Do you Remember......

In 1954, the first transistor radio by Texas Instruments with predicted sales of 20 million radios in three years. It fell short only 100,000 purchased the first year because of performance problems.
Oh by the way…..None of the major radio makers including RCA, Philco, and Emerson were interested.
Then Raytheon siezed the market in 1955 with their version for $49.95 including 4” speaker and sound quality. A little bit of sticker shock when the average annual salary was around $4,000.
Wasn’t long before RCA, Zenith, DeWald and Crosly began flooding the market.

Just in time for us baby-boomers to start listening to our '55 favorite artists' Top Hit Singles:
Bill Haley & His Comets Rock Around the Clock - becomes the first Rock and roll single to reach Number One on the American charts. The film Blackboard Jungle premieres in New York City featured "Rock Around the Clock" over the opening credits—the first use of a rock and roll song in a major film.
Tennessee Ernie Ford Sixteen Tons
Four Aces Love is a Many Splendoured Thing
Chuck Berry Maybellene recorded for Chess Records in Chicago
Frank Sinatra Love & Marriage
"Let Me Go, Lover" Joan Weber
"Hearts of Stone" Fontane Sisters
"Sincerely" McGuire Sisters

"Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" Perez Prado
"The Yellow Rose of Texas" Mitch Miller


Dot Records introduces Pat Boone, with an advertisement in Billboard magazine calling him "a great new voice"



Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" with significantly cleaned up lyrics (originally "Tutti Frutti, good booty" among other things.


Oh my!!! . Our record players, transistors, Walkman, 8-track, cassettes were our "musical magic lamps" bringing us the beginnings of great music, memories and more.

So don't touch that dial ---- Today, it's OGR!!!
Winnie

HAPPY 4th of JULY

Summer and the 4th of July go hand-n-hand and our love for these “all American foods” some of whose origins circle the world. So as we salute America, fire up the grill, spend time with family and friends, enjoy some facts about the:


Hot Dog


Originates as the Frankfurter Wurst in 1480’s - Frankfurt Germany
Named The "dachshund" or "little-dog" sausage by 18th Century Bavarian butcher Johann Georg Lahner,
By 1870, Coney Island, German immigrant Charles Feltman sold them on rolls.
Perhaps the most famous, is Chicago, IL basedOscar Mayer and its symbol, the Wienermobile, that’s toured the U.S. over 70 years.

Hamburger
15th Century a hashed sausage delicacy.
Late 18th century, Sailors visiting ports in Hamburg, Germany and New York, brought this food and term "Hamburg Steak" into popular usage.
1826, the first printed American menu listed hamburger was Delmonico's , New York and later at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Potato Chips
Tradition says the original potato chip recipe was created in Saratoga Springs, New York on August 24, 1853. A complaining patron kept sending back his thick, soggy fried potatoes. A frustrated chef George Crum kept making them thinner and crispier. In turn, they became a regular menu item the "Saratoga Chips".
After some trial and error, Joe “Spud” Murphy produced the world's first seasoned crisps, Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar. Yum!!!


S’mores
The first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts" of 1927. And Ladies we’ve been lovin 'em ever since.

Kool Aid “Oh Yeah”
Invented by Edwin & Kitty Perkins of Hastings, Nebraska in 1927 t o reduce shipping costs, by removing the liquid from his “Fruit Smack” drink and Kool-Aid powder, the result..
In the 1950's Kool-Aid Man, a frosty pitcher filled with Kool-Aid, became the company's mascot. He was known for bursting suddenly through walls of children's homes and proceeding to make a batch of Kool-Aid for them. His famous catch phrase:"Oh, yeah!"



Popsicle “If its Popsicle, Its Possible”
1905, eleven year old Frank Epperson, left a stir stick in a mixture of powdered flavored soda and water out on a cold night in San Francisco. The next morning, a frozen treat he named the Epsicle was born. Eighteen years later he introduced it to the public and renamed it “Popsicle” at the insistence of his children, when filing for a patent.
1939, “Popsicle Pete” was introduced on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century radio program as having won the "Typical American Boy Contest." Listeners were told to
send in wrappers for prizes from the manufacturer. “Pete” remained in print and TV ads and activity books until 1995.


Coppertone “Don’t be a paleface”
An American sunscreen and sister brand to Bain de Soleil, which is targeted to adult females.
1944, pharmacist Benjamin Green invented a lotion to darken tans. In 1953, the company became famous when it introduced the Coppertone girl, an ad showing a young blond girl in pigtails staring in surprise as a Cocker Spaniel sneaks up behind her and - well you get the picture

To all our OGR listeners, their families and friends, we wish you a safe and Happy 4th. Remember our troops and all who have served to keep freedom alive.
God Bless America!!

Winnie and the OGR Staff and Management

Memories Cruzin

Want to do some great "memories cruzin"?

Check out this website, compliments of our DJ, JimmyB http://www.lov2xlr8.no/broch1.html

Time travel with great classic cars and more memory joggers.

I did.




This Kaiser reminded me of the one Dad drove during the worst '55 Christmas Eve snow storm after having the traditional Eve Dinner and Santa's arrival at our Aunt's house.

WOW! You have to remember that back in the '50's there was very little attention paid to street snow removal especially after mid-night on holidays.

Not that would have helped this tank of a car. Tiny, slow motion wipers struggling to keep the heavy snow off that sliver of a front window. Dad scraping frost off the inside front window, carving a peep hole while driving.

Barely a car heater; Mom little Sis and me shivering, wrapped in blankets.

