Happy Anniversary to us. This is our sixth anniversary, and this is the second of three special blogs/podcasts to celebrate the occasion. This time, we’ll check out the top five most downloaded blogs/podcasts going all the way back to the beginning. Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your precious time for those of you who have been with us for years. And for those of you who have just joined our huddle, welcome…and let me explain that these podcasts track the constant struggle for respect, recognition and happiness that we Louie-Louie Generation folks wage…daily and nightly, against the insolent forces of the clueless Pimple People, and the Drab and Dreadful Drones…who have fallen into the clutches of the Dork side.
Louie-Louie Generation folks are comfortable. We know that “He who dies with the most toys wins.” But we don’t envy him. Because we also know he doesn’t get to play with them, because he’s dead. We’re happy playing with the toys we’ve got. We sometimes sing out loud with the music in the elevator, and we don’t mind being the only one on board who remembers the words. Michelle…Ma Belle…the Pimple People don’t even remember Ma Bell.
There isn’t room here to re-write all the blogs. But you can read any or all of them by just using the archive list at the right side of the page. And you can listen to any or all of the podcasts by simply going to www.dicksummer.com/podcast So here we go with the top five most downloaded blogs/podcasts from the first six years.
Number 5 is from March of 2008. It was about the day my Lady Wonder Wench became my Baseball Babe. Baseball Babe is one of my Lady’s many nicknames. She had a brother by the name of Bob. When they were kids, he used to try to get her to smile by staring at her and daring her to smile. You know the game. Bob grew up, and became a good soldier, who did himself, his family and his country proud. When he died a few years ago…as his closest living relative…they gave my Lady the American flag that’s now in a mahogany case on our living room wall.
She toughed it out. She didn’t cry. It reminded me of what it must have been like when Bob was looking at her and trying to get her to smile when they were kids. She didn’t cry. Or maybe she couldn’t cry. Even when the honor guard fired his salute…and he was laid to rest. She didn’t cry. But she didn’t smile much either…until a few weeks later.
It was at a ball game…on a bright, breezy, Spring day. When the game was about to begin, the P.A. anouncer said, “Please rise, remove your hats, and honor America by joining together to sing our national anthem.” Everybody stood up and took off their hats, and a military Honor Guard marched out with the flag snapping smartly in the wind.
Thousands of us stood up…shoulder to shoulder…to sing the Star Spangled Banner. And when we got to the part about “Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner still wave,” she started squeezing my hand pretty hard…and when we sang about the land of the free and the home of the brave…it was like Bob finally stared my lovely Lady Wonder Wench down. And she smiled…at him…then at me. Then…she cried.
Number 4 was from August of 2009. It was called Memory Movies. It was about some memories of the nights I spent on the air at NBC Radio in New York. Some of the R rated memories involved some visits from young ladies in rain coats, smiles and little else. One of those visits taught me a lesson. She was very pretty. Slim. Long dark hair. Soft gravely voice. Probably 22. She walked over to where I was sitting at the microphone…in sections…balcony first, smiled, and reached down to give me a kiss on the cheek as she told me how wonderful she thought my show was. In the process, one of her several charms became stunningly obvious as it slipped out from under her only half buttoned rain coat.
Now here’s where the lesson happened. Hormones came blasting into my brain at exactly the same time as a picture of my Lady Wonder Wench popped up. I don’t need to describe the hormones, but the picture…deserves a description. She didn’t look angry. Just hurt…like I had never seen her hurt. Because I have never seen her betrayed. And I never want to. It was just an instant picture, but it absolutely and instantly cancelled out the hormones, and they immediately stopped sending singnals to the hands to which they were attached. It was like one of those old black and white movies with people like Lauren Becall and Cary Grant. It’s a story that’s been told over and over again…the story of ladies who come and go in the lives of guys who work in the night.
