Friday Questions were on Wednesday this week. But today is Christmas Eve.
The first is an excerpt from my book, THE ME GENERATION… BY ME (GROWING UP IN THE ‘60s) – the perfect last minute gift.
The other great thing about Christmas Eve for me was that back in my disc jockey days I always worked that night (along with Christmas). In addition to making double-time for the long shifts ($5.00 an hour in Bakersfield! Multiply that by eight hours and suddenly I’m rich!!), the jocks who I substituted for always owed me. At one station the program director got the brilliant idea that it would be a great stunt for me to ride a rollercoaster for six hours. One of my fellow jocks graciously “volunteered” to go in my place. He grumbled to me that it wasn’t a fair trade-off and I said waa waa. “I had to play The Little Drummer Boy every 45 minutes,” I replied. “At least you’re allowed to throw up.”
But I generally enjoyed those shifts because I knew no one in management was ever listening. In between Brenda Lee and Nat King Cole Christmas standards I was out of control. Howard Stern woul’ve said “Jesus, man, tone it down.”
Whatever your plans are, have a safe and happy Christmas Eve. I’ll probably be at a Chinese restaurant.
20 comments :
From a Christian who loves your blog: Thank you for all you do here. Have a wonderful holiday season, however you define it or enjoy it.
I can say with a fair degree of certainty that Disneyland stopped being empty on Christmas Eve quite some years ago.
When working my way through college in the 80s, I always signed up for the Christmas shift. You could do whatever the fuck you wanted (I was a hotel front desk clerk - we all know those sheets aren't clean, whether Four Seasons or Motel 6. It was always "Animal House," or "Poltergeist," or whatever...)
Just so everyone knows, Joe Biden did not cancel Christmas this year . . . but, Mother Nature did.
Happy Holidays Ken. Looking forward to 2022. Enjoyed the comedy bits podcast.
Yeah, Christmas Eve through New Year's has been the busiest at Disneyland for at least 20 years. Then again, every time Ken posts that excerpt from the book a bunch of us come and comment that the bit about it being empty stopped being true a long time ago. Same thing with Thanksgiving. Used to be empty. Now people go there for the holiday instead of to family's house.
As for the Chinese restaurant ....
When Elena Kagan was before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Huckleberry Adolf Pederasty of South Carolina asked where she'd been on Christmas when the underwear bomber tried to do something bad. As if this had anything to do with her confirmation. And Kagan replied, since it was Christmas, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.
As one of the Tribe, I too have always enjoyed Christmas. Back in the day Christmas eve was usually Chinese food and a movie. Back then the theaters were half empty. Not so much now. Guess the word got out! For my few years in radio, Christmas eve was always the overnight shift. Each hour I would throw on an hour long reel of tape filled with Christmas music and a few station IDs. During the hour I would often go into one of the production rooms to rip some CDs for my mix tapes. Nowadays, it’s a comfortable evening at home quite often listening to the music I recorded way back then.
Ken: thank you for your always entertaining blog. You're one of the good'uns.
All best wishes to you and your family.
Back in the 80s I enjoyed working the day after Thanksgiving, or after Christmas if it fell on a Thursday. Family celebrations were a short drive away, and an empty office meant playing with the computer, messing about with unimportant fun projects, and later guilting coworkers who thought I was missing out on something other than helping relatives clean up. Only catch was the cafeteria was closed except for vending machines.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to almost everyone.....
I get it, Ken. As a Christian I feel the same way about Yom Kippur. Not many Jews out on that day. At least not observant ones.
One radio station I worked for had an all "Business and Financial News" format. Christmas Eve and Christmas day were incredibly boring because all the markets were closed. Needless to say there was a lot of goofing around while simultaneously trying to project an air of professionalism. We didn't always succeed.
"That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
M.B.
P.S. I thought you weren't taking ANONYMOUS comments anymore.
P.P.S. I'm surprised you didn't use a still of Natalie from "Miracle on 34th Street." Too cliché?
It's the season of goodwill, kindness and generosity. So, of course, a fan of the orange cunt pranked President Biden's Christmas call for families by saying the phrase used by neo Nazis, "Let's go, Brandon."
On the bright side, he's guaranteed to be an anti vaxxer and will most likely end up in hospital in a couple of weeks gasping for breath. Karma's an Ivanka.
Merry Christmas.
"Which Dr. Crane? You get the one, you get the other one." One of the best lines EVER.
And I didn't even get to share my story. It involved twelve hotel rooms, as many hand jobs...and, oh, never mind. It's just come down to people screaming at nurses about COVID shots. Merry FUCKING Christmas...
Always the holiday shifts for me...no family ties as I could see Mom and Dad in Northridge anytime and I wanted jocks with family to truly enjoy Christmas and othet holidays...plus they were laid back mellow days so you could be a bit looser on air...Oh, the joy of stepping out into the DANGER ZONE back in the 60's...
Merry Christmas, Ken.
Our synagogue is having a get-together tonight: Chinese food and a viewing of "The Frisco Kid" (our Rabbi Emeritus, father of our current Rabbi, was a technical consultant and composer on the film - he taught Gene Wilder how to doven properly!)
You were lucky to visit an empty Disney theme park during the holidays back in the day because it is a different story now. I live a stone’s throw from Disney World in Florida and Christmas time is their busiest season. The traffic within miles of it is always at a standstill during the holidays.
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