Traction, even if the car had any it was no match against snow half way up the hubcap.
Kaiser traded in the following Summer.
Now its a Ford Fairlane with a stand-out two-tone paint finish, in cream and mint green. That was a classic car.

Dad loved driving it and any excuse for a Sunday outing would do. A few miles to the local White Castle for 7 cent burgers, Robert Hall for clothes or an all day venture to Wisconsin and we were gone. Shares of Johnson Car Wax soared - never remember a time when Dad wasn't washing and waxing that Fairlane or every car thereafter.

Carpooling to work was a challenge in a "little Nash Rambler". He tolerated the horrible ride, contortions to get in and out of and no leg room. Ed Begley Jr. would have been proud of Dad's shrinking carbon footprint.

"Oh My!".... Hope you have the chance this Summer to visit a local classic car show, or at least enjoy a trip down memory lane, http://www.lov2xlr8.no/broch1.html

Ciao for now!!!

Flag Day

Remember the Pledge of Allegiance to the “grand old Flag”
on Flag Day, June 14 and the next 364. Fly her proud as a symbol both to those who defended her and a reminder to those who would destroy her.
Never forget Life, Liberty, Freedom, Pursuit of Happiness and God.

The Flag at Ground Zero

Replicas of the Star Spangled Banner Flag (15 stars, 15 stripes) are flown at two sites in Baltimore, Maryland: Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine and Flag House Square.

Marine Corps War Memorial (Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima), Arlington, Virginia

Lexington, Massachusetts Town Green

The White House, Washington, D.C.

Fifty U.S. Flags are displayed continuously at the Washington Monument, Washington, D.C.

Iwo Jima Memorial, Arlington, Virginia

By Congressional decree, a Civil War era flag (for the year 1863) flies above Pennsylvania Hall (Old Dorm) at Gettysburg College[citation needed]. This building, occupied by both sides at various points of the Battle of Gettysburg, served as a lookout and battlefield hospital.

Grounds of the National Memorial Arch in Valley Forge NHP, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania .

At U.S. Customs and Border Protection Ports of Entry that are continuously open.

Washington Camp Ground, part of the former Middlebrook encampment,

Bridgewater, New Jersey, Thirteen Star Flag. (Act of Congress.[citation needed])
By custom, at the Maryland home, birthplace, and grave of Francis Scott Key;.

At the Worcester, Massachusetts, war memorial; at the plaza in Taos, New Mexico (since 1861); at the United States Capitol (since 1918); and at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Slover Mountain (Colton Liberty Flag), in Colton, California. July 4, 1917 to circa. 1952 & 1997 to present.

At the ceremonial South Pole as one of the 12 flags representing the signatory countries of the original Antarctic Treaty.

The surface of the Moon, having been placed there by the astronauts of Apollo 11,
Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17.

Nashville National Cemetery, Nashville City Cemetery over the grave site of Sea Captain William Driver who in 1831 nicknamed the 24-star flag "Old Glory" and hid the famous flag from Rebels during the Civil War.

June 6 - Sixty-six Years Ago

June 6, sixty-six years ago the Allied Invasion of Normandy, FR - a fight for democracy at the cost of thousands of lives.

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough” said Robert Capa, photographer, who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Taking over 100 picture of the event then sending the film to London for processing. A London darkroom technician dried them to quickly, the emulsion melts and less than 12 usable pictures told the landing at Omaha.
In 1954, Capa lived his own words. He died after stepping on a land mine in Indochina.

Crossword puzzles were the focus of British intelligence weeks before the invasion. The London Daily Telegraph published the answers to one that included key code names. “Overload” and “Neptune” (code names for the over-all operation and the landing operation) “Utah” and “Omaha” (the two American invasion beaches), and “Mulberry” (the code name for the artificial harbors planned after the invasion).
British Intelligence interrogated Leonard Dawe, a school headmaster and puzzle-maker. Conclusion, it was just a coincidence.

D-Day “Bigots“. was the code word for anyone who knew the time and place of the invasion. Reverse it and “to-Gib” used on papers of those traveling to Gibraltar for the invasion of North Africa in 1942.

The Allied forces hoodwinked Hitler in a unique way. Ingenuity and diversions. Its effect created two phantom fleets of bombers out of thin air.
First, parachuting dummies outfitted with firecrackers that exploded on contact behind enemy lines. Then Allied planes dropped strips of aluminum foil cut to a length to match German radar waves.

D-Day secrets almost exposed in Chicago at a postal sorting office when a package sent from Supreme Headquarters in London arrived a few months before the invasion and was accidentally opened. Critical invasion timetables and locations were seen by many unauthorized Chicago postal workers who were put under surveillance. The FBI concluded the U.S. General’s Aide, of German decent, was overtired and mistakenly addressed the package to his sister.

General Eisenhower said a single person “won the war for us”. Not Gen. George Patton or Gen. Douglas MacArthur. It was Andrew Higgins who designed and built the amphibious assault crafts used by Allies to storm the Normandy beaches. A shortage of steel prompted him to buy the entire 1939 crop of Philippines’ mahogany and his New Orleans company produced these now famous crafts.

This U-505 is on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. On June 4, the U.S. forces captured the sub off the African coast fearing a key code was broken and the Allied war effort compromised. The captured sub and its crew were hid until the end of the War and the Germans assumed it was lost at sea.

Freudian slips and D-Day remembrances. 2004, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin referred to the “INVASION OF NORWAY” instead of “Normandy“. Last year while attending an event with President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown refereed to “OBAMA BEACH” instead of “Omaha Beach”.