The third most downloaded blog/podcast since the beginning was from August of 2008. It was called “The Princess and the Frog.” Let me explain: My Lady Wonder Wench has been my girlfriend for a long time. I don’t even remember what my opening line was. We worked at the same radio station in Boston. I started thinking that I have no idea what I would use for an opening line for some other girl, if Lady Wonder Wench finally realized that no matter how nicely she kisses me, I’ not going to turn into a prince. So I ran a few ideas past her. When she heard most of them, she just looked at me and said, “Huh?” To find out which one that got her attention, go to www.dicksummer.com/podcast and scroll down to August of 2008
By the way, my theory is that “Huh” was a word that was invented once upon a time, many years ago, when a beautiful princess kissed a frog, and turned him into a prince. Now it doesn’t say so in the book, but if you’re a Louie-Louie generation parent you’ve heard some pretty fancy stories from your own kids, so you’ll understand that when the princess’s mother showed up in the morning and found this strange guy in her daughter’s bedroom, and the princess explained how he got there…”I just kissed this frog, and he popped out….” I’m willing to bet that Huh might have been only the first word her mom said.
When you think about it, it’s hard for a guy to come up with an opening line that’s good enough to get a kiss from a pretty girl, let alone an invitation to her bedroom. But that frog did it. He probably just sprayed a little fly breath mint into his mouth, hopped right up on the girl’s lap, and said…”Ribbit.” Big Louie his own bad self says, “Next time you’re in a singles bar, try it. It will get any girl’s attention if you pop a fly breath mint, jump into her lap, look her right in the eye, and say, “ribbit.”
The second most downloaded blog/podcast from all the way back, was from June of 2008. It’s called Piano Man meets Lawn Tractor Man. The Piano Man is a story from the Night Connections 2 Personal Audio CD. I had just finished producing the CD and I wanted to play it for you. It’s based loosely on a phone call I got in the middle of the night, from a Manhattan lounge piano player who was listening…and suffering from a smashed up heart. Lawn Tractor Man was a story of Pride. Chest thumping, sweat stained, he man pride. I’m from Brooklyn. Nobody has a lawn tractor in Brooklyn. All the guys where I live now have lawn tractors. So I bought a brute. A 21 horsepower, overhead cam, belchfire Lawn Tractor. It moves out pretty good. So I challenged my neighbor Randy to a lawn tractor race, for the title of Lawn Tractor Man of the neighborhood. Randy had to decline, for reasons that we got into with the podcast. So that left me the Lawn Tractor Man title by default. I was so delighted, and sweaty, that I figured I better hose down outside before going anywhere up wind of Lady Wonder Wench.
Before we get to the top blog/podcast of all time…let me remind you that you can read all the blogs…they’re in the archive list at the right side of the page, and you can hear all the podcasts…almost 300 of them…at www.dicksummer.com/podcast
The most downloaded podcast from our first six years is called, “A Soft Summer Rain.”There’s really no way I can adequately describe what the sound of a soft summer rain, does to my head…especially when it’s shared with a beautiful woman. My head, and other parts. But I did the best could in this blog/podcast.
That’s it. The five most downloaded podcasts of the first six years. Thank you for finding time to join the huddle. It means a lot to me.
Next time…an anniversary frebie present for you, and the top five downloaded stories from the Personal Audio CDs.
Just thought you’d be interested that the first song that the Waitsburg High School band played today at the Car Show parade was —– “Louie Louie”!!
I thanked Brad, the director, because he’s from the LL generation and I KNOW he remembers …….
I’m sure most of us have wonderful memories of your days on Boston and NYC radio. Listening to Alice’s Resturant on Thansgiving is a tradtion which I have passed on to my children who are now in their 30’s. How many of us remember the Subway Show or your late night show on WBZ.. Shows that introduced us to many of the artists we continue to listen to many years later. Or of us Bostn fans trying to listen to WNEW’s Milkman’s Matinee as the signal faded in and out. Your podcasts and blog is a way for us to stay in touch with a part of our past that we don’t want to forget or give up. Stay healthy and keep on bloggin and pod casting.
Dick,I reconnected with you a couple of years back, we briefly discussed my job as a satellite tracking SW geek living in the South Pacific in the 80s and early 90s. I used to set my alarm in high school to get up every night to at least listen to the comedy album on ‘BZ, usually stayed up til the end of the show for “The Highwayman” or “hairspring” and so many more of you unique talks. I occassionally catch your voice on the random commercial.Keep on truckin’
Mike