatball” catch-phrase, became popular but apparently did not drive sales, so Wells, Rich, Greene became the agency of record. Partner Mary Wells was formerly with Tinker, and influenced the need to change the creative approach.  “Personalities,” “Try it, you’ll like it” and “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!” became pop culture favorites through her direction.

In order to remain competitive, Alka-Seltzer Plus eventually extended  into Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medication, and “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz” could relieve both headaches and stuffiness due to colds.  By this time, 1978, the German-based A.G. Bayer Corporation had taken control of the company, and my dad and his marketing buddy, among many others,  were shown the door with full benefits.  He was able to live comfortably for another 36 years, thanks to his association with Miles Laboratories,  His career took him all over the world, and gave me every educational opportunity to achieve my own success.  Selling creative ideas through advertising was a key part of this success.  I’m glad that I met Speedy and had an inside track to some of the greatest adverting campaigns of all time.

Nothing says 4th of July like a picnic, one of my wife’s favorite things to do.  Picnics, for me,  date back to childhood, particularly 4th of July reunions with the family.  We were either at my Great Aunt and Uncle’s house on Simonton Lake, or at an Oxbow Park pavilion.  All my grandparents, parents, cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts, and ants were in attendance.  The ants were actually not welcome, they just showed up expecting to be fed.  We’d play softball, croquet, badminton, toss a football, Jarts, and go for a swim or a boat ride.  They were always very memorable get-togethers, that became less appealing to attend as I got older.  One of my uncles would spend all day at the grill drinking beer and cooking hot dogs and hamburgers.  While he was getting toasted, he’d also toast your buns.  We didn’t congregate very often, but it served the years before weddings and funerals brought us all together.

While I was, of course, content with staying home for the 4th, my wife had a much grander plan in mind.  (see Post #165)  She was in the kitchen preparing a Kidney bean salad, and grilling chicken.  She has a lot of energy, even after our one-hour walk/run with the dogs earlier.  Before we started our stroll this morning, we sat together and decided on a location to do a picnic.  She was not going to allow me to be a homebody on the 4th!  I found Punch Bowl Falls on the map, about an hour away on Eagle Creek.  It’s a popular Oregon destination, right up there with Multnomah Falls and Crater Lake, so I felt quite confident that no one else would think of going there for their day-off.   They’d probably want to stay home and watch TV.  She got out one of our many picnic kits, in this case a back-pack, loaded up the cooler with some adult beverages, and we were ready to hit the road.

As they watched her pack up, our two schnauzers got that “are you leaving us again?” look on their faces.  They weren’t tired enough after their walk this morning, and there was plenty of room in the car for them to G…O – we spell it out, since they know the word, and then don’t get overly excited.  It was then time  for the dogs, the wife, and the homebody to head-off to the Punch Bowl for our 4th of July picnic.  She even mixed together some Lemonade Punch, spiked  generously with vodka, to add to the picnic festivities.  My wife’s assessment of me is accurate, you know, I can be a happy homebody, but to an even greater degree I’m certainly not an outdoors-man, anxious to take a hike in the woods.  I am “condo man,” who prefers very little yard work and an air-conditioned environment.  Even my mother told my wife that as a kid “Mike wouldn’t mind sitting at home working on a sewing card, while his sister would come home with a black eye.”  Apparently, there were no sexist stereotypes in my family.  Maybe I should take up sewing again in retirement!

Besides family picnics, I’ve certainly attended and organized my share of company picnics.  These were events that no one really wanted to attend, but the perception was that if you worked for a “bad” company, they didn’t have a Holiday party and a picnic every year.  If you were employed by a “good” company and had a picnic, then it was an intrusion on an employee’s weekend time, and logically they should probably be paid for attending.  Employee committees, designed to let the boss off the hook, went through this dilemma every year, so they tried to come up with enough door prizes to make attendance worthwhile.  Those that had to work were paid overtime or given extra time off, and someone usually delivered picnic food to the station.  Regardless of what you did as an employer, it wasn’t enough!

When I worked for WISH-TV in Indianapolis, I referred to their employee outings as “WISH-nics.”  You “wished” you didn’t have to go, but if you didn’t, you were talked about.  I would always try to make an appearance, and duck-out as quick as possible.  I don’t recall having picnics at prior stations where I worked, but I’ve probably just blocked them out of my mind.  One of the worst company picnics that I can recall, was done by my Dad’s company.  We did not go, because I think he felt the same way about company parties that I do.  It turned out to be one of the best decisions of his life, as hundreds of people got sick.  I remember playing in our yard and hearing ambulance sirens screaming in the distance as they traveled back and forth from the Emergency Room.  It was more disturbing than air-raid or tornado sirens, especially after we discovered what was going on.  The problem turned out to be bad potato salad from a local bakery.  Ironically, my dad’s company made Alka-Seltzer, but “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” was not enough “relief” to counter the nasty effects of food poisoning.  I don’t think anyone died,but I doubt that they ever enjoyed potato salad again, or attended company picnics.  I have always referred to it as the Miles Sick-nic!

As I think about hiking and picnics. I remember one afternoon when we lived in Austin, Texas, climbing through the Barton Creek Greenbelt.  This unique area covered over seven miles of limestone cliffs, dense foliage, and shallow bodies of water.  We could easily access it from our apartment, and the dogs would gladly G…O.  My wife had packed a picnic, as we searched far and wide for the perfect spot to enjoy the food she had laboriously prepared.  At last, we settled on a location that had a beautiful view, but it was also precarious.  We realized after we got settled, that there was a sharp drop of several hundred feet just off to the edge of our picnic blanket.  I typically eat quickly, but the thought of sliding down that hill made me rush even faster.  I had a death grip on a small tree nearby, as I also tried to get the dogs settled.  We called it a “Cliff-nic,” and ever since have tried to find flat, level spots to enjoy our meals.

One of our first weekend dates involved a picnic.  We drove down to Bloomington, Indiana, where I had gone to school.  I had brought along a gift, her first Limoges box. (See Post #146)  I think that every time she prepares a picnic, she expects a gift.  It’s probably why we picnic so often!  There’s been Symphony on the Prairie, on the beach in Maui, on the Oregon coast at Haystack Rock, and every time we go into wine country.  We’ve done the Gypsy Picnic in Austin, where no packing was necessary, but rather you sampled from a variety of food truck vendors.  Our dog Tinker especially enjoyed our regular picnics at Rudy’s (See Post #133).  Once again, we didn’t have to cook or bring a “pic-a-nic basket,” as Yogi the Bear called it.  They had a grassy picnic grounds behind the restaurant, and the dogs could join us at the table for Texas BBQ.   We also tried the Picnic House Restaurant here in Portland, Oregon, hoping to get that picnic experience without all the hard work of frying chicken and marinating Kidney Bean Salad.

I think I spotted us in the Georges Seaurat painting, “Sunday in the Park with George,” that has also become a popular Broadway Show.  We were the couple on a picnic blanket, by the lake, with our dogs.  The painting captures the romantic aspects of the picnic fantasy that my wife is always trying to attain.  I’m usually too distracted to share in this daydream because of the delicious spread that she packs.  I probably should bring a gift on our next outing, but they can be so spontaneous, like yesterday.   Surprisingly, there was very little traffic, and we were easily able to find a parking spot right by a picnic table at Punch Bowl Falls.  There were a lot of people along the narrow two-mile trail that leads to the falls.  It was a bit precarious, “Cliff-nic like,” with cables embedded in the rock to serve as hand rails, in those washed-out areas where a stumble might lead to a deadly fall down the side of a rocky hill.  We wisely waited, this time, until the hike was completed to enjoy our picnic lunch.

Even though I had to spend a lot of time outdoors, it was an enjoyable and memorable 4th of July.  Though disappointed, we decided that we were both too tired to stay up late to see the fireworks.  I have to say that this morning I’m as confused as ever on what day it is?  – with the 4th of July falling in the middle of the week.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to go to work like my wife did, as I’ve comfortably resumed my homebody lifestyle, with the exception of lunch with a friend today and a stop at the dry cleaners.  For me, living the retirement life without the hassles of health and financial problems is certainly, at this point, a picnic in the park!

“Sunday  in the Park with George

Fried Chicken and Potato Salad

Gypsy Picnic – Food Trailers Austin

Yogi Bear, talked in rhymes  pic-a-nic basket I’m smarter than the av-er-age bear

Picnic House Restauratnb